I have a little bad news on this front, unfortunately. After talking with a few people I am discovering that for most conventions AMV contest aren't really done with permissions, per say. Some of it falls under 'fair use' for copyright, but some of it does not. It's in a very grey area. It's more the type of thing where most anime distributers don't care that much since it's more promotion for them, and it's not that big enough of an issue for the music industry to get involved either...though there has been some rumors on the interent recently about some people getting legal threats from the RIAA for posting AMVs (I don't know how true those rumors are or not). All in all, it's a very ambiguous, murky sort of area copyright-wise. It's true that lots and lots of people do it, but the library by nature of what it is has to be uber-copyright-conscientious. So, unfortunately, for the moment it's something we are going to have to stay away from doing.

I'll still look into it though. There may be channels where we can get permissions from the music industry (that's the real sticking point I think) and do it on the up-and up. I just have to find out how. I'll keep you posted.