Welcome to The Independent Photographer, a web service aiming to share and bring exposure to the work of photographers. From emerging to established artists, we aim to inspire and connect like-minded people with a passion for photography. We promote and celebrate talent from all around the world.

The Independent photographer’s website (independent-photo.com) is operated and provided by The Independent Photographer (referred to as “We”, “Us”, “TIP”  or “The Independent Photographer”).

AGREEMENT

For each Artwork, the Artist grants TIP a non-exclusive, worldwide license under copyright law to perform the following acts for the duration of the agreement, subject to, and in accordance
with, the terms of the agreement:
– copy or reproduce the Artwork in its entirety or selectively for the purpose of preparing the NFT;
– use the Artwork, including without limitation, for the preparation of the NFT;
– alter the Artwork in the creation of the NFT or for use in advertising or promotional materials that feature the NFT or other NFT collections promoted by TIP;
– use the Artwork, including by creating copies of, or derivative works from the Artwork to create the NFT, or for use in advertising or promotional materials that feature the NFT or other NFT collections promoted by TIP;
– reproduce the Artwork for use in advertising or promotional material that feature the NFT, or for the sale of the NFT, or other NFT collections promoted by TIP;
The Artist agrees not to copy, reproduce, adapt, use, or exploit the Artwork to create an NFT, or permit any third party to do so.

TIP shall sell the NFT Artworks that are the subject of the Agreement for the benefit of the artist.

The Artist agrees to provide TIP with a high-resolution image (Jpeg or Png file with a minimum of 3000px on the shortest side) of the artwork to create the NFT.

The Agreement between TIP and the Artist is subject at all times to the terms of service of OpenSea and MetaMask (the crypto wallet used on OpenSea.io and other crypto wallets used occasionally). The terms of service of OpenSea can be found here: https://opensea.io/tos and for MetaMask, here: https://metamask.io/terms.html. The Artist acknowledges these terms and proceeds with the Agreement under the provision that TIP will sell the NFT created from the Artwork on OpenSea.

The Artist accepts the terms of service of both OpenSea and MetaMask on this basis. No action by TIP in accordance with any of these Terms of Use will be deemed a breach of the Agreement between the parties.

The Artist warrants that:
– they are the sole legal and beneficial owner of the copyright of the artworks and owns all rights and interests therein;
– they have not assigned or transferred the copyright;
– the Artwork is the original work of the Artist, a qualifying person, and is a product of their own skill and intellectual creation, and has not been copied in whole; in part, or in substance from any other source;
– the Artwork will not be subject to any action, demand, claim, proceeding, challenge, or litigation (whether actual, pending, or threatened) and the exercise by TIP of the rights licensed to it under the Agreement will not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party;
– they have not created, minted, or allowed to be created, another NFT of the Artwork, or another NFT that wholly, partially, or substantially incorporates the Artwork.

The Artist agrees to keep the terms of the Agreement whit TIP confidential.

CRYPTOCURRENCY

Cryptocurrency is a highly volatile, fluctuating, and unregulated form of currency. TIP makesno warranties, representations, or undertakings that either the sale royalty, or the resale royalty
(as applicable), will not decrease value between the Initial Sale, or the Subsequent Sale (as applicable) and the date of payment, or result in a payment of net-zero value due to:
– fluctuations in the cryptocurrency;
– the difference between the value of the type of cryptocurrency in which TIP receives and executes payments;
– the difference in value between the cryptocurrency in which TIP receives payments and the conversion value of the flat currency in which the Artist requests payments, if applicable;
– changes in the applicable law or jurisdiction of this Agreement, or the regulatory position regarding cryptocurrency, where either the Artist, TIP, or the buyer are based.

By using The Independent Photographer, you agree to the terms and conditions created by The Independent Photographer.

Please read the following User Agreement, Terms and Conditions carefully.

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The Independent Photographer may amend sections of this agreement from time to time by publishing the changed terms and conditions on the site. By using The Independent Photographer website after we post amended sections of this agreement you agree to those changes. The Independent Photographer is a global community dedicated to bringing exposure and sharing the work of photographers.

By agreeing to this User Agreement, you are agreeing that the terms of the Agreement will be relevant and apply every time that you use or access The Independent Photographer site, or when you use any available tools. Some linked sites may have other terms that will be applied to you when or if you access them.

USING THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER

While using The Independent Photographer web service, you agree to not:

I. Post any request or content in inappropriate categories on the site.

II. Infringe on or break any laws, third-party rights or policies.

III. Fail to pay for services that you have received, unless the site has changed the services/pricing or a clear typo error has been made.

IV. Avoid the billing process or The Independent Photographer fees.

V. Post offensive, misleading, inaccurate or false information (personal or otherwise).

VI. Post spam or send bulk emails, unwanted chain letters or any pyramid schemes.

VII. Knowingly plant viruses or anything that may harm The Independent Photographer as a site or any of its users; post or send anything that is offensive, derogatory, profane or other means of abuse or harassment/anything that may bring harm to or incite the mistreatment of another

person.

VIII. Copy The Independent Photographer’s content to display along with listings from other sites/use any part of our site onto another site without our written consent.

IX. Attempt to modify, change, disassemble or reverse engineer any software used by the site.

X. Copy or change rights or any other content from THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER site/ THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER copyrights/trademarks.

XI. Collect other users’ information, such as email addresses, without being given consent.

ELIGIBILITY

You are not allowed to use or access the site if you:

I. Are unable to enter into legally binding contracts.

II. Are under 16 years old.

III. Have been suspended from using the site.

Based on your local laws, a person who is over 16 years of age but less than 18 years of age is allowed to use the website once they have been given permission of the parent or guardian. Despite this, the parent or guardian is to be held responsible for everything that occurs on the site.

Users have the option to use a business name that will be associated with their submissions. Users agree that though a company name may be associated with their submission, the User Agreement holds them to contract, and not the business or company. Users agree that they will be the sole person responsible for any activity that occurs on their Account. The site has the right to refuse to allow an individual to register with us, based on our sole discretion.

INFRINGEMENT UPON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

It is The Independent Photographer’s policy to respond to any allegations of intellectual property rights infringement. Our copyright infringement policy seeks to make infringement claims as straightforward and easy as possible while reducing the amount of false or difficult infringement claims that we receive. It is important that, given you find that your intellectual property rights have been infringed upon, notify/contact us and we shall investigate the situation.

FEES AND SERVICES

You must pay a fee in order to enter the running Competition. We may temporarily adjust our fees in a few instances, such as for promotions (discounts on membership fees) or for new services, and these changes will be made effective when the promotion or new service is posted on the site. We offer a $15 fee for 1 image, a $30 fee for 3 images and a $40 fee for 6 images. They all reward the 1st winner with a $1000 cash prize, the 2nd winner with a $600 cash prize and the 3rd winner with a $400 cash prize, and help all the finalists to gain exposure.

PROMOTION

THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER may show your company’s name, logo, pictures or video, descriptions, and profile as a part of advertising for THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER services or other marketing relating to the site. However, we may not do this in cases where you have asked outright that we do not, and we have agreed.

CONTENT

You are and shall remain solely responsible for all content, images, photographs, graphics, video, messages, files or other materials (“Content”) which is transmitted, posted, or distributed by you through THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER, including but not limited to the contents of your e-mail communications, information, photos or images posted by you and information, photos, images, sound files or other Content posted by you in a forum or other page. This means that you, and not THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER, are entirely responsible for all Content that you upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available via the Site. Under no circumstances will THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER be liable in any way for any Content posted by any User or third party, including, but not limited to, liability for any errors or omissions in any Content or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed or otherwise transmitted via the Service. You agree to not post anything to which you do not have the rights. THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER does not own or control the Content posted by users via the service and, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content. You may be exposed to Content posted by other users that may be offensive, indecent or objectionable.

THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER will NEVER assume ownership of your work, and the artist’s copyright settings, as selected by the artist, will remain associated with each published project. Work submitted to THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER remains owned by the artist, under the artist’s selected copyright settings, and artists decide whether or not to sell their work to third parties – THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER does not act as an intermediary in selling creative work.

THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER does not claim any permanent ownership of the Content you submit. As a photography competition organization, however, we require a limited license to host and display this content, as specified below. For instance, it enables THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER to promote and showcase your work across THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER’s website, Social Networks and partner sites that present your work professionally – with link to your portfolio. We require a limited license in order to promote and showcase your content across THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER’s Network. The limited license below is required to allow THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER to host, display, organize, and propagate your work. By communicating with THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER, including submitting or sending Content, correspondence or other information or material to THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER (“Your Content”), you grant THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER a limited license for 3 years, or for the period of time your Content is published in THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER’s systems, to display the work royalty-free, unrestricted, and world-wide, across THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER’s sites, and THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER’s Networks. In some cases, media must be reformatted for display and incorporation into THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER’s galleries. As such, during this limited license, you allow THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER to reproduce, modify, publish, translate, distribute, perform and display your Content (in whole or part), and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. Such limited license also includes incorporating Content, in whole or in part, into a THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER feature or in promotional or marketing materials (respectfully and attributed properly to the artist).

You are aware of, and agree that:

I.    THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER only operates as a medium for the distribution and publishing of content by users. We make no guarantee that content is actually available and present on the site. We have the right, but are not obligated, to take any necessary action as we see fit in regards to your user content.

II.   We are not responsible for the deletion of content or failure to save/store any content that was or was not made available on the site itself.

III.  All content that you submit to the site is subject to our approval or disapproval. We have the right to accept, reject, or change your content as we see fit.

You acknowledge and guarantee that your content will not:

I.      Infringe upon any copyright, patent, trademark or other intellectual property right or proprietary right or right of publicity or privacy.

II.     Violate any laws.

III.   Defame or be trade libelous.

IV.   Be obscene/inappropriate or contain any type of child pornography.

V.     Entail the design and manufacturing of any nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

VI.   Contain anything linked to acts of terror.

VII.  Contain false, incomplete or otherwise inaccurate data about yourself or any other user or person.

VIII. Contain viruses or other technology meant to damage or interfere with any systems or data in any way.

THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER may include or contain links to third party sites; however, we do not have control over the sites to which we link. We do not endorse any of the products, policies or content of the sites we link to. The use of third party content and sites is done at your sole discretion and risk.

COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER USERS

You are not permitted to post your email address or other types of contact info on the site, save for when you enter your email for newsletter, at the registration page or as we may otherwise allow on the site.

If we do not provide another user’s contact info through the site, you are not allowed to try to contact other users concerning Projects or private affairs via email, phone, and other messaging or chat services such as Skype, MSN, and Yahoo.

NO WARRANTY AS TO CONTENT ON THE WEBSITE

The site is dynamic and changes with time. Due to this, info on the site may change often. It is possible that some of this info may be seen as misleading, offensive or inaccurate.

The site, THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER services and all of the content on the site are offered on an ‘as is,’ ‘with all faults’ and ‘as available’ basis. No warranties of any kind are explicitly or implicitly stated.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

In no event are we, our related entities, our affiliates or employees to be held liable, whether in contract, warranty, tort (including negligence), or any other form, for:

I. Any damages that you incur, whether they be direct, indirect, incidental or consequential

II. Any loss of funds or profits, whether direct or indirect, that you incur

III. Any claim, damage or loss that you incur as caused any transaction that you make on the site

The limitations on our liability, as shown above, shall apply whether or not we and all of our related entities as aforementioned have been advised of the risk of such losses. We specifically limit our liability in the case of the breach of a non-excludable warranty implied by legislation to the

following remedies (the choice of which remains under our sole discretion).

What types of information do we collect?

Based on the services that you use, we collect various types of information about or from you.
The information that you will provide while using our services, such as submitting images, and the information provided while proceeding to the submission. We also retrieve information about the way in which you make use of the service. This includes the types of information viewed, pages visited, and browsing duration.

The things that others do and the information that they provide

Similarly, we collect information that other people may make available by using our services. This can include information about you, which can be created by sharing an image, a picture of you, messaging you, or uploading, syncing, and importing your contact info.

Device information

We collect information about the devices on which you access our services. This depends on the permissions that you’ve given to us. If you use different devices, we may associate the information taken from all of them in order to give you consistent service regardless of which device you use. The following are a few examples of device info that we collect.

• Operating system, device settings, file names/types, hardware version, signal strength, and battery strength
• Geographic locations via Wi-Fi, GPS, or Bluetooth
• ISP, language, mobile number, IP address, browser type

Information from websites and apps that use our services

When you use sites or apps that use our services, we collect information. This includes info about those sites and apps, info that the site or app developer provides to you as well as info about your use of our services on those sites and apps.

Information from third-party partners

We receive info about you as well as about your activities on social media sites from our third-party partners. This includes information about your experience with these partners or any interactions that you may have. Please send us an email at support@independent-photo.com if there is any question regarding our terms.