ACDSee Pro Photo Contest 2008 Official Rules

ELIGIBILITY: Open to legal residents of the United States, Canada and to participants of other countries where permitted. You must be a professional or advaced amateur photographer. You must be 18 years of age or the minimum age required by law at the time of entry to participate. Employees, directors, and contractors of ACD Systems International Inc. and its affiliated companies (”ACD Systems”), and their immediate families and/or those individuals living in the same household are NOT eligible. This Contest shall be construed and evaluated according to the laws of Canada. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW.

ENTRIES: Submission Formats: Digital files (jpeg,gif,png) only. Suggested size: no more than 640×480. Aside from basic post processing such as sharpening, white balance adjustment and levels adjustment, no other image manipulation is allowed. Entrants being considered as potential winners will be required to submit unretouched original images with EXIF info intact. We retain the right to determine appropriateness of post processing used.

A submitted photo must not have previously won a prize in any other contest, whether in Canada or the rest of the world.

Log in and upload your submission to the ACDSee Pro Photo Contest.

COPYRIGHT AND CONTENT: Copyright of the image remains the property of the photographer. All images must be originals and all rights in the photo must be the property of the entrant. The entrant represents and warrants that no third-party has claim or interest in the images and that the entrant has full authority to grant ACD Systems rights to use the images for the purposes of announcing contest winners and otherwise in the ACDSee Gallery; ACD Systems agrees to seek your written permission to use your photos for any other purpose.

Entrant represents and warrants that all images depicting recognizable people are fully-model released by the entrant and that the entrant has full authority to grant ACD Systems the right to publish their photographic submission

The ACDSee Community is a family-friendly site and we reserve the right to reject unsuitable or pornographic images. Unsuitable images include most nude photos as well as photos of a sexually suggestive, inappropriate or offensive nature, as determined by us at our sole discretion. Images cannot defame or invade publicity rights or privacy of any person, living or deceased, or otherwise infringe upon any person’s personal or property rights or any other third-party rights. We reserve the right to disqualify any entry we deem to be offensive, inappropriate or that is not in keeping with our ACD Systems’ image, at their sole discretion.

RANKING: A winner will be determined from among all eligible entries received by the editors of ACD Systems. ACD Systems reserve the right to not award all prizes if, in their sole discretion, an insufficient number of eligible and qualified entries are ranked. Decisions of the judges are final. Why are the ratings not an arithmetic average?: A large amount of people give “1″ ratings to everyone, and therefore a straight average is not appropriate. The method ACD Systems uses for countering this wave of “1″s is making the overall rating a root mean square. In short, ACD Systems computes the square root of the averages of the squares of your ratings. ie: Somebody rates you a 2, somebody else a 10. A 6 ranking would be the result. By using ACD Systems’ method, you get a 7,2, by squaring 2, squaring 10, (4 and 100, respectively) and averaging the results, which would give a final result of 52, which, upon extracting the square root, gives 7,2.

JUDGING: A winner, from among all eligible entries received, will be chosen by a committee consisting of photo experts from ACD Systems. ACD Systems reserve the right to not award all prizes if, in their sole discretion, an insufficient number of eligible and qualified entries are received. Decisions of the judges are final. ACD Systems reserves the right to amend the terms of this contest at any time.

WINNER NOTIFICATION: Winners will be notified by e-mail. Winners have two weeks (14 days) from the date of attempted notification to contact us and accept their prizes. Noncompliance with this time period, with these Official Rules, or the return of any notification as undeliverable, may result in disqualification and, at ACD Systems’ discretion, the prize will be revoked and another winner announced.

ODDS OF WINNING: Chance of winning depends on the number of eligible entries received. Prizes are given as awarded, not redeemable for cash and cannot be substituted. Limit one (1) prize per person/household. All prize details are at the sole discretion of ACD Systems. No substitution, cash equivalent or transfer of prizes permitted by winners. ACD Systems reserve the right to substitute a prize (or portion thereof) of comparable or greater value at their sole discretion. All federal, provincial and local taxes, if any, and any other costs and expenses associated with the acceptance and use of a prize not specified herein as being awarded, are at sole responsibility of the winners.

ERRORS: ACD Systems is not responsible for entries which are lost, late or incomplete for any reason, including, but not limited to technical issues, internet connectivity issues, or any other issues beyond ACD Systems’ control. ACD Systems is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate entry information, whether caused by Web site users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in this Contest and ACD Systems assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect or delay in operation or transmission at any Web site related to the Contest or for communications line failure, or for theft or destruction, tampering, or unauthorized access to entries and/or entry information; or for printing, human typographical or other errors in any Contest material or the administration of this Contest; or for any computer, software, Internet Website or electronic defect, error or failure regardless of reason.

SHIPPING: ACD Systems will pay for shipping of prizes to winners, up to a maximum of $25 USD per prize awarded. Shipping charges in excess of this amount will be the responsibility of the winner, should they choose to accept their prize. Any duties, brokerage fees, insurance, import fees, taxes or any other amount over and above the shipping charges are the sole responsibility of the winner. ACD Systems is not responsible for prizes that are damaged, destroyed or lost in shipping. Certain software prizes may be distributed to the winner through an electronic download link contained within an e-mail. ACD Systems is not responsible for winners who are unable for any reason to download or install their awarded prize.

REASONABLE USE OF ENTRIES: Selected entrant’s images will be posted in an online gallery on ACD Systems’ Website. Entrants grant permission to ACD Systems and its designees for use of entrant’s photograph, name, city and province or state and country of residence in an online gallery on ACD Systems’ Website for up to one (1) year, without compensation. In addition, each Winner grants toACD Systems and its designees a worldwide, nonexclusive license, for a period of one (1) year following notification that they have been determined to be a winner, to use their photograph, name, city and province or state and of residence, and that ACD Systems and its designees may exploit and distribute the entry and all elements of such entry for purposes of promoting this Contest and future Contest publicity and advertising, in any and all media now or hereafter known, without further compensation, notification or permission, unless prohibited by law.

USE OF DATA: ACD Systems will be collecting personal data from participants online. ACD Systems respects your privacy and will use best efforts to protect any personal information that we collect from you, and adhere to all legislative requirements with respect to privacy. ACD Systems will not sell, rent, trade our mailing lists or the information that we collect from you. The information that we gather from you will be used to deliver services and to keep you informed and up-to-date on the activities of ACD Systems and new product updates, offerings and promotions. More information on ACD Systems’ Privacy Policy can be viewed at http://www.acdsystems.com/privacy. By participating in the Contest, you hereby agree to ACD Systems’ collection and use, without further permission or compensation except where prohibited by law, of the personal information gathered, and acknowledge that you have read and agree to ACD Systems’ Privacy Policy. Acceptance of a prize constitutes permission for ACD Systems to publish the respective winner’s name and country/state/province online, in print, and in any other media in connection with the contest.

MISCELLANEOUS: All International, Federal, State, Provincial and local laws apply. By participating in the Contest, entrant agrees (i) to be bound by the terms of these Official Rules and the decisions of the ACD Systems and judges, which are final and binding in all respects, and (ii) to hold ACD Systems, and its respective parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, prize suppliers and advertising and promotion agencies, and the respective directors, officers, employees and agents of the foregoing (collectively, the “Released Parties”), harmless against any and all claims and liability arising out of or in connection with participation in this Contest, acceptance, use or redemption of a prize, and/or use of any rights granted herein. Released Parties are not responsible for lost, late, delayed, misdirected, damaged, undelivered entries or email; or for any other errors or problems of any kind relating to or in connection with the Contest, including, without limitation, errors or problems which may occur in connection with the administration of the Contest, the uploading of the entries, the processing or judging of entries, the announcement of the prizes or winners or in any Contest-related materials. Released Parties are also not responsible for any injury or damage to persons or property that may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from an individual’s participation in the Contest.

ACD Systems reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the operation of the Contest or any Web site related to the Contest; or to be acting in violation of the terms and conditions of these Official Rules. If for any reason, the Contest cannot be completed as planned by infection of computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or other failures that in ACD Systems’ sole opinion corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the Contest, ACD Systems may in its sole discretion cancel, modify, or suspend this Contest by posting a notice on http://www.acdsystems.com and award prizes among all eligible, non-suspect entries received prior to such action. No correspondence, phone call, or other inquiries will be entered into the Contest, nor will they be acknowledged and/or returned.

WINNERS LIST: For the names of winners send an email to: forums@ACDSee.com, to be received by with 2 months of the contest end date.

Thanks for participating & continue to “tell a friend” to boost your rating.