Viewster Online Film Fest (#VOFF) (0)

Festival start: 13 November 2014      Festival end: 27 November 2014

Dear Creator,

The Viewster Online Film Fest (#VOFF) is an international online event that attracts, displays and rewards features, short films, series, web-series and documentaries that are not always as famous as they should be. It’s a community moderated contest where the public audience will create a shortlist out of all qualified entries.

Essentially the Viewster community and your fans will watch, share, discuss and vote for their favorite entries. They will help to curate the entries with at least the top ten moving onto the finals. After that our Jury of Experts - Ted Hope, Nora Tschirner and Timo Vuorensola - will select the winners to be announced December 8, 2014 on http://festival.viewster.com.

The theme for the fourth #VOFF is "Share It Forward." and asks for the issues that are most important to you today.

Shake up our cushy lives, open our eyes, make us laugh, cry or even outraged. For #VOFF 4, show the world the issues that are most important to you today—big or small. You might be passionate about the environment, human rights, public health, politics, social justice or something entirely different that deserves attention. Whether you get your message across through fiction, non-fiction, with humour, in a direct or an abstract way, let's see your passion to influence and make a difference. #VOFF 4 is your chance to bring your message in front of millions of viewers, who will discuss, support and share your cause. We want to take it one step further this time. In addition to the juried awards, we will contribute to an organisation making a positive impact by the choice of one of the projects.


Why Participate?
• Chance to win a piece of the cake with a cool first prize of $50,000
• Chance to donate $20,000 to an organization of your choice
• Gain publicity and awareness for your content
• Chance to connect with other creators online content

The total award for the Contest is 100,000.00 US-Dollars, which will be split among the winners as follows:
- 1st prize: 50,000 US-Dollars
- 2nd and 3rd prize: to be defined by jury / minimum 7,500 US-Dollars
- 4th and 5th prize: only if determined by jury / no minimum

YOU AGREE THAT YOUR TITLE IS PUBLICLY VISIBLE ONLINE DURING THE FESTIVAL PERIOD

Contest Rules (including Licensing Terms)

You can download them here: http://festival.viewster.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Contest-Rules-Festival_VOFF3_140625.pdf


These Contest Rules (“Contest Rules”) are valid for all relationships between VIEWSTER AG, Mühlebachstr. 162, CH-8008 Zurich (“VIEWSTER”) and the participants (“Participant”, “you” or “your”) of VIEWSTER’s Film Festival (“Contest”). The Contest Rules contain important information about how VIEWSTER will run the Contest and about rights you grant and obligations you accept by participating in the Contest. Please read them carefully and make sure you understand and agree with them before participating.


1. Contest Details

1.1 Your submission (“Film”) must meet the following requirements:
- Minimum length of three [3] minutes, excluding ending credits.
- Matches the theme: “Share it Forward”.
- Each submission must also meet the requirements that are listed as part of the electronic application submission procedure as detailed on the film submission platform Festhome.

Your related artwork, such as cover artwork, must meet the required formats of the Festival, requested by the festival staff after selection is made.

1.2 The period of the Contest commences at 3:00pm GMT+2 on November 13, 2014 and ends at 3:00pm GMT+2 on November 27, 2014 (“Contest Period”). The community attention and feedback determines a short list of at least 10 contestants, whereof the Jury will pick the winners. The winners will be announced on December 8th.

1.3 The total award for the Contest is 100,000.00 US-Dollars, which will be split among the winners as follows:
- 1st prize: 70,000 US-Dollars
- 2nd and 3rd prize: to be defined by jury / minimum 7,500 US-Dollars
- 4th and 5th prize: only if determined by jury / no minimum


2. Entry Requirements

To be eligible to enter into a Contest, you must meet the following requirements:
- You completed the application process for the respective Contest on the Festival website and uploaded your Film on one of the film submission platforms mentioned at http://festival.viewster.com.
- You provided VIEWSTER with your Film, the metadata and the required related artwork and concept explana-tion, such as cover artwork, (together, “Content”) fully and successfully in accordance with the procedures provided by VIEWSTER.
- The Content meets the Content Requirements in Sec. 1.1 and Sec. 3.
- You are at least the legal age of majority in your jurisdiction of residence or at least 18 years of age (whichever is older).
- You are able to form a legally binding contract under applicable law through electronic means.
- You are not (i) a member of the jury or an employee (or contractor involved in the judging process) of VIEWSTER or any other entity that provides any award announced for the Contest or any of their parents, subsidi-aries, affiliates or advertising or promotion agencies, (ii) a member of the immediate family of such jury member, employee or contractor (spouse, parent, children and siblings and their respective spouses, regard-less of where they reside), or (iii) a member of the same household, whether or not related, of such a jury member, employee or contractor.


3. Content Requirements

3.1 Films must
- be provided in HD, in 16:9 (1:1,78), with a video-stream bitrate of 5-8 Mbit/s
- be provided in *.mov or *.mp4 container, ideally using h.264 codec
- be in English language or subtitled (burn-in only) in English
- be materially different from any other materials submitted to VIEWSTER;
- not have previously won one of VIEWSTER’s Contests.

3.2 The Content (Films and related artworks) must
- not be pornographic or liable to corrupt youth;
- not endanger the democratic constitution or glorify violence;
- not infringe laws or any third-party rights;
- not adversely affect VIEWSTER’s reputation;
- not contain advertisement or links to websites.

3.3 Additionally, you shall provide VIEWSTER with all required meta data (as specified on VIEWSTER’s website).


4. Determination of Winners and Awarding Procedure

4.1 During the Contest Period, VIEWSTER continuously calculates the "Overall Community Score" – which depends on the community attention and feedback for the respective film (e.g. number of video starts, number of unique users, average length watched, ratio of users watching the film partially and completely, social media activities, etc.) and publicizes it on Viewster’s Festival website.

Please be aware that VIEWSTER may promote the Film Festival by advertising individual Films (chosen by VIEWSTER at its own discretion). These promotion activities may have an effect on the “Overall Community Score”.

Please be also aware that the "Overall Community Score" may be revised by VIEWSTER in order to eliminate cases of misuse. Therefore, VIEWSTER will particularly use various filters to the raw data in order to eliminate and reduce attempts at 'vote stuffing' or comparable forbidden methods by individuals who seem to be more interested in changing the current rating of a movie than giving their true opinion of it.

4.2 After the end of the Contest Period, a jury, consisting of experts previously publicized on Viewster’s Festival web-site, will determine the winner of the prizes out of the films with the best "Overall Community Score" to the best of its knowledge and free from all personal interests. The jury will at least review the 10 films with the best "Overall Community Score". In addition, the jury may at its sole discretion also accept up to 20 of the next-best films to be reviewed. The decision of the jury shall be final and not subject to legal appeal.

4.3 Winners will be notified by e-mail on December 8th. After receipt of a winner’s notification, you will have 30 days to accept the award and to provide VIEWSTER with your bank account details. VIEWSTER will transfer the won amount to your bank account within 60 days after receipt of the information. If you do not accept the award or if you do not react within 30 days, VIEWSTER is entitled to grant the award to another participant.

4.4 Award recipients are responsible for all applicable taxes (including income and withholding taxes), as well as any other costs and expenses associated with the award not specified as being provided.


5. Grant of Rights

5.1 You grant to VIEWSTER the royalty-free, non-exclusive right to exploit the Content (including but not limited to all pictures, film materials, music and stories etc.) within
- the License Period (Sec 5.2).
- the Scope of the Li¬cense (Sec 5.3), and
- the Territory (Sec. 5.4).

5.2 License Period
The License Period shall include the Contest Period, plus three full additional weeks thereafter. In addition, VIEW-STER shall have the right to promote the Film Festival /your Film before the start of the Contest Period (e.g. by making available the title of your Film and/or the name of the filmmaker to the public). You are not entitled to re-voke your grant of rights. After the Contest you can decide to enter into a regular license agreement with Viewster. Otherwise your content will be automatically removed from the platform after the License Period.

5.3 Scope of the License

The Scope of the License granted to Viewster shall include the right to
- make the Content available to the public (or closed user groups) through Video-On-Demand, including, but not limited to, via VIEWSTER’s platform (including mobile Apps for Smartphones, Tablets etc.); including the right to (i) edit the Content for technical reasons, provided that such editing does not a) in any way delete, al-ter or interfere with the substance of the Content, nor b) remove any credits or copyright notices; (ii) add voice commentary (including the right of synchronizing) and/or to superimpose subtitles to the Content; and to (iii) superimpose Viewster’s own logo onto the Content in accordance with customary industry standards;
- save, store and host the Content in content management systems and/or databases owned or controlled by Viewster, and/or Viewster’s technical providers;
- list and promote the Content in all media and all ordering interfaces (including but not limited to the Web, WAP/mobile Internet, telextext, IVR (interactive voice response unit), and iTV;
- make copies of the Content if required for the exploitation;
- add a short pre-roll video to the Film to name the sponsor of the Film Festival (e.g.: "The Film Festival is pre-sented by Viewster in cooperation with…");
- advertise the Content, e.g. by
o modifying the Content for advertising purposes, including the right to create trailers, to "recut" trailers, to shorten or lengthen them and to include them in compilations; and/or by
o making available the results of the modifications and provided metadata and advertising materials, such as trailers, cover artwork etc., for free in in all media (including youtube.com, social media, cinemas, ra-dio, print works etc.) and all ordering interfaces.

5.4 Territory
You grant VIEWSTER worldwide rights for the Contest Period.

5.5 Viewster accepts the grant of rights. For avoidance of doubts: Viewster has no obligation to exploit the Content.


6. Representations and Guarantees

6.1 You represent, warrant and guarantee that
- you are the sole and exclusive owner or licensee of the rights granted to VIEWSTER;
- you have the full right, power and authority to grant the rights to VIEWSTER;
- you will produce a chain of title upon Viewster’s request;
- you have obtained all necessary rights and permissions from any third party to exploit the Content and all components thereof, including, without limitation, any musical works embodied in the Content;
- all metadata provided are accurate and correct;
- you license the Content and all components thereof, including, without limitation, musical compositions em-bodied in the Content, to VIEWSTER free from royalty, license fee or other payment obligations towards any collection societies, performing rights organization or authors’ guilds;
- VIEWSTER shall not be required to make any payments of any nature for, or in connection with, the exploita-tion of the Content pursuant to these Contest Rules;
- no right of any kind, the exercise of which could interfere with the rights granted to VIEWSTER, has been granted to any person or party other than VIEWSTER;
- you were and are in compliance with all relevant laws and regulations (e.g. copyright laws etc.); and
- to the best of your knowledge, the release and exploitation of any and all Content does not violate any law (including but not limited to copyright, trademark, unfair competition, civil, youth protection and/or criminal laws) or infringe the rights of any person or party (including but not limited to name and personality rights, rights in a person’s likeness and rights against defamation etc.).

6.2 You shall defend, indemnify and hold VIEWSTER and its officer, directors, employees, agents, attorneys, successors and assigns harmless from and against any claims, damages, liabilities, losses, costs and expenses, including legal expenses and reasonable counsel fees, arising out of (i) any breach of any representation or guarantee or (ii) any claim arising out of the exploitation of Content (e.g. because of an infringement of a copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent or any other intellectual property right). You shall reimburse VIEWSTER for any payment made in respect of any liabilities or claims with regard to which VIEWSTER is entitled to be indemnified. VIEWSTER shall have the right to recoup any such payments from your remuneration.

6.3 VIEWSTER may, in its sole discretion, immediately stop the publication of the Content if, acting reasonably, VIEW-STER believes the Content violates the law, infringe these Contest Rules. A reasonable suspicion shall apply in par-ticular if such a suspicion has been induced by official proceedings or by a criminal investigation or when there are comprehensible grounds for believing that such proceedings will soon be initiated. The same shall also apply if VIEWSTER is requested by a third party to refrain from any further publication of the VIEWSTER Content because the Content is illegal or infringes third-party rights, provided that the third party's claim is not clearly, and for VIEWSTER recognizably, unfounded.


7. Suspension, Modification and Termination of a Contest

7.1 VIEWSTER reserves the right to modify or eliminate a Contest if VIEWSTER determines, in its discretion, that it has not received a sufficient number of participants.

7.2 If any portion of a Contest is, in VIEWSTER’s opinion, compromised by virus, worms, bugs, non-authorized human intervention, other causes, or otherwise affected such that, in VIEWSTER’s opinion, the administration, security, fairness or integrity of the Contest is corrupted or impaired, or if any action, regulation, orders or governmental requests require the suspension, modification or termination of the Contest (or any portion thereof or availability to any potential entrants therein), VIEWSTER reserves the right at VIEWSTER’s discretion to suspend, modify or terminate the Contest or limit participation in it.


8. Applicable Law, Jurisdiction

8.1 These Contest Rules shall be, in its application and interpretation, governed exclusively by the laws of Switzerland. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 11 April 1998 shall not apply.

8.2 Zurich (Switzerland) is agreed upon as place of jurisdiction for any and all claims arising from or due to these Con-test Rules.


9. Miscellaneous

9.1 The determination of the winners according to Sec. 4.1 shall be final and not subject to legal appeal.

9.2 General terms and conditions or any other standard contract terms of a Participant or third parties shall have no validity, even if VIEWSTER does not object to them explicitly.

9.3 Any additions and amendments to these Contest Rules must be in written form to be valid. This shall also apply to any waiver of this written form requirement.

9.4 VIEWSTER shall be entitled to either wholly or partly transfer the rights and duties under these Contest Rules to companies affiliated with VIEWSTER.

9.5 Any invalidity of individual provisions of these Contest Rules shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. Such invalid provisions shall be replaced primarily by legally valid provisions that come as close as possible in economic terms to the invalid provisions. The same shall apply to any lacunae.