FSF40 hackathon terms and conditions

Definitions

"FSF," "we," "us," "our" refer to the Free Software Foundation.
"FSF40" means the fortieth anniversary of the FSF and the events happening on this occasion.
"hackathon" refers to the virtual FSF40 hackathon organized by the FSF on November 21-23, 2025 and encompasses all platforms, forums, and communication channels used during the event.
"participant," "participants," means all individuals and/or teams that attend the hackathon no matter if they work on a project, submit an entry, or watch.
"contribution" means the materials (code, text, images, etc.) that you submit to the FSF, the jury, and/or a project for review and/or consideration to win a prize.
"project" means a defined set of tasks that needs to be accomplished or a problem that needs to be solved during the hackathon.
"submission form" refers to the FSF40 hackathon call for submissions at https://my.fsf.org/hackathon-cfs.
"project submission" refers to projects submitted through the hackathon submission form. "submitter" means those who submit a project for participants to work on during the hackathon through the submission form.
"mentor" means a person who is familiar with a project and agreed either through the submission form or through general registration to offer guidance to participants working on said project during the hackathon.
"judge" means a person appointed by the FSF to decide which participant wins a prize.
"jury" means the body of judges.
"moderator" means a person who moderates discussions and interactions on any of the platforms, forums, and communication channels the FSF will provide during the hackathon. "prize" means one of the awards promised by the FSF to participants who have been chosen as a winner by the jury in one of the three winning categories.
"free software" is any program that grants its users the four essential freedoms as defined by the Free Software Definition maintained by the FSF.
"nonfree software" means software that doesn't respect user freedom.

Participants, mentors, moderators, and judges of the FSF40 hackathon will be understood to have read the following terms and conditions and agree to be bound by them. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, PLEASE DO NOT REGISTER, SUBMIT A PROJECT, OR OTHERWISE PARTICIPATE IN THE HACKATHON.

The FSF reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to update, revise, supplement, replace or otherwise change any of these terms and conditions. The failure of a party to enforce any right or provision of these terms will not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision. You agree that these terms and the rules, restrictions and policies contained herein, and the Foundation’s enforcement thereof, are not intended to confer and do not confer any rights or remedies upon any person other than you and the FSF.

If you have any questions about the hackathon or these terms and conditions, please contact campaigns@fsf.org.

Participation and contributions

1. Participants must register with the FSF to attend the hackathon. By registering, participants agree that the FSF may contact them at the email address they provide in their my.fsf.org account to share information related to the hackathon. Please be assured that we prioritize your privacy and do not sell or distribute our contact lists. Read our full privacy policy.
   
2. Participants, mentors, moderators, and judges agree to follow the FSF's safe space policy and to provide a harassment-free hackathon experience for everyone.
3. Teams must consist of one to four members.
   
4. Any code that is part of the contribution must be free software and may only be produced with free software.
5. Participants can get advice and support from mentors, organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others, but the participants (not the mentors or anyone else) have to accomplish the tasks.
   
6. The contribution may contain parts that have been developed before the start of the hackathon, such as libraries, frameworks, and code.
   
7. The use of machine learning, like Copilot, ChatGPT and the like, is not allowed.
   
8. Participants are responsible for ensuring that their participation in the hackathon is not in violation of any national, state, or local law or regulation applicable to them. Participants or, if applicable, any third party entities that they represent, (i) may not be listed or associated with any person or entity being listed on any of the US Department of Commerce’s Denied Persons or Entity List, the US Department of Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals List, the EU Consolidated List of Persons, Groups and Entities Subject to EU Financial Sanctions or the Swiss SECO’s Overall List of Sanctioned Individuals, Entities and Organizations, (ii) is a person identified as a terrorist organization or any other relevant lists maintained by any governmental authority.
   
9. Contributions may not contain any content that (i) violates any law or the FSF's safe space policy or (ii) contains trademarks, logos, or trade dress, without express written consent of the rights holder(s). Participant represents and warrants that their participation does not violate any agreement or obligation to any invention assignment, proprietary information, confidentiality, non-solicitation, noncompetition or similar agreement with any employer or other person.
   
10. All contributions are licensed under a free license such as GPLv3.
11. The FSF cannot be held responsible for any interruption in service, errors, and/or omissions caused by any means and does not guarantee continual, uninterrupted or error-free service or use of the platforms, forums, and communication channels the FSF will provide during the hackathon.
    
12. Participants are required to use their own equipment during the hackathon.
    
13. The FSF is not responsible for injury or damage to a participant's computer or any other damage resulting from downloading any materials in connection with the hackathon.
    
14. At any time, at the sole and absolute discretion of the FSF, the FSF shall be entitled to disqualify a participant in the event of failure to meet relevant eligibility criteria or any other violation or suspected violation of these terms and conditions.
    
15. Participants under 18 must email the FSF a waiver authorizing them to attend the hackathon signed by their parents or legal guardian.
    

Awards

1. Prizes will be awarded in three categories: (a) prize for a participant who has not contributed to a free software package before or a team that includes at least one new free software contributor, (b) prize for the most impactful contribution, (c) inclusion and diversity prize.
   
2. Each participant can win a maximum of one prize.
3. FSF staff, judges, and mentors are not eligible to win a prize.
   
4. Each participant who submits a contribution between November 21, 10:00 EST and November 23, 10:00 EST is a contender for a prize.
   
5. All prizes will be listed on fsf.org and can be adjusted by the FSF at any time.
6. The jury will award the prizes during the ceremony on November 23.
   
7. The awarding of prizes as part of the hackathon is within the FSF's sole discretion, and all decisions related to the hackathon are final and non-appealable.
8. The FSF reserves the right to substitute an alternative prize or element of a prize of equal or lesser value due to unavailability or inability to deliver such prize or prize element.
   
9. The FSF is not responsible for any disputes regarding prize dispersal nor for any issues that occur during shipping, damage, or loss of the prize.

Project submissions

1. Every project needs to consist of a clearly defined and articulated question, problem, or set of tasks. The problem that constitutes the project, respectively the set of tasks needs to be solvable, respectively accomplishable within twenty hours.
   
2. Submitters must have a potential solution or concrete tasks in mind to solve the problem posed by the project, respectively accomplish the task(s).
   
3. By submitting a project, submitters state that they have the authority to suggest this project for the hackathon, i.e. they have obtained the core developers' or project leaders' approval to submit the project before submitting it. The submitter represents and warrants that the project submission does not violate any agreement or obligation to any invention assignment, proprietary information, confidentiality, non-solicitation, noncompetition or similar agreement with any employer or other person.
   
4. The project details (like specific tasks, exact problem, or solution) must be kept secret before the start of the hackathon on November 21, 10:00 EST unless the FSF officially grants an exception due to timezone differences or availability.
5. Submitters must either be willing to mentor a participants working on their project themselves or suggest suitable mentors for the project who are willing to mentor the participants.
6. Submitters agree that the FSF may, but is not required, to include the projects and project submissions in published lists and similar compilations and on its webpages, promotional materials, and publications.
   
7. The FSF reserves the right to decline a project without having to provide any reason.
   
8. By submitting a project, submitters agree that the FSF may contact them with the email address they provided in their my.fsf.org account to ask questions and share information related to the hackathon. Please be assured that we prioritize your privacy and do not sell or distribute our contact lists. Read our full privacy policy.

Photo policy

We encourage participants, mentors, and moderators to take screenshots and share them with us at campaigns@fsf.org. By participating in the hackathon and especially in the award ceremony, participants, mentors, moderators, and judges understand that screen captures may be taken during the hackathon and be later published on the FSF's MediaGoblin instance and used by the FSF in blog posts and press releases on fsf.org as well as in sponsoring prospectus and on the FSF's social media channels. If a participant, mentor, and judge does not want a screenshot to be taken of them during the hackathon or want to be asked for consent first, they have to wear a red shirt or a red lanyard that is well visible indicating this, or say "NO PHOTOS" on their screen. All others will be deemed to have agreed for screenshots being taken and published.