I would expect it from a private corporation. I would not expect it from a government agency.
Usually, a government agency is more interested in getting people to create things. The motivation is that by offering a prize, they encourage people to create things. Acquiring the thing is not the point. Of course, they need the right to depict the product, but they do not usually want to use it for anything and everything that they want, in perpetuity, including the right to make derivative works (without your permission, I might add).
The way that this is designed, I would not want to encourage anybody that I know to participate in it. You may disagree, but we probably have different thresholds for what we deem to be acceptable risk.
Let me put it another way. If I were to pour my heart and soul into this project, the absolute maximum value that I could extract is $20k, which is ~$13.7k after taxes. That is the ceiling. That is it. Why would I do something that would take so much time for so little potential? I would rather risk my time on something that has no ceiling. I would give the same advice to anyone. Never settle for anything when there is an artificially-imposed cap on the earning potential.
Usually, a government agency is more interested in getting people to create things. The motivation is that by offering a prize, they encourage people to create things. Acquiring the thing is not the point. Of course, they need the right to depict the product, but they do not usually want to use it for anything and everything that they want, in perpetuity, including the right to make derivative works (without your permission, I might add).
The way that this is designed, I would not want to encourage anybody that I know to participate in it. You may disagree, but we probably have different thresholds for what we deem to be acceptable risk.
Let me put it another way. If I were to pour my heart and soul into this project, the absolute maximum value that I could extract is $20k, which is ~$13.7k after taxes. That is the ceiling. That is it. Why would I do something that would take so much time for so little potential? I would rather risk my time on something that has no ceiling. I would give the same advice to anyone. Never settle for anything when there is an artificially-imposed cap on the earning potential.