Pet Pals Photo Contest Rules
OFFICIAL RULES
1. NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO ENTER OR TO WIN. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. ALL FEDERAL, STATE, LOCAL AND MUNICIPAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS APPLY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
2. Am I Eligible To Participate? Subject to the additional restrictions below, the AARP “Pet Pals” Photo Contest (the “Contest”) is open to residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are eighteen years of age or older at the time of entry. Employees of AARP Services, Inc. (“Sponsor”) and its affiliated companies, and advertising and promotional agencies, and the immediate family members of, and any persons domiciled with, any such employees, are not eligible to enter or to win. The term “immediate family members” includes spouses, parents, grandparents, siblings, children, and grandchildren.
3. How Do I Enter? The Contest will begin at 5:00 p.m. (E.T.) on September 14, 2006 and end at 4:59 p.m. (E.T.) on December 14, 2006. To enter, send an email with your name, mailing address (including street address, city, state and zip code) and pet’s name to (address removed) and attach a digital photograph of your pet to the email message. Digital photographs must be in .jpg, .jpeg, or .gif format and no larger than 500 kilobytes (500 KB) in size. The photograph you submit must be an original photograph for which you own the copyright or have secured the right to distribute without restriction. Photographs may only include pets and may not include images of identifiable people. Limit one (1) entry per person, per email address, per week. No mail-in entries will be accepted; photos must be digital only. The Contest will consist of sixty-five (65) separate Daily Winner selection processes, in which entries will be judged against other entries submitted in the same Entry Window (as defined in Paragraph 4, below). Each Daily Winner’s photo will be considered in the Weekly Winner selection process (described below), and each Weekly Winner’s photo will be considered for the Grand Prize. Sponsor will not be responsible for incomplete, lost, late, misdirected or unreadable entries or for failure to receive entries due to transmission failures or technical failures of any kind, including, without limitation, malfunctioning of any network, hardware or software, whether originating with sender or Sponsor. In the event of a dispute, all entries will be deemed to have been submitted by the owner of the email account from which they were sent. For these purposes, an email account holder shall mean the natural person assigned to such email account by the Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with such email account. All entries become property of Sponsor and none will be returned. Any questions regarding the number of entries submitted or the owner of an email account shall be determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion, and Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any entries by persons determined to be tampering with or abusing any aspect of the Contest. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any entry that does not comply with these rules, that is alleged to infringe on any third party’s intellectual property rights, or that Sponsor deems obscene, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate for viewing by a general audience. By submitting a photograph in a Contest, you agree to be bound by all of the terms and conditions of these Official Rules, including the grant of rights set forth in Paragraph 5, below; if you do not agree with these terms and conditions, do not submit an entry.
4. How Will Winners Be Selected?
Daily Winners. Each weekday from September 15, 2006 through December 14, 2006 (each a “Contest Day”), Sponsor will select one (1) daily winner (“Daily Winner”) from among all eligible entries received up to midnight ET the previous Contest Day (the “Entry Window”). No Daily Winners will be selected on Saturday or Sunday.
Daily Winners will be selected from any of the photos submitted before midnight the previous Contest Day, i.e. the October 14 Daily Winner could be selected from all photos submitted from September 14 to midnight October 13. Daily Winners will be selected by Sponsor on the basis of creativity, composition, and photo quality. No prizes will be awarded to Daily Winners, but the Daily Winners (and only the Daily Winners) will be considered in the Weekly Winner selection process, as described below. A total of sixty-five (65) Daily Winners will be selected in the Contest. Each Daily Winner will have his or her photograph displayed online at www.aarp.org/fun between September 14 and December 14, 2006.
Weekly Winners. As noted above, each Daily Winner will have his or her photograph displayed online at www.aarp.org/fun. Visitors to www.aarp.org/fun will be able to rank and comment on their favorite photos. Each Friday during the Contest, Sponsor will review the five (5) Daily Winner photographs that were the subject of that week’s public ranking and comment process (i.e., the Daily Winners that were selected on Friday of the previous week and on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the current week) and will begin the process of selecting one (1) winner from among those photographs (the “Weekly Winner”). The ranking that each photograph receives from website visitors will be considered by Sponsor in selecting a Weekly Winner, but will not necessarily be determinative of the Weekly Winner; Sponsor also will consider the creativity, composition, and quality of each photograph. One (1) Weekly Winner will be selected each week for thirteen (13) consecutive weeks of the Contest, and each Weekly Winner’s photograph will be displayed online at www.aarp.org/fun. Judging and evaluation of comments and rankings will be conducted by Sponsor and the Contest judges appointed by Sponsor, whose decisions shall be final and binding in all respects.
Grand Prize Winner. After December 15, 2006, Sponsor will review the thirteen (13) photographs selected as Weekly Winners in the Contest and will select one (1) Grand Prize Winner from the among those photographs. The ranking that each photograph received from website visitors during the Daily Winner selection process will be considered by Sponsor in selecting a Grand Prize Winner, but will not necessarily be determinative of the Grand Prize Winner; Sponsor also will consider the creativity, composition, and quality of each photograph. The Grand Prize Winner’s photograph will be displayed online at www.aarp.org/fun. Grand Prize judging will be conducted by the Sponsor and the Contest judges appointed by Sponsor, whose decisions shall be final and binding in all respects.
5. How Will AARP Use The Photo I Submit? If your pet photo is selected as a Daily or Weekly Winner, Sponsor will post your photograph to the www.aarp.org/fun website. If your photograph is selected as a Weekly Winner or as the Grand Prize Winner, your photograph also will be included in a calendar. Each of the twelve (12) Weekly Winners who were not selected as the Grand Prize Winner will have their winning photographs featured inside the calendar (i.e., one winning photograph will be associated with each calendar month), and the Grand Prize Winner will have his or her photograph featured on the calendar’s front cover. In addition, Sponsor may post on the www.aarp.org/fun website photographs that are not selected as Daily Winners and may include non-winning photographs in the calendar. Accordingly, by submitting a photograph in the Contest, you acknowledge and agree that Sponsor shall have the right (without limitation or further compensation to you) to edit, adapt, modify, reproduce, publish, promote, display and otherwise use your entry in any way it sees fit, including the right to publish your entry online and in print, as described herein.
6. What Could I Win? At the conclusion of the Contest, each of the thirteen (13) Weekly Winners will receive one (1) ten dollar ($10.00) Petsmart gift card (approximate value $10.00). The Grand Prize Winner will receive one (1) Canon SD600 6.0 Megapixel Elph Digital Camera (approximate retail value: $300.00). The Grand Prize Winner and Weekly Winners will also receive a copy of the printed calendar described in Paragraph 5, above. No prizes will be awarded to Daily Winners.
7. When Will Winners Be Notified? Each Weekly Winner will be notified by email (at the email address from which his or her entry was submitted) within seventy-two (72) hours after he or she is selected as a Weekly Winner. The Grand Prize Winner will be notified by email (at the email address from which his or her entry was submitted) on or about December 19, 2006. Sponsor’s inability to reach a winner, the return of any prize notification as undeliverable, a winner’s failure to timely respond to prize notification, and/or a winner’s failure to comply with any term or condition of these Official Rules may result in that winner’s disqualification, the forfeiture of his or her interest in all prizes, and the selection of a substitute winner. Winners may be required to complete an affidavit of eligibility, and a liability and publicity release (except where prohibited by law) which must be returned within ten (10) days of date of personal delivery or date of sender’s postmark.
8. What Other Terms Apply? Winners may waive their right to receive a prize. Prizes are nonassignable and nontransferable. No substitutions or cash equivalents allowed by winners. Prizes are subject to availability and Sponsor reserves the right to substitute prizes of equal or greater value. Winners are solely responsible for reporting and payment of any taxes on prizes. Except where prohibited, participation in the Contest constitutes each contestant’s consent to the publication of his or her name, likeness, city and state of residence and biographical information in any media, including without limitation the Internet, for any commercial or promotional purpose, without limitation or further compensation. Prizes not won and claimed by an eligible winner in accordance with these Official Rules will not be awarded and will remain the property of Sponsor. By participating, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of Sponsor and Contest judges designated by Sponsor. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify persons found tampering with or otherwise abusing any aspect of this Contest as solely determined by Sponsor. In the event the Contest is compromised by a virus, non-authorized human intervention, tampering or other causes beyond the reasonable control of Sponsor which corrupts or impairs the administration, security, fairness or proper operation of the Contest, Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to suspend, modify or terminate the Contest. Should the Contest be terminated prior to the stated expiration date, Sponsor reserves the right to award prizes based on the entries received before the termination date. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of these rules shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision. In the event that any such provision is determined to be invalid or otherwise unenforceable, these rules shall be construed in accordance with their terms as if the invalid or unenforceable provision was not contained therein.
9. Who Is The Sponsor? The AARP “Pet Pals” Photo Contest is sponsored by AARP Services, Inc. The decisions of Sponsor and the Contest judges designated by Sponsor regarding the selection of winners and all other aspects of the Contest shall be final and binding in all respects. Sponsor will not be responsible for typographical, printing or other inadvertent errors in these Official Rules or in other materials relating to the Contest.
10. How Can I Request The Winner’s Name Or A Copy Of These Rules? For the names of the winners (available after December 19, 2006) or a copy of these Official Rules send a self-addressed, stamped envelope (VT residents may omit return postage) to AARP “Pet Pals” Photo Contest, AARP Services, Inc., 601 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20049, Attn: Laura Boswell. Indicate whether you are requesting the winner’s name, a copy of these official rules, or both. For the names of the winners or a copy of these Official Rules visit www.aarp.org/fun/.
