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Phoenix666 writes:

"Read the terms and conditions" is good advice for anybody, but especially if you're participating in a hackathon. Otherwise, as participants in a Telstra hackathon are finding, you might be giving up more than you intend.

Lifx engineer Jack Chen – @chendo on Twitter – has noticed that the terms in the carrier's Internet of Things challenge seem to go beyond what people might expect if they're not paying attention.

The contract (PDF) that challenge participants have to sign contains a clause which seems to the non-lawyer to go far beyond what someone might develop for the hackathon itself.

The document seems to plant Telstra's flag in a participant's development work not just during the challenge, but for the following 18 months.

For any "New IP" (as the contract puts it) developed in that period, the participant agrees to:

• Give Telstra a first right of refusal
• Negotiate with Telstra about possible licensing
• Not offer the IP to anyone else without Telstra having had the first refusal
• If someone else is interested, give Telstra a chance to make a matching offer
• Not give anyone else an exclusive on the IP until after Telstra's said "no".

Original Submission