Note: okay they just want a vote and could have worded it better and i could have spent more time trying to figure it out but the issue stands for everybody else who wants to “borrow content”.
Another day and another media channel wants to use my content, so they can make a lot of money, for free:
“Just a quick note to tell you about the LifeStyle FOOD Channel I LOVE FOOD AWARDS
LifeStyle FOOD Channel is creating a national eating out guide and weBecome a Facebook fan. Follow me on Twitter.
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
MyRestaurants tried this too didn’t they? I think most people politely told them to bugger off.
Yeh I just got this email this morning. I vaguely looked over it before deciding it was a load of crap trying to get a bunch of content for nothing… Which is a shame really, because I kind of like Lifestyle Food… or at least have been known to sit in front of it while waiting for ultimate fighting to come on…
Yes, a bit unfair really. On first glance it seems like a good idea, until you read the copyright warning. Ridiculous for them to claim complete ownership over the work of others, especially without due credit.
Oh this is nice and clever isn’t it. The competition rules are pretty much the same as any ’send in your ideas, sentences, silliest pic’ activity, but with the difference that the entries are serious, usable, valuable content. Mongrels.
At least they didn’t have the smiling mug of their toothsome numero-uno stablemate promoting it, oh god how I tire of his image, I’m sure I have Granger-fatigue. This whole scheme shows that they are getting skinny on ideas don’t it!?
Cracks me cause they all read the blogs to get the inside track anyway. Why dont they just cut to the chase forget the’faux-competition’ & ask directly,
‘I’m tired of scouring the laneways of Melbourne & the holes in the wall of Sydney, If I dont get a hot new up & coming place delivered to my editor pronto, I’m toast. Please help me do my job blogger-fairy-god-mother!’
I just had a look at their site and it is not a writing or review competition at all, the minor and major prizes are ’selected at random’.
Anybody could just nominate anything, and be in the same pool to win next to somebody who is bothered to be serious.
No matter the motive for your site, just seems like a dumb ‘competition’ or should we say ‘lucky dip’.
Jack
Beware of photography competitions for this same reason. Once you give up your copyright by entering the competition, the promoter basically has a new free stock image library.
I don’t think we need to worry about this one too much. Just checked it out and entered. The only thing they really want is your opinion about a few different things like the best restaurants, coffee places, pizzas, fish and chips and so on by filling in a survey form. They’re not after text or photos. It takes about 3 or 4 minutes to do.
I guess as long as these competitions give recognition to the blog author and blog URL then at least it will help drive traffic to the blogs.
It’s good to see food blogs are now getting the mainstream media’s attention in Australia. There’s been a couple of similar ‘reviewer’ competitions floating around lately – Ed didn’t you mention a while back that Gourmet Traveller were doing something similar?
Interesting that they’re turning to the ‘public’ to submit reviews instead of always relying on professional food reviewers as it’s so common for people to say that they read a glowing review in a good food guide or newspaper only to find the restaurant wasn’t up to scratch. Perhaps encouraging the public to review they’ll get a more balanced review?
I can understand the points made for people who are actively making money from their writing. As for me, one day I might like to make my writing profitable but it’s not something I’m currently pursuing. So with that in mind I see handing over rights to my copyright as a small price to pay to get a few more people looking at my blog.
I got this email too and also checked out their site. However, once I had to register to give my opinion, I didn’t pursue it any further.
I, like Ali can also see both sides of the argument. If I was making a living from my writing, no way would I give over copyrights. But like Ali, I’m doing this for enjoyment and currently make nothing from it. So if I really wanted to share a particular view I had about a great restaurant to a wider audience, and giving away the copyright meant I could do that, I wouldn’t mind.
My blood is boiling. I have run many competitions in the past, but have never, ever, seen one like this, which asks you to surrender your rights to a huge, profitable conglomerate. As a former Spin Doctor I can clearly see below the surface of this.
At the core of this impassioned post, Ed is simply explaining that bloggers must protect what is theirs. You own the copyright on your words, photos and videos posted on your blog. If someone else is going to profit financially from your time, energy, words, thoughts and concepts, you MUST be paid for it.
Foxtel’s Lifestyle Channel states in its competition terms that you agree to forfeit your ownership of the material to them. In theory they then own your blog and although this may not happen, they have the right to claim any revenue made from your blog.
Turning to the public for opinion is free content for Lifestyle Channel’s website. The restaurant guide site is being created to attract more advertising dollars. It’s not a public service, it is revenue driven, if it did not attract ad spend, it would quickly be taken down.
Spin Doctors have sugar coated this competition in the guise of flattery to take your material and profit from it. It means that they stand to make millions of dollars from attracting advertising by using your intellectual property (your thoughts, your words) for nothing, rather than paying for it. In return you don’t get anything back but the ‘chance’ to win a prize that has possibly been donated in the first place in exchange for ad space.
With Foxtel’s The Lifestyle Channel you are ostensibly putting money into the pockets of Packer, Murdoch, Optus and Telstra for no financial return.
Foxtel are also hoping to rope in dining venues to advertise Foxtel and the competition for free. They are asking restauranteurs to nominate their own venue, then download and print out posters to display in their venue, cards to mail to their customers emails and banners to place on their websites – all at their own expense – and to provide the opportunity for Foxtel to legally spam the restaurant customers. For a national campaign, this would normally cost Foxtel millions of dollars, but they are angling to do it for free and it will maximise profits. It’s pretty clever – no? There’s nothing illegal going on, it’s your choice after all.
This will not score you points along the path to being a paid writer. You will get more traffic driven to your blog if you participate in recipe forums like Taste, where you will find people with the time to meander around the net. Or if you join a web ring, participate in ‘Is my blog burning?’ events or comment regularly at popular sites like Chez Pim, Becks & posh etc in order to build your own online community.
Well put.
Do the writers get credit for their contributions?
Hi Ed
I think you are being a bit precious about all this stuff.
Certainly as a professional it should have NO interest to you however I see no reason whatsoever for the public – whoever they are, not to offer their opinions and that’s all they’re asking for.
Of course they want to make money (I hope there’s nothing wrong with that) and they want your help, for nothing what’s more. On the other hand if it’s not interesting no one will look at it. You don’t have to sell them your birthright. You don’t have to send them photo’s and after you offer them your opinion you still have it and you can still tell anyone you like. They didn’t ask for anything else really but that you fill in a few tick boxs. The garbage about copyright was insensitive and irrelevant
As for spam from Foxtel this has a substantial risk of backfiring. It’s said
“There’s no such thing as bad advertising” or The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about” attributed I think to Noel Coward. Don’t you believe it.
Restaurant owners and chef’s are VERY sensitive to criticism – they’ve even sued over it
Yep, I agree with old Sticky here. Once a ‘punter’ clicks through to vote they’re asked all sorts of bizarre questions about things like if they love pies and if so where they buy their favourites! I kid you not…so it is a sneaky marketing exercise in the guise of a respectable food awards process. You have to admire the cunning deviousness of the whole mullarkey. I had added the button to our site, in good faith, but I think I’ll remove it, I didn’t anticipate people voting for us would suddenly be confronted by inane queries about bloody pies, pizzas and burgers!
Elliot your commodious largesse is to be commended.
The point is, weigh up the long term and the big picture before signing up to a competition or offering up what is yours for no recompense.
Things to consider are, if Foxtel publish a newsletter, magazine or best selling guide book using your blog material, and perhaps a celebrity spouts your opinion and experience on a TV show – without citing your name – will you be OK with that? And if they win awards for their cleverness, will it still be fine?
If, as others have experienced, a corporation sues you for stealing their material or making money from a blog that’s apparently no longer legally yours but theirs, what will you do? Do you have the funds to fight a major corporation for years? I’m suggesting the worst case scenario because such things are possible in these litigious times.
In support of Ed, blogs are valuable in that they can arm the reader with information that is not necessarily apparent superficially, and can reduce the naievity when dealing with powerful businesses and the ruthless corporate machines that drive them. I believe blogs are here to critique and question too, but they are not immune to litigation.
In the modern world, knowledge has become the power to be aware of ploys and tricks. It robs us of our innocence but gives us the ability to choose for ourselves, to see where ego may usurp reason in the face of greed. After all, in the eyes of the law ‘ignorance is no excuse’. Caveat venditor.
I got this email about a week ago. I was quite busy at work so I just glossed over it and didn’t pay it much more attention. But now that I have read your post and read the email back, now I’m really glad I didn’t respond. Besides I would have been too lazy to anyway. But it’s sneaky what their doing.
I love all this passion but this silly little quiz didn’t ask for anything more than that you tick a few boxs.
They never asked for rights to our blogs or pics
As a piece of “research” it would make a good exercise for criticism in a year 9 exam It’s not worth the emotion (or any more of my time)
Elliott, I’m just wondering how many of us actually watch the Lifestyle channel. If they’d done some basic year 9 (whatever year 9 is) research and why we should want to be involved in something that we are not evening watching on TV and why they thought we would be interested. It may be different if it was free to air and we could watch the shows. I’m just fed up with unsolicited emails the whole time.
“Whatever year 9 is” ah Ed you’re exposing your old blighty background there…I’m always having to clarify those kind of references (as well as avoiding mentions of A/O levels, fifth year, P45s, UB40s, crisps, fags, etc etc etc)…bloody colonials
(that last bit’s a joke folks).
We’ve got one of those old funky Singer sewing machines at work that I’ve nicknamed ‘Pearl’ after the Elkie Brooks song “Pearl’s a Singer”….no-one had ever heard of her or the song…regardless of age group….some times you feel very,very far away from home, not just geographically either.
Davy, thanks for those fond memories – especially the old UB40 and, I suppose, Elkie Brooks.
Well, here are the VIC winners. What does this list suggest?
1 Taco Bill Mexican/Latin American
2 Rockpool Bar and Grill Modern Australian
3 Ambrosia Caf
Pat, obviously stacked and completely unrepresentative. Interesting to see Movida so high up though.
Oh that’s too funny – the Lifestyle Channel overrated their audience? LOL! I love that the number 11 national favourite is a venue called ‘Food & Plonk’. No wonder they still have the de Groots review link on their website. Somebody do a post on this. Puh-leeeeease! We’ve just had to pick ourselves off the floor for laughing so much.
Yes, Ed. It’s a wonder they didn’t do some sort of moderating. I wonder how many votes the whole exercise received overall. Bet they won’t say