Contest Sponsors
The “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy” Photo Contest is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy Bangkok (the “Contest Sponsors”).
Description of Contest Objectives
Contestants will submit through Google form (https://forms.gle/3ENjz9ewKt7yTrMS7) an original photograph on the theme of civic participation, equal rights, or volunteerism with a title and a short (50 words or less) description in English or Thai. The winner and the runner-up will receive a computer tablet and a pair of Bluetooth earphones, respectively. The U.S. Mission in Thailand may feature the selected photos during programs or on social media. (See the “Eligibility” section below to find out if you are eligible to be a contestant.)
Platform
The contest will be announced and promoted on the U.S. Embassy Bangkok’s Facebook page and website, but contest entry and administration will take place through Google form (https://forms.gle/3ENjz9ewKt7yTrMS7) only; however, Facebook and Google are not the partners or sponsors of the contest. Contestants are reminded that by participating in the contest and uploading content to Google form, they are bound by Google form’s Terms of Service and any agreement with Google form contained therein.
How to Enter
Submit an original photograph on civic participation, equal rights, or volunteerism through Google form with a title and a short description that does not exceed 50 words in English or Thai. Photo submissions must be in jpg or png file format, 2 megabytes (MB) or smaller, but the photo size must be no smaller than 1024×768 pixels. Submissions should not have visible watermarks, signatures, or personally identifiable information.
Once a photograph is submitted via Google form, it is considered a final submission and may not be modified, edited, or replaced. Individual contestants may submit no more than one photo. Participation in this contest is automatically deemed as acceptance of these Official Contest Rules.
A submission must be a digital or analog original photograph taken by the contestant or by others that have allowed the contestant the right to submit the photograph.
Along with the photo, contestants must provide the following information: (i) full name, (ii) preferred e-mail address and phone number, (iii) postal address, (iv) country of citizenship, (v) date of birth, (vi) your organization or academic institution, and (vii) confirmation that you are at least 158 years of age.
The contest commences on Friday, January 13, 2023, in the Bangkok time zone. Contestants may submit entries between Friday, January 13, 2023, and Monday, January 30, 2023. Judging begins on Tuesday, January 31, 2023, and ends on Friday, February 10, 2023.
Content Requirements
a. Submissions must not contain obscenity, explicit sexual material, nudity, profanity, graphic violence, incitement to violence, commercial solicitation, or commercial promotion. Submissions must conform to local law and not contain content or images that could be considered abusive, inflammatory, denigrating, or disrespectful to any of the Contest Sponsors or any groups, individuals, or institutions. Submissions must adhere to the norms of civil discourse, both in appearance and in fact. In other words, the content of all submissions must be suitable for a global public audience.
b. Submissions must be original content created by the contestant. They must not contain any elements protected by someone else’s copyright or otherwise subject to third-party intellectual property or proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights (except as expressly permitted below in (ed)). Contest Sponsors recognize no allowance for “fair use” of copyrighted material, nor do Contest Sponsors recognize allowance for the use of licensed materials created or owned by a third party.
c. Contest Sponsors reserve the right to disqualify any submission that does not adhere to these criteria and to the intent and substance of these Official Contest Rules at their sole and absolute discretion.
d. In the event of any question or difference of views regarding compliance with, interpretation, or application of these content requirements or other provisions of these Official Contest Rules, Contest Sponsors reserve the exclusive right to resolve such questions or differences of views in their sole discretion.
e. By submitting a photograph to the Contest, the contestant affirms that he or she has obtained written consent from all individuals whose image or likeness appears in the photograph (or from the individuals’ parent/legal guardian if any such individuals are considered a minor in their country of residence) and that he or she has obtained the necessary rights, licenses, consents, and permissions to use all material such as music, images, text and other content in the submission. The contestant further affirms that he or she is prepared to provide reliable documentation of any such consents, licenses, etc., upon request. Failure to obtain such rights, license consents, and permissions may result in the disqualification of the photo submission at the Contest Sponsors’ sole and absolute discretion.
Technical Format Requirements
Photo submissions must be in jpg or png file format, 2 megabytes (MB) or smaller, but the photo size must be no smaller than 1024×768 pixels. Submissions should not have any visible watermarks, signatures, or personally identifiable information.
Retouching of Photos: The submitted photograph cannot be significantly retouched: nothing in the photograph (people, animals, scenery, objects, etc.) may be altered, removed, augmented, or rearranged. Cropping is permitted, as is modest darkening or lightening of parts of the image.
Eligibility
a. The contest is divided into the Youth Competition and the General Competition. Contestants in the Youth Competition must be between 15- 24 years old on the date of entry into the contest. Contestants in the General Competition must be at least 25 years old on the date of entry into the contest. Contestants must hold Thai citizenship AND reside in Thailand. Contestants must not be U.S. citizens.
b. The individual submitting the entry will be considered the contestant and the only individual eligible to compete for the prize. Organizations are not eligible to compete for the prize, either as an entity or through representation by an individual. The contestant must provide complete and accurate information to qualify for the prize.
c. The following individuals are not eligible to participate in the contest: Employees, interns, directors, and officers of the Contest Sponsors, Google, Facebook, or the U.S. Government, or any employees, interns, directors, or officers of any agencies, companies or entities involved in the administration, advertising, judging, creation, development, execution, and/or fulfillment of this contest, and the immediate family members (defined as spouse, recognized partner, parent, child, sibling, and spouse or “step” of each) and those living in the same household of each such individual.
d. Once a submission has been accepted for entry into the contest, the contestant’s name (or User ID, if the contestant wishes to remain anonymous) and country may be publicly identified at the sole discretion of the contestant.
Selection of Winners
a. The contest is separated into the Youth Competition and the General Competition.
b. All photos are subject to pre-screening by Contest Sponsors to ensure compliance with these Official Contest Rules. Any photos out of compliance will not be considered. Contest Sponsors reserve the right in their sole and absolute discretion to verify in the final analysis whether a potential finalist or potential winning photo submission has fully complied with these Official Contest Rules before posting to the contest site, awarding prizes, recognizing a winner, etc.
c. Judges: The contest jury is comprised of representatives from U.S. Embassy Bangkok.
d. Judging Criteria: Each photo will be viewed and scored by the judges using the following criteria: rule adherence, creativity, ideas, technical organization (aesthetics and picture quality), and use of copyrighted materials.
e. Winners: There will be four (4) prizes of this contest – Winner of the “Young Gen Competition,” Winner of the “General Competition,” Runner-up of the “Young Gen Competition,” and Runner-up of the “General Competition.” Each winner will be required to sign and return to contest Sponsors a statement of eligibility and liability/publicity release and provide a short bio (where applicable) and a brief statement about the submission; otherwise, the winner and/or finalist will be ineligible for any prize. Winners may use an alias instead of their real name and request that other identifying information is kept private.
f. Winners will be contacted via email at the email address they provided for registration. Winners may be announced on the Embassy website and/or social media pages. The inability of contest Sponsors to contact a potential winner may result in disqualification and/or selection of an alternate winner from among all remaining eligible submissions.
g. Winners:There will be four (4) prizes of this contest – winner of the Youth Competition, winner of the General Competition, runner-up of the Youth Competition, and runner-up of the General Competition. Each winner will be required to sign and return a statement of eligibility and liability/publicity release to Contest Sponsors, provide a short bio (where applicable), and a brief statement about the submission; otherwise, the winner and/or finalist will be ineligible for any prize. Winners may use an alias instead of their real name and request that other identifying information is kept private.
h. Winners will be contacted via email at the email address they provided for registration. Winners may be announced on the Embassy website and/or social media pages. The inability of Contest Sponsors to contact a potential winner may result in disqualification and/or selection of an alternate winner from among all remaining eligible submissions.
Prize(s)
a. Prize(s): Winners of each category will receive a computer tablet (iPad 10th Generation with 256GB). Runners-up in each category will receive a pair of Bluetooth earphones (AirPods 2nd Generation). Other finalists will receive tokens of appreciation from the Contest Sponsors.
b. Submitted photographs may be displayed on the U.S. Embassy Bangkok’s website, social media properties and/or in the Embassy itself and used as part of the U.S. Embassy Bangkok’s programs.
c. Winners must confirm the prize’s acceptance in an email reply within three calendar days. If winners do not confirm by the required date, the Contest Sponsors reserve the right to select an alternate winner. Each winner must provide a valid physical mailing address where a prize, if any, is to be shipped. Contest Sponsors are not responsible for any problems related to the shipping of any prize, including, but not limited to, theft, delay, damage, or destruction/accidental loss by the shipping carrier.
d. Any unused portion of the prize is not transferable, convertible, or exchangeable and cannot be taken as cash. All taxes on or in connection with any prize, and the reporting consequences thereof, are the sole and exclusive responsibility of the winners.
Liability and Rights
a. Contest Sponsors do not endorse any submissions or messages expressed therein, and Contest Sponsors expressly disclaim all liability in connection with the submitted photos, including disputes between collaborators related to a submission.
b. Contest Sponsors do not permit copyright infringing activities or infringement of any other intellectual property rights, and Contest Sponsors reserve the right to remove and disqualify any submission they deem to violate another party’s copyright or other intellectual property rights.
c. Contestants retain sole ownership of their original work. The submission remains the intellectual property of the contestant, and the Contest Sponsors and U.S. Government do not claim the copyright of the work of any individual who enters the contest. Contestants expressly agree to permit the Contest Sponsors to use all content submitted for purposes of judging the contest. Finalists and/or winners will be required to grant Contest Sponsors, with proper attribution through whatever means they deem appropriate, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, and/or display the submission in any media formats and through any media channels in perpetuity in connection with the activities and operations of the contest.
d. Contestants assume sole responsibility for the contest submission and the material contained in it and for any consequences of submitting or posting it.
e. Contest Sponsors reserve the right to verify the validity of entries and contestants and disqualify any contestant or entry deemed not in compliance with these Official Contest Rules. Contest Sponsors also reserve the right to request further documentation, at their sole and absolute discretion, to verify eligibility and compliance with these Official Contest Rules.
f. If a prize or any portion thereof is unavailable, Contest Sponsors, in their sole discretion, reserve the right to substitute the prize with another of equal or greater value and/or specification.
g. Contest Sponsors reserve the right, at any time and in their sole discretion, to disqualify and/or deem ineligible any individual who they reasonably believe (i) has violated the Official Contest Rules; (ii) has violated the terms of use of the platform, or (iii) is acting in bad faith, or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person.
h. Contest Sponsors reserve the right to modify, suspend, terminate or cancel the contest at their discretion for any reason.
i. Contestants agree to indemnify and hold harmless Contest Sponsors, their parent, subsidiary, and affiliated companies, officers, directors, employees, interns, and agents, from and against all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debts, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising from (i) violation of these Official Contest Rules; (ii) violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, trademark, intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other proprietary rights in connection with the contest; or (iii) any claim that a contest submission caused any harm, including financial, to any third party. These indemnifications and hold-harmless obligations will survive indefinitely beyond the contest’s conclusion.
j. The conduct, judging, and awarding of prizes will be carried out in full compliance with applicable U.S. and host country laws. In the event of a conflict between U.S. law and host country law, U.S. law shall apply.
k. Contest Sponsors will take reasonable measures to protect the participants’ privacy data, personally identifiable information, and other sensitive data. Contact information provided by contestants may be stored by the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok and used to contact contestants for other purposes in the future. This information may be shared with the contest’s co-sponsor and/or made available to third parties to the extent permitted by law.
l. Contest Sponsors assume no liability or responsibility for any loss or harm resulting from any user’s participation in or attempt to participate in the contest or ability or inability to upload, download, or otherwise access any information in connection with participating in the contest. Contest Sponsors assume no responsibility or liability for technical problems, or technical malfunctions arising in connection with the operation of the contest, including: hardware or software errors; faulty computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, electronic, wireless or Internet connectivity, or other online communication problems; errors or limitations of any Internet service providers, servers, hosts or providers; garbled, jumbled or faulty data transmissions; failure of any email transmissions to be sent or received; lost, late, delayed or intercepted email transmissions; inaccessibility of the contest site in whole or in part for any reason; traffic congestion on the Internet or the contest site; unauthorized human or non-human intervention in the operation of the contest, including without limitation, unauthorized tampering, hacking, theft, virus, bugs, worms; or destruction of any aspect of the contest, or loss, miscount, misdirection, inaccessibility or unavailability of an email account used in connection with the contest.
