1. Each entry should respond to one of this year’s themes:

A) One of our country's greatest strengths;

                             OR

B) A challenge the country is facing.

The entry must be the original work of the student(s), hereafter referred to as "entrant(s)."

2. This competition is open to entrants currently enrolled in middle or high school in any state in the United States, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Students may be enrolled in public or private schools, or be home-schooled.

Students in grades 6-8 will be considered "middle school" entrants; grades 9-12 will be considered "high school" entrants.

3. Neither C-SPAN's employees, their immediate families, nor its officers or directors are eligible to participate in the contest.

4. The documentary must be between 5 and 8 minutes in length.

5. C-SPAN programming must be used to enhance the video documentary. The entry must include varying points of view. You can view a full list of downloadable videos here (.PDF) or on our Facebook Group here. For more options on how to get C-SPAN footage, click here. For a video tutorial on how to download video, click here.

6. Limited use of copyrighted material will be permitted in the entry so long as it is a lawful or so-called "fair" use, and so long as such use does not overwhelm the contribution of the student(s). Click here for a video explanation from C-SPAN's General Counsel, Bruce Collins, describing what constitutes "fair use".

7. Entrants must credit all sources used to create the video documentary.

8. Individuals or teams of students may create and submit entries. Teams are limited to 3 students.

9. Only one entry per person, whether individual or group participation.

10. School staff and faculty may provide guidance and critiques but may not participate in conceiving and producing the video. Students are not required to have a teacher advisor to participate.

11. Entries must be submitted online. Complete the following 2 steps to successflly enter the 2010 StudentCam competition. Click here to complete the online submission form. Once you have entered that information then you can upload your video here. Please make sure your video is under 500mb in size. Please make sure your video is in one of the following video formats: .AVI .MOV .MPG .MPG2 .MPEG2 .MPEG4 .MP4 .WMV

12. Entries must be received in the C-SPAN offices by January 20, 2010.

13. All entries, the receipt of which will not be acknowledged, become the property of National Cable Satellite Corporation, d/b/a C-SPAN and will not be returned. Entrants, without any compensation from C-SPAN, grant permission to C-SPAN to use their names, likenesses and entries for promotional purposes related to C-SPAN and its activities. By submitting an entry, entrants (i) represent that their entries constitute original works of creativity that do not violate the property rights of any other person, and (ii) grant C-SPAN the right to exhibit, distribute, televise and otherwise use the entries in various media.

14. Prize recipients will be determined by judges selected by C-SPAN and the judges' decisions will be final. If a team's entry wins, C-SPAN will divide the prize money equally among the team members. Prize recipients will be asked to provide a social security number and will be responsible for any taxes associated with the prizes. C-SPAN reserves the right not to award all prizes in all categories; and C-SPAN reserves the right to not air a winning video.

15. Prize recipients will be announced on C-SPAN on a date TBA. Winners will be notified by C-SPAN prior to that announcement.