Rules for the video art contest
--> Contest
Please note: rules were changed on 8 July.
Following is version 2 of the rules, last changed 8 July 2004. For the history of changes to the rules, see the end of the page.
- Anyone can participate, except for the FFII board and their close relatives.
- The work may be submitted either on a normally mailed CD, or by network. Normal mail must be addressed at "Atn: Video Art Contest, FFII e.V., Blutenburgstr 17, DE 80636 Muenchen, Germany". For submission by network, contestants must send an e-mail providing a URL for downloading their work. Only the URL may be sent by email; the actual work must not be attached. The email must be addressed to board at ffii.org.
- The video must be submitted either in Macromedia Flash format, or in one of the following encodings: For the video: 3ivx, !DivX 5.x, MPEG2, MPEG4, Sorenson 3, Xvid; for the audio: mpeg 1 layer 3 (mp3), mpeg4 (aac), qdesign music. It is also desirable, but not required, that a PAL version with reasonable quality can be generated from the source material.
- The deadline for submission is 12:00 noon GMT on 31 July 2004. This, however, is the time FFII must have received submission, rather than sending time. When submitting by mail, please take mail delays into account. When submitting by network, please consider mail delays, server downtimes, server outages, etc. Please avoid last-minute submissions and send your work a good week before the deadline.
- The copyright of the submitted work belongs to the creator. However, FFII may redistribute the work without restriction, and may permit the recipients further free redistribution. All other rights are reserved by the creator. (However, creators are encouraged to submit their work in source form as well as opaque form, and to license it under a liberal license, in order to make further modifications easier.)
- Contestants must make sure that they not use any non-redistributable material or otherwise violate any intellectual property rights.
- The FFII will not disclose submitted work or information about the number of contestants before the deadline. (Contestants may, however, disclose their candidancy and videos if they so like.)
- The FFII will announce the names of the contestants soon after the deadline, and will make their work (at least the small version mentioned by rule 12 below) accessible through the Internet.
- The winner will be decided by the FFII board.
The main evaluation criterion will be the extent to which a video is considered able to get the attention of !MEPs, governments, press, and the general public in a positive way that will help the purposes of FFII with respect to Proposal 2002/0047 for a Directive "on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions". (Please note that this is a very general criterion which takes all factors, including byte size and time length, into account. A video that would achieve this purpose perfectly if played to the !MEPs and press, but whose byte size is so large that it requires a DVD, would probably get low evaluation, since the limited distribution possibility would make it less effective after all.)
- The winner will be announced within a week after the deadline.
- A small (in bytes) version of the video, as small as possible and not exceeding 5242880 bytes (5 MB), must be submitted. A second, larger version may optionally be submitted, suitable for distribution on CD to !MEPs and press.
- The prize will be paid by bank transfer. Transfer costs will be paid by the winner.
- The FFII may change these rules. Contestants must frequently consult this page for any updates or clarifications. The spirit of the rules will remain the same; any changes will be fair, and they will be clearly marked as such.
Additional information:
The announcement of the contest is at ConsVideo0405En. The ideas proposed by the FFII are suggestions only; they may be used, or they may be ignored. Please direct any questions to consvideo0405 at ffii.org.
History of changes to the rules
Changes from version 1 (16 June) to version 2 (8 July).
Rule 3 was again entirely rewritten. We have specified exactly which encodings are acceptable. We decided to accept encodings that we have the software and know-how to process and transcode. If the new rule 3 causes you any trouble, please contact Jonas Maebe, jonas.maebe at elis.ugent.be, and Antonios Christofides, anthony at itia.ntua.gr, and we'll try to figure out a solution.
Changes from version 0 (31 May) to version 1 (16 June).
- In rule 10, the word "governments" was added.
- Rule 3 was entirely rewritten.
