Contract governing the use of works of art submitted to the compos

"What the devil? Pages filled legal mumbojumbo and I'm asked to accept this? That damn ASMORG definitely is up to something" is probably the first thing that pops to your mind when you read the contract below. Before you get upset, please let us tell why this contract is needed.

ASSEMBLY is today a very large event and it is nice target for organizations armed with lawyers to go after. Given the new visibility of the event through the TV broadcasts, it is necessary for us to be able to protect the continuity of the event. The damages paid on e.g. copyright infringements are much much higher if the production has been displayed to a large audience.

So far we've been able to work on the basis of "gentlemen's agreement", that is, we have trusted the demo groups and individuals to follow rules, regulations and laws, but today there are several hundred people entering the compos and it is impossible to know everybody personally. It is imperative that both parties (we and you, who participate in the compos) understand the rights and responsibilities of each other.

ASSEMBLY Organizing hasn't made this contract to take over your intellectual property rights. Yes, we do reserve the right to use and publish the entries in marketing of the events. Hey, all demoparties have been doing this for ages: you can get entries from the www-pages and you can see last year's winners in their ads. They could also make a CD compilation out of the party entries and sell it. These and other demoscene CDs hardly make enough make to cover the production costs (trust us, we did 4 party CDs and we still got over 150 copies of the ASM'96 CD left! =)).

The permission to give your entries to be published by other parties sounds like a threat also, doesn't it? Well, note the word "non-profit"! We will not give your entry to be distributed for a fee. This right is needed in order to publish your entries on other servers such as ftp.scene.org, to show the winning demo in a TV document about ASSEMBLY or to allow a journalist to use the winning graphics entry with his magazine article about ASSEMBLY.

The contract does sound ominous, but the contents are fair. We don't aim to do anything else than to make the current unofficial conduct a real policy and to let everybody know about this policy. If you want more information about the contract, its intent or you just want to tell us how much this legal bs and commercialism sucks ass, feel free to drop us a line by email at [email protected]

The contract begins after the line.

General

This contract governs the terms for the use of works of art submitted to the competitions held at ASSEMBLY event (organized by ASSEMBLY Organizing). The party owning the copyrights (later called Author) of the work of art (later called Work) accepts this agreement and its terms and is bound by them when entering an ASSEMBLY competition with the Work.

The agreement is valid effective immediately after the whole Work has been uploaded into the competition management system operated by ASSEMBLY Organizing or has been delivered by other means such as email to ASSEMBLY Organizing according to the rules of the particular competition.

Responsibilities of the Author

- The Author agrees to comply by the rules set for the competition.

- The Author affirms, that he either owns or has obtained all necessary copyrights for the content of the Work and that the public and/or private display of the Work is not restricted by the rights of third parties (such as the rights of copyright societies). The Author is responsible for the financial damages if said rights are not obtained.

- The Author agrees to comply by the Finnish copyright legislation and affirms that the Work doesn't contain material offending persons or other parties, nor racistic or pornographic material.

- The Author gives ASSEMBLY Organizing the right to use the Work or parts thereof, free of charge, in their original or modified form in the marketing, broadcasting, publishing or distribution of material related to ASSEMBLY events.

- The Author gives ASSEMBLY Organizing the right to make video records and video conversions of the Work

- The Author gives ASSEMBLY Organizing the right to give the Work to be presented in whole or in part, in the original or modified form for the publishing in non-profit media operations.

Responsibilities of ASSEMBLY Organizing

- ASSEMBLY Organizing agrees to comply and respect the Finnish copyright legislation

- ASSEMBLY Organizing agrees to treat all competition entries fairly

- ASSEMBLY Organizing is responsible for maintaining competition management system and if necessarily will update the system to provide fair treatment to all authors.

- ASSEMBLY Organizing agrees to show a Work that has passed qualification in fair circumstances on the competition provided that this is not prevented by a force majure situation.

- ASSEMBLY Organizing agrees to its best ability to take care of the fatherhood rights of the Author that is to name the Author whenever the Work is presented.

- ASSEMBLY Organizing agrees to pay the winners of the competitions the prizes announced at the ASSEMBLY WWW-site. The damages caused to the party place during the event will be reduced from the prizes.

Changing of the contract terms

ASSEMBLY Organizing reserves the right to chance the terms of this contract. Changes are informed on the WWW-site www.assembly.org. Changes are valid immediately after they are published.

Validity period of this contract

This contract is valid for two years after the contract has taken effect and after that indefinitely, if it is not terminated.

Termination of this contract

The contract can be mutually terminated without further liabilities. Termination is valid immediately after both parties have agreed to it. After this the rights and liabilities of both parties are void.

The contract can be terminated unilaterally if the other party can be proven to have significantly broken the terms of this contract. In this situation the termination is valid after 30 days notice period, if the situation is not corrected during this time.

Resolving of disputes

The contract is governed by Finnish law. Disputes are primarly solved by negotiation by the parties and ultimately in court of law in Helsinki, Finland.