Official Rules for the “Show Us Your Family’s Halloween Costumes” Contest
Official Rules for Us Weekly’s “Show Us Your Family’s Halloween Costumes” Contest
NO PURCHASE REQUIRED TO ENTER OR WIN.
1. Eligibility: Open to legal residents of the 50 contiguous United States and Washington DC who as of the time of entry are 18 years of age or older (must be at least age of majority in entrant’s state). Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations and is void where prohibited by law.
2. Sponsor : Us Weekly LLC (“Us Weekly”), 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104.
3. Agreement to Official Rules: By participating in the Contest, entrant fully and unconditionally agrees to and accepts these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor which are final and binding in all matters related to the Contest.
4. How to Enter:
a. Entrants may enter the “Show Us Your Family’s Halloween Costumes” Contest (the “Contest”) via Instagram and/or Twitter. Entrants should follow @UsWeekly on Instagram and/or Twitter, and ensure that the “Photos Are Private” option (“Protect my Tweets” option on Twitter) in the settings on your social account is set to “OFF”. On your public (not protected) account, upload your photographic submission (“Submission”), keeping in mind the five objective judging criteria listed below, and in the caption for the photo/video include custom hashtags #UsDoesHalloween along with reply to @UsWeekly; OR
b. Entrants may also enter the Contest by mailing their name, address, as well as their Submission to: Us Weekly LLC,1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10104. Attn: Entry For Us Weekly’s “Show Us Your Family’s Halloween Costume” Contest to be considered. Entries must be postmarked no later than October 20, 2016 and received no later than October 23, 2016.
Limit one entry per person. If more than one (1) entry is submitted, only the first entry received will be judged. Contest begins at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (“EST”) on 10/19/2016. All Submissions must be received by 11:59 p.m. EST on 10/23/2016.
For further Submission dates and guidelines, see paragraphs 5, 6 and 8.
As a condition of entering this Contest, entrants consent to have their entry information submitted to Sponsor. For details of Sponsor policies regarding the use of personal information collected in connection with this Contest, visit Sponsor’s privacy policy at http://www.usweekly.com/services/privacypolicy.
By participating in the Contest entrants hereby agree to the collection and usage of their personal information and acknowledge that they have read and accepted the terms of both of these privacy policies.
b. No mechanically reproduced or computer generated Submissions permitted. Not responsible for lost, late or misdirected Submissions, or Submissions containing incorrect or incomplete information. Not responsible for any problems or technical malfunctions of any telephone network or lines, computer, on-line, or Internet systems or services, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email or entry or confirmation or winner’s notice on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet, problems with the Us Weekly website or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to entrant’s or any other person’s computer resulting from downloading any materials in connection with the Contest. Submissions become the property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned.
5. Judging/Selection of Grand Prize Winner:
a. Submissions will be judged by a qualified panel of judges selected by Sponsor (“Judges”) who will consider the following criteria (“Judges’ Criteria”): cuteness (33.33%), humor (33.33%), and creativity/originality (33.34%). In the event of a tie, the entry with the higher score first in the creativity/originality category, then in the special technique skill category and then in the subject/interest skill category will be declared the Finalist.
The questions below are illustrative of the types of questions and factors judges will take into consideration in assessing the outlined criteria:
Cuteness : Is the photo adorable; lovable; endearing?
Humor : Is the photo amusing; witty; comical?
Originality/Creativity : Does the image depict an original subject and/or approach to a standard subject?
The winners will be notified by a comment from @UsWeekly to the winner’s photo submission on the winner’s Instagram account on or around October 26.
The decisions of the Judges and of Sponsor will be final and binding on all matters relating to the Contest.
7. Winner Prize:
a. Ten (10) Prize Winners will receive the following package (the “Prize”):
· Ten (10) Prize Winners will have their photo featured on UsMagazine.com
b. Total ARV of the Prize: $0. Actual retail value may vary. Winner will not receive the difference between the actual and approximate retail value. Certain restrictions and blackout dates may apply.
c. Sponsor reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. No substitution or transfer of prize permitted except as provided herein. Prizes are non-redeemable for cash. In the event of unavailability, Sponsor may substitute a prize of greater or equal value.
8. By entering this Contest, you agree to the following:
a. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
1. Submissions cannot:
· Have been previously submitted to any contest, sweepstakes, or promotion of any kind;
· Contain any trademarks, logos or copyrighted material (such as company names, music, photographs or works of art), unless such material is owned solely by entrant;
· Promote the use of alcohol, drugs, tobacco, firearms/weapons, any activities that may appear unsafe or dangerous or any particular political agenda or message;
- Depict, or itself be in, violation of any law;
· Be obscene, sexually explicit, pornographic, offensive, illegal, hateful or obscene, or promote violence or harm;
· Contain any virus, Trojan horse or other harmful or malicious code; or
· Defame, impersonate, misrepresent, slander, libel or contain disparaging remarks about other people or companies, or violate anyone’s privacy.
2. Entrants must:
· Submit a photograph that is your (the entrant’s) original work, keeping in mind the five objective judging criteria listed above;
· Obtain written permission (including any minors) from each person who appears in the Submission, who helped create the Submission, or whose intellectual property is included in the Submission;
3. You shall be solely responsible for your own Submissions and the consequences of submitting and publishing your Submissions in the Contest. By entering, you affirm, represent, and warrant as follows:
· You own or have all necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to publish the Submissions and to grant Sponsor the rights to use the Submissions as set forth in these Official Rules. Without limiting the preceding sentence, you represent that you have obtained all of the rights, licenses and permissions from each person that appeared in the Submission or helped create the Submission or whose intellectual property is included in the Submission.
· All elements of the Submission are your original work;
· The publication and use of the Submission as provided in these Official Rules does not and will not violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including without limitation contracts, copyrights, trademarks or rights of publicity or privacy; and
· Sponsor and its licensees, assigns and promotional partners will not be required to pay any money or incur any obligations to any person or entity as a result of their use, exhibition, publication or exploitation of the Submission in whole or in part.
b. Sponsor and/or its designed representatives will review all Submissions received. If any Submission fails to conform to these Official Rules, would reflect poorly on Sponsor or the Contest or could adversely affect the reputation or goodwill of Sponsor, Sponsor may remove the Submission and make it ineligible for the Contest. Sponsor also reserve the right, at Sponsor’s option, to edit any Submission, including to omit third parties, or to require entrant to edit the Submission in order to make it eligible for entry in the Contest.
c. Sponsor, and its licensees, assigns and promotional partners may edit, publish, copy, distribute, display, publicly perform and otherwise use, and license others to use and edit, your Submission, worldwide in any media, formats, editions, and derivations, now known or hereafter developed, for all possible editorial, advertising and promotional purposes without further permission, notice or compensation, except where prohibited by law. Submitting your entry constitutes your consent to give Sponsor a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive license to use, publicly perform, reproduce, modify, publish, create derivative works from, and display any such entry in whole or in part, in any media worldwide using technology now known or later developed, for any purpose, including for promotional or marketing purposes. If requested, you must sign any documentation required for Sponsor or their designees to make use of the non-exclusive rights you are granting to use the Submission. By participating in the Contest, you agree that you provide your entry freely and without restriction, that you were not solicited or compensated for your entry, and that your entry will not place Sponsor under any obligations other than those contained in these Official Rules. You also acknowledge and agree that Sponsor is free to disclose the ideas contained in the entry on a non-confidential basis to anyone or otherwise use the ideas therein without any compensation to you. You further acknowledge that Sponsor do not waive any rights to use similar or related ideas previously known to Sponsor, or developed by their employees, or obtained from sources other than you. By entering the Contest, you understand and acknowledge that you will not now or in the future be paid or compensated in any way for your entry or for granting the Sponsor any of the rights set out in these Official Rules. You further acknowledge that Sponsor is not obligated to make use of any of the rights granted in these Official Rules. Without limiting the above language, Sponsor may publish, display, publicly perform and use your Submission, Statement in Us Weekly magazine and on usmagazine.com and its related digital properties, applications and social media, and in advertising materials for the products and services of Us Weekly and on Us Weekly’s websites including social media. You waive any and all “moral rights” or similar rights that you may have in any jurisdiction.
d. You consent to the use by Sponsor and its licensees, assigns and promotional partners of your name, image, voice, likeness and biographical information worldwide in any media, now known or hereafter developed, for all possible editorial, advertising and promotional purposes without further permission, notice or compensation, in perpetuity, to the fullest extent permitted by law. Without limiting the foregoing, you agree that your name, image, voice, likeness and biographical information may be used in advertising materials for the goods and services of Sponsor.
e. You release and hold harmless Sponsor, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, and each of their licensees, assigns and promotional partners, parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates and related companies, and the respective officers, directors, employees, agents, successors, licensees, and assigns of each of the foregoing (collectively, “Released Parties”) from any violation of any personal or proprietary right you may have in connection with the foregoing uses of the Submission and/or your name, image, voice, likeness and biographical information, including without limitation any claims of libel, slander, invasion of right of privacy, publicity or personality, or copyright infringement. You also will indemnify each of the Released Parties from any harm or injury (including damages, expenses and attorney’s fees) resulting from any third party claim that your Submission violates or infringes any copyright, trademark, privacy or publicity right, or any other right of a third party. A “third party” is anyone other than you or a Released Party.
f. Each entrant hereby acknowledges and agrees that the relationship between the entrant and Sponsor is not a confidential, fiduciary, or other special relationship, and that the entrant’s decision to provide the Submission to Sponsor for purposes of the Contest does not place the Sponsor in a position that is any different from the position held by members of the general public with regard to elements of the Submission, other than as set forth in these Official Rules. Each entrant understands and acknowledges that Sponsor has wide access to ideas, stories, designs, and other literary materials, and that new ideas are constantly being submitted to them or being developed by their own employees. Each entrant also acknowledges that many ideas or stories may be competitive with, similar to, or identical to the Submission and/or each other in theme, idea, plot, format, or other respects. Each entrant acknowledges and agrees that such entrant will not be entitled to any compensation as a result of Sponsor use of any such similar or identical material that has or may come to Sponsor from other sources.
9. Disqualification
a. A participant may be disqualified and be ineligible to win the Contest, in Sponsor’s discretion, if the participant:
· has been convicted of a felony or has felony charges pending against him or her;
· has been convicted of any crime (felony or misdemeanor) that, Sponsor determines in its sole discretion, involves drugs or alcohol, domestic violence, or child endangerment or has charges of such crime pending against him or her;
· has an outstanding arrest warrant (felony or misdemeanor) against him or her; or
· is subject to a restraining order.
b. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any person tampering with the entry process, the operation of usmagazine.com or who is otherwise in violation of the Official Rules. Sponsor further reserves the right to cancel, terminate or modify the Contest in the event the Contest is not capable of completion as planned, including but not limited to infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, printing errors, or technical failures of any kind. In the event of a dispute as to entries submitted by multiple users having the same email account, the authorized subscriber of the email account used to enter the Contest at the actual time of entry will be deemed to be the entrant and must comply with these Official Rules. Authorized account subscriber is deemed to be the natural person who is assigned an email address by an Internet access provider, on-line service provider or other organization which is responsible for assigning email addresses or the domain associated with the submitted email address. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY ANY PARTICIPANT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE THE WEBSITE OR TAMPER WITH OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS. SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK REMEDIES AND DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH ENTRANT(S) TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.
10. General:
a. Employees, directors and officers of Sponsor and their respective parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising or promotional agencies, and their immediate family members and/or those living in same household are not eligible.
b. All federal, state, and local taxes are the sole responsibility of the Winner, who will receive an IRS Form 1099 reflecting the final actual value of any prize valued at $600 or more. Should the ARV of the prize equal or exceed $600.00, Winner shall be required to provide a Social Security Number and necessary tax form to Sponsor for issuance of a 1099 Form. Consult with your tax professional regarding potential tax implications.
c. As a condition of entering the Sweepstakes and winning the Prize, the Winner consents to his/her information (which may include contact information, Affidavits/Releases, and/or tax form) being sent to the Sponsor.
d. By participating in the Contest, entrants, Winner agrees to release and hold harmless the Released Parties from and against any and all liability whatsoever for any loss, harm, damage, injury, cause of action, claim, cost or expense (including without limitation any property damage, personal injury and/or death) arising out of or in connection with the (i) the Submission; or (ii) the Contest, including without limitation participation in any Contest-related activity, travel to or from any Contest-related activity, and/or possession, acceptance, use or misuse of any prize and for any claims based on publicity rights, copyright infringement, defamation or invasion of privacy.
Released Parties are not responsible if the Contest cannot take place or if the Prize cannot be awarded due to travel cancellations, delays or interruptions due to acts of God, acts of war, natural disasters, weather, acts of terrorism, interruptions in transportation, power or communication facilities, labor strikes or lockouts or any other cause beyond Released Parties’ reasonable control.
Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.
e. Winner acknowledges that Released Parties have not made nor are in any manner responsible or liable for any warranty, representation, or guarantee, express or implied, in fact or in law, relative to any prize, including but not limited to its quality, mechanical condition or fitness for a particular purpose. Any and all warranties and/or guarantees on a prize (if any) are subject to the respective manufacturers’ terms therefore, and Winner agrees to look solely to such manufacturers for any such warranty and/or guarantee.
f. ARBITRATION and WAIVER OF CERTAIN DAMAGES: As a condition of participating in this Contest, entrants agree that (a) under no circumstances will entrant be permitted to obtain awards for, and entrant hereby waives all rights to claim, punitive, incidental, consequential or any other indirect damages, (b) all causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest, or any prizes awarded, shall be resolved exclusively by arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association before a single arbitrator located in New York County, New York; and (c) any and all claims, judgments, and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred including costs associated with entering this promotion, but in no event attorney’s fees or any equitable or injunctive relief. Disputes arising from this Contest, or any matter arising therefrom, whether direct or indirect, will be determined according to the laws of the State of New York, without reference to its conflict of laws principles.
g. This promotion is in no way endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter or any social media.
10. Winner’s List: For the name of the prize winner, until December 31, 2016, send a separate, stamped, self-addressed, No.10 envelope to: “Us Weekly’s Show Us Your Family’s Halloween Costumes Contest” Attention: Us Weekly Marketing, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104.