The National Portrait Gallery has responded to complaints after amending the rules of its well known photographic portrait prize to include a copyright assignment.

The winner of the John Kobal New Work Award, part of the The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2014, will be commissioned to make a new portrait, but will be required to assign copyright to the gallery of this commissioned work. The New Work Award is only open to photographers under the age of 30. Redeye was contacted by concerned potential applicants to the competition.

Artists' Bill of Rights, a website promoting ethical standards for photographic competitions, explains: "These terms and conditions are claiming your copyright. You will no longer be the owner of your work, legal ownership will be transferred to the organisation. You will not be permitted to use or reproduce your work again without permission from the new owner."

The National Portrait Gallery responded to Redeye: "While the Gallery is not in a position to change this condition of this year’s commission (as the competition ‘Call for Entries’ has been open for some time), future plans are under review and all parties’ concerns are being taken into consideration."

Redeye's director Paul Herrmann said: "Copyright is one of the key protections for freelance photographers. They own copyright in commissioned work, unless they specifically agree to assign it to someone else. We have heard from numerous photographers who have assigned copyright in the past and later regretted it. We always advise people to retain copyright, and instead, to agree a licence arrangement with commissioners.

"This new clause in the Portrait Prize rules presents a dilemma for photographers under the age of 30 - that if they win a particular prize they will be required to assign copyright of a future piece of work. It's good to hear the Gallery is considering revising the rules for the future. We would advise photographers under 30 to hold off entering the award this year and see if the rules are amended favourably next year."

The broad area of the ethics of what's on offer for emerging photographers is the subject of the first major discussion at this year's National Photography Symposium in Birmingham on 12th June. The event will hear thoughts from experts including Jon Levy of Foto8, David Drake of Ffotogallery, Richard West of Source Magazine and Nathan Tromans of Birmingham City University.