I was reading through the contest rules (
http://www.startrekonline.com/enterprise/rules) and a few things caught my eye.
Section 4:
Entrants shall have no right, title or interest in the Assets, and (c) any use of the Assets other than as permitted by these Official Rules may constitute copyright infringement. The Assets may not be modified, published, performed or transferred to anyone else (unless otherwise stated on the site), posted to any third-party websites, nor used for any commercial purpose.
Section 5:
Each Entrant represents and warrants as follows: (i) the Submission Image is the Entrants own original, previously unpublished, and previously unproduced work;
Section 6:
All entries become the sole and exclusive property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned.
Am I correct in thinking that the 'previously unpublished' and not 'posted to third-party websites' clauses would make pretty much all the existing starship designs inelligable. Wouldn't this exclude all the designs from web sites like
www.shipschematics.net ? Seems like it would also exclude any designs created for game mods (Starfleet Command, Bridge Commander, etc.).
If this is the case, it prevents many otherwise very good designs from being submitted. I know for a fact that some of the designs already in the submissions gallery are from other web sites.
Not to mention that win or lose, the creator is giving up all rights to their design by entering the contest. It takes a lot of time and effort to come up with a good ship design. I can understand keeping the the winning one since that design will become canon (and its creator will get credit) but keeping all the submissions means they're basically asking people to put a lot of work into a something that they probably won't get anything for and definitely won't ever be allowed to use or claim as their own again.
Seems like this will discourage a lot of people from submitting their ship designs. Especially if they ever want to post pictures or information about them elsewhere, write fan-fiction about them, use them in a game mod, etc.
I wonder if / how this is affecting the quality of the contest submissions.
Any thoughts?
- SC
Comments
Think about it. How many people have a virtuoso sense that thier ship is the best? How many people went and submitted their own vision of what the Enterprise-F should be?
In contrast, the Enterprise-F is Star Trek Online's Enterprise. Just how many of the submitters thought to design an Enterprise especially adapted to fit into the game that way?
Not everyone is going to understand the significance of the latter paragraph. Or it's importance to the chosen design succeeding at what it is meant to do.
And this is the reason why it's a US only contest.
Which is a real shame... I had so many ideas
I still do not understand what they were thinking (if at all) when they made a decision on this. :rolleyes:
The Sponsor in this case is CBS.
What do you mean "monetary prices left out?" You can't win anything without there being a monetary value for what you win. Plus the American companies can't give a prize to a non-citizen because prizes in the US are subject to taxes, and if you are not a citizen you don't pay taxes. As for the monetary value being the reason for people under 21 not being able to enter is not true, it is because not until 18 does a person start to gain the right to represent themselves.
If you see high quality CGI entries, it means its from someone's previous works, which I think is in violation of the contest rules. Especially those that are someone elses works, like the fan-Excalibur and the fan-Century-classes that people have submitted.
(Honestly, think 80% of the entries are plagarisms).
So do your best man, focus on the basics of the design and worry about the details like windows later. If all else fails, have a sketch ready to go.
Did you read SHARKFORCE's post? He marked in red two elements of the contest that build an essential part of the contest that is problematic outside the US/internationally, and it has nothing to do with monetary prizes.
There is no way CBS or Cryptic will risk not having the full ownership on the model of the contestant's winner. The contest will never possibly work world-wide.
And in case some people didn't read that part of the contract - it means once you have entered your design, it will become CBS. Don't ever use it anywhere else. If you entered it (and it was yours, if it wasn't, your submission is invalid), it is ow CBS property.