The Sun Herald Pet Calendar Contest | SunHerald.com Pet Contest

The Sun Herald Pet Calendar Contest (the “Contest”) begins February 8, 2010 at 12:00 a.m. Central Time (“CT”) and ends March 8, 2010 at 5 p.m. CT (“Contest Period”). The Contest is open to non-professional videographers who are legal U.S. residents. Contestants must be at least 18 years of age as of the date of Submission (“Contestants”). Employees of Sponsors and its licensors and prize suppliers, The McClatchy Company, Humane Society of South Mississippi, and the foregoing entities’ respective parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates (collectively, the “Contest Entities”), and such employees’ immediate families and household members are not eligible. The Contest is sponsored by the Gulf Publishing Company, Inc., dba The Sun Herald, 205 DeBuys Road, Gulfport, MS 39507-2837 (“Sponsor”).

HOW TO ENTER. In person and online submissions accepted, with photos (“photos”) submitted following the guidelines contained in these rules (“Submission Guidelines”). To enter, go to www.sunherald.com and follow the link to the Contest. Complete the online entry form in its entirety. Upload your Photo in .jpg format, and submit your submission according to the directions on the screen (the “Submission”).

Submissions must be received no later than February 19, 2010 at 5:00 p.m. CT according to Sponsor’s time. No hand, mail or e-mail deliveries will be accepted. Contestants may submit one photo per pet. None of the Contest Entities are responsible for late, lost, delayed, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, void, corrupted, garbled, illegible, or unintelligible entries or for any problems, bugs or malfunctions Contestants may encounter when submitting their Submissions. Only complete valid entries will be accepted. Sponsor will not verify receipt of entries. Incomplete, garbled, corrupted or otherwise illegible Submissions are void and will not be accepted. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify false submissions or submissions suspected of being false. All submissions submitted become the sole property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned. In the event of a dispute as to the identity of a winner, the winner will be deemed to be the person in whose name the e-mail account governing the e-mail address was opened.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES. Your Submission must be jpeg format.

Submissions may not contain any illegal, offensive or obscene subject matter. Contestants may not copy or otherwise plagiarize the Submission from any source, nor may the Submissions include third party copyrighted material. Sponsor is not responsible for legal protection or clearance of Submissions in any form. Contestants agree to indemnify each of the Contest Entities and their officers, directors, employees and agents against any and all claims from any third party for any use by Sponsor of Submission.

JUDGING AND NOTIFICATION. Judging will be completed in online voting. All submissions will be prescreened to ensure they have correctly met the Submission Guidelines and meet with Sponsor’s general standards and practices prior to any judging (“Qualified Submissions”). During or after the Contest Period, Sponsor may, in its discretion, post a Contestant’s Submission on its website(s) and in its publication(s), for promotional purposes only. Posting of any Submission(s) will neither increase nor decrease the chance of winning and does not mean that a Contestant has been selected as a winner.

All entries will be posted on sunherald.com on or about February 22. The photos will then be voted on by readers of sunherald.com through a pay wall conducted on the site through 5:00 p.m. CT on March 7, 2010, and the top 13 photos with the most votes will be deemed the winners. The Contestants who submit the winning photo will be the “Selected Contestants.” The winning Photos and the identity of the Selected Contestant will be posted on www.sunherald.com by March 11, 2010, and will remain posted there for thirty (30) days.

Selected Contestants will be required to respond (as directed) to the phone and/or e-mail notification within 72 hours of attempted notification. The failure to respond timely to the notification may result in forfeiture of the prize; and, in such case, Sponsor may choose the next highest scoring Submission from among the remaining eligible submissions. The Selected Contestant will also be sent an affidavit of eligibility / liability / publicity release (“Release”). Unless restricted by law, Selected Contestant will be required to complete and return the Release within the time period specified therein. Should Selected Contestant be unwilling or otherwise unable to provide such permissions and or releases or otherwise cannot accept or receive the prize for any reason, a Contestant with the next highest number of votes will be chosen from the remaining entries until one who is able to meet all requirements can be selected. Selected Contestant’s full name, hometown and Submission may be announced and posted in the Sun Herald, www.sunherald.com and affiliate publications and web sites.

PRIZES. Thirteen (13) Prizes: If eligible under these Rules, 13 Selected Contestants will be featured in the Sun Herald newspaper, at sunherald.com and in a Sun Herald Pet Calendar.

CONTEST CONDITIONS. This Contest is void outside the U.S. and where prohibited or restricted by law, and is subject to applicable federal, state provincial and local laws. By participating, Contestants agree: (i) to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of Sponsor, which shall be final and binding; and (ii) to waive any right to claim ambiguity in the Contest or these Official Rules, except where prohibited by law. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of Selected Contestant, and Contestants may be issued an IRS Form 1099 for the value of any awarded prize. By participating, all Contestants agree to release and hold harmless each of the Contest Entities together with the respective directors, employees, officers, licensees, licensors and agents, and respective advertising and promotion entities and any person or entity associated with the production, judging, or administration of the Contest, (collectively, the “Releasees”) from and against any and all rights, claims and causes of action whatsoever that they may have, or which may arise, against any of them for any liability for any matter, cause or thing whatsoever, including but not limited to any injury, loss, damage, whether direct, compensatory, incidental or consequential, to person, including death and property, arising in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from their acceptance, possession, use or misuse of the prize in the Contest, or their participation in the Contest, or their participation in any Contest or prize related activity. Selected Contestant acknowledges that Releases have neither made, nor are in any manner responsible or liable for, any warranty, representation or guarantee, expressed or implied, in fact or in law, relative to any prize or the Contest. All warranties are hereby disclaimed, and the Selected Contestant will accept the prize “as is.”

Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any Contestant it finds to be violating these Official Rules. Sponsor reserves the right to cancel or suspend the Contest, in its sole discretion, or due to circumstances beyond its control, including natural disasters. Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, cancel, modify or suspend the Contest should a virus, bug, computer problem, unauthorized intervention or other causes beyond Sponsor’s control, corrupt the administration, security or proper play of the Contest. Sponsor may prohibit an contestant from participating in the Contest or winning a prize if, in its sole discretion, it determines such contestant is attempting to undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest by cheating, plagiarizing, engaging in any deception, or any other unfair playing practices of intending to annoy, abuse, threaten, undermine or harass any other players or Sponsor representatives. Disputes regarding these Official Rules and/or this Contest will be governed by the internal laws of the State of Mississippi. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION FROM PARTICIPATION IN THE CONTEST. SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK REMEDIES AND DAMAGES (INCLUDING ATTORNEY FEES) TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW, INCLUDING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.

Releasees shall not be liable to the Selected Contestants for failure to supply any Prize or any part thereof, by reason of any acts of God, any action(s), regulation(s), order(s) or request(s) by any governmental or quasi-governmental entity (whether or not the action(s), regulations(s), order(s) or request(s) prove(s) to be invalid), equipment failure, threatened terrorist acts, terrorist acts, air raid, blackout, act of public enemy, earthquake, war (declared or undeclared), fire, flood, epidemic, explosion, unusually severe weather, hurricane, embargo, labor dispute or strike (whether legal or illegal), labor or material shortage, transportation interruption of any kind, work slow-down, civil disturbance, insurrection, riot, or any other similar or dissimilar cause beyond any of the Releasees’ control. None of the Contest Entities are responsible for: (a) lost, late, misdirected, undeliverable, incomplete or indecipherable entries due to system errors or failures, or faulty transmissions or other telecommunications malfunctions and/or entries; (b) technical failures of any kinds; (c) failures of any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Contest; (d) unauthorized human and/or mechanical intervention in any part of the submission process or the Contest; (e) technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the Contest or the processing of entries; or (f) any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from any contestant’s participation in the Contest or receipt or use of any prize.

PUBLICITY. Sponsor reserves the right to use the Submissions and the Selected Contestant’s names, likenesses and hometown names for publicity purposes in connection with the Contest and The Sun Herald in print and online. Selected Contestant understands and agrees that all or part of Selected Contestant’s Submission may potentially be posted or published by any of the Contest Entities for purposes of promoting the Contest, with or without credit to Selected Contestant’s name.

PRIVACY. All personal information collected by Sponsor will be used for administration of the Contest and in accordance with Sponsor’s privacy policy. Any questions regarding privacy matters should be directed to the address set out below. Please refer to Sponsor’s privacy policy located at www.sunherald.com/privacy_policy for important information regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by Sponsor.

OFFICIAL RULES AND WINNERS' LIST. For a copy of these Official Rules or the name of Selected Contestant, send your request in a self-addressed, stamped envelope (WA, VT residents need not affix postage) to: The Sun Herald Pet Calendar Contest, The Sun Herald, Sun Herald, 205 DeBuys Road, Gulfport, MS 39507-2837.