I went to apply for Amtrak's writer's residencies, but since they require you to submit a sample of your work I decided to read the fine print because I like to know what kind of rights I'm agreeing to when I submit my writing somewhere.

I came across this clause in the contract that was a deal-breaker for me (emphasis mine):

Applicant understands and agrees that Sponsor has wide access to ideas, stories and other literary, artistic and creative materials submitted to it from outside sources or developed by its own employees and agents (together, “Sponsor Creative”); and, such Sponsor Creative may be competitive with, similar to (or even identical to) the writing sample/answers to questions created and submitted by Applicants; and, Sponsor shall have no liability to Applicant or any third party in respect to or in connection with the development, use, sale and/or commercial exploitation of all or any portion of Sponsor Creative by Sponsor and/or its designees and licensees, all of which liability, if any, Applicant hereby expressly and irrevocably waives, releases and discharges.

Let me translate the Legalese here so nobody falls into the trap of thinking this is just boiler plate: what they're saying is basically "Hey, we get a lot of stuff from our creative team, so if we copy your submission word for word and don't give you credit, you have to sign a waiver saying you agree that it's our copy writers' work and not yours."

That's the catch. Amtrak's residencies for writers will go to 24 schmucks and the thousands of writers who are submitting their work run the risk of giving them tens of thousands of dollars of free advertising copy.

I saw that and immediately closed the tab with my application without submitting it. I will NOT agree to terms like these under any circumstances, ever.