Guidelines and Official Rules
Terms:
1. The term “Contest” refers to the Democracy Video Challenge
2. The “Contest Sponsors” include the Center for International Private Enterprise, the Directors Guild of America, the International Youth Foundation, NBC Universal, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the Motion Picture Association of America, New York University, the University of Southern California and the U.S. Department of State.
3. The “Contestant” is the owner of the YouTube account associated with a Video Submission.
4. A “Video Submission” is any video uploaded to the YouTube Contest site prior to midnight GMT January 31, 2010.
Eligibility:
1. Contestants who are 18 years or older at the time of submission may participate in the Contest.
2. Previous video-making experience is neither required nor prohibited.
3. The Contest is void where prohibited by law.
4. The following individuals are not eligible to enter the Contest: employees, directors and officers of the Contest Sponsors, the U.S. government, Google, Inc., YouTube, LLC, the William Morris Talent Agency, and each of their respective parent, subsidiary and affiliated companies, as well as contractors of the U.S. government, distribution, web design, advertising, fulfillment, judging and Contest agencies involved in the administration, development, fulfillment and execution of this Contest (collectively, "Contest Parties"), and the immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling and spouse or "step" of each) and those living in the same households of each such individual.
General Requirements:
1. Video Submissions must complete the phrase, “Democracy is…”
2. Video Submissions may be no more than three minutes in length, including titles.
3. Video Submissions may use any narrative and technical style, including documentary, fiction, live action or animation.
4. Each Contestant may submit only one Video Submission.
5. Video Submissions must be in English or have English subtitles. Contestants may use an online translation tool such as translate.google.com to create the English text. Most video editing software includes a titling tool, but free titling software is also available on the Internet.
6. Video Submissions must be uploaded to the YouTube Contest site at www.youtube.com/democracychallenge by midnight GMT January 31, 2010. See uploading instructions below.
7. Once a video is uploaded to the YouTube Contest site it is considered final and may not be modified or edited.
8. Finalists will be expected to provide Contest Sponsors with a broadcast-quality copy of their Video Submissions on tape or DVD, an electronic copy of the video transcript and a shot list in order for the Submission to be aired on television and distributed on DVD.
9. No Video Submissions will be returned.
Content Requirements:
1. Video Submissions may contain original content, content in the public domain and copyrighted content in keeping with the following two rules;
a) Video Submissions must not contain any elements including music, audio, speech/voiceovers, stills, video, supers, or other audiovisual materials that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless the Contestant is the owner of such rights or has permission from their rightful owner to post the material and to grant Contest Sponsors all of the license rights granted herein and has documentation to that effect.
b) By uploading a Video Submission, the Contestant affirms that he or she has obtained the necessary rights, licenses, consents and permissions to use all material in the video, including but not limited to rights to use original content not produced by the Contestant and consent from all individuals whose image or likeness appears in the video and that he or she is prepared to provide documentation to that effect upon request. Failure to obtain such rights and consents may result in the disqualification of the Submission at the Sponsors’ sole discretion.
2. Videos must not contain profanity, explicit sexual material, graphic violence, appeals to violence or commercial promotion. Videos must adhere to the norms of civil discourse and should not contain material that might be considered abusive, inflammatory or disrespectful to other groups or individuals.
3. Submissions that do not comply with the YouTube Terms of Use or these Official Rules or that otherwise contain prohibited, inappropriate, or irrelevant content as determined by the Sponsors, at their sole discretion, will be disqualified, removed from the Contest site and not considered for a prize.
Registration:
1. The person named as the registered owner of the YouTube user account associated with the Video Submission will be considered the Contestant and will be the only person eligible to compete for the grand prize with the following exception: an individual may upload a video to the YouTube Contest site on behalf of another individual and designate that other individual as the rightful winner of any eventual prize if that other individual meets all eligibility requirements.
2. If there is no name on the YouTube account associated with the Submission, it will be considered an anonymous entry. An anonymous Video Submission may be posted on the Contest site and may be recognized as a semifinalist, finalist or winner of the anonymous category, but it will be ineligible for the grand prize.
3. Contestants must identify their country when uploading their Video Submissions. Dual nationals, immigrants or foreign residents of a country may choose to identify their Video Submissions with either their country of origin or their country of residence but may choose only one. The video will be considered a Submission from the country identified during upload for the purposes of the judging process. Any Submission without a country label will be considered an anonymous entry and will not be eligible to win the grand prize.
Liabilities and Rights
1. The Contest Sponsors do not endorse any Video Submission or any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed therein, and the Contest Sponsors expressly disclaim any and all liability in connection with Video Submissions.
2. The Contest Sponsors do not permit copyright infringing activities and infringement of intellectual property rights and will remove all Video Submissions in violation of copyright protections if properly notified that a Submission infringes on another's intellectual property rights.
3. The Contestant assumes sole responsibility for the material contained in the Video Submission and for the consequences of posting it on the Contest site.
4. Neither Contest Sponsors nor any of the Contest Parties are liable for any disputes between collaborators related to a Video Submission.
5. Contestants retain ownership of their videos. However, by submitting a video to the Contest, Contestants grant Contest Sponsors a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Video Submissions in any media formats and through any media channels in connection with the Contest and in connection with the business of the Contest Sponsors.
Uploading Videos:
1. Videos must be compressed to 100 MB or less for uploading on YouTube.
2. Videos must be formatted in “.avi”, “.mov”, “.mpg”, or “.wmv” for uploading on YouTube.
3. Log into YouTube at www.YouTube.com/signup.
4. IF CONTESTANTS ALREADY HAVE A YouTube ACCOUNT:
· Sign in under the "Member Login" section.
5. TO ENTER THE CONTEST IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A YouTube ACCOUNT
· Contestants must complete the free registration form.
6. Once Contestants are registered and logged into YouTube, they should visit the Contest website at www.YouTube.com/democracychallenge..
7. On the Contest website homepage, locate the Contest Module in the right column and Click on the Submit tab. It is within this module that all contest submissions will be entered.
8. On the Submit tab click on the Upload button to upload the contest entry to YouTube.
9. After uploading the video, or if the video has already been uploaded, click the Continue button on the Contest Module Submit tab to proceed to the next step.
10. Enter the Contestant'sYouTube username in the contest module and click the Continue button to proceed to the next step.
11. Select the appropriate video to enter in the contest from all of the Contestant's uploaded videos. Preview any video by clicking the video thumbnail image on the left side of the module.
12. Before submitting the video entry, the Contestant must agree to the contest terms and conditions by checking the checkbox below the video player.
13. You’ll know if the video was submitted correctly because the Contest Module Submit tab will confirm that the video was submitted to the Contest.
14. YouTube will send a confirmation email to the video owner's email address. Click the URL in the confirmation email to verify the submitted the contest entry.
Judging Criteria:
All videos will be pre-screened by the Contest Sponsors to ensure compliance with the Contest Rules and the YouTube Terms of Use before being posted to the Contest site. Subsequently, videos will pass through three rounds of judging to determine the winners. The first two rounds of judging will be evaluated on the following criteria:
1. 40% Overall Impact (demonstrates the meaning and value of democracy)
2. 40% Creativity (contains original concepts, ideas and storytelling style)
3. 20% Production Values (image quality, editing and sound)
Round 1: Contest Sponsors will evaluate Video Submissions at U.S. embassy-hosted screenings in the following countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji, Germany (Frankfurt, Munich), Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy (Rome, Milan, Florence and Naples), Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa (Johannesburg), Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The American Institute in Taiwan will hold a screening to evaluate submissions from Taiwan. Videos submitted from countries where the U.S. embassy is not hosting a screening and all anonymous Video Submissions will be evaluated by Contest Sponsors in the United States. Three videos from each country will be nominated to the semifinalist pool. Round 1 judging will be completed on or about March 31, 2010.
Round 2: An independent panel of judges comprised of film experts and democracy and youth organizations will evaluate the semifinalists. They will choose three finalists from each of the six world geographic regions as defined by the U.S. Department of State (Western Hemisphere, East Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, Near East, South & Central Asia) and three anonymous finalists for a total of twenty-one finalists, which will be revealed on the Contest site (www.youtube.com/democracychallenge) on or about May 1, 2010.
Round 3: The twenty-one finalist Videos will be posted on the Contest site in mid-May 2010, and the general public will have one month to vote for their favorite videos using YouTube’s rating system. One grand prize winner from each of the six world geographic regions and one anonymous winner will be announced on or about June 15, 2010.
Prizes:
· All seven winning videos will be screened at a gala reception in Washington, D.C., New York and Hollywood and posted to www.videochallenge.America.gov
· The six world geographic winners will receive the grand prize: an all-expense-paid trip to Washington D.C., New York and Hollywood for a gala screening of the winning videos, meetings with government, media and civil society leaders, and exposure to the U.S. film and television industries.
· The Contest Sponsors reserve the right to verify that a semifinalist, finalist or winning Video Submission is in full compliance with these Official Contest Rules before the Contestant is recognized as a semifinalist, finalist or winning Video and before awarding any prize.
· The Contest Sponsors reserve the right to require prize winners to submit to a confidential background check to confirm eligibility as a condition of awarding the prize to help ensure that the use of any such person in advertising or publicity for the Contest will not bring Contest Sponsors into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule or reflect unfavorably on the Contest as determined by Contest Sponsors in their sole discretion.
· Travel to the United States is contingent on the winners’ eligibility to receive a U.S. tourist visa. The Contest Sponsors will make all reasonable efforts to facilitate this process but cannot guarantee that a visa will be issued.
Timeline:
· January 31, 2010: Submissions due.
· February 1, 2010 to March 31, 2010: First round of judging.
· April 1, 2010: Semifinalists selected.
· April 1, 2010 to April 30, 2010: Second round of judging.
· May 15, 2010: Finalists announced.
· May 15 – June 15, 2010: General Public votes for winning videos.
· June 15, 2010: Winners announced.
· July 1, 2010: Visa interview appointments should be scheduled.
· Fall 2010: Grand Prize trip to the United States.
General Terms and Conditions: If for any reason the Contest is not capable of running as planned, including without limitation, infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the Contest, the Contest Sponsors reserve the right, at their sole discretion to cancel, modify or terminate the Contest. Further, the Contest Sponsors reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to disqualify any individual deemed to be (a) tampering or attempting to tamper with the entry process or the operation of the Contest or any Contest Sponsor or YouTube; (b) violating the Official Rules; (c) violating the YouTube Terms of Service, or (d) acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person.
LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY AND RELEASE: Contest Sponsors and Contest Parties assume no liability or responsibility resulting from any user's participation in or attempt to participate in the Contest or ability or inability to upload or download any information in connection with participating in the Contest. Contest Sponsors and Contest Parties assume no responsibility or liability for technical problems or technical malfunction arising in connection with any of the following occurrences which may affect the operation of the Contest: hardware or software errors; faulty computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, electronic, wireless or Internet connectivity or other online communication problems; errors or limitations of any Internet service providers, servers, hosts or providers; garbled, jumbled or faulty data transmissions; failure of any email transmissions to be sent or received; lost, late, delayed or intercepted email transmissions; inaccessibility of the Web Site in whole or in part for any reason; traffic congestion on the Internet or the Web Site; unauthorized human or non-human intervention of the operation of the Contest, including without limitation, unauthorized tampering, hacking, theft, virus, bugs, worms; or destruction of any aspect of the Contest, or loss, miscount, misdirection, inaccessibility or unavailability of an email account used in connection with the Contest. Contest Sponsors and Contest Parties are not responsible for any typographical errors in the announcement of prizes or these Official Rules, or any inaccurate or incorrect data contained on the Web Site. Use of Web Site is at user's own risk. Contest Sponsors and the Contest Parties are not responsible for any personal injury or property damage or losses of any kind which may be sustained to user’s or any other person's computer equipment resulting from participation in the Contest, use of the Web Site or the download of any information from the Web Site. By participating in the Contest, the Contestant releases Contest Sponsors and Contest Parties from any and all claims, damages or liabilities arising from or relating to such Contestant’s participation in the Contest.Contest Sponsors and Contest Parties are not liable in the event that any portion of the Contest is cancelled due to weather, fire, strike, acts of war or terrorism, or any other condition beyond their control (a "Force Majeure Event"). Should a Force Majeure Event occur, Contest Sponsors may, but are not obligated to, exercise reasonable efforts to air the winning videos and deliver all or part of the prize or make a reasonable substitution in their sole discretion.