EthCapeTown events are community hackathons intended for collaboration and learning in the student community. We value the participation of each member of the student community and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, all attendees are expected to show respect and courtesy to other attendees throughout the hackathon. To make clear what is expected, all attendees and speakers at this hackathon are required to conform to the following Code of Conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event.

Harassment includes but is not limited to offensive verbal comments, hacks, or other online activity related to gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, physical appearance, race, religion, sexual images, deliberate intimidation, stalking, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately. If participants fail to comply, they will be asked to leave the event.

Partners, judges, mentors, volunteers, organizers, EthCapeTown staff, and anyone else at the event are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, attendees should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material both in their hacks and during the event. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes or otherwise create a sexualized environment.

Be careful and mindful of the words that you choose. Remember that sexist, racist, and other exclusionary comments and hacks can be offensive to those around you.

If a participant engages in behavior that violates this code of conduct, the hackathon organizers will take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event.

If you feel uncomfortable or think there may be a potential violation of the code of conduct, please report it immediately to one of the event organizers or by emailing us at hello@ethcapetown.com with the title “Incident”. All reporters have the right to remain anonymous.

At in-person events, attendees will be given a wristband to wear for the duration of the event. This wristband is required to be worn at all times during the event. If for any reason you need to break your wristband, you can bring the broken wristband to the registration desk for a replacement. In the event you are unable to locate your wristband (including a broken band) and require a new band to be issued, EthCapeTown reserves the right to charge a fee to allow you to re-enter the venue.

The following rules & conditions apply to each EthCapeTown event ("The Event"):

1. Consent for Minors: If you are under the age of 18, you must obtain consent from your parent or guardian to participate in our events, and your parent or guardian is required to agree to these conditions. An agreement signed by your parent or guardian must be submitted separately before attending The Event. You acknowledge that, even as a minor, you must read and understand the content of this Agreement and that you have the capacity and intend to be bound by the terms of this Agreement.
   
   
2. Compliance with Facility Rules: You must comply with all facility and equipment rules and requirements during your participation in The Event, including all safety instructions and requirements. You are not to take unreasonable risks while using the facilities where The Event is located, including causing any other person using such facilities an unreasonable risk of harm.
   
   
3. Assumption of Responsibility: You assume full responsibility for any damage or injury caused by you in your participation in The Event (whether to persons or property, and whether to yourself or others) and release EthCapeTown, The Event, all partners of The Event, The Event volunteers, The Event staff, guests of The Event, and all other participants in The Event (collectively, the “Releasees”) from any liability therefore. YOU ARE AWARE THAT YOUR PARTICIPATION IN The Event IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND THAT THE RELEASE HEREIN IS INTENDED TO REFLECT THAT UNDERSTANDING.
   
   
4. Ownership of Developments: You (and your team) will own any developments made by you during The Event, and all right, title, and interest in those developments, including the intellectual property rights therein, shall belong to you. However, you acknowledge that during the course of The Event, you may obtain access to products, developments, information, and other materials belonging to other participants of The Event, the partners of The Event, and/or other third parties (“Third Party Materials”), and that nothing in this Agreement is deemed to transfer any ownership, right, title, or interest in such Third Party Materials to you. Your only rights to the Third Party Materials shall be those expressly granted to you by the owner(s) of the Third Party Materials. Specifically, any APIs or other software provided to you by partners of The Event are subject to the subscription terms and software licenses associated with such APIs or other software.
   
   
5. Information Sharing: You acknowledge that The Event is intended to be an event where ideas are shared freely and therefore acknowledge that any information that you share with other participants of The Event, the partners of The Event, and/or other third parties during The Event is solely at your discretion and risk. If you wish to protect your information, it is solely your responsibility to implement confidentiality and security measures with respect to the persons to whom you are disclosing your information. None of the Releasees shall have any responsibility under this Agreement or by virtue of their participation in The Event with respect to your information.
   
   
6. Recording of The Event: You acknowledge that the organizers and partners of The Event, including EthCapeTown (collectively, the “Organizers”) will be recording The Event event on video, photographs, audio recording, and other media, and therefore agree that:
   • The Organizers have the unrestricted right to use your likeness, image, voice, opinions, and appearance, and also any images of your projects, developments, materials, and belongings made at or brought to The Event, captured through video, photographs, or other media during The Event for the express purpose of creating promotional material (the “Images”), for the purposes of use in websites, promotional materials, publications, and other media of any of the Organizers, whether in print or electronically (the “Materials”). The foregoing right includes permission to copyright, use, re-use, publish, and republish Images in which you may be included, intact or in part, composite or distorted in character or form, without restriction as to changes or transformations, in conjunction with your own or a fictitious name, reproduction in color or otherwise, made through any and all media now or hereafter known;
   • The Organizers shall solely own the Materials in which you or your Images, in whole or in part, may appear, including copyright interests, and you have no ownership rights therein;
   • You give all clearances, copyright, and otherwise, for use of your Images, and waive any moral rights that you may have in the Materials in which you or your Images may appear. The rights granted to the Hackathon Organizers herein are perpetual and worldwide. For greater certainty, your Images may continue to be used after the completion of The Event;
   • You relinquish any right that you may have to examine or approve the Materials in which you or your Images may appear or the use to which they may be applied; and
   • You hereby release, discharge, and agree to save harmless each and all of the Organizers from any liability by virtue of any blurring, distortion, alteration, optical illusion, or use in composite form of the Images whether intentional or otherwise, that may occur or be produced in the recording of the Images or in any subsequent processing thereof, as well as any publication thereof, including without limitation any claims for libel or invasion of privacy.
     
     
7. Communication and Data Sharing: You agree that in some cases the Organizers may share your registration details, LinkedIn/Github profiles, details of your Hackathon product, and other information obtained from you in the course of, or relating to, The Event with the partners of The Event, and acknowledge that such partners of The Event may contact you during and after The Event. By agreeing to this document and/or participating in The Event, you are providing your express consent to communications by the Organizers and partners (including e-mail communications, both marketing and informational) respecting the products and services of the Organizers and partners, and future events. This is done in compliance with the South African Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPi) regulations.
   
   
8. Prohibition of Alcohol, Drugs, and Weapons: You acknowledge that alcohol, drugs, or weapons of any kind shall not be present or consumed during any official EthCapeTown event, with the exception for the alcohol served by us during The Event closing party. Participants will act responsibly and should wear their The Event identification badge at all times during the event.
   
   
9. Release of Liability: For valuable consideration, including permission to take part in The Event, the undersigned on behalf of him/herself, his or her personal representatives, assigns, heirs, and next of kin:
   • Hereby covenants not to sue, and releases, waives, and discharges the Releasees, their owners, officers, agents, affiliates, employees, volunteers, and/or any other person or entity in any way associated with The Event, from liability for any injury to the person or property or death of the undersigned arising out of or related to use of the premises, equipment, or other facilities of the Releasees, whether caused by an act of negligence of the Releasees or otherwise; and
   • Hereby assumes full responsibility for any risk of bodily injury, death, or property damage arising out of or related to their participation in The Event, whether occurring to the undersigned or to any other person or entity for whom the undersigned is responsible or with whom the undersigned is associated, and whether caused by an act of negligence of the Releasees or otherwise. The foregoing release includes, but is not limited to, any occurrences of personal injury, illness (food-borne or otherwise), and loss of belongings, whether by theft or otherwise. The undersigned further agrees that this instrument (the terms of which collectively are referred to as the Agreement) is intended to be as broad and inclusive as is permitted by the laws of South Africa and that if any portion thereof is held invalid, that portion shall be invalid only to the extent required by law, and the balance shall, notwithstanding, continue in full force and effect.

We do not allow participants to submit pre-existing projects. You may start working on your project once hacking officially begins at event kick-off.

You should not be working on your project before the event officially begins. This includes coding, designing assets, etc. Each hack submission will be judged solely on the quality of the work completed during the duration of the hackathon. We require everyone to start building from scratch. If there is a situation where a project/team is porting or continuing existing projects, then the result is that you may continue to participate, but you won't be eligible for Partner prizes or being a Finalist.

You may use any pre-existing code in your project only after you have notified the EthCapeTown team in writing about the nature of the previously done work and have gotten approval. Further, you need to disclose all relevant information in your submission video, project description, and during judging, clarifying what specifically was done before the hackathon. If, upon inspection (during or after the event), you present work that appears to have been completed before the hackathon, or does not accurately reflect your project description/video, or extends existing work that was not disclosed, your project is subject to immediate disqualification with full revocation of any prize amounts along with a permanent ban from the EthCapeTown community and events.

By using any pre-existing work (even after written approval), you forfeit the right to be considered for Partner prizes or as a finalist for the hackathon.

In order to ensure that no pre-existing work makes its way into the submission, you must also use version control for your code throughout the course of the event. Any repositories with single commits of large files without proper history will be default assumed to be unqualified unless proven otherwise.

Historically, projects that use a majority of pre-existing work do not score as high in the judging as projects which present wholly new and novel approaches. The goal of our hackathons is to create interesting experiments.

The following terms and conditions apply to any individual that is attending our in-person events.

Photography, Audio & Video Recording

By attending the EthCapeTown, you acknowledge and agree that the event (or any part of it) may be photographed or recorded by us or our partners. You agree to permit us, or any third party licensed by us, to use, distribute, broadcast, or otherwise globally disseminate your likeness, name, voice, and words in perpetuity in television, radio, film, newspapers, magazines, and other media now available and hereafter developed, both before, during, and any time after the Conference, and in any form, without any further approval from you or any payment to you. This grant includes, but is not limited to, the right to edit the media, the right to use the media (alone or together with other information), and the right to allow others to use or distribute the media.

EthCapeTown takes the privacy of its attendees seriously and as such we are taking certain measures in an attempt to maintain the individual privacy needs of our attendees. If you would like to opt-out of being captured within any form of Media, we will ask you to sign an opt-out form on-site at the event, and we will ensure that EthCapeTown and our partners respectfully are aware.

Additionally, EthCapeTown cannot take any responsibility for photographs, video, and audio recordings taken by other attendees of the event. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please feel free to reach out to us at hello@ethcapetown.com.

Compliance with PoPi Regulations: All personal information collected during the event will be handled in compliance with the South African Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPi). Attendees have the right to access and correct their personal information, and their data will not be shared without consent except as stipulated in this document.