General rules for the creative competitions at the Gathering 2009

These rules apply to all the creative competitions, unless explicitly exempted in the rules for a specific compo.

These rules exist in both english and norwegian versions. If the versions are contradictory, the english version takes precedence.

Right to participate

All participants with valid tickets to The Gathering 2009 are allowed to participate in all of the creative competitions.

Members of the Gathering crew not involved in organizing a compo may participate in that compo. We have a lot of skilled people among us, and we do not want to deny them the right to contribute and compete.

An entry can be made by an individual or a group. If the entry is made by a group, at least one of the group members must be present at The Gathering with a valid ticket.

Hand-in and deadlines

Unless stated otherwise in the compo specific rules, you can start working on your entry at any time; you don’t have to make it during the party.

Entries must be handed in the way that is stated by the compo specific rules, usually through a web-based hand-in system.

Entries must be handed in before the compo specific deadline. If you fail to deliver in time, we reserve the right to refuse to accept your submission.

Soft deadlines

Some compos have soft deadlines in addition to the regular deadlines. A soft deadline means that your entry must be registered in the hand-in system before this time, together with a working copy of your entry.

You are allowed to update your entry by uploading new versions of it until the final deadline. The latest version of your entry that was uploaded before the hard deadline will be used as your actual entry.

Disqualification

We reserve the right to disqualify or refuse to accept any entry for any reason we see fit. Sure ways of getting refused are breaking the general rules for participating and/or the individual rules of the compo you want to participate in.

In addition to the rules we will not accept entries that can be qualified as any of the following:

• Contains any sort of illegal or offensive content, including extreme political content, racist content, pornography, abuse towards groups or single persons, slander or other things generally considered bad taste.
• Contains copyrighted material used without permission from the copyright holder(s).
• Contains malicious code or does not work on the compo machine.
• Contains or displays particularly unpleasant sound or image.
• Is particularly bad, boring or unpleasant.

If your contribution is not accepted, or is disqualified, it will not be released publicly. This means you will be free to release it another party, although we might not recommend it.

Originality

Entries that are previously released cannot enter a competition. However, your entry can be partly based on previously released material; re-using code, samples, textures and similar is allowed, as long as your entry contains a significant amount of new material.

By “previously released” we mean:

• Made available for anyone to download from a public web page or similar.
• Entered a competition at a previous party.
• Been sold or used commercially.

By “previously released” we do NOT mean

• Sending or copying your entry to a select group of friends or associates.
• Previously released entries that are re-worked or remixed significantly. The Creative Crew will decide what “significant” means, and exercise these rules using common sense.

Jury

Some compos have a jury in addition to the public vote. Each jury will consist of members selected by us, with relevant experience in the fields they will be judging.

The names of the jury members will not be made public until after the winners have been decided.

The members of the jury are not allowed to participate in any of the competitions for which they participate in the jury.

Duties of the jury

Pre-selection

The jury will perform pre-selection to decide which entries to show in the compo show. This is done if too many entries have been submitted, and in case the jury finds some entries unfit for the big screen.

Entries that are not shown can not be voted for, unless otherwise stated in the rules of the specific compo it competes in.

Voting:

In some compos the winners will be decided by a combination of jury votes and a popular vote. The Jury vote will count as 33% while the popular vote counts as 67%.

Some compos are decided by jury decision only.

Compo Shows

The compo shows will be executed as follows:

• The start of the compo is announced from the stage no later than 10 minutes prior to the screening of the first entry (the schedule will also be available on the gatherin.org web pages during the party).
• The entries are shown or played back one at a time, in their full length, or until the maximum playing time for each entry is reached. The maximum playing time is stated in the compo specific rules.
• If an entry looks or sounds in a way that is considered unpleasant to the audience, we reserve the right to terminate an entry at an earlier point, or play it at a volume that is not pain-inducing.
• Before and after each entry, the name of the entry and the participant or group behind it will be announced in text and/or audio.

Publication of entries

The Gathering reserves a non-exclusive right to publish all entries participating at the Gathering 2009 for download on the Internet, and on any other media we see fit. By submitting an entry to the competitions at the Gathering 20090 you give us the right to publish your contribution as described here.

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