Photo contest rules for including people in pictures: google photography prize

[jdong217]

Right so I'm not sure where to put this.

Anyway, in the official rules for this contest, it says:

"It must not reference any person, group, or organizations without their written permission."

So does this literally mean none of my photos can include people without their written consent? I have photos that were taken in public, ie a crowded night market with literally hundreds of people in the shot. I also have a more personal one of myself and three friends (they've agreed to let me use the photo, but I don't have written consent). Interpreting it literally, I guess that's what it means.

But that just seems a little silly to me. I browsed tons of other contest entries and many of them contain people, and a lot of them are in public with random people in the photos.

 

[jdong217]

can anyone help me out here?

 

[CowgirlMama]

I would say you have to have them write something. With the night market, you'd have to have consent from the sellers in the photo, too, I think. Not an expert on it, though.

 

[Overread]

Best people to ask would be those running the competition itself. You're asking for clarification and whilst we can guess we can't know for certain what the minds of the judges/organisers of the competition are.

 

[jdong217]

The thing is it's really hard to find someone to contact about this. The FAQS says to message the official google+ page with questions. The only problem is...there's no place on that page to submit a question too. I think I finally found someone in charge who might be able to answer my question, but I haven't received a reply yet.

Anyway, just for reference, here is the album that I will be submitting: https://plus.google.com/photos/111355172636379305294/albums/5700301055377680225

4th, 7th, and 8th ones contain people. I guess the first and second ones do too but that's negligible. For the 4th, if necessary I could get written permission since I personally know them. The 7th is the crowded street. Many visible faces, but at least most are blurred due to the shallow DoF. 8th I'm not sure about. You can't see anyone's faces.
Anyway, I'll just wait until I get an answer from the guy, if I ever do

 

[KmH]

Your profile doesn't indicate where you are on planet Earth. To a large degree it depends on the laws where you are.

 

[The_Traveler]

The rules don't say the picture can't contain people but that it can't 'reference' people.
My take on that is that, for example, you couldn't have a boy playing basketball in front of a poster of Michael Jordan advertising Nikes.