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The rules

Please also refer to the Non-disclosure agreement as it is part of these terms and conditions.

General Terms and Conditions – Algorithm Contest

BY REGISTERING FOR THIS CONTEST YOU FULLY AND UNCONDITIONALLY AGREE TO COMPLY WITH ALL OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITONS, PLEASE DO NOT REGISTER FOR THIS CONTEST AND DO NOT SUBMIT ANY ENTRY. PLEASE READ THESE TERMS PRIOR TO ENTRY TO ENSURE YOU UNDERSTAND THEM. THESE TERMS FORM A BINDING LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PARTICPANT AND PLISTA WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTEST.

Preamble, Organizer

The plista algorithm contest is a competition intended to engage programmers in algorithmic programming. It is run by:

plista GmbH
Torstraße 33
D-10119 Berlin

Tel: 030-47375370
Fax: 032121-038193

www.plista.com

Directors: Dr. Dominik Matyka • Andreas Richter • Christian Laase

§ 1 Eligibility and Participation

  1. This contest is open to everyone, individuals who are 18 years of age or older as well as teams. Your team can be either private or for example sponsored by a university. If you decide to sign up as a team, please make sure to choose a single team leader who is responsible for the team and will be the person to handle all communication.
  2. plista reserves the right to exclude individuals as well as teams at its sole discretion or to disqualify any submission that infringes upon or violates the rights of any third party or otherwise does not comply with these terms. If plista suspects cheating or violation of the terms by any participant, plista will take the appropriate action. All decisions of plista in these matters are final and binding.
  3. All participants must have access to the Internet, a valid postal address, and a valid email address in order to enter the contest.
  4. Employees, interns consignees and all other official function owners of plista as well as whose parent and subsidiary companies, partner, directors, advertising and promotional agencies and such employee´s family members are not allowed to participate in the contest.
  5. If a participant should not wish to continue his/her participation in the contest, he/she may terminate participation by abandoning their registration on the site. All submitted material remains the property of plista.

§ 2 Registration, Cooperation

  1. To participate in the contest, each contestant must register itself at the contest website, located at [website] and follow the instructions provided there. Registration opens on 11. November 2011.
  2. By entering this contest, candidates automatically agree to reasonable cooperate with plista concerning the compliance with the rules and to be bound by the terms of this contest as listed in this terms and conditions. If participants fail to comply with these rules plista has, in its sole discretion, the right to suspend or terminate the participation of contestants.

§ 3 Contest Structure, Costs and Equipment

  1. The contest consists of two rounds for each team: A preliminary round where teams receive a low volume of messages with a chance of winning a monthly prize and qualifying themselves for the high volume stage. This second round provides the teams with a much higher volume of messages and the chance of winning the grand prize.
  2. There is no deadline in the classic sense; the contest will start 11. November 2011 and will continue on for at least 12 months until a winner is found.
  3. Participants have the sole responsibility for the equipment and Internet access required to connect to participate in the contest. plista does not incur any expenses of contestants relating to the participation in the contest.

§ 4 Judging

  1. Participants' submissions are judged by a number of performance indicators such as time efficiency and response rate.

§ 5 Announcement of Winners and Prizes

  1. All winners will be announced on the contest web page.
  2. Money prizes will be awarded in Euro. Any costs associated with currency exchange are the sole responsibility of the participant.
  3. The prize money will be transferred by bank transfer.

§ 6 Prize Responsibility, Tax Consequences

  1. In accepting the prize(s), the contest winners acknowledge that plista may not be held liable for any loss, damages or injury associated with accepting or using the prize(s).
  2. Participation and acceptance of benefits from the algorithm contest will have tax consequences for contestants. In the case of local tax liabilities for participation in the contest or the acceptance of a prize or costs/expenses relating to participation or for the use and enjoyment of any prize or any other reason, such taxes and and/or expenses are the sole responsibility of the participant.
  3. All prize winners will be responsible for all federal, state and/or local taxes resulting from acceptance of any and all prizes related to this contest and agree to self-report to applicable local taxing authorities as may be required by law. Prize winner are not allowed to assign or transfer the prize to third persons. No prize substitution or changes are allowed.
  4. If a potential winner fails to comply with the requirements of law named above, the prize may be forfeited and plista may, in its sole discretion, select an alternative potential winner.

§ 7 Cancellation of Contest

  1. plista reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reasonably suspend, cancel, terminate or modify the contest should any virus, bug and/or other cause damage the administration, security or proper operation of the contest. In the case of cancellation of contest plista reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to select the winners of the contest from among all qualified submissions received up to the time of such action. plista further has the right to disqualify any participant from contest who tampers with the submission process.

§ 8 Disclaimer of Warranty

  1. To the maximum extent permitted by law participants agree to hold plista, its subsidiaries and affiliates and their respective directors, employees and assigns (collectively the released parties) harmless for any injury or damage caused or claimed to be caused by participation in the contest and/or use or acceptance of any prize won, except to the extent that any death or personal injury is caused by the negligence of plista. plista will not be liable in the event a typographical or other error occurs in the administration of the contest or the announcement of the winners.
  2. To the maximum extent permitted by law the contestants agree that plista is hold harmless at all times from and against any liability, claims, demands, losses, damages, costs and expenses resulting from any act, default or omission of the contestant and/or breach of any warranty set forth herein. To the maximum extent permitted by law each contestant agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless plista from and against any and all claims, actions, suits or proceedings, as well as any and all losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising out of or accruing from
    1. Any entry or other material uploaded or otherwise provided by the contestant that infringes any copyright, trademark, trade secret, trade dress, patent or other intellectual property right of any person or defames any person or violates their rights of publicity or privacy;
    2. Any misrepresentation made by the contestant in connection with the contest;
    3. Any non-compliance by the contestant with these terms;
    4. Claims brought by persons or entities other than the parties to these terms arising from or related to the contestant´s involvement with the contest;
    5. Acceptance, possession, misuse ore use of any prize or participation in any contest-related activity or participation in this contest;
    6. Any malfunction or other problem with the contest site; or
    7. Any error in the collection, processing or retention of entry information.

§ 9 Internet, Delivery of Information

  1. will not be responsible for lost, late, incomplete, stolen, misdirected, undelivered, delayed, inaccurate, garbled or illegible materials, entries, email or mail or for any computer, telephone, cable, network, satellite, electronic or Internet hardware or software malfunction, failures, connections, or availability, or for garbled or jumbled transmissions, or for service provider/Internet/Website/use net accessibility or availability, traffic congestion, or unauthorized human intervention, or for inaccurate capture of any information, whether caused by printing errors, site users, tampering, hacking, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the contest.
  2. Moreover plista does not have the responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to the contest site or any communications means or for any other error of failure of any kind in connection with or relating to this contest, whether caused by any human, typographical, printing, mechanical, computer or other means, including without limitation, errors or failures which may occur in connection with the processing or storing of information, the administration to the contest, the uploading, processing validating, posting and/or judging of entries, the announcement of the contest prizes or in any contest-related materials.

§ 10 Original work

  1. All participants must certify that their submission is original and that they are the sole and exclusive owner and right holder of the submission and that they are allowed to enter the contest. Each participant must certify that all parts of his/her submission are either original or are licensed for use by both plista and all contestants in a way that does not:
    1. infringe any third party proprietary, intellectual property, industrial property, personal rights or other rights, including without limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or confidentiality obligation or
    2. make use of ideas, hints or solutions for the contest presented, other than by plista, for the first time after the start of the contest in any form, including without limitation from other individuals, participants, websites or blogs or
    3. otherwise violate applicable laws and regulations.

§ 11 Data Protection

  1. plista only collects and stores personal data entered by the participants during the registration for the contest, including name, postal address, mailing address, phone number, and email address in order to use it for the purposes and within the context of the contest. If a contestant does not provide any of the data required for the registration, the entry of the contestant will be ineligible.
  2. Contestants agree that plista may use this data for verifying a participant’s identity, postal address and telephone number in the event a contestant qualifies for a prize. All of this information is treated in confidence, subject to the provisions of the data protection legislation in force. Contestants have the right to access, review, rectify or cancel any personal data held by plista in connection with the contest by writing an e-mail to plista.

§ 12 Copyright, Grant of License

  1. A participant of the contest will be required to complete, sign and return a non-exclusive grant of license and an affidavit of eligibility to plista within thirty (30) days of the date of winning status notification as a condition of winning the contest and acceptance of the contest prize. If a potential winner fails to comply within this time period plista has the right of disqualification and the selection of an alternate winner. Each participant will retain ownership of and all intellectual and industrial property rights to his or her contest submission; provided that contestants agree that plista shall have a permanent, irrevocable, world-wide, royalty-free right to use, copy, distribute and modify the submission in connection with the operation, conduct and administration of the contest.

§ 13 Exclusion of Contract of Employment

  1. The submission of an entry into the contest, the awarding of a prize or anything in these terms shall under no circumstance be construed as an offer or contract of employment with plista. Every participant confirms that he/she have submitted the entry voluntarily and not in confidence or trust. In addition, every contestant confirms that no confidential, fiduciary, agency or other relationship or implied-in-fact contract now exists between him/her and plista and that no such relationship is established by the submission of an entry under these terms.

§ 14 Final Provisions

  1. These terms and conditions contain all agreements made between the parties in respect of the subject matter hereof and shall supersede all previous agreements, written or oral, agreed between the parties in respect of the subject matter hereof. No ancillary agreements to this agreement have been made. Changes and amendments to this agreement must be made in writing in order to be valid.
  2. These terms and conditions shall be governed by German law without regard to the conflicts of law provisions thereof. If legally permitted the parties agree on the exclusive jurisdiction of the local courts in Berlin in respect of any disputes arising out of or in connection with this agreement.
  3. Should any provision of these rules, terms and conditions be or become invalid, ineffective or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain valid. The invalid, ineffective or unenforceable provision should be replaced by a valid, effective and enforceable provision. This shall also apply in the event of a gap.