We posted on October 5 about how the Sierra Mist/MySpace folks had made some changes to the contest with regard to the dates, prizes, etc. One hour and fourteen minutes later, FOS Shaun Eli commented on our posting with the following:

After reading the rules I’ve opted not to send anything in. My interpretation (though I am not an attorney) is that you are giving them rights to your material, including– and this is specified rather clearly– the rights to have others perform your material.

I suggest that people actually read what you’re letting them do with your material before ever submitting material to contests or websites.

We assumed he was referring to the following passage, from the Official Contest Rules, which were revised on Oct. 3:

“By entering the Contest, you grant Sponsors a perpetual, fully-paid, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, distribute, display, sub-license, exhibit, transmit, broadcast, televise, digitize, otherwise use, and permit others to use and perform throughout the world the Material (including without limitation, the underlying intellectual property therein to the extent necessary to exploit Material) in any manner, form, or format now or hereinafter created, including, but not limited to, on the Internet, and for any purpose, including, but not limited to, advertising or promotion of Sponsors and their services, all without further consent from or payment to you.”

We can understand how this passage (and the clause we emphasized) might give someone pause. We’ve signed some so-called “universal releases” in our day. (And while it hasn’t resulted (to our knowledge) in anyone getting rich by selling our material through truckstops or pumping our acts through a late-night, syndicated TV show, it has resulted in some pretty embarassing stuff still living on, way past its shelf life, offered through websites or maybe informercials.)

We read these releases, too but, not being lawyers, we can’t say that we always fully understand what we’re signing, the nuances, the clauses and sub-clauses. We pretty sure, though, that we can’t recall any releases in the past that contained that bit about letting other folks use the material. And, again not being attorneys, we can’t say for sure that it means what we think it might mean.

But, stepping back from the minutiae of a legal agreement, it might seem strange, even to a non-lawyer, that the rules of a contest were changed after the contest already started. Are the folks who submitted prior to the rule change still bound by the old rules as they stood prior to Oct. 3? Will they have a choice as to which set of rules they must adhere to? Was that option spelled out in the first set of rules? And what guarantee does the comic who signs up on October 7 won’t have yet another set of rules when he wakes up on Oct. 8? So many questions.

This is one of the more high-profile contests to come along in a while. Winning comics will get national television exposure, the credit of a major comedy festival, a development deal slot and large gobs of cash. It would be a pity if comics missed out on this opportunity just because of some confusion over some fine print.

BTW: The folks at MySpace have extended the deadline for submissions. You now have until 11:59 PM on Oct. 11 to upload a video.