ATTENTION: All PHOTO CONTEST PARTICIPANTS

California Peggy and I would like to remind EVERYONE who chooses to submit a photo to ANY of our monthly Photo Contests is required by the rules to submit only original work of the photographer who is entering the contest. There are reasons for this rule, not the least of which is honoring any copyright of someone else's work. Regardless of whether a photo is copyrighted, we hold these contests as an opportunity to share our own individual work, not only amongst ourselves, but also with the greater DU community at large whom we ask to vote and comment on our individual work. We work (and play) within an honor system here on DU and it is a sign of respect for our fellow photographers to abide by the rules and submit only our own individual work. We trust that we are all playing by the same rules when we enter any of our contests.

That said, two years ago we had an experience where it was discovered that an individual had entered a photo that was not her own original work in more than one Photo Contest . In fact, the photo that originally brought this situation to light was one that had taken First Place in the contest in which it was entered. At the time, Peggy and I worked together on this problem, involving both numerous other Photography Topic Forum Hosts, as well as EarlG, and came to the decision that the person would be banned from further participation in the Photography Group because of the repeated rules violation concerning submission of only original work by the photographer in any of our contests.

Well, over the weekend it came to light that this was happening again. I was checking the progress of Submissions in our current January Contest when lo and behold I was astonished to see that someone else had entered a photograph of MY work! Imagine my reaction! When I came down off the ceiling--despite being flattered that someone else liked my photo well enough to enter it as her own--I sent California Peggy a DU Mail telling her about it and asked her what she would suggest we do. Peggy picked up the phone and called me. We talked at length about it and agreed on a plan of action.

By the next morning, I had taken a look at some other photos entered by this individual in previous contests and discovered that, indeed just like the last situation, the person had taken First Place in a contest during 2023 with a photo I was able to verify as published by an organization with photo credit attached. I shared this information with Peggy again, and with her agreement contacted the individual about it. Eventually, the person acknowledged that the photo in question was not her original work and also agreed that given the precedent from our experience with this situation two years ago, the consequence of the Submission rules violation was to be banned from further participation in the Photography Group.

So. Peggy and I would like everyone to understand that this decision was made based on precedent and that she and I both agreed it was a sad, but appropriate, consequence to violating the rule regarding submission of only original work by the photographer to any contest.

Please, everyone, please abide by this rule. California Peggy and I have taken no pleasure in coming to this decision nor do we wish to go through the process of dealing with this kind of situation again. Please respect your fellow photographers and take this rule seriously.