I want to enter into a sci fi writing contest but I'm afraid Intel will steal

[Mike]

my stuff. Opinions? It would give me a thousand bucks if I won, but Intel also owns whatever I write. Forever. Should I send my thing in or should I try to make a profit through some other venue?
It was a joke, the stealing part. It was a friggin joke. Jesus goddamn Christ. I know I'm agreeing to give them my stuff, I'm simply wondering if it would be more profitable and less whorish to publish it in a different way. And Mr. Lynn, your anonymous hostility is not appreciated.

 

[LynnBodoni1]

That's not stealing, that's transferring the copyright from the writer to Intel as a condition of the contest. Unless Intel holds a gun to your head while forcing you to sign over the copyright, it's legal and ethical.

If you think that your story can sell for more money while you retain the copyright, then by all means, don't enter it into the contest, but send it to other markets. However, if you have never been published, then this contest might be a way to get published, and it's probably going to be the most money that you will get for that story. It all depends on how much you can sell the story for, and under what terms, and where.

 

[Lynn]

They're not stealing your stuff. You're openly handing it to them and they're accepting it. If you ask me for my car and I give you the keys and tell you to keep it, do I then have the right to say you stole it?

Why anyone would give away their writing for some contest, particularly when it is GIVING IT AWAY, not selling it, like the winner of the contest will do, is a mystery to me.

Then again, that you know so little about contest and writing that you'd ask this question, also tells me you wouldn't win anyway. So, if you want to hand over your writing and then et them profit from it for no good reason, you certainly can. That's what it's about. For a bribe of $1000 they can get a whole bunch of suckers to enter the contest, then print the ones who will pay to get a copy of their writing in a book with the hope they'll buy more for family and friends just to prove they're published is quite a profit maker. There's enough fools to make it profitable.