Entry of your work into competitions and exhibitions can be fun, and if you are successful, rewarding. However, the time effort and financial cost of preparing, presenting, transporting and retrieving your work should never be underestimated. Whether you are successful in your endeavours or not, your work has acquired an intrinsic value to you because of your personal investment in it. Furthermore it may have also acquired market value because another person has recognised its worth and wants to own it. And, because your work is the expression of an idea, it also has value as intellectual property.
By entering your work into a competition or an exhibition, you can easily give away your rights in the work to another person or organisation without realizing it. They can gain financially and you will not see any benefit. Worse still, if they use the work you have created in an offensive way or violate the rights of another person, property owner or trademark depicted in your work, you can become liable at law.
Therefore, paying attention to terms and conditions of entry into competitions, exhibitions and other events is important to protect yourself from exploitation and to weigh up the benefits and costs. These model competition guidelines are designed to help entrants and organisers avoid such misunderstandings. If the organisers of an event you are thinking of entering do not require of themselves, you, and other entrants, the minimum protection offered by these guidelines, we strongly suggest that you don’t offer them your valuable work.