Terms of Use

Agreement to These Terms

By accessing or using the VSComp website (vscomp.org), you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these terms of use. If you do not agree with any part of these terms, you should discontinue use of the site. These terms apply to all visitors, participants, and anyone who accesses the site or its contents.

We may update these terms from time to time. Changes will be noted on the changelog. Your continued use of the site after any modifications constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Nature of the Site

VSComp is an academic project dedicated to advancing the field of formal software verification through periodic competitions. This website serves as the primary information resource for the competition, providing access to problem statements, solution records, competition rules, publications, and related educational materials. All content is provided for educational and research purposes.

The site is maintained by the VSComp organising committee on a voluntary basis. It is not a commercial service, and no fees are charged for access to any content. The competition itself is a scholarly activity aimed at the formal-methods research community. For more about the project's background and mission, see the about page.

Intellectual Property and Ownership

The content published on this website — including problem statements, editorial text, site design, and organisational materials — is the intellectual property of the VSComp organising committee or its contributors, unless otherwise stated. This content is made available for personal, educational, and non-commercial research use.

Competition problems and their associated specifications are provided for educational and research purposes. You are welcome to use them in academic courses, study groups, tutorials, and research projects, provided that appropriate attribution is given. If you wish to include VSComp problems or materials in a publication or formal educational setting, please cite the relevant competition edition and, where applicable, the associated publication.

Solutions submitted by competition participants remain the intellectual property of their respective authors. Where solutions are published on this site or in academic proceedings, they are shared with the consent of the authors for the purpose of advancing knowledge in formal verification. The solutions archive provides further details on the availability and terms associated with individual submissions.

Trademarks

The names "VSComp" and "Verified Software Competition" are used to identify this academic project. Use of these names in contexts that could imply endorsement, affiliation, or sponsorship by the organising committee without prior consent is not permitted. Factual references to the competition (such as citing participation or results) are, of course, unrestricted.

Acceptable Use of Materials

You may access and use the materials on this site for the following purposes without seeking additional permission:

• Personal study: Reading and studying problem statements, solutions, and related materials for your own learning.
• Academic instruction: Using competition problems in university courses, seminars, or workshops as teaching materials, with appropriate attribution to VSComp.
• Research: Referencing competition materials in academic papers, theses, and technical reports, with proper citation.
• Tool benchmarking: Using published problem specifications to evaluate or benchmark formal-verification tools, provided that results are reported accurately and the source of the specifications is acknowledged.

You may not use the materials on this site for commercial purposes without prior written consent from the organising committee. You may not present VSComp materials as your own original work, remove attribution notices, or misrepresent the origin of any content obtained from this site.

Terms for Participants

Individuals and teams who participate in the Verified Software Competition agree to the specific rules and submission procedures published for each edition. These are described on the rules page and on the relevant year hub page. By submitting a solution, participants grant the organising committee permission to evaluate, discuss, and — where the participant consents — publish the submission in whole or in part for scholarly purposes.

Participants are responsible for ensuring that their submissions do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties. Solutions must be the original work of the submitting individual or team, or must appropriately attribute and license any third-party components used.

The organising committee reserves the right to disqualify any submission that violates competition rules, infringes third-party rights, or is submitted in bad faith. Decisions of the organising committee regarding eligibility and evaluation are final.

Disclaimer of Warranties

This website and all materials published on it are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. The organising committee makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, reliability, suitability, or availability of the site or its content.

While we endeavour to keep the information on this site accurate and up to date, the nature of an academic project maintained over many years means that some content may be outdated or contain errors. Problem statements are provided as published at the time of the relevant competition edition. Solutions reflect the state of the art at the time they were submitted and may not account for subsequent developments in verification tools or techniques.

The competition problems are designed as verification challenges. The specifications and code fragments published on this site are intended for educational and research purposes and should not be used as production software without independent validation. The organising committee does not warrant that any specification is free from ambiguity or that any solution is free from error.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the VSComp organising committee, its members, and its contributors shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or special damages arising from or in connection with your use of this site or its materials. This includes, without limitation, damages for loss of data, loss of profits, or interruption of work, even if the organising committee has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

This limitation of liability applies whether the alleged liability is based on contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or any other basis, and regardless of whether a remedy set forth herein is found to have failed its essential purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

Availability and Continuity

We make reasonable efforts to keep this site available and accessible. However, as a volunteer-maintained academic project, we cannot guarantee uninterrupted access. The site may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, server issues, or other circumstances beyond our control. We do not commit to any specific uptime guarantee or service-level agreement.

We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the site at any time without prior notice. This includes the right to add, remove, or reorganise content as the organising committee deems appropriate. The changelog records significant changes to the site.

Governing Principles and Dispute Resolution

VSComp operates as an international academic collaboration, and its activities are guided by the norms and principles of the academic research community. These terms are intended to be interpreted in a manner consistent with standard academic practice regarding the sharing of educational and research materials.

In the event of any dispute arising from or relating to these terms or your use of the site, we encourage you to contact the organising committee through the contact page to seek an informal resolution. We believe that most concerns can be addressed through good-faith communication between the parties involved.

These terms do not create any agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship between you and the organising committee. Nothing in these terms is intended to confer rights on any third party.

Severability and Entire Agreement

If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that the remaining provisions continue in full force and effect.

These terms, together with the privacy policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and the organising committee regarding your use of the site and supersede any prior agreements or understandings, whether written or oral. The failure of the organising committee to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

These terms of use were last updated in January 2026.