The People's Press Corps: Gather.com's Election 2008 Blogger Search Official Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

The People’s Press Corps: Gather.com’s Election 2008 Blogger Search (the "Competition") is sponsored by Gather Inc (“Sponsor”) 99 Summer Street, 7^th Floor, Boston, MA, 02110. Submissions may only be made in or from and by legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and submissions originating from any other jurisdiction are not eligible for entry. This Competition is governed exclusively by the laws of Delaware and of the United States. You are not authorized to participate in the Competition if you are not located within the 50 United States or the District of Columbia. Void where prohibited. To be eligible, you must at least 18 years of age as of October 10, 2007.  You are not authorized to participate in the Competition if you are not at least 18 years of age.

1.  Competition Period: The People’s Press Corps: Gather.com’s Election 2008 Blogger Search (the "Competition") entry period runs from 9:00AM ET September 10, 2007 to 11:59 PM ET, October 10, 2007. Administrator’s computer clock governs time stamp.

2.  Eligibility: (a) This Competition is run only on the Internet. You may enter the Competition if you are a legal resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry, and have Internet access as of October 10, 2007. Employees, officers, directors, agents and representatives of Gather Inc ("Sponsor") and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, promotion, advertising, design, web design, web hosting, publicity, production and print production agencies and anyone connected with the production, hosting and distribution of this Competition (collectively, "Competition Entities"), their immediate family members (parents, children, siblings, spouse and each of their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) and members of any of their households are not eligible to enter or be awarded a prize.  Void outside of the fifty United States and D.C., and where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law.  All federal, state and/or local laws, rules and regulations apply.

(b)   You may enter the competition in either or both of two (2) ways. To enter, you must submit an original essay and/or video on an Election 2008 topic of your choice (but not offering support for a specific candidate). All Submissions must be in English.  Submissions must not violate copyright laws; must contain properly cited material, if applicable, and must be original material. Entrants may submit more than one Submission in the Competition, in either or both categories. 

3.  How to Enter: Before 11:59 PM (ET) Wednesday, October 10, 2007 you must complete the following:

1) Become a registered member of Gather.com. To register, please visit http://www.gather.com and click on the “Join today – It’s FREE” button. You must create a user profile that contains your full, legal name, your hometown, and a valid e-mail address. All information collected on Gather.com will be subject to Gather's privacy policy.

2) Join the “Election 2008” group on Gather.com, by going to http://election08.gather.com and clicking “Join This Group.”  

3) To publish an essay, click “Publish” as the top of any Gather page, then select “Publish an Article.” You may type directly into the body of the submission page or copy and paste in your entry, if you have written it elsewhere. In the “Tags” field, you must insert the tag “Republican,” “Democrat,” or “Independent” (depending on your political affiliation) separated from any other tags by a comma. Under "Who can view my article," you must select "Everyone" and the "Election 2008" Group. Click "Publish". 

To publish a video, click "Publish" at the top of any Gather page, then select “Publish a Video.” Browse your computer for your video file. While your video is uploading, you may add a caption and tags. In the “Tags” field, you must insert the tag “Republican,” “Democrat,” or “Independent” (depending on your political affiliation) separated from any other tags by a comma. Under "Who can view my article," you must select "Everyone" and the "Election 2008" Group. Once your video has uploaded, click "Publish.

Entrants should submit one or more of the following: (1) an original essay on an Election 2008 topic of your choice (but not offering support for a specific candidate); essay submissions must be 500 words or less, and can include one or more JPEG images (photos are NOT required) (2) an original video on an Election 2008 topic of your choice; video submissions must be three (3) minutes or less in length.

All entries must be in English, and must be original material. Contest entries should not contain pornography, sexual or racial slurs, offensive language or obscenities. Please do not publish the same entry on Gather.com more than once. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any entry that is determined to be in violation of these guidelines.

If you have any trouble registering for Gather.com and/or the Election 2008 group, please email support@gather.com for help and use subject line, People’s Press Corps Question.

4.  Article/Image/Video Publicity Rights: By entering this Competition, you acknowledge that you have read and understood these Official Rules and you accept these Official Rules and agree to abide by the governing terms and conditions.  By entering this Competition you also explicitly (i) certify that you meet the eligibility requirements as set forth in these Official Rules; (ii) grant Gather a world-wide, royalty free, perpetual, unlimited, and non-exclusive license(s) to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, create derivative works, publicly perform and publicly display such content via Gather.com or on any other Gather property, or in any and all media now known or not currently known, without compensation to you or any third party. Gather reserves the right to syndicate the content submitted, posted, and/or displayed by you and to use that content in connection with other services offered by Gather. (iii) represent and warrant that you have not used licensed material or any material owned by someone other than you; and (v) represent and warrant that your entry is original, is true and verifiable, that you own or otherwise control all the rights to your article, photo, and video (if submitted), that your entry does not violate any law, regulation or any right of any third party, and that you have not copied or plagiarized the concept for your entry from other material.

Sponsor reserves the right to request that the Grand Prize Winner engage in additional Competition related activities including but not limited to, author interviews, blog posts, live chats with members, and/or video posts. 

5.  Judging and Winner Selection: The Competition will run in 2 stages, defined below:

Stage 1

September 10, 2007: Launch of Competition: 30-day submission period for entrants to submit essays and/or video.

October 10, 2007: Submission period ends at 11:59PM ET.

October 17, 2007: Extendedvoting period ends at 11:59PM ET.

Stage 2

October 19, 2007: Thirty (30) finalists are selected based on which entries received the highest number of “10” votes by Gather members. In the event of a tie in the number of “10” votes, the entrant with the most comments from unique members on his/her entry will proceed to the next stage. Once the ten finalists are identified, their entries will be reviewed by the Gather Editorial Team.

Please note: Thirty (30) individual Gather members will become finalists. In the event that a single member has multiple entries in the top 10, only the highest rated submission will proceed to the next round.

October 24, 2007: Six (6) winners are announced, two (2) Democrats, two (2) Republicans and two (2) Independents.

The six (6) winners will be selected by the Gather Editorial Team. The Team will judge entries based on originality and creativity, appropriateness to topic, and clarity of essay or video. 

Six (6) Grand Prizes:

Six (6) Grand Prize Winners will become the Official Gather.com Press Corps for covering Election 2008 from November 2007 through March 2007. Coverage may include but is not limited to weekly article and/or video posts on Gather.com regarding Election 2008 issues, interviews with political personalities, and travel to one of the early primary states for blogging purposes*. All federal, state and local taxes and any other expenses or costs associated with prize acceptance and use not specified as being awarded herein are the sole responsibility of the winners.  No substitution, cash alternative or transfer of any prize permitted, except Sponsor may, at its discretion, substitute a prize (or portion thereof) of comparable or greater value.  Prizes are awarded “as is” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied, offered by Contest Entities.  All prize details are at the sole discretion of Contest Entities.

GRAND PRIZE ARV: — $0.00

*Sponsor will cover necessary travel expenses.

7.  General: Competition administration and verification will be supervised by Sponsor, whose decisions are final.  By participating in this Competition, you agree to have your submission judged as described in these Official Rules and to be bound by these Official Rules, Gather's privacy policy and the decisions of the judges and Sponsor, whose decisions are final. The submission of entries will be conducted on the Internet at www.gather.com only. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, illegible, misdirected, incomplete or garbled entries; for those who cannot access the Internet or cannot click-through for any period of time; for messages that are garbled; if entry is not captured correctly, or for any technical, hardware, software, telephone, Internet, virus contamination, network, human error, electronic malfunctions, Force Majeure or any other problems; and for delay, failure or malfunction for any reason. Sponsor assumes no liability for damage caused to entrant's or any other person's/entity's computer hardware, software or communications network, regardless of cause. Sponsor reserves the right to terminate/cancel or modify the online entering process or disqualify any entrant if, in Sponsor’s sole judgment, it is determined that the integrity or fairness of the Competition has been, or could be, compromised or that the Competition is not capable of running as planned or fairly, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention (hacking), fraud, technical failures, Force Majeure or any other cause. Should this Competition be terminated/canceled during the Competition Entry Period, judging will take place in the manner detailed above from all Submissions received up to the point of termination/cancellation. In the case of a dispute regarding the identity of the person submitting an online entry, the entry will be deemed submitted by the name on the registration form. By entering this Competition, an entrant explicitly releases, discharges and holds harmless the Sponsor and Competition Entities (as defined below) and their shareholders, successors and assigns, one and all, from any and all liability, actions, causes of action, damages, actual, incidental or consequential, claims and demands whatsoever in law or equity, including all "costs," which he/she now has or may acquire, by reason of any personal injury, death, loss of or damage to property, or any reason, occurring during or arising out of his/her participation in the Competition.  The Competition Entities and their respective officers, directors, employees, affiliates, related entities, partners, partnerships, principals, representatives, agents, licensees, successors and assigns (i) make no warranty, guarantee or representation of any kind concerning the prizes; and (ii) disclaim any implied warranty. The right to receive any prize is non-assignable and non-transferable and no prize substitution, extension, transfer, exchange or cash equivalent will be allowed. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.  Potential winner and guest must sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility and Liability Release within two (2) days of attempted notification certifying that entry submission is entrant’s own original work, has not been previously distributed or promoted, has not won a previous prize or award and that he/she has followed the Official Rules of this contest. Noncompliance within this time period or return of any prize notification as undeliverable may result in disqualification and an alternate winner will be determined, time permitting. The Grand Prize Winner must complete an IRS W-9 form, if applicable. By submission of entry, entrants agree to waive any and all rights, title and interest in the submitted material and assign all such rights, title and interest to Contest Entities. All travelers must execute a Release of Liability prior to ticketing and must possess required travel documents (i.e., valid photo I.D.) prior to departure.  Acceptance of prize constitutes permission to Contest Entities to use winner’s entry, image, name, voice and/or likeness for purposes of advertising and trade without further compensation, notification, or approval, unless prohibited by law.  By accepting a prize, winner waives the right to 1) assert as a cost of winning the prize any and all costs of verification and redemption or travel to redeem said prize, and 2) claim any liability (including attorney's fees and costs) that might arise from redeeming or seeking to redeem said prize. There will be no substitution or compensation for the prize or part of the prize forfeited for any reason.

As used herein the term “Competition Entities” shall mean Gather Inc (“Sponsor”).

CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY AN ENTRANT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEB SITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST MAY BE A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. 

8.  Miscellaneous.  If any provision of this Contest shall be deemed to violate any federal, state or municipal law, it shall be amended to conform to such law and all other provisions shall remain in full force and effect. All taxes are each winner's responsibility; the value of the prizes will be treated as ordinary income to prize recipient for income tax purposes and an IRS Form 1099 for the year 2007 will be sent to winners by the Prize Suppliers for prizes valued over $600.

Sponsor, and all production and hosting agencies shall not be responsible for technical, pictorial, typographical or editorial errors or omissions in any marketing materials or these Official Rules. This Competition is conducted in American English.

9.  Dispute Resolution / Choice of Law. By entering this Contest, each entrant agrees that any and all disputes, claims, actions and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest or the prize awarded and all issues and questions concerning the validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively in a court of competent jurisdiction sitting in Massachusetts. Any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred and never shall include consequential, incidental or punitive damages, and in no event attorneys' fees or "costs." Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages, so the above may not apply to you.

10.  Use of Data.  Gather Inc. will be collecting personal data about participants online, in accordance with Gather Inc.’s privacy policy. Please review Gather Inc’s privacy policy at http://www.gather.com/privacy.jsp. By participating in the Competition, participants hereby agree to Gather Inc.'s collection and use of their personal information as set out in its Privacy Policy and in these official Rules and acknowledge that they have read and accepted Gather Inc.'s privacy policy.

By submitting an essay and/or video, entrants acknowledge that they understand and agree that the Designated Entities’ use of material containing features and elements similar to or identical with those contained in their Submission do not entitle entrant to any compensation.  By entering, entrant waives any right of action against the Designated Entities or their successors and assigns in connection with the Designated Entities’ use of the Material (or any part thereof) whether or not the Material contains features or elements similar or identical to those contained in entrant’s Submission.

11. For the Grand Prize Winner announcement, visit http://election08.gather.com on or after October 24, 2007.

12. Sponsor: Gather Inc., 99 Summer Street, 7^th Floor, Boston, MA 02110

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The use of certain products and services as prizes does not imply participation in, or approval of, this Competition by their respective companies.