Terms & Conditions


The Organiser 
The organiser of the WMA Masters is the WYNG Foundation. Employees and trustees of the WYNG Foundation as well as directors and officers of official partners or those professionally directly connected with the promotion of the award are not eligible to enter this competition.  

Eligibility 
Entries are open to both residents of Hong Kong and other countries. The competition is open to all nationalities. Entries must be submitted by an individual (not via any agency or organisation). 

Photographs submitted must adhere to the following criteria –
1. the photographs must be taken in or be related to Hong Kong and
2. the photographs must be related to the subject of the WMA Masters of that cycle. 

By entering the competition, you agree to be bound by the rules set out by the WYNG Foundation. All entrants agree to participate in any publicity in connection with this competition as required and to the use of your name and likeness for the purpose of promotion and publicity. 

There is no entry fee associated with the WMA Masters. 

Each applicant can only enter once in each cycle. Each submission must consist of a series of up to 10 images and captions, Project Statement, Biography and Personal Data. Images uploaded to the competition website must be a minimum of 5 megabytes and not exceed the maximum size of 10 megabytes, in JPEG/JPG format. If your work is voted to the shortlist of finalists, you will be asked to submit a high-resolution version of all images within 7 days of notification. 

The entry can be an ongoing project or a completed body of work. 

Submissions are accepted from 1 June to 11 October, 2019 (23:59 Hong Kong Time GMT + 8:00) and can be made in either English or Chinese, or both languages. 

By entering, the photographer acknowledges that the employer, client and/or subject have copyright release or model release giving permission for the image to be published or exhibited in connection with the WMA Masters and that he/she is the author of the work as defined in the Copyright Ordinance of Hong Kong (Cap. 528) and any other relevant local legislation. 

Images submitted by the finalists may be displayed on the website or be selected for printing in future publications related to the WMA Masters and WMA programme with proper attribution. 

Previous winners of the WMA Masters are welcome to submit their works, however they would not be considered for the award 3 years following the receipt of the WMA Masters. They would still however be eligible to be considered a finalist of the WMA Masters. The WYNG Foundation reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any submission it finds to be:

  • Tampering or attempting to tamper with the entry process or the operation of the WMA Masters
  • Violating the rules
  • Violating terms of use
  • Acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person
  • Any false or misleading information provided by any entrant

It is the sole and unfettered discretion of the sponsor to disqualify photographs containing obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content. 

The WYNG Foundation is not responsible for any typographical or other error in the printing of the competition offer, official rules, or administration of the WMA Masters. The WYNG Foundation accepts no responsibility for any entries that are lost, delayed, damaged, stolen, misdirected or mislaid. The WYNG Foundation is not responsible for electronic transmission errors resulting in omission, interruption, deletion, or delay in operations or transmission, or for technical, network, telephone equipment, electronic, computer, hardware or software malfunctions or limitations of any kind. 

The WYNG Foundation shall not be liable for losses or injuries of any kind resulting from:

  • acceptance/possession and/or use/misuse of prize(s)/loss or damage to prize(s) during delivery to the finalists and winner
  • participation in the Competition
  • individual, joint or collective technical malfunctions of the telephone network and/or transmission line, internet connections, computer equipment, hardware and/or software
  • any delay or distortion of an entry resulting from data transmissions that are garbled, incomplete, misdirected, lost, mutilated, delayed, corrupted, mechanically duplicated, illegible or otherwise not in compliance with these Official Competition Rules. The WYNG Foundation shall not be liable for damage to your computer (including, without limitation, any server failure or lost, delayed or corrupted data or other malfunction) due, either directly or indirectly, to your participation in the Competition or downloading of information in connection with the Competition. WYNG Foundation reserves the right to modify or cancel the Competition in the event that any portion of any website used to administer any aspect of the Competition becomes technically corrupted.

By submitting an entry into the competition, you warrant to the WYNG Foundation that the entry is wholly original to you and not wholly or substantially copied from any other material and that the entry does not defame, cause injury to or invade the privacy of or otherwise infringe or violate any statutory, common law, regulatory or intellectual property rights of any third party. You agree to fully indemnify The WYNG Foundation and any of the official partners of the WYNG Foundation relating to the WMA Masters in respect of all royalties, fees and other monies owing to any person by reason of your breaching this rule. 

All finalists for the WMA Masters would be required to sign a separate exhibition agreement to the terms and conditions. 

Judging 
The decision of the judges in deciding the shortlist of finalists and the winner of the WMA Masters is final and the WYNG Foundation will not enter into any correspondence regarding the judging or organisation of the competition. 

The WYNG Foundation reserves the right to conduct an initial round of pre-screening. 

Finalists’ works will be included in an exhibition and in printed and online materials as well as publicity materials. 

The WMA Masters winner will receive a cash award of HK$250,000. The additional finalists will each receive a cash award of HK$15,000. WMA Masters will announce the WMA Masters winners and finalists and show their winning images on its website, by mail, by a worldwide press release and in other WMA publications. 

The WMA finalists agrees to participate in WMA Masters publicity activities, interviews (video, print and online) for promotional purposes. 

Special Mentions may be given on exceptional cases, and those nominated may be featured in the WMA publications. 

Copyright 
The entrant must be the sole author and owner of copyright, intellectual property and all other proprietary rights in all pictures entered. 

You will retain copyright and all other rights to any photograph you submit. By entering the competition, you grant to the WYNG Foundation a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to reproduce any of the images for any purposes in connection with promoting the WMA Masters including, but not limited to:

  • Judging the WMA Masters
  • Voting
  • Inclusion within the WMA Masters website (upon submission and after), WMA website,  WYNG Foundation website, WMA publications or similar print or digital media published by the WYNG Foundation
  • Displaying the finalists entries at public exhibitions promoting the WMA Masters and its programmes
  • Inclusion within marketing and promotional materials (including emails, websites and press packs) for the WMA Masters and/or any related exhibition and programmes
  • Sub-licensing the entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the WMA Masters and any exhibition and programmes
  • Allowing viewers of the Website to view images on a computer screen, PDA, tablet or mobile phone

All entrants must be able to supply high-resolution images suitable for printing in media. WMA Masters will have the right to reproduce, distribute an unrestricted number, exhibit the images. There will be no monetary compensation for usage. It is understood that WMA Masters continues to develop its programmatic and marketing activities and the images produced as a result of WMA Masters may be used in ways not yet contemplated by WMA Masters. It is also understood the intensity with which the Images are used may possibly increase substantially due to future new ways of use. 

The license does not affect the image maker’s proprietary copyrights over the images unless otherwise specified. WMA Masters undertakes to provide the image maker with photo credits in all instances where the images are published. 

Right to Cancel or Suspend Competition 
If for any reason the competition is not capable of running as planned, due to infection by computer virus, bugs, worms, trojan horses, denial of service attacks, tampering, unauthorised intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of The WYNG Foundation that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the WMA Masters, The WYNG Foundation 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 WMA Masters. If the WYNG Foundation elects to cancel or terminate the competition, The WYNG Foundation will not retain any rights in the submitted photographs. 

Data Privacy 
Applicants have the right to review, rectify, or cancel any personal data held by the WYNG Foundation and any of the official partners, sponsors or associates by writing to the WYNG Foundation. 

WYNG Foundation collects personal and biographical information from applicants submitting their work on our website which is stored on our web server. The information is used only by WYNG Foundation for the purpose of the competition and for contacting applicants. The public does not have access to this database. Once an applicant is selected as a finalist, professional e-mail and website addresses may be made available to the public with the applicant’s approval. 

In light of the new provisions in the Personal Data (Privacy) (Amendment) Ordinance 2012 on the use of personal data for direct marketing purposes have come into force since 1 April 2013, the WYNG Foundation would ensure that all those who have signed on are well informed of the WMA Masters’ latest news and/or events and activities, the organiser would continue to use email addresses provided for sending information regarding the WMA Masters’ activities (including contests, seminars, workshops or other events organised or co-organised by the WMA Masters), invitations, news and other relevant communications. 

Personal data collected will not be transferred, sold, traded or rented in any form or through any means to other parties. Upon request at any time, the WMA Masters would cease to use one’s personal data. Participants may opt-out from receiving the organiser’s communications or request to access and correct personal data at any time with an email to [email protected]   

Taxes   
Winners and finalists are responsible for ensuring they comply with all the applicable tax laws and filing requirements and the organiser will not be responsible for any taxes incurred for the award. 

WMA Masters rules are governed by Hong Kong law. Any disputes arising between the WYNG Foundation and any third party in relation to these competition rules and or competition shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Hong Kong SAR. 

Under no circumstances shall the submission of an entry into WMA Masters, the awarding of the award, or anything in these Rules be construed as an offer or contract of employment with either WYNG Foundation or the award entities. You acknowledge that you have submitted your Photographs voluntarily and not in confidence or in trust. You acknowledge that no confidential, fiduciary, agency or other relationship or implied-in-fact contract now exists between you and WYNG Foundation or the award entities and that no such relationship is established by your submission of Photographs under these Terms and Conditions. 

WYNG Foundation acknowledges that the information is correct at the time of publication – the WYNG Foundation reserves the right to amend any of the above without notice. If there are differences between the English and Chinese versions of the Terms and Conditions and other texts on the competition website referring to the competition rules and regulations, the English version of the Terms and Conditions shall prevail.