Terms & Conditions

§ 1 Values and principles

ARTS TV and Deutsche Welle (DW) (hereinafter "the Organizers") stand for the values and principles of freedom, democracy, human rights, rule of law, social justice, and cultural diversity and reject any form of discrimination such as sexism, racism, anti-Semitism and others.

The Organizers are committed to climate-friendly and resource-conserving production and intend to exploit and further develop sustainable production methods.

The Organizers also promote the expansion of barrier-free services for people with disabilities within the scope of their technical and financial possibilities.

These values and principles are the basis of the cooperation between the Participant and the Organizers.

§ 2 Transfer of rights

The Participant shall transfer to the Organizers — at the time of the conclusion of the Agreement, but no later than the creation of the Competition Entry — all copyrights, ancillary copyrights, and other rights arising from and/or in connection with the realization of the Entry.

All rights shall be transferred or granted to the Organizers exclusively.

The Organizers shall be able to exploit the Competition Entry comprehensively; rights are transferred exclusively, irrevocably, unlimited, and unrestricted in time, territory, and content. This includes:

Broadcasting and On-Demand Rights: the right to broadcast via analog or digital methods (e.g. terrestrial, cable, internet, TV, pay-TV) and make it available on demand (e.g. AVOD, SVOD, TVOD, download to own/rent) on Organizer platforms or third-party platforms.

Reproduction and Editing Rights: the right to reproduce, distribute, transmit, edit, reshape, shorten, divide, combine, or transfer the Entry into another work form.

Archiving and Videogram Rights: the right to store the Entry in any technical form and reproduce or distribute it on storage media (e.g. DVD, Blu-ray, chips) for commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Title, Advertising, and AI Rights: the right to use, modify, or replace the Entry’s title, use excerpts for advertising across all media (including television, cinema, print, internet), and use data from the Entry for artificial intelligence (AI) training.

Rental/Lending and Public Use: the right to make the Entry available for a limited period and use it publicly or non-publicly for fairs, exhibitions, festivals, and competition participation.

The transfer of rights includes the right to grant sublicenses to third parties. Excluded from this transfer are rights administered by collecting societies (e.g. GEMA, GVL).

§ 3 Third-party rights

If third-party rights are to be acquired by the Participant, they must be transferred to the Organizers; if restricted, the Participant must negotiate with the Organizers or replace the sequence at their own expense.

Material created as a result of generative artificial intelligence may not be used for the production.

The Participant shall be solely liable for any infringement of third-party rights and shall indemnify the Organizers against any claims at a reasonable hourly rate.

The Participant shall financially secure the Organizers against claims arising from joint liability by taking out their own insurance policies.

§ 4 Copyright and metadata

The Participant is obliged to provide the Organizers with the names of the authors and creators involved in the Competition Entry.

Upon digital capture of images, the names of the Participant and creators do not have to remain electronically linked to the image data. The Organizers shall be free to modify and adapt the metadata, and waivers regarding copyright acts shall be agreed upon as far as legally permissible.

The Organizers and their sub-licensees have the right to indicate ownership of the rights of use on the images (e.g. © ARTS TV & DW).

§ 5 Delivery

The Participant shall deliver all material to the Organizers, including a cutting list showing all third-party material (with timecodes and licensors) and a GEMA/GVL-compliant music cue sheet.

At the Organizers’ request, production material must be handed over up to six months after acceptance; otherwise, it shall be destroyed.

For a standard photo entry, uploading your photographs through this website satisfies this section. Cutting lists and music cue sheets apply only where an entry includes third-party footage or music.

§ 6 Acceptance and § 7 Production documents

The Organizers shall be given at least 10 days before the delivery date for final editorial acceptance. The Entry is deemed accepted if no defects are discovered within six weeks after delivery.

All production documents, especially contracts and payment receipts, must be kept by the Participant for 10 years and submitted to the Organizers upon request.

Most photo entries involve no contracts or payments, in which case there are no production documents to keep.

§ 8 Confidentiality

The Participant shall treat all documents and contracts arising in connection with the Entry as confidential and store them so unauthorized persons cannot access them. This obligation must be imposed on all involved persons.

§ 9 Jurisdiction and interim relief, § 10 Final clauses

This competition is organized jointly by ARTS TV, based in Ethiopia, and Deutsche Welle, based in Germany. Matters concerning ARTS TV and its use of an Entry are governed by the law of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, with jurisdiction in Addis Ababa. Matters concerning Deutsche Welle and its use of an Entry are governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany, with jurisdiction in Berlin.

The Participant waives the right to claim injunctive relief by way of interim relief that would disturb the exploitation of the Entry, except in cases of gross violation of personal rights.

Only these General Terms and Conditions apply; deviating terms from the Participant shall not become part of the agreement unless expressly agreed to in writing by the Organizers.

Eligibility and entry

The competition is open to students currently enrolled in a high school, college, or university. Proof of enrollment (a scanned or photographed student ID) is required with every entry and is used solely to verify eligibility, and is never published.

Participants under 18 must have the consent of a parent or legal guardian to take part.

Employees of the Organizers and their immediate families may not participate.

Each entry consists of one to three original photographs taken by the Participant in Ethiopia, together with a written statement of between 200 and 1,000 characters. Entries must not contain unlawful, defamatory, or hateful content and must be suitable for public exhibition.

Participation is free of charge. The Organizers may amend the competition schedule or these terms where necessary, and may disqualify entries that violate them.