Agent Academy Live Hackathon — Disclaimer

Protecting Confidential Content and Submissions

Important Notice to All Contributors

This disclaimer governs your use of the Agent Academy Live Hackathon public GitHub repository. By submitting content, code, or materials to this repository, you acknowledge and agree to these terms.

The Agent Academy Live Hackathon is a developer challenge showcasing AI agent development using patterns and concepts from the Agent Academy curriculum and Microsoft Copilot Studio. Submissions are made to a public repository accessible worldwide. Contributors must ensure compliance with all applicable policies, protect confidential information, and understand their responsibilities regarding intellectual property and liability.

Failure to comply may result in content removal, disqualification from the hackathon, or other appropriate actions. Please read this disclaimer carefully before making any submissions.

Prohibited Content and Confidential Information Protection

Contributors must never upload confidential, proprietary, or sensitive information to this public repository.

Prohibited content includes

Company Confidential or Highly Confidential information
Company Internal engineering projects not approved for open source
Customer data or personally identifiable information (PII)
Credentials, API keys, passwords, tokens, or secrets
Proprietary algorithms or trade secrets
Pre-release product information under NDA

All submissions must contain only General-level information suitable for public release. Contributors are responsible for reviewing their code and removing any sensitive data before submission.

Security Risk Assessment

Content Type	Risk Level	Description
Credentials & Secrets	Critical	Immediate security breach risk if exposed
Customer PII	High	Compliance violations and privacy concerns
Proprietary Code	High	Intellectual property and competitive risks
Pre-release Information	Medium	NDA violations and competitive disadvantage
Internal Documentation	Medium	Confidentiality breach concerns

Intellectual Property Rights and Licensing

By submitting content to this repository, contributors grant Microsoft and the community specific rights while retaining certain protections.

Contributor Representations and Warranties

All submissions must be the contributor’s original work or properly licensed for public use
Contributors represent and warrant they have all necessary rights, licenses, and permissions for submitted materials
Submissions become subject to the repository’s open source license as specified in the LICENSE file
Contributors retain ownership of their original work but grant Microsoft a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, and distribute submissions for operating the hackathon program

The repository follows Microsoft’s Contributor License Agreement (CLA) process to protect both contributors and Microsoft.

Prohibited Intellectual Property Violations

Contributors must not submit content that:

Infringes third-party intellectual property rights
Violates patents or copyrights
Contains proprietary information belonging to employers or other entities without authorization

Rights Summary

Rights Category	Contributor Retains	Microsoft Receives	Community Receives
Ownership	Original work copyright and authorship	Non-exclusive usage rights	Access under open source license
Usage Rights	Right to reuse in other projects	Right to operate hackathon program	Right to fork, modify, and distribute
License Grant	Can license elsewhere independently	Perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license	Rights per repository LICENSE file
Modification Rights	Can modify own original work	Can adapt submissions for platform needs	Can create derivative works per license
Distribution	Can distribute original independently	Can distribute as part of hackathon	Can redistribute per license terms

Security Best Practices for Repository Contributions

Contributors must implement security best practices before submitting:

Authentication and Access

✅ Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on GitHub accounts
✅ Store recovery codes securely
✅ Use GitHub Personal Access Tokens instead of passwords
✅ Revoke tokens when no longer needed

Secret Management

✅ Never commit credentials, keys, or secrets to any Git repository
✅ Use environment variables or secure vaults instead
✅ Review Git commit history to ensure no sensitive information was accidentally included
✅ Scan code with secret detection tools before pushing to public repositories

Attribution and Compliance

✅ Configure Git clients to use appropriate email addresses for commits
✅ Follow the Open Source Code of Conduct

Contributor Responsibilities and Requirements

Pre-Submission Requirements

☐ Verify all submissions comply with Microsoft Open Source GitHub Guidelines and these disclaimer terms
☐ Ensure submissions contain only General-level, non-confidential information approved for public release
☐ Review and remove any sensitive data, credentials, internal references, or proprietary information before submission
☐ Provide accurate and complete information when creating accounts
☐ Maintain professional GitHub profiles

Compliance Requirements

☐ Accept and sign the Microsoft Contributor License Agreement (CLA) as required
☐ Follow the repository’s Code of Conduct
☐ Engage respectfully with the community
☐ Maintain security of GitHub accounts through 2FA and secure password practices

Ongoing Responsibilities

☐ Respond promptly to any security concerns or content removal requests from repository maintainers
☐ Understand that submissions may be used to evaluate projects using the published judging rubric
☐ Acknowledge that Microsoft may delete, modify, or remove submissions that violate these terms without prior notice
☐ Contributors remain responsible for all activity under their accounts

Enforcement and Content Removal

Microsoft reserves the right to monitor, review, and remove content from this repository to ensure compliance with these terms.

Grounds for Content Removal

Repository maintainers may remove content that:

Contains confidential information
Violates intellectual property rights
Includes prohibited materials
Poses security risks
Breaches the Code of Conduct

Consequences for Violations

Contributors found violating these terms may face:

⚠️ Immediate content removal without notice
⚠️ Disqualification from hackathon evaluation and prizes
⚠️ Revocation of repository access and organization membership
⚠️ Reporting to appropriate authorities for serious violations

Contact

If you have questions about this disclaimer or need to report a security concern:

Security Issues: Please report via GitHub Security Advisories
General Questions: Open an issue in this repository
Content Removal Requests: Open an issue with the content-removal label

This disclaimer is subject to change. Contributors are responsible for reviewing the latest version before each submission.

Last updated: April 2026