Ideas Campaign Small Print

Just wondering what posters make of this ?? I'll reserve my own comments for later


Warning over website that takes ownership of ideas
13 March 2009

by Jennifer Hough
THE best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.
This certainly seems to be the logic behind The Ideas Campaign, a new website aiming to stimulate the economy with proposals from the public.

But be warned � if you really have do have a brilliant brainwave, you might want to read the small print.

Because according to the terms and conditions of the campaign, set up by Aileen O�Toole, Sunday Business Post co-founder and managing director of an internet consultancy, you must �part company with your submitted idea without any compensation to you�.

�So, you have a good idea. The people behind the Ideas Campaign think it�s good, and now it belongs to them,� says Diarmuid MacShane, head of ValueIreland.com, a consumer watchdog website.

�My main concern is that they are not publishing the ideas or making them available for people to see.�

Mr MacShane, former director with the Consumer Association of Ireland, has posted the terms and conditions on his website pointing to the relevant section.

They state: �In submitting an idea you also agree to its publication in any form by The Ideas Campaign. By submitting the idea you are thereby granting The Ideas Campaign the perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right to use, reproduce, copy, modify, edit, translate, publish, display, post, transmit, distribute or part company with your submitted idea without any compensation to you, anonymously or in the aggregate, for internal or external purposes, alone or as part of other works in any form, media or technology.�

Mr MacShane, who expressed his disappointment and scepticism with the scheme, says there are many other ways to develop an idea.

�Go to your local county enterprise board and talk to them about it.� [ FRONT PAGE ] [ BACK ]