FORNAX MOUNTS ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION 2021

Thats certainly worth fighting for, thank you for posting Lóránd! thats Brilliant!

Lynn K:
Let me see if I understand the competition rules correctly.  By submitting an image entry, I give Fornax all copyrights to my image and image data for 5 years. Formax can do with the image and image data as Formax want, such as distribute, publish or sale to a third party. During that 5 year period, I the image creater have no rights to my image and data, and can not enter it in any other compititions or show it on any other publication or internet sites, such as Astrobin.  Is this correct?

Lynn K.

Yes,that is something to think of.

Lynn K:
Let me see if I understand the competition rules correctly. By submitting an image entry, I give Fornax all copyrights to my image and image data for 5 years. Formax can do with the image and image data as Formax want, such as distribute, publish or sale to a third party. During that 5 year period, I the image creater have no rights to my image and data, and can not enter it in any other compititions or show it on any other publication or internet sites, such as Astrobin. Is this correct?

If it's really like that, it sounds very harsh.

But I read this: 

7.1 Competition Participants authorize the Organizer to use non-exclusively and free of charge the Entries delivered for the Competition within the scope defined in par. 3.8.2 for 5 years starting from the date of announcing Competition results, with no need to sign a separate agreement, subject to provisions of par. 7.3.

And it says "non-exclusively", so I think you can upload your image elsewhere, e.g. AstroBin.

However:

6.8 All the Participants take note of the fact that it is not permitted to take part in other competitions with the documents the Candidate sends to our Competition.

Now, there are no competitions on AstroBin (the IOTD/TP is not one), b ut it's worth checking with Fornax.

for what its worth i emailed them to see what they have to say about 6.8 and 6.9. Ill leet you know the response when i get it

Lynn K:
This sentence seem to be beyond the scope of copyright privileges I have ever seen,

"6.9 Moreover all the Participants take note of the fact that the Participant can not show up on other Stock Photo sites with the Tender the Participants submitted for our Competition."

I take this to apply to Astrobin as a "Stock Photo sites".  This implies that the image submitted must be removed from ones  Astrobin gallery.

In my opinion as an Artist/ Art professor that has submitted to and exhibited in numerous competitions, the above requirement is way beyond the scope  that I have ever seen.  One should never give  ones copyrights to a work for merely submitting it.  It is normal for the exhibition organization to ask for the right to publish the work in an exhibition catalogue or for publicity reasons.  But the Artist/creator is always given full credit and always retains full copyrights. 

Lynn K.

AFAIK "stock photo site" are marketplace where you sell you photos for money. Therefore Astrobin should not be counted as one.

One thing that I can't understand is:

Do I need to do the shot with Fornax equipment, or I can use my mount?

Cheers,

Cesar

Dear Cesar,
Natuarally you can use any other brand's products.

Bence Sari (Fornax Mounts)

Fornax Mounts:

Lynn K:
This sentence seem to be beyond the scope of copyright privileges I have ever seen,

"6.9 Moreover all the Participants take note of the fact that the Participant can not show up on other Stock Photo sites with the Tender the Participants submitted for our Competition."

I take this to apply to Astrobin as a "Stock Photo sites".  This implies that the image submitted must be removed from ones  Astrobin gallery.

In my opinion as an Artist/ Art professor that has submitted to and exhibited in numerous competitions, the above requirement is way beyond the scope  that I have ever seen.  One should never give  ones copyrights to a work for merely submitting it.  It is normal for the exhibition organization to ask for the right to publish the work in an exhibition catalogue or for publicity reasons.  But the Artist/creator is always given full credit and always retains full copyrights. 

Lynn K.

AFAIK "stock photo site" are marketplace where you sell you photos for money. Therefore Astrobin should not be counted as one.

Astrobin is not a stock photo site. Naturally you can upload your photos to social media or other forums. Stock photo site means an online platform where you can sell your photos for money.

So fornax, you are really saying that we can’t enter our photos into other competitions, or sell them online for 5 years? 
only you have those rights for 5 years?

3.8.2 has given his/her consent for his/her Competition Entry to be presented at the post-competition exhibition and in the post-competition album, to be published in Competition documents, on the Organizer’s website, and in press releases concerning the Competition.

Interesting - seems that organizers just want the rights to entered images to promote the competition, which is pretty standard. It does not appear to be a grab for images to commercially promote their product without paying for them. (fortunately, it seems that the days of competitions like that are done!)

6.8 All the Participants take note of the fact that it is not permitted to take part in other competitions with the documents the Candidate sends to our Competition.

So what about entering images that have already been entered into previous competitions, eg: David Malin Awards, Royal Greenwich IAPOTY etc. as there appears to be no time limit on when the data was captured?

Andy

Gotta be in it to win it, and to be fair all focal lengths produce awesome pics *says proud owner of spacecat!

Dear Astrophotographers,
There have been a lot of messages and comments about the competition rules. Therefore, we have decided to rewrite the parts that were ambiguous.
Please read the rules again. I hope this leaves no doubt in anyone's mind.

https://fornaxmounts.com/competition-rules/

If any questions arise, please send us a message via this link below:

https://fornaxmounts.com/contact/

Bence Sari
Fronax Mounts

Daniel Boisvert-Couture:
But there's only 1 grand prize.. And I'm certainly not going to win it with my colour cam for deep sky, mak6'' for planetary, and bad skies (Eastern Canada) when there's going to be Australians with RASA scopes and Mexicans with C14s shooting the same targets from the desert! So the other prizes were more accessible (if accessible at all) but the prize from 2nd place and down are pretty much useless, unfortunately. I'm sure they're amazing products, but a lot of astrophotographers just won't have any use for it

I'm sure there are plenty of APs who would put them to very good use. Me included! Too bad I already have it...