In a message dated 2/9/2006 7:01:58 AM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: There are two sides to everything, though. I am in favor of photo competitions in general, but I am opposed to those that say things like "all entries become the property of *** and we can use them any way we damned well please without paying the photographer a cent." There are tons of competitions with words to that effect somewhere in their rules. I won't participate in or promote such competitions. But competitions which claim no rights to submitted photos and offer nice prizes for those selected are tops in my opinion.
Bob ======= Microsoft recently ran a contest using VB.Net and it was not specified what would happen to the programs. Nothing was said about who would own the entered programs once they were entered. I thought it was one of the most poorly conceived contests I had ever heard of and wondered who would be dumb enough to enter. People could sell their programs directly rather than let MS possibly make money on them later. However, money/prizes were offered for the winner(s). I don't know what happened with it, I haven't tracked it since, but my impression was it generated very little interest. It was very poorly thought out. I don't own a Pentax, so I don't know if I should even comment. And I am not up on all the details on this issue. But I sort of fall in the middle, I think. I think the approach was poorly thought out by Pentax. Something specifically mentioning copyright should have been done from the beginning -- in detail and clearly. It is not unusual for lists or newsgroups for there to be uninformed individuals about copyright. It is not unusual for there to be jackasses. When a company deals with the public, ownership rights must be discussed up front and clearly. And some the public will be jackasses. It's just par for the course, unfortunately. Sure, it was informal. But, unfortunately, I don't think a company can do an informal approach when copyright issues for personal property/creativity are involved. If you think this was bad, you should have read the game writing newsgroup I was in for years, and years, and years. Well, they discuss copyright a lot, and it gets repetitive and boring. But it does mean most are fairly informed. However, I mean some of the flame wars. All writers they can be rather effective in their sarcasm and cutting and put downs. :-) So I guess I think both sides erred. Doug, PDML, is a special place. OTOH, it is also a mailing list. Although you/and we all collectively, keep the BS down to a minimum. BS on the Net happens. So the PDML can only be special to a degree. And especially because you leave this list essentially unmoderated. If you or frank or anyone want to apologize for the list to Pentax Canada, feel free. But it does seem they tucked tail and ran rather fast. That tells me they are not used to dealing with the normal jackasses one finds EVERYWHERE on the Net. It is simply part of dealing with a large group of people who remain faceless behind emails/posts etc. People will say things in emails and posts, unfortunately, they will not say face to face in real life. And it was obvious Aaron did not want to name names. Pentax Canada is never going to apologize. I don't feel they need to. Poorly conceived, does not mean they meant harm. And refusing to go forward on a project is not harmful either. It may be disappointing, but it is not harmful. Whoever on this list (if they are on this list and not in the other groups contacted by members of this list) who was a jackass is not going to apologize to this list. But, yeah, we could collectively apologize to Pentax Canada for whoever or for the several whoevers who were a jackass(es). And it doesn't mean, by apologizing, we are saying we in particular are a jackasses. Just that we feel it was unfortunate and most on the list who submitted photos liked the idea and had no problems with it. I suggest a web page with a simple letter and where people can add their names. Sort of like a petition. We the undersigned liked the idea and apologize for the unfortunate... blah, blah... the PDML is unmoderated and unfortunately jackasses happen everywhere on the Net... blah, blah. Wording could be arrived at jointly. Or it could be done by email too. Would that help? Would it help repair any Pentaxian relationship bridges? Marnie aka Doe
