What is copyright and what is copyright violation?
Copyright is the exclusive right by an author, artist, musician or publisher to own his/her creative work for a prescribed number of years. Copyright violation or infringement is the instance of using or reproducing somebody's creative work without their permission.

Many of the Web sites out there have copyright violations. Aren't you being unnecessarily strict?
We believe it's important to set a good example concerning this controversial issue. Since we're teaching children about the Internet, they should learn about the responsibilities of using it, such as protecting privacy and intellectual property. We certainly would not want any GVC participating schools to get into trouble. We hope you wouldn't want us as the organizer and Web host of this program to get into trouble either. By following strict guidelines, we -- meaning GVC schools, participants and organizers -- can minimize possible legal problems now and in the future. The Web sites made this year will be on the Web for a very long time.

It sounds like we can't use anything in our website that we haven't created ourselves. It's too much trouble to find out who owns the copyrights to all the photos we were planning to use.
Hooray! We want students to create as much original material as possible. Students will be forced to be more creative and original than they anticipated. Don't forget, creativity/originality is an important criterion considered by Contest judges. We also hope this proves to be a learning opportunity for you and your students about copyright laws and the Internet.

What is the GVC Project Manager going to do if you find a GVC website with copyright violations?
If the Project Manager does not find any permission or consent documentation, then we will notify the team and ask it to remove the copyrighted material from its website, or we will remove/block it ourselves. Web sites with many copyright violations may be disqualified or will NOT receive high scores.