Sorry for the delay in responding.
Many of the issues cited here are a result of limitations in the way Java.Net works. We’ve tried to tailor the contestant role permissions to limit the amount of potential abuse. Unfortunately, there was some confusion about how various role permissions work, which has led to a number of the issues mentioned in this forum.
For those of you concerned about piracy, you may post a README to the folder with instructions for the judges to get access to your games (and any necessary activation codes)
Sun has no plans to distribute the games entered in the contest, but reserves the right to use the games for demonstration purposes. We also reserve the right to post or provide a link to the game, though this isn’t intended as a distribution mechanism, but rather an opportunity to provide or direct people to more information about the game. Basically, if we pick a winner, but can’t show it off, or privide information about it publicly it’s of no use to us. If you’ve got a game you’re planning to release a year from now, and don’t want anyone to know about it in the meantime, don’t enter the contest.
The game should be playable when entered, and does not necessarily need to be a complete version. If you want to submit a complete version, that’s fine, though it would be impractical for the judges to play a 20+ hour game to completion for the sake of evaluating the entry.