Jerry and Amid over at Cartoon Brew have done the artistic community (and not just the one in and around animation) a service with their stance against "contests" that attempt to pry oodles of spec work out of young animators. There are times in any business, especially when one is starting out, when it makes sense to work for free or for bus tokens…but in most instances, it's foolish and even injurious. I've written about this in the past here and when I have time, I'll write more. But right now, I want to direct you to Cartoon Brew's open letter to the Sesame Street folks who are working their variation on this exploitive practice. I totally agree with this letter.