I just got a spam email in my Flickr mailbox from none other than GE promoting their Picture a Healthy World project. Here’s the email I received:

Dear Flickr Member:

We saw this photo of yours and really love it!

[link removed]

We selected your photo based on its quality and subject matter, which we believe is ideal for our project, “Picture a Healthy World.”

On February 14, 2006, GE Healthcare will launch a worldwide initiative to encourage people to share photos and stories of how they stay healthy.

Go to www.ge.com/health and add your photo by February 10, 2006 so your image can be displayed in Times Square in celebration of World Health Day.

Thanks for your help!

The GE Healthcare Team

P.S. Unfortunately, we cannot respond to your questions individually at this time. If you miss the deadline for early submission, you can still participate in Picture a Healthy World on February 14th.

It all seems so altruistic until you read the terms and conditions and get to this part:

You hereby grant GE and any of its third party vendors engaged to provide services to GE in connection with the Program, the unqualified, unrestricted, unconditional, unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual and royalty free right, license, authorization and permission, to publicly display (including, by way of example but in no way limited to, displaying Your Content on a large screen display in Times Square, New York, NY), transmit (including, by way of example but in no way limited to, enabling other users of the Program to send Your Content by e-mail to any third party), use, copy, reproduce, publish, web cast, pod cast, broadcast, re-publish, re-broadcast, re-platform and/or port, syndicate, route, link to and from, circulate, distribute, exhibit, perform, edit, adapt, reformat, translate, mix, combine, merge, superimpose, encrypt, encode and decode, compress and decompress, distort, create or add special effects and/or illusions, alter, supplement, enhance and/or modify Your Content and to excerpt and/or extract all or any portion of Your Content in connection with the Program, public displays (including, by way of example but in no way limited to, displaying Your Content on a large screen display in Times Square, New York, NY), presentations, marketing materials, customer lists and financial reports, to do, perform, take advantage of and exploit any and all of the rights set forth herein in connection with the marketing, advertising and promotion of the Program and any products, goods, features, functions, capabilities and/or services associated with us.

Translation: By submitting your photo, you grant GE the irrevocable right to do whatever the hell they want with it forever. Basically, if you submit anything to this project, GE and anyone they work with can use it for anything they want including the marketing of products and services.

And what do you get in return? GE says that they might show it in Times Square on Valentine’s day. Maybe. But they don’t have to. Valentine’s day.

Ain’t love grand?

Update: Flickr staff terminated the account that was being used to send the spam. I love Flickr.

Update Feb 16 2006: I’ve been exchanging emails with Jennifer Walsh, Global Director, Digital Media, at GE about this issue. She wrote that it was not GE’s intent to use the photos for anything other than this campaign. And on February 11th she wrote:

Based on your feedback and similar input from other users, our attorneys have revised the Terms & Conditions for the official site that will launch next week. They have agreed to more specifically limit the T&Cs to this campaign. There are no broader intentions for the photo contributions of site visitors. Bear with us while we make this update to the site over the next couple of days.

I hope you will consider participating in this campaign in the near future. And thanks again for your input.

Today I’ve checked the website and read the revised terms and conditions. They’re mostly the same but instead of granting GE a license to use the photos for anything under the sun, the license is limited to using the photos “solely in connection with the Program and the promotion and advertising thereof.” That’s much better.