UIEvolution's Contest Scam
This company is seriously on acid. I just read UIEvolution's latest press release about their UI development platform which actually sounds pretty interesting. You do development using their XML and scripting platform and they they have interpreters for all the major mobile platforms like J2ME, Brew and Symbian. Neat. ESPN even just signed up to use it for their development.
Sounds great, except that they're also running one of those programming contest scams to promote their platform. Basically, you download their SDK which you can use to develop an app to submit to be judged for several prizes including a Segway. But for the privilege of dedicating your time and effort to learn their new toolset and develop an interesting app for the contest, you sign over all rights to your code. Yep, that's right. Check it out:
With regard to the software that you obtain for the Contest, you agree to the license terms as stated in files you download or receive. With regard to all entries you submit as part of the Contest, you hereby grant UI Evolution (in the case of all applications and games) and Dwango Wireless (in the case of all games) a worldwide, perpetual, fully paid-up, royalty free, exclusive license to make, sell, license, sublicense and/or use all intellectual property incorporated into the entry, including but not limited to the software, algorithms, techniques, concepts, and all other intellectual property associated with the entry.
If you are selected as a contest winner, you agree that UIEvolution and/or Dwango may publicize your name, likeness, and the description of work you did to win the contest. Apart from the prizes associated with being selected as a winner, UIEvolution and/or Dwango shall not be obligated to compensate you in any way for such publicity.
What are they thinking? Are they trying to build a developer community by insulting the our intelligence or something? I am AMAZED at the arrogance of this company (must be their close proximity to Redmond). Say I work hard and develop a really cool app which could possibly drive the adoption of this development environment and licenses, but just by submitting it to the contest the company gets to use it however it wants for free even if I didn't win a dime. And if I DO WIN, I get to have my "likeness" used however they want as well. Nice.
I'm pretty sure Google ran something similar a while ago, no? Basically all these people submitted their best apps to Google who got to keep all the IP for peanuts. I don't care which company it is, it's a scam and it's shitty.
If you ask me, this is a really, really horrible way to attract developers. I'm not going anywhere near this code with a 20 foot pole.
-Russ