The Torvalds-Simpsons Prize

To claim the prize, a regular episode of The Simpsons must contain:

1) A character must look similar to Linus Torvald.

I assume you want to insert an image or hyperlink here.

2) The character must be wearing a tee shirt picturing Tux, the penguin mascot of the Linux Operating System. This rule may be omitted, if and only if, usage rights for the logo cannot be obtained without incurring licensing costs.

I assumed Tux would be in the public domain. If so, there's no need for this rule. Also, I'd lose, "and only if,"

3) The character's voice in English, Swedish and Finnish must be that of Linus Torvald himself. Linus has the option not to perform as the voice actor for the Swedish and Finnish audio tracks at his discretion. The overriding obligation of this rule will be limited to the languages that a normal TV episode of the Simpsons is distributed in.

You're signing Linus up to do something that he may not want to do. I would just say that Linus Torvald must be offered the option to record his own voice as long as it does not require the producers of the show to incur additional costs.

4) The cameo appearance must last 15 seconds or longer.

5) Linus must interact with at least one of the Simpson family members in the cameo appearance.

I think this is dictates the content of the episode too much. Perhaps, for example, the writers of the episode have a funny situation requiring Linus to be paired with Professor Frink.

6) A non-exclusive, non-revocable, non-expiring, non-commercial use license must be granted to the public to record, remix, and redistribute the cameo portion of the episode.

Only the head of the Fox Network would have the ability to amend the licensing rights for the show, and I think that's probably too much to ask. I think it'll spread virally no matter what, and there won't be much the network will try to do about it.

The prize is to be paid out once an episode of the Simpsons is broadcast by a TV network reaching over 50% of United States televisions - and - a video clip of the cameo performance is uploaded to the video sharing site YouTube.

I'd change this to: "7) The prize shall be paid out after the cameo appearance of Linus Torvald is broadcast as part of a original, regularly-scheduled, prime-time episode of The Simpsons."

The prize is to be distributed according to the wishes of the winning episode's writer but not in a way which causes more than 100 separate checks to be generated.

It would be simpler to just make the check out to the writer and allowing him or her to perform the distribution. Also, if an episode has more than one writer, the rules should stipulate that the prize money will be distributed evenly between them.