Obama campaign asks artists to ‘work for free’ on jobs posters, sparking outrage

◼ The Obama campaign has a unique solution to stimulating job growth: Get a bunch of designers to contribute their work for free. - TIME

According to an article by Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson, the president's campaign has put out a call for artists across the country to donate designs for a campaign poster. The key word in that sentence being "donate," as the designers would not be paid for their services. This, despite the fact that, as Rolling Stone reports, the Obama campaign has more than $60 million cash on hand. In an unfortunate ironic twist, the poster is meant to promote the president's jobs program, specifically, "illustrating why we support President Obama's plan to create jobs now."
These incongruous means to job creation has put the usually left-leaning Rolling Stone on the warpath, saying, "In an economy this bad, you'd think a presidential campaign that flush would be happy to pay good money for a talented designer to create a campaign poster."

...winners of the contest get a framed copy of the poster, signed by the president ("approximate retail value $195"), which you could potentially sell on eBay.

◼ (E)ven if you don't win the contest, Obama for America owns your intellectual property. A practice most professional designers shun.... - Ad Age

Members of the design and ad community did a great deal of free work for Obama in 2008. But at the time, he was selling hope and change to people eager to buy. With too much of that change going in the wrong direction, this time they're eager to get paid--especially if the campaign in question is sitting on a war chest that makes it "the 1%" of the political field.

◼ An Open Letter to the Obama For America Campaign - Graphic Artists Guild

The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines cites the current rate for the design of a poster for this type of distribution to be approximately $4,000 and upwards....

How obvious is this irony: A crowdsourced contest soliciting free work (spec work) from American artists for the purpose of promoting legislation to create jobs.

To add insult to injury, the contest rules state that all artists who submit work to the contest grant the Obama For America campaign an unrestricted unpaid irrevocable license to use ALL of the submissions, not just the winning entry (term #17). And, although the Obama For America campaign requires permission to use the artist’s name and likeness, there’s no promise to even give the artist credit when her/his work is used (term #1).

It gets worse. Of course, entering the contest means that you agree to the contest rules, and indemnifying the committee is part of the rules, so you agree to defend the campaign committee and yourself against an infringement claim at your expense.

◼ Obama campaign asks artists to ‘work for free’ on jobs posters, sparking outrage - Daily Caller