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itglue / api-contest

submissions for the IT Glue api contest
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Terms and conditions link at VERY bottom of API contest page #17

Open tscheuing opened 5 years ago

tscheuing commented 5 years ago

Note that the terms and conditions for submission into the contest is at the very bottom of the contest page, below a significant amount of white space. I would strongly advise reading this and understanding what you agree to give up by submitting to this contest.

ITG should have made this link significantly more noticeable, in my opinion.

firefox15 commented 5 years ago

Completely agree. We were excited when this contest was announced because our company has spent a significant amount of time automating the collection of a ton of data for import into IT Glue. We thought we had a good shot at winning. Then we read the terms and conditions (which, like you said, we really had to search for):

6.2 You grant to us an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable licence to copy, store, edit, distribute, transmit and publish your competition entries.

6.5 To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you irrevocably and unconditionally waive your rights to be identified as the author of your competition entries and to object to any derogatory treatment of your competition entries.

7.1 Competition entries will not be returned. Please, therefore, keep a copy of your competition entries. Entrants agree that all submissions verified by IT Glue’s Development team will appear on the IT Glue GitHub, and may be used or adapted by IT Glue. The competition winner agrees that their entry will appear on the IT Glue website.

Given the work we have put into automation, we would never agree to such conditions. It's pretty clear that this contest exists so that IT Glue can repackage good-looking solutions into the product, sell them as their own, and not even have to reference the original author of it. These T&Cs apply regardless if you win or not. Our company held a meeting, and we unanimously agreed not to enter.

I hope all those who enter realize what they are giving up for a chance at a gift card. I have a feeling our company's decision was not unique, and I wonder how many more entries they would have received if they didn't try to take possession of everyone's work.

tscheuing commented 5 years ago

Exactly. Basically, we have to submit only our own work, but we relinquish any rights or claim to it once submitted and ITG can do anything they want to it, royalty-free. Seems like an abuse of trust, especially given the terms were not as obvious as they should have been.