Microsoft and Nikon have come up with the ideal photo competition for today's generation of lard-asses and couch potatoes. To enter the 'Iconic Britain' competition you don't have to do anything as active and creative as take photographs. No, it's far easier simply to enter other people's. It saves all that mucking about with cameras - saves you even having to leave the house.

All you have to do is use Microsoft's Live Search facility (which, let's face it, is desperately under-used, given that it's crap and everyone prefers Google) and enter any photos it spits out that you happen to fancy. You might win a camera. The poor sap who actually went to the trouble of taking the picture gets nothing - in fact, probably won't even know it's happened.

Which brings us to the copyright problem. 

The terms and conditions do contain a 'cover your ass' (CYA) clause (though note, it's only Microsoft's ass that gets covered, not that of anyone entering the competition): 

Entrants acknowledge that some images generated by Live Search may be subject to the intellectual property rights (including copyright) of a third party. Microsoft does not encourage or condone Entrants submitting images to the Competition that infringe the rights of a third party. In the event Microsoft is notified that an image infringes the intellectual property rights, or any other right, of a third party it shall promptly remove the image from the Competition.

First, let's deal with that 'some images'. The fact is, with the vast majority of these images, the intellectual property rights belong to someone. Copyright exists in an image automatically, the moment it comes into being. In fact, it's highly unlikely that any of the images are copyright-free. So this CYA paragraph starts with classic weasel words that have the effect of making it look as though Microsoft cares but without frightening potential entrants too much.

Next, how exactly are people expected to check the copyright situation? The images appear to have been stripped of metadata, even assuming that people entering the competition are sufficiently tech-savvy to know about, or be able to locate, metadata.

In order to be sure that they are not infringing copyright, the only logical and reasonable course of action for any entrant is to enter only their own photos. But that would rather defeat the whole object, wouldn't it? If Microsoft and Nikon had taken even a few minutes to think this through, they would surely have to come to the conclusion that this competition will inevitably result in wholesale copyright infringement. It couldn't be any other way.

Why? Well, in spite of this luke-warm show of concern about intellectual property rights, it's worth remembering that this is a competition. There are prizes up for grabs. Microsoft and Nikon are therefore offering juicy little incitements that may be enough for entrants to overcome their worries about copyright, even assuming they had any.

Various heated discussions have broken out about this, such as here and here, and Pro-Imaging have had their say too.

Microsoft, of all companies, should be a little more careful about encouraging copyright infringement. In an Internet age, in which we're seeing the growth of open source and new business models around software, Microsoft remains resolutely a last-century company, a software dinosaur aggressively protecting the intellectual property in its shrinkwrap products.

It's also sad to see Nikon, a big name in the creative field, complicit in this tacky endeavour.

Why would two such firms engage in an activity that seems so likely to result in legal action for copyright infringement? I mean, someone is going to have good grounds for sueing. You never know, it might be me. Using Live Search, I found 14 of my images. I haven't given Microsoft permission to copy, store or publish any of these images. And I've written to tell them so. I'll let you know what they say.

UPDATE: See 'The Iconic Britain backlash' for more about this story.

UPDATE: Microsoft is humbled and Nikon pulls out - see 'Iconic Britain: Microsoft and Nikon admit faults'.