I would like to know that How safe is 99design.com because whenever a project related to logo is published the designer do hardwork & publish their logo on the AD of the project which he can download easily without paying the prize amount at free of cost. So, please let me know that how we can catch these types of clients?
99designs can not b 100% safe guard against theft. This is why crowdsourcing ie contests are not for everyone and in most cases many waste there time and work can be stolen as you right said. But what 99designs have done now is guarantee payment will be made to the winner but thats not to say that the orignal clients ( contest holders ) havent stolen your ideas and work already. Thats the price you pay for doing that kind of work. You need to trust the client and there intentions. I personally have seen the following episode happen. The client publishes a brief and picks a winner which is not the best quality design in many cases but is of someone they know and in actual fact rip off every design that was published to them and take them as there own. I dont want to scare you or anybody else but it has happened to me when i first was introduced to 99designs and has happened to a few others but it makes it impossible to actually catch these people due to the changes 99 designs have imposed now
Areol is correct. I guess you just have to hope that the people out there starting the contests are honest. They trust that you will give them an original design and you trust that it will not be stolen. The thing that makes 99designs a bit safer for the designer is that the rights are not transferred to the buyer until the contest has closed and a winner chosen. This means that legally the design is still yours if the buyer backs out/ runs away. It's not easy checking up on past clients/contests but if you ever use a design that you created without asking or paying then you have a bit more proof that the design was stolen.