Copyright

It is the responsibility of the entrant to make sure that all copyrights (IPR, intellectual property rights) are cleared for the entry he/she wishes to submit. Where there are clear breaches of copyright or other IPR, the judges will exclude the submission from further assessment. It is recommended at the time of the submission that the entrant provides good documentation and/or evidence as to how IPR or copyright issues related to the submitted media have been resolved.

Copyrights or intellectual property rights give the creator of an original media production exclusive rights for a certain time period to publish, distribute and adapt that work.

In general one can say that there is no copyright problem when all materials that are used to compose and create the production (pictures, graphics, music, photographs, texts, etc.) were created by yourself or especially for you or your institution, for the purpose of this media production. In other cases where you want to use materials (images, graphics, music, text, software, etc.) created by others, you may only be allowed to use these materials when you have the explicit permission (free or paying) from the owner or creator of the original materials. You must also ensure that all portrait rights have been cleared for those that appear in your media. Attention: breaches of copyright laws can lead to high fines and penalties, even when those materials are used in an educational context, and therefore we recommend you to treat this issue with great care.

More information about copyright can be found on Wikipedia's page on copyright.

MEDEA entrants are recommended to consider adopting Creative Commons licenses for their own products as they make it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright by providing free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.