As if cheap thieves like iStock and Shutterstock and other microstock agencies aren’t bad enough to destroy the photography market, and you always have to read the small print on any competition to make sure that you’re not basically handing over the copyright of your images, the thievery has also entered the local markets. I was made aware of a competition called “Helsinki City Photo Competition”, organized by the city of Helsinki, apparently.
And the rules:

All images that are uploaded to this group can be used in Helsinki marketing: on our websites (vxxxxxxi.fi and mxxxxxxi.fi) and in advertisements, brochures and in other promotional material.

Please submit only high-resolution pictures. Low-resolution images will be neglected in the competition.

Please note: by uploading images to this group you accept that images can be used in Helsinki marketing and will be distributed via Helsinki City Material Bank (*).

Where the (*) refers to the text

The photo material in the Material Bank can be used for promoting Helsinki either directly or indirectly, as well as by members of the press and for free publications. Information about the photographer will be included.

So the city of Helsinki is creating themselves a nice little archive of Helsinki images and are generously offering to include information about the photographer. They offer a whopping 3 gift certifcates to Pixmania to the best 3 images of their choice, and the rest of the archive they – and the rest of the media – get to use for free.
Sorry, but that always gets my fluids boiling. These kind of things should really be made illegal by law and people who submit to these kinds of contests, should be made aware how this is pretty much f**king up the photography industry.

I have a stack of Helsinki images, but they’re not getting any from me. Unless they purchase a license, of course.

D700, ISO200, 1/250 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 70-200mm. 7 images stitched together in Photoshop (original file size 11276x2719px)