I’m very glad to announce the following:

From Canon USA & Vimeo:

“Canon USA and Vimeo are advocates and supporters of artists and artists’ rights. We would like to make it very clear that the creator of any submission in the Story Beyond The Still contest retains ownership of that submission – period. Canon USA does own the copyright in the final, combined video comprised of Vincent’s chapter and all winning chapters, however, each chapter itself is still owned by the user who submitted it (similar to a newspaper – the publisher owns a copyright in each full edition, but the specific articles could be owned by a number of different parties).

There has been some commentary on the contest forums and within message boards that claims that Canon USA and/or Vimeo are engaging in a “rights grab” of sorts with respect to contest submissions, and are taking ownership of users’ submissions. This is simply not true. It is no one’s intention to take ownership over any user’s submission.

Of course, in order to offer its services and operate the contest, both Vimeo and Canon USA need certain rights licensed to them - to accept, store and display video submissions, to use clips/stills to promote the contest, and to let other Vimeo users view and comment on the submissions - and efforts were taken to restrict the scope of the licenses as much as possible, keeping in mind the legal realities of conducting a contest like this one.

We want this to be a contest that celebrates creativity and collaborative film making. It is our goal that this is fun and engaging experience for all that participate.”

As you know - we win some (above) and we lose some (below) - that’s just the way life goes and I think Canon and Vimeo are doing a great thing with this contest  and it’s very important to remain focused on that fact. (more…)