Originally Posted by
Drakonetta
Heh, They only own the rights to the photo's, which is not the actual piece itself. So any one could still do what they want with the actual creation, its just what is submitted to the competition that they own the rights to. I mean, one winner posted a picture of their child, SE couldn't claim the rights to someones child now... or could they!? Lol, the piece itself remains the property of the creator. Either way its essentially illegal to make profit on something which has been copied from a copyrighted source. That's what i'm aware of! But people still make things based on CR material and sell it. The companies don't seem too bothered by it. But i do see your point in that creating a work specifically for a contest is strange, but at the same time it forces one to make new things. Also, if a single piece had been used in another way previously. SE would risk getting their heads chopped off say, if a piece was submitted to another contest, which had the same rules.
As for finding out if it was made for the contest, they could easily do a google photo search. Google would provide sites that host the image prior to the contest start date.