Eurgh... Competitions...

Over the last few months I've noticed this, and become annoyed by this, more and more. This key phrase that always appears somewhere in the small print of competition entry rules:

"each entrant grants a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual licence to the Promoter to feature any or all of the submitted images in any of their publications, their websites and/or in any promotional material"

Now I understand the need for those running the competition, and their partners, to have temporary access to your image for use on promotional material directly related to their competition - but why the need to be so far reaching with their rights grab? This is especially frustrating because often enough these competitions can be for good causes, supporting the national parks I love, but I can't see how I could ever enter a competition in which I give away all rights to something that belongs to me. Would it be so hard for those running the competitions to make the statement less far reaching by limiting their licence to a set amount of time or something? It doesn't seem hard to me and certainly wouldn't affect their ability to promote their competition - if that really is the sole reason they need use of your image. This whole situation is made even worse because increasingly tweets are appearing, encouraging us to enter these competitions... 'Come and enter our competition to get your image featured on the cover of the OS Map'... Erm, what? So my prize for your competition is that you get free usage of my photo for your maps? Oh, and you also want free usage of it whenever you like in the future too? I don't think so. And yet how many people will walk straight into it, not reading point number 119.d on page 3 of the T&Cs? All I ask is that competition owners limit their licence request, you're putting so many of us off!