Terms of Use and Contest Rules — The Creative Room

Last updated: 5 November 2026

1. About these terms

This website, and the photo challenges run on it (including the RAW Edit Challenge), are organised by Kessy.mp4, trading as “The Creative Room”, based in Hungary (“we”, “us”). You can contact us at [email protected].

These Terms of Use and Contest Rules (“Terms”) apply to everyone who visits the site, votes, signs up for emails, or enters a challenge. Our Entrant Content and Copyright terms and our Privacy Policy are part of these Terms. By using the site or entering a challenge, you agree to them. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the site.

Each challenge may also have its own details on its challenge page (theme, dates, the challenge file and any prizes). If a challenge page says something different from these Terms, the challenge page applies for that challenge.

2. Who can enter

Age. You must be 18 or over to enter. We may ask for proof of age before confirming or announcing a winner, and we will disqualify entries from anyone under 18.
Where you live. Anyone, anywhere, may enter, unless taking part is not allowed by the law where you live. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. It is your responsibility to check that you are allowed to take part.
Not eligible: the organisers and judges of the challenge, and their immediate family members, may not enter.

3. No purchase necessary

Entering and voting are free. No purchase or payment of any kind is needed to enter, vote or win, and buying anything will not improve your chances.

4. How to enter

Download the challenge file (JPEG and/or RAW) from the Downloads page, when the challenge has one. It is provided only for editing and entering that challenge. Downloads close when the challenge finishes.
Edit it however you like.
Submit your edit on the challenge page before the submission deadline shown there. Deadlines are measured by our server’s clock, not your device’s.

One entry per person per challenge. Your email address is used to enforce this. Entering more than once, for example with different email addresses, can lead to all of your entries being disqualified.
Entries must be JPEG or PNG, up to 10 MB, and must be an edit of that challenge’s file.
You must give accurate details (first name, email address and Instagram handle).
You can replace your photo using the private link in your confirmation email until submissions close. After that, entries cannot be changed.
By entering you confirm that your entry follows these Terms and the Entrant Content and Copyright terms, including that it is your own work.
We are not responsible for entries that are late, lost, incomplete or not received because of technical problems.

5. How voting works

When submissions close, every accepted entry appears in the voting gallery. Anyone can vote.
One vote per person per challenge. Votes are limited per browser and per network, and are protected by an automated anti-bot check (Cloudflare Turnstile). A vote cannot be changed once confirmed.
Vote counts stay hidden until voting closes.
It’s fine to ask friends and followers to vote for you. It is not fine to buy, sell or trade votes; to use scripts, bots, or automated or paid voting services; to vote many times using different browsers, devices, networks, VPNs or accounts; or to ask others to do any of this.
Duels (side game). Some challenges also have duels: while voting is open, visitors pick between two edits at a time, as often as they like, with names hidden. Duels are a separate game. They never change the official vote or the official winners. The same fair-play rules apply to duels, and section 6 applies to suspicious duel answers too.

6. Fair voting and suspicious votes

To keep the challenge fair, we may, at our sole discretion and without notice:

investigate any voting pattern that looks unusual (for example a sudden burst of votes, or many votes from the same network);
remove any votes that we reasonably believe are fraudulent, automated, bought or otherwise against these Terms, before or after voting closes;
disqualify any entrant who we reasonably believe has manipulated, or tried to manipulate, the vote, whether personally or through others.

We are not required to explain the details of our anti-fraud checks, because that would help people get around them.

7. How winners are chosen

Winners are decided by the public vote. When voting closes, the site automatically ranks entries by the number of valid votes. The top three places are announced on the site.
Entries with the same number of votes share the same place (for example: 1st, 2nd, 2nd).
Prizes: There is no cash prize. Winners are announced on the site and on Instagram. If a future challenge offers a prize, it will be described on that challenge’s page.
We contact winners by the email address they entered with. Winners have 14 days from our email to reply and be confirmed. If a winner doesn’t reply within 14 days, can’t be reached, or doesn’t meet these Terms, we may choose another winner (normally the next eligible entrant).
Results are final. Once the results are published, they are final and no correspondence will be entered into, except where we later find fraud or a breach of these Terms, or where we must change them by law.
Duel Champion. In challenges with duels, the Duel Champion is the entry with the highest duel rating when voting closes. The rating counts who each entry beat, so a win against a strong edit counts for more. An entry needs at least 10 answered duels to be ranked. It is a separate, honorary award, unless that challenge’s page says otherwise.
Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame adds up points from the official results of finished challenges (10 for 1st, 6 for 2nd, 4 for 3rd, 1 for taking part), grouped by public Instagram handle, plus badges. It is honorary, not a prize. We may correct it, and decide which entries count for a handle, for example when two different email addresses use the same handle. You can ask to be left out at any time.

8. Taxes and local rules

Winners are responsible for any taxes on prizes, and for any duties, fees or other legal requirements in their own country (for example declaring a prize), to the extent the law allows.

9. Disqualification, removal and changes

We may, at our discretion:

refuse, remove or disqualify any entry, at any time, if we reasonably believe it breaks these Terms or the law, is not the entrant’s own work, is offensive, or could harm other people or The Creative Room;
suspend, change, extend, shorten or cancel a challenge (or its dates, file or prizes) if something outside our reasonable control happens, such as fraud, a technical failure, a security problem, too few entries, or a legal reason. If we cancel a challenge, we may choose not to announce winners;
update these Terms. The version on this page applies from the date shown at the top. Changes don’t apply to a challenge that is already running unless they are needed for legal, security or fairness reasons.

10. Using the website

Please don’t misuse the site. In particular, don’t: try to get around the one-entry or one-vote limits or the anti-bot check; scrape, overload or attack the site; access parts of it you’re not meant to (such as the organiser area); upload anything that breaks the Entrant Content and Copyright terms; or use other people’s photos or personal details without permission.

The challenge files and the site’s design belong to us or our licensors. You may use a challenge file only to edit it for, and enter, that challenge and to share your own edit, unless the challenge page says otherwise.

11. The service is provided “as is”

We run this site on a small scale, and we provide it “as is” and “as available”. We don’t promise that it will always be available, uninterrupted, error-free or secure, or that every email will arrive. We may change, pause or stop the site at any time.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law:

we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of data, profits, opportunity or reputation, arising from the site or a challenge;
we are not liable for technical failures, lost or late entries or votes, or for how other people use content that is publicly shown on the site or on social media;
our total liability to you for anything relating to the site or a challenge is limited to EUR 100.

Nothing excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law, such as liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for intentional or grossly negligent conduct, and nothing affects your legal rights as a consumer.

13. Your responsibility for your content and use (indemnity)

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to compensate us for, and protect us against, claims, losses and reasonable costs (including legal costs) that arise from: content you submit (for example, if someone claims your entry infringes their copyright or other rights); your breach of these Terms; or your misuse of the site. We will tell you promptly about any such claim. This doesn’t apply to the extent a claim is caused by our own fault.

14. Governing law and courts

These Terms are governed by the laws of Hungary. Any dispute will be handled by the courts of Budapest, Hungary.

If you are a consumer living in another country, you still keep the protection of any mandatory laws of your own country, and you may also be able to bring a claim in the courts where you live. Nothing in this section takes away those rights.

15. General

If any part of these Terms is found to be invalid, the rest still applies.
If we don’t enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later.
These Terms are written in English. If they are translated, the English version applies to the extent permitted by law.
This challenge is not sponsored, endorsed or run by Instagram, Meta, or any other platform mentioned on this site.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms or a challenge: [email protected]. You can also message @kessy.mp4 on Instagram.