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RULES
Introduction:
The Forum Song Contest (FSC) is a celebration of music across the frontiers.
We share music and compete in a friendly manner within the traditions that
are the FSC.
§1 Basics
Every contest or game needs some rules to prevent anarchy and make it
enjoyable. And this contest is of course no exception. The set of rules is
as extensive as possible to make sure that there will not occur any disputes
about uncertain issues. However, every situation can not be foreseen, and
the rulebook is under constant development.
§1.1 The inspiration for this contest is taken from Eurovision Song
Contest (ESC), so when an appropriate rule is missing in the FSC, ESC rules
will be used if applicable.
§1.2 If no FSC rule nor ESC rule is appropriate to solve the problem,
the FSC Council will decide upon a new rule to settle the outcome.
§2 Participants
§2.1.1 Only registered members of
www.escforum.net are allowed to participate
in the FSC.
§2.1.2 It is possible to form a FSC-jury from the following
geographical areas:
1) Europe (incl. Israel) - 1 jury from each country that has a registered
member
Only independent countries in Europe can participate with an own jury, but
no regions, provinces or dependent territories etc.
2) Regional juries: 1 jury from each of the 6 regions below that has a
registered member
- North and Central America
- South America
- Africa
- Arabia
- Asia
- Australia
For a definition of countries that are within each separate region, please
see the footnotes below.
§2.2.1 FSC voters should preferably vote in the country they live in.
Exceptions can be made for expatriate people who live abroad permanently or
temporarily and can guarantee entering valid songs.
$2.2.2 At least one jury member, preferably the jury head, has to
live in the country she or he represents. If expatriates want to enter for
their home country instead of the one they live in and there is no jury of
the home country yet, they have to vote at least three months in the jury of
the country they live in or in the international jury before they can build
a jury for their home country on their own.
§2.2.3 FSC voters can change the jury only once for the matter
mentioned in §2.2.2. By no means can a voter switch between two or more
juries each month.
§2.2.4 New members have to vote at least three months in the
international jury before they can build a jury for their home country on
their own.
§2.3 If you don't behave with respect towards other countries or
participants, or there are strong reasons to believe that you don't play
fair, you may be forbidden to take part in FSC by the FSC Council.
§2.4 FSC International jury: Persons in a probationary period before
participation in a national FSC-jury may vote in the FSC International jury.
It is not possible to vote in the FSC International jury for persons
who come from countries/regions where there already exists a national
FSC-jury.
§3 Entries
§3.1 Each country's jury will decide their entry internally. How the
selection is made is up to each jury and not of any concern of FSC, with one
exception: A jury must not use external help (explicitly or implicitly) to
decide their entry.
§3.2 The selected entry must have been released no more than 6 months
prior to the first day of the month in which the contest takes place. For
example, entries for FSC December must have been released on June 1st or
later. Each jury-head has the responsibility to provide evidence of
release-date of their entry if asked by the FSC Management.
§3.3 The release date of an entry, on which to apply rule §3.2, is
decided upon a priority list, where the release with the highest priority
sets the release date. For example, a newly released single is allowed, even
if it appeared on an album more than 6 months ago.
1. Single release. All songs on media with less than, or equal to, four
songs are regarded as singles.
2. Album release. All songs on media with more than four songs are regarded
as album songs.
3. Compilation release. All songs on media of compilation form (generally
mixed artists) with a maximum of 2 songs from the artist in question, are
regarded as compilation songs. If the artist in question has 3 or more songs
on the media, it will be regarded as an album release.
4. Other release. Radio promotion release, live performance, demo tape,
movie theme, etc.
§3.4 The majority of the members of the group that is performing the
selected entry must have citizenship/nationality of the country they
represent. In other words, single members of a group may be of a different
nationality than what is considered the nationality of the group. Where the
selected song has a 'featuring artist/group', the 'featuring artist/group'
may be from a country that is not of the country they represent. For duets
and other border cases, the nationality of the song's composer will decide
the nationality of the song. If there still is no obvious main nationality
for the song, it will not be allowed.
§3.5 The selected entry must not be a cover, remake or remix of
another artist's work. A "cover" is in this contest defined as anything that
has been released earlier by another artist. Samples from other songs and
the usage of un-authored material (e.g. traditional folk music) is allowed
as long as its own originality is unquestioned. Different versions and
remixes of the performing artist's own work are in FSC context all counted
as the same song, and are therefore allowed.
§3.6 The selected entry must not have taken part in any ESC national
preselection.
§3.7 The selected entry (artist/song) must remain unrevealed to all
other juries (except for the FSC Management), until all the entries are
officially announced by the Head of FSC.
§3.8 The entry must be chosen and submitted to the Head of FSC before
the given deadline.
§3.9 A second 'back-up' entry may be submitted to the Head of FSC
before the given deadline. The 'back-up' entry may be used in cases where
the first entry was found to break the rules. See §666.1 for further
information.
Note: the entry must be uploaded before the given deadline, or else
you will not be able to represent your country in the following edition.
§4 Voting
§4.1 Each jury will agree on a vote in ESC manner. The vote shall
consist of 12 points to the entry the jury agreed on as being the best, 10
points to the second best entry, 8 points to the third, and 7, 6, 5, 4, 3,
2, 1 points respectively thereafter. Hence, a total of 10 entries shall be
given points. It is up to each jury how these points will be distributed and
is of no concern to the FSC management. The Head of Jury is responsible for
collecting every jury member's opinion, collating the points accordingly,
and submitting the final votes to the Head of FSC. If requested, every Head
of Jury must provide individual jury member votes to the Head of FSC
§4.2 A jury cannot vote for the song that represents their own
country.
§4.3 The votes, both the individual and the jury votes, must remain
unrevealed to all other juries (except the FSC Management), until the final
results are officially announced by the Head of FSC. The same goes for lists
of countries/songs which are certain to receive points from the individual
member or jury. Indications and discussions about personal opinions
regarding the entries are allowed as long as they don't reveal points or
which countries/songs that are certain to get points (eg. “I like these 6
songs..” followed by list is allowed, while “These 10/15 songs get/received
my points this time..” - or similar reworded indication of countries/songs
that will get points - followed by list is not allowed). The reason for this
is to avoid outside influence on member/jury votes and to keep a moment of
surprise and excitement in the voting.
§4.4 The votes from each jury must be delivered to the Head of FSC
before the given deadline.
§4.5 Participants in the International Jury shall give their personal
vote (ESC style: 12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points from best to 10th best entry)
to the Head of FSC before the given deadline.
§5 Results
§5.1 The votes are counted by the Head of FSC and presented at the
results board as well as on the ESCToday forum, usually one day after the
voting deadline.
§5.2 The country with most points after all votes are counted is
declared the winner of FSC.
§5.3 If two or more countries receive same number of points, the
country that received votes from the most juries will receive the higher
placing.
§5.4 If two or more countries with the same amount of points also
have received points from equally as many juries, the country with the most
12 points will receive the higher placing. If two or more countries still
have an equal amount of 12 points, the country with the most 10 points will
receive the higher placing and so on until the amount of points have been
compared down to 1 points. If two or more countries still can't be separated
they will share the same placing.
§6 FSC Annual Final (Grand Final)
§6.1 The FSC Annual Final is scheduled to take place at the end of
the year, in late December.
§6.2 All winning songs from the 12 monthly contests are qualified for
the final.
§6.3 Countries that are not represented by a winning song, will be
represented with their most successful entry according to position. If two
or more songs ended at the same position the one with the highest amount of
points will be selected. If two or more songs also have the same amount of
points, the jury members of the country in question may choose which one of
them to send.
§6.4 The same rules apply for the FSC Annual Final as for the monthly
contests.
§6.5 The winner of the FSC Annual Final may be declared as the FSC
Song of the Year.
§666 Punishment
§666.1 The breaking of rules under §3 that is discovered on the 7th
day from the contest announcement day at the latest, will lead to
disqualification of the entry. If a 'back-up' entry exists according to §3.9
that entry is allowed to take part instead, but if the rule broken was §3.2
the country will also be punished with a 24 point deduction from the final
score. If no 'back-up' entry exists when the contest has started, the
country will be disqualified for the month. If the 'back-up' entry is also
found to break the rules under §3 within 7 days, counting from the day it
replaced the first entry, the country will be disqualified for the month.
After the 7 days of trial, no action is taken for entries breaking the §3
rules.
§666.2 Minor cases of breaking rules under §4 will lead to an oral
(in practice written) reprimand. For severe cases of breaking §4 rules
(revealing specific votes or entries that will get points, repeating minor
offenses, inability to deliver correct votes before the deadline), the
country will be punished with a 24 point deduction on its final score. In
the case of not being able to deliver the votes on deadline the country will
also be suspended for next month's competition.
The FSC Rules above are valid from January 1st 2006 until further notice.
FSC Council: December 30th 2005
Frank
Dawnchild
Boba
Dan, Israel
Hanna
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