This is about the sitepoint design contests:

I entered a logo design contest once and another designer used my concept in the same contest and when I messaged him privately he immediately started with the public ranting saying things like "the CH mentioned heart..." and "my heart looks nothing like yours...".

You can't make up your own rules about copyright infringement and think that if other users tolerate it then you are safe. Some day some designer is going to file charges of infringement.


This is why I have stopped entering these contests. I looked at past entries and previous contests and realized some designers simply wait until a CH (contest holder) mentions in a review they are fond of a certain feature of someones entry then the bottom feeders who don't have a creative bone in their body jump up and say "I can do that" and all of a sudden they are using this as an excuse to infringe on other design concepts. Meanwhile Sitepoint has structured these so called contests in such a way that the CH is providing encouragement to expand on each others designs by giving feedback. This is ridiculous! In a contest there should be only one entry period. Once a designer is chosen then the winning concept can be developed further offline. No need for this song and pony dance of let's see how far we can string these designers along before picking one.

In this contest, Loya for example stole cafemochas concept. Even though you may be first to use an apple cafemochas apple and the rest of his design was quite different from this use of the apple so I thought that was OK. Loya, however has created a problem. In my opinion Loyas entry was so similar to cafemochas it was a direct infringemement. If that entry had been selected cafemocha should file a claim in court. Loya changed it enough so it is no longer the same design. This in my opinion was still unethical because I know cafemocha has skills enough to have probably arrived at the same results had the CH just chosen to converse with him rather than with loya.

Designers are tempted to build on contest entries based on the feedback of the contest holder but this invites copyright infringement. It's only a matter of time before someone gets sued. Aside from that the industry in general is moving further into outsourcing and this practice has all the small graphics shops out there asking freelancers like me to provide samples of their designs so they can judge if I would be able to satisfy their graphics needs. To these requests I usually reply by asking for a deposit so I can trust they will pay me for my work. Come on, how stupid do they think we are? It doesn't take a genius to figure someones graphics abilities based on just about any previous works. Never will I stoop to giving away design concepts to prove my abilities.


I would be interested to hear from anyone with knowledge of websites whos design contest are structured more like regular contests.

 

 

 

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