Sydney Opera House to devs: build our app for peanuts, wear patent pain

[Chieflets]

Hackathon winner to sign away all rights to their code, except right to be sued.

Sydney Opera House has announced it will stage a “hackathon” to find its next app, with the winner to receive $AUD4,000 in prize money and a big fat contract asking them to hand over all code developed during the event. Even losers could be asked to hand over their code.

The famous venue says one reason to enter the competition is “The glory of developing an app for Sydney Opera House which will be seen by millions of visitors every year.”

Entering is good for the CV, then.

Harder to comprehend is clause K in the terms and conditions for the event, as it reads as follows:

“that, by submitting your Entry in this Hackathon, you warrant that your Entry is your original work which does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party and assign, on creation, any intellectual property rights in the Entry to the Sydney Opera House Trust and agree to sign any necessary documentation that may be required for us and our designees to make use of the rights you granted.”

The Reg sent asked a lawyer what this meant and were told it translates as “by entering this competition, every last line of code you cut becomes the property of the Sydney Opera House Trust.”

The clause also means that entrants are effectively guaranteeing their apps don't infringe any patents. That's important to note because down at clause Q the Trust says “in the event you breach the warranty set out in paragraph k) above, you indemnify the Sydney Opera House Trust, its officers, employees, contractors and agents against any and all claims that your Entry infringes on the intellectual property rights of any third party.”

In other words, if patent trolls come after us because they think the app appropriates their property, it's YOUR problem, not ours.

There's also some cute stuff in clause O, which reads, in part, “By entering this Hackathon, you agree that use of information in our representatives’ unaided memories in the development or deployment of our products or services does not create liability for us”. In other words, if a mentor sees you do something cool and decides to reproduce it, it ain't the Opera House's problem.

These terms apply to all entries and on our reading of the legalese there's nothing to stop the Opera House mashing up entries it likes into a new form.

On the upside, entrants will be offered “All night coding (with pillows and beanbags) …. with plenty of food and drink” plus “Assistance from industry mentors and the opportunity to network with like-minded people”.

All of the above won't take place in the Opera House but the nearby Quay Grand Hotel. If this sounds like a good way to spend your weekend, circle December 7th and 8th in your diary and fill in the form here for your chance to become one of the 100 lucky coders offered a chance to win the hackathon and the booby prize of much legal interaction. ®

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Chieflets

[lsemmens]

I wonder how many kids they manage to sucker. It might give some one a leg up, but the risks are downright scary!

[jcannon]

Gah, I hate the internet some time. I've been seeing a LOT of these kinds of contests. There are so many art, logo, design contests where it's like, "Earn the right to do our art!" It undervalues the industry. Say no to speculative work, always. I wish there was some way to get that message aired on all radios, ads on every site - bah! I am a tad bit passionate about it because I fell victim to it back when I was younger. I did about 8 hours worth of spec work to prove that I was good enough for the job, the owner kept asking for changes and ensuring me I'd be paid for each hour I spent -- then, at the end of it, decided it wasn't what he wanted and just walked away. I had no contract in place.

Upsetting.

[OhioTom76]

This is really obnoxious for so many reasons. This is just a piss poor attempt to get free/cheap labor off of someone. Why do they devalue the work of developers like that? They should have someone on staff full time developing this for them, working for them just like any other employee they got. You don't just build an app once and forget about it - who is going to update it, fix security issues down the road, address device compatibility issues down the road?

The part that really gets me is how they tout the "fame" of having developed something for the Sydney Opera House - what's so glamorous about that? They're tightwads that have no respect for developers and think they can get whatever they want just by throwing them a bone.

And if that weren't insulting enough, now they want these developers to also be part time arm chair lawyers that they can hold legally accountable for any potential future lawsuits?! Give me a break. I hate to see how they treat the rest of their staff, and hope that nobody applies for this.