Competition Rules (for Professional entries)

1.1 By entering the Competition, You agree and acknowledge that WPA is permitted to receive Your registration data. All personal information will be used by WPA in accordance with its Privacy Policy.

1.2 The Professional Competition is open to all “Professional Photographers”; the professional competition is not open to “Amateur Photographers”. A “Professional Photographer” is a person who is engaged in the business of taking finished still, motion picture or electronically recorded photographs and earns the majority of their income from this business. An “Amateur Photographer” engages in photography as a hobby or study of the profession and does not earn a viable income nor has a business set up in order to earn a majority of their income from photography.

1.2.1 By entering the competition as a professional photographer You accept to provide proof of your status as a professional photographer should you be asked to by the WPA.

1.3 All entrants must be over 18.

1.4 By entering the Competition You hereby accept these Competition Rules and the Terms and Conditions.

1.5 Entries must be submitted by 11.59:59pm (GMT) on 31st December 2008.

2. To enter, You must upload Your image via the following website: www.worldphotographyawards.org (the "Website"), following the on-screen instructions carefully.

2.1 Images must be taken in 2008 and entries should be based on the Categories outlined, information on which can be found on the Website.

3.1 Entries will be judged by the World Photographic Academy (the “Academy”) between the 16th January 2009 and the 14th February 2009.

3.2 A shortlist of ten photographers from each category will be selected and announced from the 23rd February 2008.

3.3 The three finalists in each category, the individual category winners and the overall winner of l’ iris d’Or, SONY World Photographer of the Year will be voted for by the Academy from the 7th – 21st March 2009. The finalists will be notified by email. The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony in Cannes on Friday 17th April 2009.

3.3.1 Each finalist will be invited to attend, and accommodated at, the SONY World Photography Awards in Cannes on Friday 17th April 2009.

3.4 The decision of the Academy and the WPA is final and no negotiation will be entered into with respect to any such decision.

3.5 You may enter up to 10 images per category, and may enter as many categories as you wish, however you cannot enter the same series or images into more than one category.

3.5.1 Judging will be based on the series of images entered for each category.

4 WPA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the following requirements, even after the entry is submitted on the Website. You warrant and represent, in respect of each entry submitted by You (“Entry”), as follows:
4.1.1 You are the sole owner and author of each Entry
4.1.2 You have the right to make Your entry available to the Competition
4.1.3 Each Entry does not contain personally identifiable information about You or any other person(s)
4.1.4 Each Entry does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libelous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic or profane content
4.1.5 Each Entry does not contain any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law
4.1.6 Each Entry does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person’s rights of privacy or publicity, and Your Entry does not include:
4.1.6.1 trademarks owned by third parties
4.1.6.2 copyrighted materials owned by third parties (including movie dialogue or musical compositions)
4.1.6.3 names, likenesses, voices or other characteristics identifying celebrities or other public figures, living or dead
4.1.7 Entries which contain any commercial content that promotes any product or service other than that of WPA.
4.1.8 Entries containing screen credits
4.1.9 You are over 18 and a Professional Photographer

4.2 You agree to fully indemnify WPA in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of Your breaching any of the foregoing.

5 You confirm that each person depicted in the Entry has granted permission to be portrayed as shown. Any costumes, props or other materials used must be rented or borrowed with the permission of the owner, and all other relevant permissions must have been obtained.

6 WPA recognizes You, the author of the image, retain full ownership of the copyright in each Entry.

7.1 All entrants understand that any image submitted to the competition may be used by WPA, and its Event Partners, for marketing and promotional purposes of the event only. You hereby grant WPA a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence in each Entry throughout the world in perpetuity in all media for any use directly or indirectly connected with the Competition, including, but not limited too:
(a) judging the Competition
(b) displaying the winning entries and runners up at public exhibitions promoting WPA and organised by WPA
(c) inclusion within the Website, a World Photography Awards book, magazine or similar
(d) inclusion within any materials promoting of the Competition and / or any exhibition organised by WPA in the promotion of the WPA
(e) inclusion on Competition- and exhibition-related products to be sold by the WPA or any third party following the individual agreement by the author
(f) sub-licencing the Entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any exhibition
(g) allowing viewers of the Website to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form on disk or on a PDA or mobile telephone (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for their personal, non-commercial use only. Please also refer to clause 9.

8. Any photograph used by WPA shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as WPA uses its reasonable endeavours to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure.

9 You acknowledge that is Your responsibility for protecting any Entry against image misuse by any third party, for example, but not limited to the insertion of a watermark. WPA and its Event Partners assume no responsibility and are not liable for any image misuse.

10. WPA assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilised in the Competition, and WPA assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failure of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. WPA assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of Entries. WPA is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to WPA on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Your or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant’s entry cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical failures, WPA assumes no responsibility.

11. In no event will WPA, its parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and related companies, Event Partners, its advertising or promotion agencies, or its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, representatives or agents be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages arising out of any contestant’s access to and use of the Website. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, everything on the Website is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose or use or non-infringement.

12. You agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of Your name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation.

13. All entrants must be able to supply a high resolution image suitable for printing in media and an exhibition should the image be required.

14. There are no cash alternatives available for prize winners.

15. Winners will be announced online.

Promoter: World Photography Awards Limited, 9 Manchester Square, London.