The Board of Directors of the Fédération Mondiale du Cirque wishes to inform the circus community that, again this year, persons have participated in the Federation’s annual photography contest using false names, addresses and countries. By submitting their photos, contest participants agreed to abide by the contest rules which explicitly required the submitter to warrant and represent that he or she is the owner of the image and related copyright. Over the past three years, contest rules also have been flagrantly violated with the submission of photo shopped images and, this year, images that were not taken at actual World Circus Day events. Verifying compliance with contest rules has become a time-consuming task, draining scarce resources, delaying conclusion of the contest and publication of the calendar, and, sadly, diverting the Federation from its important mission. In the spring of 2014, persons who previously gave the Federation permission to use a photograph from an earlier contest in a Federation publication filed a copyright infringement complaint with PayPal, thus shutting down the Federation’s on-line Boutique for several weeks. Since early summer, the Board of Directors, judges, and even the company that prints the calendars, have been continuously harassed with emails and an online campaign that includes defamatory claims against the Federation and its Executive Director. More disturbing, these persons have accessed the Federation’s contact information and are using this information, without authorization, to harass numerous additional persons associated with the Federation. As a matter of courtesy to the photo contest winners who complied with contest rules, the Board of Directors have decided to publish the 2015 calendar as planned. All photographs will be published with photo credits as submitted to the contest. A limited number of 2015 calendars will be available in the coming days through the Federation website and at various circus events. With regret and apologies to the many talented photographers who use their cameras in cooperation with the Federation to celebrate and preserve Circus Arts and Culture, the Board regretfully also announces that the annual photography contest has been cancelled for the coming year.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 14:17:33 +0000
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