Official Competition Rules
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. OPEN TO ADULTS AGE 18 OR OVER. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. HOW TO ENTER
The fourth Storyboard Competition (the “Competition”), sponsored by Storyboard TV LLC (“Storyboard”), a New York limited liability company, begins on January 16, 2012. The Submission Period ends on February 26, 2012. To enter, go to www.storyboardtv.com. An entry must include a script for a one hour or one half-hour television pilot. Participants may submit multiple scripts as separate entries, subject to separate entry fees.
There is a fee of $20 per script to submit. By submitting an entry to the Competition, each entrant agrees to comply with and be bound by these Official Rules, Terms, and Conditions and acknowledges that the decisions of Storyboard shall be binding and final in all matters relating to the Competition.
2. WORK THAT IS ELIGIBLE
Scripts must be: (a) the first hour or half hour of a new TV comedy or drama, (b) written in English, (c) in a proper screen-writing format, and (d) wholly original, (e.g. NOT adapted from books, plays, or any other source material and NOT a “spec” of existing films, television programs, or treatments). Scripts must also be registered under the Entrant’s name with the WGA or copyrighted under the Entrant’s name and filed with the Library of Congress. All entrants represent and warrant that their submissions meet these requirements.
Entries must not be: (a) currently under development or optioned by a network, studio, production company, or other entity (b) currently submitted to any other competition or festival which could result in a third party having an option or other claim to the entry or any intellectual property (e.g., plot, characters) therein, or (c) previously purchased or produced by any third party. Further, no entry may be written or submitted under the jurisdiction of any union or guild, including but not limited to the WGA. All entrants represent and warrant that their submissions meet the requirements of this paragraph.
Entries created or funded by broadcast networks, cable networks or studios are also ineligible. Entrants must take all measures necessary to ensure that the eligibility requirements of this Section 2 remain fulfilled until the conclusion of the Competition.
3. ENTRANT ELIGIBILITY
The Competition is open only to adults who are age 18 and over who are not currently engaged in any contractual commitments or relationships preventing them from entering into an exclusive development deal with Storyboard or its assignees. Entrants may be either individual writers or teams of two writers. In the event that there are more than two writers of a given script, a single “lead” writer must be chosen by the writing team. This Lead Writer will be deemed the Entrant for all purposes of the Competition, including the Storyboard Option and Purchase Agreement, if applicable. If such an entrant wins the Competition, payment of the Grand Prize will be made to the Lead Writer, who will be responsible for any subsequent distribution of the prize.
Storyboard reserves the right to verify and confirm entrants’ ages and compliance with other eligibility requirements. Any prospective participants who have, within six (6) months prior to the start date of the Competition or thereafter, been employed by or performed services for Storyboard or any other person or entity responsible for sponsoring, administering, advertising or promoting the Competition, or any of their respective parent, subsidiary, affiliated or successor companies, and immediate family and household members of such individuals, are not eligible to enter or win the Competition.
4. WINNER SELECTION
Preliminary judging will take place from the time the Submission Period ends through and including March 25, 2012. During this period, submitted scripts will be made available for public review and comment through the Storyboard website. The initial judging panel, selected by Storyboard in its sole discretion, will choose ten (10) semi-finalists, based on the following criteria, weighted equally: (i) originality; (ii) creativity; (iii) dramatic tension; and (iv) overall impression. In the event of a tie, tied entries will be re-judged based solely on overall impression. During this time, all writers are encouraged to revise their scripts based on feedback from Storyboard Members. If selected as a semi-finalist, writers will be permitted to submit a rewrite for the next round of judging.
The selected semifinalists will be notified by e-mail or phone on or about March 25, 2012, as well as announced on the website. Storyboard shall not be responsible in any way for any delayed, lost or misdirected notification or other communication from or to Storyboard.
The ten (10) confirmed semifinalist scripts will then be submitted to the second round judging panel, comprising industry professionals selected by Storyboard at its sole discretion, who will determine three (3) finalists, based on the following criteria, weighted equally: (i) originality; (ii) creativity; (iii) dramatic tension; and (iv) overall impression. In the event of a tie, tied entries will be re-judged based solely on overall impression. This second round of judging will take place during from March 26, 2012 through the end of April. On or around April 30, 2011, Storyboard will announce the three finalists.
Registered Storyboard Members will then be invited to vote for their favorite among the three finalist scripts. Each Member will be permitted to vote once, but each vote cast will be weighted in a manner that affords more active Storyboard Members’ votes with greater weight. More specifically (1) the votes of Members who have made 5 approved comments or more throughout the Competition will have triple the weight of a standard vote and (2) the votes of Members who have posted approved scripts at some point in the Competition will have double the weight of a standard vote. The results of this vote will determine the “Grand Prize Winner.” The Grand Prize winner will be notified on or about May 28, 2012.
5. PRIZE
One (1) Grand Prize Winner will receive a single, lump-sum payment of $1,000 from Storyboard. No substitution, cash redemption or transfer of right to receive this prize is permitted, except at the discretion of Storyboard, which reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. All expenses or costs associated with the acceptance or use of the prize or any component thereof that are not expressly listed in these Official Rules are the responsibility of the winner.
6. GRANT OF RIGHTS
By entering the Competition, each entrant acknowledges and agrees that Storyboard shall have the exclusive, irrevocable, and royalty-free right to use, reproduce, edit, display, transmit, modify, publish and otherwise make use of the submitted script for judging and public critique purposes and in any other way necessary for the execution of the Competition.
7. OTHER OUTLETS
Each Entrant agrees to inform Storyboard of any other media outlets through which he or she has exhibited, produced, or broadcast in any manner, media, or format, the script submitted as part of his or her entry (or portions thereof). Entrants must inform Storyboard of such other outlets by email to info@storyboardtv.com.
8. ENTRANT REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES AND INDEMNIFICATION
By entering the Competition, each entrant represents and warrants to Storyboard that his/her entry is (i) completely the original work of the entrant and was written solely by the entrant, (ii) not copied from any other source or previously broadcast or otherwise distributed or disseminated in any media or format, (iii) not in the public domain, (iv) and not in violation of or conflict with the trademark, copyright, rights of privacy, rights of publicity or any other rights, of any kind or nature, of any other person or entity.
Each entrant understands that he/she is not an employee of Storyboard for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to withholding of income tax, unemployment benefits, payroll tax, and workers compensation requirements.
By submitting an entry, entrants agree to indemnify, defend, release, discharge and hold harmless Storyboard and their parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, promotional partners and agents, and all others associated with the development and execution of this Competition, and the officers, directors and employees of each of the foregoing, from any and all claims and liabilities arising from or in connection with participation in this Competition, including without limitation (a) claims for injury, loss or damage of any kind resulting from participation in this Competition or acceptance or use of any prize and (b) entrant or third party claims based on rights of privacy, rights of publicity, false light, defamation, copyright and/or trademark infringement relating to the submission, exhibition, or publication of the entrant’s script.
9. DISQUALIFICATION OF ENTRANT AND EARLY TERMINATION OF COMPETITION
If Storyboard, at its sole discretion, has reason to believe that any entry contains any material that may infringe or violate any law or any rights of a third party, or that the use or broadcast or such entry in the manner described herein may infringe or violate any law or any rights of a third party, then Storyboard may immediately disqualify such entry and take any other measures Storyboard may deem appropriate. Entries should not include any language or other content that is indecent, inappropriate, morally objectionable, or otherwise unfit for dissemination or broadcast, as determined by Storyboard at its discretion. Storyboard hereby reserves the right to disqualify entries for any reason it deems appropriate. Entries not meeting the stated length requirements will be disqualified. Entries not satisfying these Official Rules in any material respect will be disqualified. Each entrant further agrees to sign, and to obtain (at the entrant’s expense) from all necessary third parties, all releases, permissions and other written documents, in a form acceptable to Storyboard, as may be required by Storyboard and any of its affiliates or sponsors upon request so as to confirm, record and/or perfect their rights in the entry as set forth herein.
Storyboard reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process and/or to cancel, modify or suspend this Competition should entrant fraud or misconduct or other causes beyond the control of Storyboard corrupt the administration, integrity, security or proper operation of the Competition. Without limitation of the foregoing, Storyboard reserves the right to terminate, modify or suspend this Competition due to any of the following reasons: act of God; unavoidable accident; epidemic; fire; blackout; act of public enemy; war, riot or civil commotion; enactment, rule, order or act of government or governmental instrumentality or tribunal; strike, lockout or other labor dispute; inclement weather; the recapture of any time period scheduled for the live telecast of a program for an event of national importance or emergency; failure of technical facilities; failure of essential production, or technical personnel to appear or be available for production or broadcast; or other cause beyond its control. Without limiting any of the foregoing, Storyboard further reserves the right to terminate, modify, or suspend this Competition in the event that fewer than 75 qualified scripts are submitted by eligible entrants. By entering, each entrant agrees that should this Competition be terminated for any reason such entrant irrevocably waives any right to seek and/or obtain rescission and/or equitable and/or injunctive relief.
In order to ensure that the Competition is as fair as possible, contact between members of the official judging panel and entrants is strictly prohibited until a grand prize winner is announced. Storyboard reserves the right to disqualify any entrant who violates this rule if, in Storyboard's sole judgment, such violation impairs the integrity of the Competition or of the Storyboard TV community. If a member of the judging panel contacts an entrant, entrants are required to notify Storyboard TV (at rachel@storyboardtv.com) immediately.
Nothing in this section or elsewhere in these Rules shall be deemed to make Storyboard an Information Content Provider, as such term is used in and interpreted with respect to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”). Rather, Storyboard remains an Interactive Computer Service Provider, as such term is used in and interpreted with respect to Section 230 of the CDA.
10. RELEASE OF CLAIMS
Each entrant acknowledges that Storyboard and its employees, officers, directors, licensees, assigns and sponsors (collectively the “Designated Entities”) engage and have engaged in the developing, writing, acquiring, producing, publishing, disseminating and broadcasting of literary, artistic, and other material, including stories, ideas, themes, plots, titles, screenplays, teleplays, treatments, formats, and concepts (collectively, the “Materials”). By submitting an entry in the Competition, each entrant acknowledges and agrees that any Materials that the Designated Entities may hereinafter use or exploit may have originated with the Designated Entities themselves or may have been acquired from the Designated Entities’ employees or other parties, and that such Materials may duplicate, parallel or resemble the script submitted in the Competition by the entrant. By submitting an entry, each entrant acknowledges that he or she understands and agrees that the Designated Entities’ use of Materials containing features, ideas, material and/or elements similar to or identical with those contained in their entry shall not entitle the entrant to any compensation whatsoever. As an inducement to Storyboard to accept the entrant’s entry into the Competition, each entrant hereby waives any claim or right of action against any of the Designated Entities or their successors in connection with the Designated Entities’ use of any Materials (or any portions thereof) whether or not such Materials contain any features, ideas, material and/or elements similar or identical to those contained in an entrant’s entry. Notwithstanding any provision of this paragraph, Storyboard shall make its best efforts to ensure that all Designated Entities respect the intellectual property of all entrants, subject to the Option and Purchase Agreement, if applicable.
11. USE OF ENTRANT INFORMATION FOR PROMOTIONAL AND OTHER PURPOSES
By entering the Competition all entrants grant permission to Storyboard to use their respective names, photographs, likenesses, voices, and/or biographical information for Storyboard programming, publication, publicity, advertising and all other promotional purposes without compensation, review or approval unless prohibited by law. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.
12. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Storyboard is not responsible for lost, late, illegible, incomplete, damaged, mutilated, misdirected, misdelivered, or delayed entries, or for technical or human errors or failures of any kind in connection with the submission, transmission, processing or judging of entries, including without limitation any malfunctions or failures of computer hardware, computer software, networks or telephone equipment or any technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website or any combination thereof.
Storyboard’s clock will be the official time clock for the Competition.
Caution: Any attempt by an entrant to deliberately damage any Web site or undermine the legitimate operation of the Competition is a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, Storyboard reserves the right to seek damages from any such entrant to the fullest extent of the law.
Storyboard is not responsible for any typographical or other error in the printing of the offer or the administration of the Competition, or in the announcement of the prize.
13. WINNER/OFFICIAL RULES
To obtain a copy of the Winner’s List or a copy of these Official Rules, send your request along with a stamped, self-addressed envelope to:
Storyboard TV LLC
Attn: Third Competition Winners
391 3rd Street, Suite 4 , Brooklyn, NY 11215
Requests for the names of the winner must be received no later than July 1, 2012. Vermont residents may omit return postage.
14. PRIVACY POLICY
Any personal information supplied by you to Storyboard will be subject to the Competition Website privacy policy posted at www.storyboardtv.com. By entering the Competition, you grant Storyboard permission to share your email address and any other personally identifiable information with certain third parties for the purpose of prize fulfillment. Storyboard will not sell, rent, transfer or otherwise disclose your personal data to any third party other than as explicitly described in the privacy policy.
15. QUESTIONS
For additional information, please contact info@storyboardtv.com