D&D 5E D&D Beyond Cancels Competition

D&D Beyond has been running an art contest which asked creators to enter D&D-themed portrait frame. DDB got to use any or all of the entries, while the winner and some runners up received some digital content as a prize.

There was a backlash -- and DDB has cancelled the contest.

Thank you to all of our community for sharing your comments and concerns regarding our anniversary Frame Design Contest.

While we wanted to celebrate fan art as a part of our upcoming anniversary, it's clear that our community disagrees with the way we approached it. We've heard your feedback, and will be pulling the contest.

We will also strive to do better as we continue to look for ways to showcase the passion and creativity of our fellow D&D players and fans in the future. Our team will be taking this as a learning moment, and as encouragement to further educate ourselves in this pursuit.

Your feedback is absolutely instrumental to us, and we are always happy to listen and grow in response to our community's needs and concerns. Thank you all again for giving us the opportunity to review this event, and take the appropriate action.

The company went on to say:

Members of our community raised concerns about the contest’s impact on artists and designers, and the implications of running a contest to create art where only some entrants would receive a prize, and that the prize was exclusively digital material on D&D Beyond. Issues were similarly raised with regards to the contest terms and conditions. Though the entrants would all retain ownership of their design to use in any way they saw fit, including selling, printing, or reproducing, it also granted D&D Beyond rights to use submitted designs in the future. We have listened to these concerns, and in response closed the competition. We’ll be looking at ways we can better uplift our community, while also doing fun community events, in the future.

Competitions where the company in question acquires rights to all entries are generally frowned upon (unless you're WotC).

 

[Scott Christian]

Ahhh...

Work for free, and you might get paid.

Contests and volunteerism for skilled labor without compensation needs to be abolished. Companies will always leverage this device. Worse yet, they will do so at greater and greater rates. I mean, free labor... we have been through this before.

The saddest part is, many companies do this under the naive thought of community building. They actually mean no ill intent. But the ramifications spread from ripples to waves and eventually across oceans.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

There are legal wordings for this that aren't predatory scumbaggery. The addition of 'for the purposes of the contest' would have avoided all this, but the boilerplate for this is all about 'let's make sure to cover ourselves in case we decide to steal this stuff'. Might not and probably wasn't DDB's intention, but that's the actual point of this particular wording.

So, you read that entire post, and this was your response?

I assume that you are familiar with required legal boilerplate (and the reasons for it), have done a survey of 50 states, other US jurisdictions, and federal law, and can now confidently state that all you need is what you have said?

And that the lawyers who have put in this language don't know what they are doing, but you do?

Okay! I mean, sure. I completely believe that you have given this a lot of thought, and your use of totally legal language- "for the purpose of this contest" gives extra credibility to your opinion.


(For bonus credit, even assuming your "legal language" was, um, all legal-y and stuff, why wouldn't this work for the required purpose?)

 

[Vaalingrade]

So, you read that entire post, and this was your response?

It's a better response than 'those poor corporations need protection from those evil artists who might try and get paid if they use the art that was scammed from them'.

I assume that you are familiar with required legal boilerplate (and the reasons for it), have done a survey of 50 states, other US jurisdictions, and federal law, and can now confidently state that all you need is what you have said?

Yes. Just like I am certain you did.

And that the lawyers who have put in this language don't know what they are doing, but you do?

They absolutely know what they're doing. That's the literal problem.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Contests and volunteerism for skilled labor without compensation needs to be abolished. Companies will always leverage this device. Worse yet, they will do so at greater and greater rates. I mean, free labor... we have been through this before.

That is a totally valid opinion.

However, you are incorrect in one aspect. "Fan contests" such as this are rapidly dwindling, due to the downside risks of litigation and because they cost more to run.

It's a lot cheaper for a company to get creative work that they want on spec than to run these types of contests.*


*I am sure that there are exceptions, for smaller companies that don't care about the legal issues, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

It's a better response than 'those poor corporations need protection from those evil artists who might try and get paid if they use the art that was scammed from them'.

Yes. Just like I am certain you did.

They absolutely know what they're doing. That's the literal problem.

Well, here's the thing. If you had a passing knowledge of the issue, you would know that what you wrote doesn't work for multiple reasons.

The primary one is ... it doesn't work. Let's assume, charitably (and I am trying to be charitable here) that you actually used real legal language- you know, something like this off the top of my head (without defined terms)-

Providing a Entry constitutes Entrant’s consent to give Company a royalty-free, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, publish and display such Entries in whole or in part, on a worldwide basis, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed for one year for purposes of implementing the Competition.

See? That's how you would have language that might work. Problem is... that language doesn't protect the company if it gets sued later on down the road by someone claiming that a product they produce resembles something that was submitted.

Again, if you read my whole post, instead of going for the knee-jerk "I'm on the internet and I'm right I know more than everyone else" you would see that I'm not about protecting poor corporations- I'm all for paying creatives more. But if you don't understand why things are the way they are, you will have trouble understanding what happens when you remove it.

And if the purpose (as I wrote) is to get rid of fan contests like this, that's totally cool!* But don't think these selfish corporations that you hate so much are going to be all like, "Hey, let's spend all this money on a contest for mediocre stuff, and NOT PROTECT OURSELVES!"


EDIT-
*Again, I shouldn't have to keep repeating this, but I don't have a fully formed opinion on the underlying issue of "no fan competitions." I am completely against unpaid internships, for example. And to the extent that fan competitions lower the wages of creatives, I am against those. I just have never considered them in that way, because I have always viewed them as amateur competitions for fun that companies run as loss leaders. If that's no longer correct, then maybe they should go away, and only art contests that aren't being run by rivalrous companies (i.e., companies that do not produce creative works) and non-profits should occur, not fan contests.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Again, if you read my whole post, instead of going for the knee-jerk "I'm on the internet and I'm right I know more than everyone else" you would see that I'm not about protecting poor corporations- I'm all for paying creatives more. But if you don't understand why things are the way they are, you will have trouble understanding what happens when you remove it.

Except you are. You're trying to save them a few (relative) bucks to protect them from a theoretical lawsuit at the expense of the artists.

And if they purpose (as I wrote) is to get rid of fan contests like this, that's totally cool! But don't think these selfish corporations that you hate so much are going to be all like, "Hey, let's spend all this money on a contest for mediocre stuff, and NOT PROTECT OURSELVES!"

I notice a trend in the 'let them scam rights' side to insult the artist by calling their work simple or mediocre. The consistency of these disparagements is telling. Also very interesting when on the one hand you say the works are mediocre and then on the other side are vehement that the company needs protection in case they then turn around and ste... I mean coincidentally recreate that work later down the road.

 

[Maxperson]

You put way too much faith in capitalists. The precedent itself is dangerous.

There's a greater chance of criminals committing even worse crimes when released, so I assume that you want all crime to result in life in prison to prevent that bad stuff from happening to innocent people.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Except you are. You're trying to save them a few (relative) bucks to protect them from a theoretical lawsuit at the expense of the artists.

I notice a trend in the 'let them scam rights' side to insult the artist by calling their work simple or mediocre. The consistency of these disparagements is telling. Also very interesting when on the one hand you say the works are mediocre and then on the other side are vehement that the company needs protection in case they then turn around and ste... I mean coincidentally recreate that work later down the road.

So, given your rhetoric and your tendency to call anyone trying to discuss this with you evil, scammers, or "empty suits ... with steepled fingers" not to mention calling this "predatory scumbaggery," I am starting to have difficulty believing you are discussing this in good faith. Combined with you lack of knowledge of the issue (as just demonstrated) and your continued pivots to demonizing people - such as here- instead of discussion, I will assume that this is the last exchange we will have. But I will try one more time for all the good that it will do... given that Whizzbang (who is a creative) and I have both explained this at length, I doubt it will do any good, but hey, you never know.

1. This doesn't insult artists generally. Instead, it's just an acknowledgement that as a general rule, fan contests that solicit art, writing, or other creative work usually solicits a lot of bad work. Because ... you aren't paying professionals for work! This should be obvious. If you've ever been involved in one of these contests, at any level, you know that you have to sort through a lot of bad stuff. Now, maybe it's the case that only amazing artists are entering, and they only send the most amazing work, which would be new and different. I am happy to be corrected, but that is different than what I know.

2. These competitions, for larger companies, are always loss leaders. As @PsyzhranV2 has correctly pointed out (and as I had a whole thread devoted to), creatives in the TTRPG industry get paid squat. It is cheaper for companies to pay creatives to create to spec than to design and run these competitions. The only reason they do it is for the buzz- the marketing, the engagement. When I say this, referring to what I wrote, I am discussing reputable companies, not ones that are running scam competitions. But these aren't profit centers ... far from it.

3. As has been repeatedly pointed out, and as you keep ignoring, it's not just some "theoretical lawsuit," it's a whole lot of actual lawsuits.


Again, if you don't want the protections in these competitions, that's cool. Just don't have the competitions. But you can't expect companies to run these types of contests without protecting themselves. This really isn't that hard. And all the namecalling and abuse you hurl at people you disagree with doesn't change that.

 

[TheSword]

Except you are. You're trying to save them a few (relative) bucks to protect them from a theoretical lawsuit at the expense of the artists.

I notice a trend in the 'let them scam rights' side to insult the artist by calling their work simple or mediocre. The consistency of these disparagements is telling. Also very interesting when on the one hand you say the works are mediocre and then on the other side are vehement that the company needs protection in case they then turn around and ste... I mean coincidentally recreate that work later down the road.

9 out of 10 DMs in WOCs latest contest are not professionals trying to make a buck, but amateurs who do this for fun…

Perhaps such competitions need to exclude professionals from their entrants so as not to take advantage of them. Is that an acceptable outcome?

 

[Umbran]

There's a greater chance of criminals committing even worse crimes when released, so I assume that you want all crime to result in life in prison to prevent that bad stuff from happening to innocent people.

Mod Note:
This is off the track in a really weird direction. Also, it is making the discussion rather personal and accusative, which isn't appropriate.

Folks, there's no criminal case here. This is a thread about an art contest with perfectly legal terms that a lot of people didn't like.

Bring it back around to the topic. Keep it constructive. Keep it civil. Thanks.