If you have an apple and I have an apple, and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

- George Bernard Shaw

(See below for what you should know about copyright.)

Official Rules

Please use the following information to guide you when making your submission. Participation constitutes entrant's full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules.

Submission Requirements

Qualifying videos must:

Be submitted by 11:59PM (PST) November 30, 2008.

Examine this theme: The Sparky Awards competition invites and challenges you to illustrate or demonstrate in your short video presentation what you see as the value of sharing information, ideas, and knowledge. Use your imagination — in videography or animation — to suggest what good comes from bringing down barriers to the free exchange of information. Create the video yourself or in collaboration with others. You may present any relevant, non-offensive, and legal content.

Be no more than 2 minutes (120 seconds) in running time.

Have been completed between January 1 and November 30, 2008.

Be narrated or subtitled in English.

Be posted on the Internet and available for public use under a Creative Commons license. Acceptable licenses include: Attribution, Attribution-NonCommercial, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, Attribution- ShareAlike, Public Domain

You must be the original author of everything in your video or have permission to use copyright-protected material. So, while we want you to be creative, you need to be careful about what you put into your video. If you're thinking about using existing music, video clips, photos or the like, keep in mind that someone else may own a copy right to that material. You'll need to get the copyright owner's permission to use that material in your video. (See our details page for resources for openly available content).

Submissions using non-licensed, copyrighted musical, visual, or literary properties without legal permission are ineligible. In addition, you must have consent from any people appearing in your video. (See below for more information on using others' work).

This competition is void where prohibited by law. There is no fee to enter the competition, however, you are responsible for any costs you may incur for creating and submitting your video. You must be over 15 years of age to be eligible. By submitting your video in this competition, you automatically grant SPARC the right to air and use it for any non-commercial purpose and with appropriate attribution as to its creator and/or source.

Judges

An independent panel of judges will select the winners from among all qualified entries.

Judges will view only those qualified videos submitted via the Internet link provided in the Official Entry Form. If the judges are unable to view the work because of a broken link or non-qualified file format, it will be ineligible.

Persons in the final panel may change without notice due to scheduling conflicts or for other reasons.

Judging Criteria

The panel of judges who will pick the winners will rate each qualified video based on these five equally weighted criteria (20% each):

Overall Impact (persuasive, informational, educational)

Originality (concepts, ideas, format)

Memorable Content and Delivery

Relevance and Clarity of Message

Creativity and Technical Merit

The decisions of the judges are final.

Additional Rules and Legal Notices — “The Fine Print”

All winners of cash prizes are solely responsible for any applicable U.S. income tax. Taxes will be withheld from any cash prize awarded to foreign citizens.

SPARC reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify and remove from competition any entry which is, in the judging panel's discretion, inappropriate, offensive, defamatory, or demeaning to any person or entity.

Winners will be notified by e-mail, express mail and/or phone between December 19, 2008 and January 9, 2009 and will be required to complete an affidavit or declaration of eligibility/liability release, a publicity release and such other documents as may be required by SPARC. Required documents must be signed and received within 7 days of the date printed on the prize notification. Failure to comply or return of any prize notification as undeliverable may result in forfeiture of prize and selection of the next highest score entrant as the winner. A parent or guardian of a winner not of the age of majority in his or her state of residence will be required to ratify and sign required documents. SPARC is not responsible for and shall not be liable for late, lost, misdirected, or unsuccessful efforts to notify winners. Accepting the prize constitutes permission (except where prohibited by law) to use winner's name, hometown (including state) and/or likeness for promotional purposes without further compensation.

By participating, entrants agree that SPARC and its employees and representatives are not responsible or liable for, and shall be released and held harmless from: (i) technical difficulties of any kind; (ii) any condition caused by events beyond the control of SPARC that may cause the Competition to be disrupted or corrupted; (iii) any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Competition; (iv) any and all losses, damages, rights, claims and actions of any kind in connection with or resulting from participation in the Competition, or acceptance of the prize, including without limitation, claims based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy.

SPARC reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend or cancel the Competition at any time due to any condition beyond the control of SPARC. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of the entrant and SPARC in connection with the Competition, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of the District of Columbia, USA, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions that would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the District of Columbia. The contest ends at 11:59PM PST, November 30, 2008.

All persons affiliated with SPARC or the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) (excluding members), and household members of a person affiliated with SPARC or ARL, as an employee, contractor, officer, director or a judge of this competition, are not eligible to participate in this competition. This does not prohibit persons who are employed by or affiliated with institutional members of SPARC from qualifying and participating.

About SPARC

The Sparky Awards competition is organized by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). An alliance supported and funded by hundreds of academic libraries and research institutions, SPARC promotes new scholarly communication models that use the Internet to expand sharing of information. SPARC was created in 1997 as an initiative of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and operates under ARL's non-profit status.

Stuff You Should Know About Copyright

As the creator of a video, you are potentially both the owner of a copyrighted work (your video) and a user of a work copyrighted by someone else (copyrighted music, video clips, photos, or other works incorporated in your video).

The answers to your copyright questions aren't always straightforward. But as a copyright holder, you may have an appreciation for the importance of respecting the rights of others as you would expect them to respect yours.

Here are a few basic things you should know about copyright:

Using the works of others

The best way to ensure your video doesn't infringe on someone else's copyright is to make it entirely your own creation — music, video clips, photos, the works.

If you include existing music, video clips, photos, or the like, odds are that someone else owns a copyright to that material. If so, you will need to get the copyright owner's permission before using the material in your video unless ...

... the works contained in your video are in the public domain and thus not protected by copyright. If so, you can use them freely. Categories of works that may have entered the public domain are listed in "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States."

... rights have already been secured for you by, for example, a Creative Commons notice or your school library's license with the copyright holder (if you're a student or faculty member). Creative Commons licenses indicate that the copyright holder automatically grants you permission to use the work, subject to certain conditions, such as attribution and not using the work for commercial purposes. The terms of CC licenses are clear and straightforward; just read the license for the work you want to adapt to see what restrictions there may be. Also, libraries vigorously negotiate licenses for electronic resources and are sometimes successful in getting the rights you need to use the works for educational nonprofit purposes. If you've used material in your video from electronic resources of your library, contact the library to find out what rights you may have.

To obtain permission for your use, you need to identify and locate the copyright holder.

What can others do with your work?

You hold copyright to your video, except the elements you did not create, from the moment it is put into fixed form. It is yours unless and until you transfer ownership to someone else. (However, if you created the video as part of your job or under contract, it may not be yours. Talk to your employer to find out for certain.)

You may license certain rights to your video without giving up your copyright — for example by using a Creative Commons license. A Creative Commons notice accompanying your work specifies the rights conveyed to users, such as to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work, provided attribution is given. Entries in the SPARC contest must adopt a Creative Commons license. After all, our theme is information sharing!

Don’t forget talent releases

Be sure to obtain the written consent of people appearing your video. Here's a form you can use: Talent Release Form [PDF]. Note that consent requirements may vary from state to state.