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Official Essay Contest Rules

Moldova 4Ever a 302Group, LLC company based in the United States.

Sponsor

Sponsor is 302Group, LLC, 2 Sykes Street, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, USA ("Sponsor" or "MD4Ever").

Topic

Moldovan Identity

Questions: What is it? What identifies you as a Moldovan? What makes you proud to be Moldovan?

Term

The First Essay Competition for Moldova begins January 15, 2009, at midnight (12:00:00 a.m.) Moldova Time and ends March 31, 2009, 11:59:00 p.m. Moldova Time (the "Contest"). Information on how to enter and prizes form part of these official rules ("Official Rules"). By submitting an entry, each entrant agrees to the Official Rules and warrants that his or her entry complies with all requirements set out in the Official Rules. This is a juried contest. The jury's role is to ensure a fair and transparent process of selecting the winners.

Who May Enter

The Contest is open to all Moldovans. Employees of Moldova 4Ever, and its subsidiaries and affiliates, and their immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling, and their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) or persons living in the same households of such employees, whether or not related, are not eligible.

1. How to Enter

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY. Register online by providing the required information, including your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address. A link will be emailed to you where you can upload and submit your abstract and essay in accordance with the instructions below.

Rules:

  • Each participant can only submit one essay.
  • Participants must be at least 18 years of age at the time the entry form is submitted.
  • Essays must be original. Any form of plagiarism will result in automatic disqualification.
  • Essays should not be longer than 5 pages (2,000 words maximum, 1.5 line-spaced).
  • Essays can only be submitted online at md4ever.com/essay-contest in Romanian, Russian, or English. Pay special attention to grammar and spelling.
  • Each essay must be accompanied by an abstract (max. one page). An abstract is a short summary in which you explain the aim, the methodology, the reasoning and the main conclusions of your essay. The abstract will be used by the jury to make a pre-selection.
  • Quotes and references must be clearly marked throughout the essay and properly cited. The essay must not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of the Sponsor, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content.
  • The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2009, at 11:59 p.m. Moldovan time.
  • Winners will be announced on April 30, 2009.

2. Releases

Upon Sponsor's request, each entrant must be prepared to provide (within seven (7) calendar days of receipt of Sponsor's request) a signed release authorizing Sponsor and its licensees ("Authorized Parties") to reproduce, distribute, display, and create derivative works of the entry in connection with the Contest and promotion of the Contest, in any media now or hereafter known, including, but not limited to: display at a potential award ceremony of winners; publication of a book featuring select entries in the Contest; and publication in Moldova 4Ever tourist catalog or online highlighting entries or winners of the Contest. All releases must be in the form provided by Sponsor. Failure to provide such releases upon request may result in disqualification at any time during the Contest and selection of an alternate winner. (Download the Personal Release. Acrobat Reader is required to view the download. Get the free plug-in here.)

For the purposes of these Official Rules, the entrant will be deemed to be in receipt of Sponsor's request or notification, (a) in the event that Sponsor sends the request by postal mail, five business days after the request was sent by Sponsor, or (b) in the event that Sponsor sends the request by email, on the day that the email was sent by Sponsor.

3. Contest Prizes

First, Second, and Third Place winners will be selected in the contest topic advertised. The First Place winner will receive 2,500 lei; Second Place winner will receive 1,500 lei; and the Third Place winner will receive 500 lei. The prize is nontransferable. All winners will be presented with their prizes at the Moldova 4Ever Essay Awards Ceremony on a date and time to be determined shortly after the contest deadline.

Potential winners shall be required to sign and return within ten (10) days following an attempted notification, a Liability Release, and where legally permissible, a Publicity Release and Personal Release in which the entrant warrants that he/she is the owner of the essay and grants to Sponsor and its licensees the irrevocable perpetual, nonexclusive license to reproduce, distribute, display, and create derivative works of the entry (along with a name credit) in connection with the Contest and promotion of the Contest without additional compensation. Failure to execute and deliver any required documents to Sponsor by the specified deadline may result in disqualification from the Contest, and selection of an alternate potential winner.

No prize transfer, assignment, or substitution by winners permitted. NONCOMPLIANCE OR RETURN OF PRIZE NOTIFICATION AS UNDELIVERABLE, WHETHER BY REGULAR MAIL OR BY EMAIL, MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION AND SELECTION OF AN ALTERNATE POTENTIAL WINNER.

4. Judging

Sponsor will submit entries to Jury marked with an identifiable number only--the writer's name will be kept confidential until the winners are selected. Contest consists of two (2) rounds of evaluation for the essay topic. In round one, each judge in a panel of writing experts ("Judges") will select five (5) entries from among all eligible entries based on the following criteria ("Judging Criteria"): (1) Originality/Creativity; (2) Quality; (3) Structure; (4) Use of supporting material. The entries selected in round one will proceed to round two. In round two, the Judges will collectively select a First, Second, and Third Place Winners based on the judging criteria. In the event of a tie, the tied entries will be resubmitted to the Judges for a rejudging between the tied entries alone. In the event that a tie remains after rejudging, the entry with the highest score in the creativity criteria will be declared the winner. Winners will be chosen on or around April 25, 2009, and notified by email by April 30, 2009. Decisions of the judges are final and binding.

5. License

By entering the Contest, all entrants grant an irrevocable perpetual, nonexclusive license to Authorized Parties, to reproduce, distribute, display, and create derivative works of the entries (along with a name credit) in connection with the Contest and promotion of the Contest, in any media now or hereafter known, including, but not limited to: display at a potential exhibition of winners; publication of a book featuring select entries in the Contest; publication in Moldova 4Ever tourist catalog or online highlighting entries or winners of the Contest. Entrants consent to the Sponsor doing or omitting to do any act that would otherwise infringe the entrant's "moral rights" in their entries. Display or publication of any entry on an Authorized Party's website does not indicate the entrant will be selected as a winner. Authorized Parties will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such use. Additionally, by entering, each entrant grants to Authorized Parties the unrestricted right to use all statements made in connection with the Contest, and pictures or likenesses of Contest entrants, or choose not to do so, at their sole discretion. Authorized Parties will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such use.

6. Limitation of Liability

By entering this Contest, all entrants agree to release, discharge, and hold harmless Moldova 4Ever and its partners, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising agencies, agents and their employees, officers, directors, and representatives from any claims, losses, and damages arising out of their participation in this Contest or any Contest-related activities and the acceptance and use, misuse, or possession of any prize awarded hereunder.

Moldova 4Ever assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, or delay in operation or transmission; communications line failure; theft or destruction of or unauthorized access to Contest entries or entry forms; or alteration of entries or entry forms. MD4Ever is not responsible for any problems with or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email entry to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, human errors of any kind, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to entrants' or any other persons' computers related to or resulting from participation, uploading or downloading of any materials related to in this Contest.

7. Conditions

THIS CONTEST IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Entrants agree that this Contest shall be subject to and governed by and subject to the laws of the State of Maryland and the forum for any dispute shall be in Maryland, United States of America. To the extent permitted by law, the right to litigate, to seek injunctive relief or to make any other recourse to judicial or any other procedure in case of disputes or claims resulting from or in connection with this Contest are hereby excluded and any entrant expressly waives any and all such rights. Certain restrictions may apply. Entries void if the Sponsor determines the essay to not be an original, or if the entry is illegible, incomplete, irregular, altered, counterfeit, produced in error or obtained through fraud or theft.

By entering, entrants also agree (a) to be bound by these Official Rules; (b) that the decisions of the Judges are final and binding with respect to all matters relating to the Contest; and (c) if the entrant wins that Sponsor may use the winning essay and each winner's name, photograph, likeness, and/or voice in any publicity or advertising relating to the Contest or future promotions without compensation or approval (except where prohibited by law). All federal, state/provincial/territorial, and local taxes, fees and surcharges and taxes (whether foreign or domestic, and including income, sales, and import taxes) on prizes are the sole responsibility of the prize winners. In the event that the selected winner(s) of any prize is/are ineligible, cannot be traced or does/do not respond within ten (10) days to a winner notification as required by the "Contest Prizes" Rules above, or refuses the prize, the prize will be forfeited and Sponsor, in its sole discretion, may choose whether to award the prize to another entrant. The Sponsor reserves the right to verify the validity and originality of any entry and/or entrant (including an entrant's identity and address) and to disqualify any entrant who submits an entry that is not in accordance with these Official Rules or who tampers with the entry process. Failure by the Sponsor to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.

8. Right to Cancel or Suspend Contest

If for any reason the Contest is not capable of running as planned, due to infection by computer virus, bugs, worms, trojan horses, denial of service attacks, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of MD4Ever that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Contest, MD4Ever reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual(s) who tamper with the entry process, and/or to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Contest. If Sponsor elects to cancel or terminate the Contest, Sponsor will not retain any rights in the submitted essays.

9. Winners List

Entrants are responsible for complying with these Official Rules. Winners' names will be available online at www.md4ever.com after April 30, 2009.

10. Data Privacy

Entrants agree that personal data, especially name and address, may be processed, shared, and otherwise used for the purposes and within the context of the Contest and any other purposes outlined in these Official Rules. The data may also be used by the Sponsor in order to verify the participant's identity, postal address, and telephone number or to otherwise verify the participant's eligibility to participate in the Contest. Participants have the right to access, review, rectify, or cancel any personal data held by Sponsor by writing to Sponsor at 302Group, LLC, Attention: Essay Contest, 2 Sykes Street, Gaithersburg, MD 20877. Personal data will be used by Sponsor and its affiliates exclusively for the purposes stated herein.

NOTICE TO INDIVIDUALS: REMOVAL FROM MAILING LIST: Any individual (or other duly authorized person) may elect to exclude the name and address of that individual from all lists used by Moldova 4Ever to mail tourist information or other offers. To elect to have an individual's name excluded from all such lists, submit a removal request in writing to: 302Group, LLC, Attention: Essay Contest, 2 Sykes Street, Gaithersburg, MD 20877 (USA).


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