One man's prudent financial management is another's lack of a spirit of generosity ...

"The Obama campaign has more than $60 million cash on hand. In an economy this bad, you'd think a presidential campaign that flush would be happy to pay good money for a talented designer to create a campaign poster. But the folks at Obama campaign have taken a page from the Arianna Huffington book of economic exploitation and called on "artists across the country" to create a poster ... for free. 

And here's a bit that might strike a sour note with many ad-agency folks out there: Even if you don't win the contest, Obama for America, according to the fine print, owns your intellectual property".

"members of the design and ad community did a great deal of free work for Obama in 2008. But at the time, [Obama] was selling hope and change to people eager to buy. With too much of that change going in the wrong direction, this time they're eager to get paid--especially if the campaign in question is sitting on a war chest that makes it "the 1%" of the political field."

"The same happens in the UK where public sector in particular often insists not only in speculative creative work to be submitted in tenders but also that IP rights are assigned to the commissioning government agency as a condition of tendering, irrespective of whether the contract is awarded or not. This is largely a stipulation only applied to the design, advertising and architecture sectors

How can we have an IPO office which spends millions of tax-payers' money on encouraging SMEs  to protect and exploit their IP and for which it gains revenue -- if other government department take IP off of the same SME sector through its unfair procurement policies?

And likewise how can the government stand on platforms and take PR plaudits for crowing about the value and growth of the creative industries when they themselves are stifling growth and potentially damaging the same sector through unfair procurement policies?

It’s surely got to change!".