Creative Commons, U.S. Department of Education, and Open Society Foundations present
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. ODDS OF WINNING WILL DEPEND ON THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED AND ON THE SKILL OF THE ENTRANT(S). VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW OR WHERE REGISTRATION OR BONDING REQUIRED. THIS COMPETITION IS SUBJECT TO ALL FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL LAWS. ONLINE ENTRY ONLY AND INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED.
These are the Official Rules (“Rules”) that govern your participation in the Why Open Education Matters Competition (“Competition”). Participation in the Competition constitutes your full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Rules, so it is important that you read and understand them prior to participating in the Competition.
Introduction: The Competition offers you the chance to use your creativity to help explain and encourage the benefits and opportunities of Open Educational Resources (“OER”). For purposes of this Competition, Open Educational Resources means teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or repurposing by others. For more information about Open Educational Resources please see the FAQ on this site. The Competition is sponsored and run by Creative Commons Corporation, a charitable corporation, headquartered at 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California 94041, tel. (650) 294-4732 ("CC"), with support from the Open Society Institute, located at 1730 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, 7th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20006, tel. (202) 721-5600 (“OSI”) and the U.S. Government Department of Education, headquartered at 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C., 20202, tel. (800) 872-5327 (“ED”).
Who is Eligible? The Competition is offered to natural persons ages 13 and older, public or private companies, nonprofit organizations, and schools, any of which must be eligible to receive prize money to participate. For a public or private company, nonprofit organization, or school to enter the Competition, an authorized agent of the entity must submit on behalf of the entity. Such agent must be authorized to accept prize money on behalf of the entity. For a group of individuals to enter the Competition (a “Team”), the Team must agree to and designate one person as the agent of the Team to submit the entry and to accept the prize money on behalf of the Team. Each individual on a Team must agree to these Rules and sign a Team Member Release Form to be emailed to tvol [at] creativecommons.org.
CC, OSI, and ED employees, independent contractors, officers, and directors, their respective shareholders, agents, representatives, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotion and fulfillment agencies, and legal advisors, and the immediate family members and persons living in the same household of such persons, are not eligible to participate in the Competition.
Entry Period: You may enter the Competition by following the procedure set out in Section 4 of the Rules from 9:00 a.m. PST on March 5, 2012, until 11:59 p.m. PST on June 5, 2012 (“Competition Period”).
How to Enter: To enter, you must:
(collectively, a “Submission”).
You are solely responsible for ensuring you comply with the terms, conditions, and policies applicable to the website hosting your video.
By entering a Submission, you agree to at all times comply with these Rules and the terms, conditions and policies applicable to your use of whyopenedmatters.org, and any other websites used in connection with this Competition. CC reserves the right to disqualify any Submission that violates these Rules and any terms, conditions or policies applicable to whyopenedmatters.org or other applicable sites.
CC is not responsible for late, lost, delayed, damaged, incomplete, or unintelligible Submissions. Such Submissions are not eligible for this Competition.
Specific Entry Requirements:
Intellectual Property Ownership and Permission: You retain copyright ownership in your Competition Video. However, as a condition to entering this Competition, you must have applied a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (“CC BY”) to your Competition Video. Note that this license only applies to the original expression you contributed to the Competition Video, and it does not extend to third party content. To the extent your Competition Video incorporates third party content (which must be authorized by the rights holder or otherwise as explained in Section 5 above), such content must also be available to the public on terms and conditions at least as permissive as the CC BY license, either because it is in the public domain or via a separate license applied by the third party rights holder or via sub-license by you if you are expressly authorized to do so.
By entering a Submission, you represent and warrant that you, the entity on whose behalf you are submitting, or your Team, all of which as applicable, have all rights and permissions necessary to create the video (including all rights necessary to incorporate any third party content), submit the video to the Competition, and license your original expression in the video to the general public under a CC BY license, including without limitation, all intellectual property and publicity rights. To the extent your Competition Video incorporates third party content, you represent and warrant that such content is available to the public on terms and conditions at least as permissive as the CC BY license, or you, the entity on whose behalf you are submitting, or your Team, all of which as applicable, have all rights and permission necessary to sub-license such content under a CC BY license.
CC reserves the right to verify the ownership and originality of any Competition Video. You hereby agree to submit proof of ownership or any release, license, or permission received from a third party granting you, the entity on whose behalf you are entering a Submission, or your Team the right to use content, images, and likenesses in your Competition Video. Failure to provide such proof upon request will result in disqualification from the Competition.
You agree to indemnify and hold CC, OSI, ED, and their respective affiliates, officers, directors, agents, and employees (collectively, “Indemnitees”) harmless from any and all claims, damages, expenses, costs (including reasonable attorney fees), and liabilities (including settlements), brought or asserted by any third party against any Indemnitees due to or arising out of your Submission or your conduct during this Competition, including without limitation, trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property right, right of publicity, right of privacy, or defamation. Please see FAQ for more information about how to ensure you have all necessary rights and permissions.
For the avoidance of doubt, participation in this Competition does not impact your ability to upload your Competition Video to other online platforms or to release your video under additional copyright licenses.
Prizes: The first and second prize winners will be chosen by the judging panel, and the third prize winner will be chosen by public voting. The first prize winner will be awarded US $25,000, the second prize winner will receive US $5,000, and the winner of the Public Choice Award will receive US $1,000.
All prize expenses and/or services not specified herein are not included and are the sole responsibility of the winner(s). Prizes are nontransferable. All federal, provincial, state and/or local taxes are the sole responsibility of the winners. CC reserves the right to withhold payments, to obtain necessary tax information from winners, and to submit tax-related documents as required by law.
Judging: Submissions will be screened initially by CC and its designees to determine the five finalist Submissions, as determined by highest overall grading score from all eligible Submissions received during the Competition Period based on the judging criteria below. An expert judging panel, the membership in which is subject to change without notice, will then rate the finalist Submissions by awarding a new grading score according to the judging criteria below. The two finalist Submissions with the highest overall grading score (as determined by the expert judging panel) will be awarded the first and second prizes. In the event of a tie, the Submission receiving the highest score in the “relevance and clarity of message” category will win. If the Submissions have a tying score in that category, CC, OSI, and ED will choose the first and second prize winners among the tying Submissions by considering the remaining factors on a head-to-head basis in the order they are listed below. CC, OSI, and ED also reserve the right to declare a tie and to split the prize in the event the Submissions remain tied. The object of the Competition is to encourage use of Open Educational Resources as the term is defined in Section 1 of these Rules. Submissions will be judged on a 100-point scale according to the following criteria:
All judging decisions are final and non appealable. You hereby agree that all discussions, evaluations and other information related to the judging process will not be disclosed publicly or to those entering Submissions.
Public Voting: The public will also vote for the best overall Submission by registering on whyopenedmatters.org or logging in via one of the OpenAuth services provided on the site and submitting a vote. Each individual is entitled to submit only one vote, and any attempt to submit more than one vote is a violation of these Rules and will result in disqualification of your Submission. The Submission receiving the most votes will receive the Public Choice Award. In the event of a tie, the Public Choice Award will be split equally among the tying Submissions. If a Submission receiving the most public votes is selected as the first or second prize winner by the expert judging panel, the Submission receiving the next highest amount of public votes will be awarded the Public Choice Award. In no event will a Submission be awarded more than one prize.
You may not pay or otherwise compensate others, or engage in or encourage automated voting to vote for your Submission, nor may you engage in, assist, or encourage any other type of voting that violates these Rules. Any attempt to do so will result in disqualification of your Submission.
CC reserves the right to suspend the public voting process if the process fails to operate properly or if it appears to be tampered with, or tainted with errors, fraud, or unfair practices. If the public voting process is suspended, the Public Choice Award winner will be chosen by the expert judging panel according to the process outlined in Section 8 of the Rules.
Notification of Winners and Award of Prizes: Once the grading of all Submissions has been completed and the public votes tallied, CC will notify the winners using the contact information provided on the entry forms for the winning Submissions. You must respond to this notification within 3 days. As a condition of receiving your prize, you, and members of your Team if applicable, must sign an affidavit confirming that you followed these Rules and are otherwise eligible to receive the prize (including having secured all necessary permissions to incorporate third party content in your video). For winners that are under age 18 or the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence, your parent or guardian must sign any such affidavit on your behalf. As an additional condition to receiving your prize, you will be required to provide CC with the raw footage of your Submission, so that CC can make the winning Submissions available for download on whyopenedmatters.org.
The prize money will be given solely to the person who submitted the entry form on behalf of each winning Submission. CC will not be involved in dividing up the prize money among Teams or otherwise, nor will CC be involved in any disputes among Teams or collaborators. In the event a potential winner is disqualified for any reason (including failure to respond to CC’s notification within 3 days), the prize will be given to the next Submission eligible to win a prize based on the processes outlined in Sections 8 and 9 of these Rules. By entering a Submission into this Competition, you agree to these Rules and the determination of the winner by CC and its designees, which shall be final and binding in all respects. CC reserves the right not to award the prize money if doing so would violate any applicable laws or regulations or compromise CC’s tax-exempt status.
GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS: BY PARTICIPATING, YOU AGREE THAT CC, OSI, AND ED ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR, AND ARE RELEASED AND HELD HARMLESS FROM: (I) TELEPHONE, ELECTRONIC OR SOFTWARE PROGRAM, NETWORK, INTERNET, OR COMPUTER MALFUNCTIONS, FAILURES, OR DIFFICULTIES OF ANY KIND; (II) ANY CONDITION CAUSE BY EVENTS BEYOND THE CONTROL OF CC, OSI, OR ED THAT MAY CAUSE THE COMPETITION TO BE DISRUPTED OR CORRUPTED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE FUNCTIONING OR LACK THEREOF OF WHYOPENEDMATTERS.ORG; (III) ANY PRINTING, TYPOGRAPHICAL, OR SUBSTANTIVE ERROS IN ANY MATERIALS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPETITION; (IV) ANY AND ALL LOSSES, DAMAGES, EXPENSES, RIGHTS, CLAIMS AND ACTIONS OF ANY KIND IN CONNECTION WITH OR RESULTING FROM PARTICIPATION IN THE COMPETITION, ASSOCIATION OR INVOLVEMENT WITH A COMPETITION VIDEO OR SUBMISSION, OR ACCEPTANCE OF ANY PRIZE (OR ANY PORTION OF ANY PRIZE), INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, PERSONAL INJURY, DEATH, AND PROPERTY DAMAGE, AND CLAIMS BASED ON PUBLICITY RIGHTS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, DEFAMATION, OR INVASION OF PRIVACY.
CC reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify, suspend, or cancel the Competition at any time for any reason, including (without limitation), if a computer virus, bug, or other technical problem corrupts the administration, security, or proper conduct of the Competition. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Rules, or the rights and obligations of the participant and CC in connection with the Competition, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions (whether of the State of California or any other jurisdiction), that would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the State of California. By entering this Competition, you hereby acknowledge and agree that any claim or dispute arising in whole or in part under these Rules or related to this Competition will be litigated exclusively in California state or federal district court, whichever is applicable.
Winners Announcement: Winners will be announced on whyopenedmatters.org once the winners have been notified and have accepted their prizes.
Privacy: By entering into this Competition, you consent to the use of your name and other personal information submitted on the entry form as specified in the Privacy Policy.
CC Notices: CREATIVE COMMONS and the “double C” logo are trademarks of Creative Commons Corporation. You are authorized to reproduce CC’s name and logo in the Competition Video in accordance with CC’s trademark policy, and any and all right, title, interest and goodwill from such usage inures to the benefit of CC. You must request permission to use CC’s name or logo in any manner not authorized by the policy.
ED Notices: ED’s name, logo, and its registered marks may not be used without the prior written consent of ED in each instance.
Sponsor: CC is the official sponsor of this Competition. OSI and ED have provided support for this Competition, but neither entity is responsible for the conduct or administration of the Competition.
Competition Publicity: This Competition will be announced on Facebook and other online platforms, but it is in no way endorsed or sponsored by or otherwise associated with any such sites. For the avoidance of doubt, in accordance with Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines, you hereby acknowledge and agree to release Facebook from any liability regarding the conduct or administration of this Competition.