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Originally Posted by Richard
But I wonder if, legally, teams may have already surrendered rights to likenesses of their machines to FIRST as part of registration? I know that FIRST requires human participants to surrender those rights (the link is to the 2006 Consent / Release Form) as a condition of participation -- not sure if that requirement extends to robots also. |
As participants in an exhibition open to the public, and barring any restrictions imposed by the organizers and the venue upon their customers and exhibitors, anyone has every right to photograph robots and to distribute those photographs. In fact, photography is encouraged in most areas of the Ontario Science Centre (a science museum), where the event took place. If a team wishes not to distribute photographs of their own robot, that's fine. But they should not depend on the co-operation of the public at large to preserve their secret—the photographs are the photographer's property, and the photographer is free to do as he pleases with them.
I think that 1114 realizes all of this, and is just guarding against excessive exposure, in order to retain their competitive advantage as long as possible. If someone does post a photo, the team has no recourse other than to politely request that it be withdrawn by its owner. And apparently, it sometimes works. (Or did you twist Jonathan's arm to get that photo to disappear?)