[dlavery]

There is no way to sugar-coat this, or make it any easier to accept. If you used Linkin Park music - either a direct use of their recording, or your own performance of one of their copyrighted songs - in whole or in part, and you did not obtain their permission to do so in writing, you are screwed. That is a direct violation of the rules. It is very clearly spelled out in the Autodesk Visualization Award rules and submission sheets that unless you either own the copyright or have permission to use it, you can't use copyrighted materials.

Note that whether the use of copyrighted music in your animation is "legal" or not is irrelevant. The rules as stated in the Autodesk Visualization Award write-ups have nothing to do with the legal definition of "fair use" or anything else. The rules for the award are what the rules are. The use of a piece of Linkin Park music without permission may or may not be legal in any other application. It may or may not be considered fair use for any other purpose. Neither of those matter. The RULES say you can't do it for THIS competition. Therefore, your entry will probably be thrown out by Autodesk without further consideration.

Don't count on any special leniency or leeway from Autodesk just because you put in a lot of effort on the rest of the animation. Write this one off as a painful lesson learned, and move on.

-dave

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Y = AX^2 + B... ehhh, whatever