Published August 2014
UPDATE: Congratulations to the winner of our Recast Comcast competition, “Hector Proudfoot.” “Hector” is using a pseudonym and has chosen to remain anonymous for fear of professional retaliation if the merger is successful. The prize will go to the animator who worked with Hector, Gina Barton. Check out their winning submission below.
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In July 2014, Ryan Block released a recording of his wife and him attempting to cancel their service with Comcast. Instead of following the conventional wisdom of “the customer is always right,” the representative was trained to pressure the Blocks into keeping their service and to ignore their request. In the weeks since, many others have recorded and released their conversations with Comcast representatives.
Unfortunately, treatment like this may only get worse. Comcast is attempting to merge with Time Warner Cable, meaning almost half of all high speed internet will be under their control. This combined company will have even less incentive to treat their customers better, especially when those customers have few alternatives to turn to.
We at Public Knowledge are working hard to prevent that merger from happening. But for now, why not turn these calls (and any others that surface) into something more? We challenge YOU to remix Comcast’s repeated examples of poor customer treatment into something unique and creative.
The Challenge:
Take one or more of the recent highly publicized customer service calls with Comcast (or go to town with one of your own experiences) and let your imagination go to work. We want to see remixes, mashups, autotunes, interpretive dances — whatever you think of to broadcast these real customer service calls with Comcast.
The Prize:
Public Knowledge will pay your last Comcast* bill, up to $200, and spread the word about your creation.
Submission Rules:
All work must be licensed under a creative commons attribution share alike (CC-BY-SA) license. That part is easy—just embed the code found here when you post it. The customer service calls must be REAL, like the links posted below.
Submissions should be made on SoundCloud, YouTube, or Vimeo, and we encourage you to tag them with #RecastComcast. After it’s published, email the link to recastcomcast@publicknowledge.org.
We will accept submissions beginning on Tuesday, August 26 and ending on Friday, September 26th, an extention of our original deadline. We will announce the winner shortly after.
To get you started, here are links to some examples of recent Comcast recordings published online by customers:
*Winner does not need to be a customer of Comcast. See “2. PRIZE” under Legal Contest Rules.
Legal Contest Rules:
1. ELIGIBILITY. This contest is only open to legal residents of the United States who are eighteen years or older at the time of entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Public Knowledge and their immediate family are not eligible to enter. Judges of this contest and their immediate family are not eligible to enter. Individuals may enter more than one entry in the competition. By entering this contest, you agree to be bound by these Rules.
2. PRIZE. The winning entrant will receive a check in an amount equivalent to their previous Comcast bill, or bill of their internet service provider, not to exceed $200. Public Knowledge reserves the right to request verification of this amount in the form of a copy of the bill.
3. CONTEST PERIOD. This contest is open from August 26, 2014 to September 26, 2014. All entries must be received by 11:59PM EST on September 26, 2014.
4. HOW TO ENTER. Follow the instructions in the above details.
5. WINNER SELECTION. Public Knowledge will select the winner from the pool of applicants. There will be only one winner. Public Knowledge will be prepared to award the prize to a runner-up in the event the winner cannot be contacted. Public Knowledge staff will determine the winner based solely on their individual aesthetic and intellectual judgement as to how well each entry reused and re-imagined the original content.
6. WINNER NOTIFICATION. The winner will be notified via the contact information associated with the email account of the winning entry. Upon contact, Public Knowledge will need to obtain the winner’s real name and mailing address, and a confirmation that the winner is eighteen years of age or older. If Public Knowledge cannot contact the winner through the contact information associated with the email account of the winning entry within a reasonable amount of time, a runner-up will receive the prize; if the runner-up cannot be contacted, then Public Knowledge will donate the prize to a charity or nonprofit organization of its choice.
7. RETENTION AND ASSIGNMENT OF RIGHTS. Entrants retain the copyright to their entries, but by entering the contest, entrants grant Public Knowledge an irrevocable and permanent license to use their entries in any way without payment. (This includes, but is not limited to, the right to edit, copy, modify, adapt, perform, display, transmit, distribute the entry in any way.)
8. TAXES. The winner will be solely responsible for paying all federal, state, and local taxes that may be due on the winnings, and as a condition for receiving the prize, Public Knowledge may require that the winner complete tax documentation.
9. LIABILITY AND JURISDICTION. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply; void where prohibited. All disputes arising out of or connected with this Contest will be resolved exclusively by a court located in the District of Columbia. Decisions of Public Knowledge regarding the interpretation of these rules are final. By participating in this contest, you agree to release Public Knowledge and its agents from any and all liability, claims or actions of any kind for injuries, damages or losses to persons and property which may be sustained in connection with the receipt, ownership, possession, use or misuse of any prize. Public Knowledge reserves the right to amend these official rules and to permanently disqualify from this contest any person it believes has intentionally violated these official rules.