SideshowCollectibles.com Affiliate Operating Agreement
This Agreement contains the terms and conditions that apply to an individual's or
entity's participation in the Sideshow Collectibles Affiliate Program.
- Affiliate Enrollment
In order to process your enrollment, you must completely fill out and submit the
"Sideshow Collectibles Affiliate Application" found on our website http://www.sideshowcollectibles.com/affiliates/. Additionally,
you must verify your email address through a link sent in our automated response
email. After your email address has been verified, we will evaluate your affiliate
application and notify you of your acceptance or rejection. Submission of the online
application form constitutes your acceptance of this Operating Agreement.
- Eligibility
To be eligible for approval, a web site must meet the following criteria:
- Be content-based and not just a list or referrer of links.
- Be fully functioning and not under construction or offline.
- Be updated at least on a monthly basis
- Receive a minimum of 3,000 unique page views a month.
You acknowledge that we will send you, as a participant in the program, email updates
about our program and products. By participating in the program, you consent to
our sending you these email updates. You must provide us an active email address
in order to be accepted into the program.
- Rejection of Application
Sideshow Collectibles expressly reserves the right to reject any application, regardless
of whether the applicant meets the guidelines for eligibility. Sideshow may not
be accepting applications from sites representing specific genres at any giving
time, due to market saturation or other reasons.
We will not accept an application if we determine (in our sole discretion) that
your site is unsuitable for our Program. Unsuitable sites include those that:
- Promote sexually explicit materials
- Promote violence
- Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual
orientation, or age
- Promote illegal substances or activities, or
- Violate personal rights, intellectual property rights, or copyrights.
- Uses existing or future software products and services that will block, alter, direct,
redirect, substitute, insert, append itself to, or otherwise intercept or interfere
in any manner with any click through or other traffic-based transaction to SideshowCollectibles.com
If we do not accept your application, you may re-apply to the Affiliate Program
at a later date. If Sideshow accepts your application, and we subsequently determine
(in our sole discretion) that your site is unsuitable for the Program, we may terminate
your participation in the Affiliate Program without prior notice to you.
Participation in this Affiliate Program is limited to parties that lawfully can
enter into the program and make contracts under applicable law. For example, minors
are not allowed to participate.
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Site Links
When we notify you that your site has been accepted into the Sideshow Collectibles
Affiliate Program, we also grant you, solely for purposes of facilitating referrals
from your site to SideshowCollectibles.com, a revocable, non-exclusive, worldwide,
royalty-free license for the duration of your participation in the Affiliate Agreement.
We also provide for your site one or more of the following types of links to SideshowCollectibles.com:
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Product Links:
You may select one or more Products to promote on your site. A "Product" is any
product listed on the SideshowCollectibles.com site that is fulfilled by us or on
our behalf. For each selected Product, you may display a pre-made banner, a text
link, or a branded image as a uniquely coded reference to our site. You will be
responsible for the content, style and placement of these references. You may add
or delete Products (and related links) from your site at any time without our approval.
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General Link to SideshowCollectibles.com
: You may provide a general link
on your site to our homepage, http://www.sideshowcollectibles.com, or to any page
on our site that offers current content or published material.
-
General Link to a Category.
You may provide a general link to a specific
product category (e.g., Lord of the Rings, James Bond, Star Wars, etc.)
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Link to a Campaign.
You may provide a link to a specific campaign posted
by Sideshow Collectibles for a product, series of products, or promotion.
You acknowledge that, by reason of your participating in the Affiliate Program and
placing any of the above links within your site, we may receive information from
or about visitors to your site or communications between your site and those visitors.
Your participation in the program constitutes your specific and unconditional consent
to and authorization for our access to, receipt, storage, use, and disclosure of
any and all such information, consistent with the policies and procedures set forth
in the
Privacy Policy on the SideshowCollectibles.com site.
In addition, affiliates must refer users to our site within a 90 day period. Any
affiliate who does not show linking or commission activity on their account for
a 90 day period may be cancelled from the program at Sideshow's sole discretion.
It is the affiliates responsibility to inform the affiliate program manager of any
site construction that may cause inactivity which might relieve the site from the
responsibilities stated herein.
Except for the limited license mentioned above, you do not obtain any rights under
this Agreement in any intellectual property, including, without limitation, any
intellectual property with respect to link formats, technical specifications, graphical
artwork, or with respect to the domain names operated by Sideshow.
As an affiliate, you may become aware of information that has not been released
publicly by Sideshow. This information may or may not be password-protected and
may include, but is not limited to, descriptive product information and other content,
product names and new licenses. You may not disclose such information or any other
information represented to you by Sideshow as private or protected for a specific
audience via your website, your mailing list, forums or any other means prior to
its publication by Sideshow. If we determine to our satisfaction that you have breached
this confidentiality requirement, we may, in our sole discretion, terminate your
Affiliate account.
You acknowledge that as a participant in the program you will not modify, edit or
alter any SideshowCollectibles.com content in a manner that discourages referral
clicks and sales, and will not sell or sub-license any content. You agree to promptly
delete any Content that is no longer displayed on the SideshowCollectibles.com site
or that we notify you is no longer available for your use.
As a participant in the program you may use product images from SideshowCollectibles.com
for marketing purposes on your own website and/or email marketing campaigns. You
acknowledge that you will not modify product images from their original form. You
may not remove or obscure the Sideshow Collectibles watermark or copyright information
from any Sideshow Collectibles image. You may add your website logo to our imagery,
but acknowledge that your logo will not appear larger than the Sideshow Collectibles
logo, and will not obscure the product in the image.
You may not encourage users to click on advertising banners to earn cash, points,
prizes, rewards or lottery entries unless expressly approved by Sideshow Collectibles.
Affiliate Code
We will provide you with guidelines and banner artwork to use in linking to our
home page, product, and/or category listings. To permit accurate tracking, reporting,
and referral fee accrual, we will provide you with an "Affiliate Code" to
be used in all links between your site and our site. You must ensure that each of
the links between your site and our site properly utilizes such special link formats.
Sideshow is not responsible for Affiliate code miscoding, which can result in inaccurate
tracking of fee accruals.
Referral Fees
For a Product sale to be eligible to earn a referral fee the following must occur:
- The customers must click-through the Affiliate link from your site to our site and
add a Product to his or her shopping cart during a session.
- The order must be completed and the customer sent a confirmation notice.
- Product must ship to the customer.
Sideshow has a unique Pre-Order system for many of our products. We will only pay
referral fees on any Product after order, payment and shipping have occurred.
Items that we have on “pre-order” or “pending” status will
be paid only upon completed shipment of the Product. We will pay referral fees for
90 days on any Products that are added to a customer's Shopping Cart and purchased
after the customer has re-entered our site if the customer previously followed a
link from your site to our site, as long as the customer has not manually or inadvertently
cleared or overwritten your referral code. We will not pay referral fees for Products
that are purchased through any device (an “Internet Access Appliance”)
that provides Internet access, but does not present our site, or permit users to
access and interact with our site, in the same manner as a desktop computer (e.g.,
mobile devices such as cellular telephones or PDAs that may access only limited
or modified versions of our site).
If you are an active affiliate referring sales from a variety of customers, you
may purchase our products through your own affiliate links. You may not use our
affiliate links principally for the purpose of purchasing products for yourself.
You may not purchase products through your own links for resale or commercial use
of any kind. If, in our sole discretion, Sideshow Inc. determines that an affiliate
is using its site to abuse this agreement, we will charge back and/or disallow any
and all commissions to the affiliate. Additionally, this activity may result in
the termination of this agreement.
Referral Fee Schedule.
You will earn referral fees based on Qualifying Revenues according to referral fee
schedules to be established by us, in our sole discretion. “Qualifying Revenues”
are revenues derived by us from our sales of Qualifying Products, excluding costs
for shipping, handling, gift-wrapping, taxes, service charges, credit card processing
fees, Customer Reward Point redemption, coupon redemption, returns and bad debt.
The current referral fee schedule is:
- 5% of Qualifying Revenues from the sale of eligible products priced below $1450.00,
unless otherwise specified.
- $100.00 commission cap applies to the sale of any eligible product priced $1450.00
or higher, unless otherwise specified.
- 0% of any referred sale for Sideshow Apparel, any sale in which a Sideshow Gift
Card is redeemed, and/or any sale in which a coupon is applied with the value of
$15.00 or higher. Any future products ineligible for Affiliate commission will be
announced via the Affiliate Weekly Newsletter and on the Affiliate Homepage.
- Beginning on 9/22/10, 0% of any newly referred sale for Star Wars 12 inch items,
including Figures, Environments, Stands and Accessory Packs. This restriction includes
12 Inch Star Wars items made by any manufacturer.
Referral Fee Payment
Sideshow offers its Affiliates a monthly payment plan, with a $50 minimum payment
threshold. You may select a higher Payment Threshold, but our system automatically
sets your account to a $50.00 Payment Threshold when it is opened. Approximately
31 days following the end of each calendar month, we will send you a check for the
referral fees earned. However, if the referral fees payable to you for any calendar
month are less than your selected Payment Threshold, we will hold payment until
the total amount due is at least the value of your selected Payment Threshold. In
calculating your referral fees, we will deduct the corresponding referral fee from
your current amount due if a customer has returned a product that generated the
referral fee. If there is no subsequent payment owing to you, we will send you a
bill for the referral fee.
If we terminate this agreement when an affiliate is owed referral fees, whether
more or less than their selected Payment Threshold, we will send payment approximately
31 days after the end of the month in which all referred orders in the account have
been either shipped to the customers or cancelled. It is the terminated affiliate's
responsibility to have an active email address and accurate contact information
on file with the Sideshow Affiliate Team. Referral fees will be rescinded in the
event that Sideshow is unable to contact a terminated affiliate within 30 days or
our written correspondence. You agree to forfeit your earned referral fees if your
Earned Commission Balance is less than $10.00 after all referred orders have been
shipped or cancelled. Sideshow Inc reserves the right to charge back and/or disallow
any and all commissions to an Affiliate who violates this agreement.
You agree to forfeit your earned referral fees if your Earned Commission Balance
is less than $10.00 after all referred orders have been shipped or cancelled. Sideshow
Inc reserves the right to charge back and/or disallow any and all commissions to
an Affiliate who violates this agreement.
Cookie Retention Advantage
When a customer uses an Affiliate's link to jump to the Sideshow Collectibles site,
a cookie will be installed in that customer's computer. This cookie will identify
the customer as having been referred by the Affiliate. Orders placed during that
visit, and for up to 90 days afterwards, will be credited to the referring Affiliate
unless the original cookie is altered, deleted or overwritten during the 90-day
period. Sideshow expressly disclaims any responsibility for the actual length of
time that cookies generated by Affiliate referrals remain in customer computers
since, for example, cookies can be erased purposely or inadvertently by the customer
or another Affiliate's subsequent referral of the same customer. In addition, Sideshow
will not be responsible for any loss of referral fees due to the deletion, alteration
or malfunction of customer cookies.
Order Processing
We will process Product orders placed by customers who follow the assigned "Affiliate
code" links from your site to our site. We reserve the right to reject orders that
do not comply with any requirements that we may establish periodically. We will
be responsible for all aspects of order processing and fulfillment. Among other
things, we will prepare order forms, process payments, cancellations and returns
and handle customer service. We will track sales made to customers who purchase
Products by using your assigned Affiliate code from your site to our site and will
make available to you reports summarizing this sales activity through your Affiliate
account. The form, content and frequency of the reports may vary from time to time
at our discretion.
Policies and Pricing
Customers who buy products through this Affiliate Program will be deemed to be customers
of Sideshow. Accordingly, all Sideshow Collectibles rules, policies and operating
procedures concerning customer orders, customer service and product sales will apply
to those customers. We may change our policies and operating procedures at any time.
Product prices and availability may vary from time to time. Because price changes
may affect Products that you have listed on your site, prices reflected on your
site must be stated as "subject to change". We will use commercially reasonable
efforts to present accurate information, but we cannot guarantee the availability
or price of any particular product.
Sideshow Collectibles may at any time:
- Cancel production of a Product causing the loss of potential Affiliate referral
fees. If this occurs Sideshow Collectibles will notify the Affiliates of the removal
of product and commissions via e-mail. Sideshow will not pay referral fees for any
sales not completed due to cancellation of product.
- Sideshow may increase prices of its products at any time. In doing so, Sideshow
will not be liable to increase established Affiliate referral fees on said product.
Identification as an Affiliate
You may not issue any press release or other communication with respect to this
Agreement or your participation in the Affiliate Program; such action may result
in your termination of your participation in the program. You may not in any
manner misrepresent or embellish the relationship between us and you or express
or imply any relationship or affiliation between us and you or any other person
or entity except as expressly permitted by this Agreement (including by expressing
or implying that Sideshow supports, sponsors, endorses or contributes money to any
charity or other cause).
Keywords and Search Engines
As an Affiliate, you expressly agree to observe Sideshow Inc.'s exclusive rights
to the names of its properties, including but not limited to Sideshow Collectibles,
Sideshow/Weta, Sideshow/Morpheus, and Sideshow Toy within all pay-for-placement
and other search engine advertising. Additionally, you may not, in any context including
but not limited to pay-for-placement or other search engine advertising, represent
that you are Sideshow, that you are in any manner related to Sideshow or that you
represent Sideshow for any purpose. Violation of this agreement will be result in
the immediate termination of your Affiliate account. Sideshow Inc reserves the right
to charge back and/or disallow any and all commissions to an Affiliate who violates
this agreement.
eBay Policy
Affiliates are not permitted to use Sideshow affiliate banners on eBay or any other
auction website to promote the sale of Sideshow products, including a pre-order,
in-stock or made-to-order items. In addition, Affiliates may not promote the sale
of Sideshow products on any auction site by inflating the value of pre-sale, in-stock
or made-to-order items in order to encourage sales through their own affiliate links.
These rules apply even if the auction site permits such practices.
Responsibility for Your Site
You will be solely responsible for the development, operation, and maintenance of
your site and for all materials that appear on your site. For example, you will
be solely responsible for:
- The technical operation of your site and all related equipment
- Creating and posting Product descriptions on your site and linking those descriptions
to our catalog
- The accuracy and appropriateness of materials posted on your site (including, among
other things, all Product-related materials)
- Ensuring that materials posted on your site do not violate or infringe upon the
rights of any third party (including, for example, copyrights, trademarks, privacy
or other personal or proprietary rights)
- Ensuring that materials posted on your site are not libelous or otherwise illegal
- Ensuring that your site accurately and adequately discloses, either through a privacy
policy or otherwise, how you collect, use, store and disclose data collected from
visitors, including, where applicable, that third parties (including advertisers)
may serve content and/or advertisements and collect information directly from visitors
and may place or recognize cookies in visitors' browsers.
Sideshow disclaims all liability for these matters. Further, you expressly agree
to indemnify and hold us harmless from all claims, damages, and expenses (including,
without limitation, attorneys' fees) relating to the development, operation, maintenance,
and contents of your site.
SPAM Compliance
Affiliates must comply with all applicable laws (federal, state, or otherwise) that
govern marketing email, including, without limitation to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
and all other anti-spam laws. Affiliates may not send Unsolicited Commercial E-mail
(SPAM) mentioning, promoting or advertising the Sideshow Collectibles Affiliate
Program or its products. Any violation will result in termination of your Affiliate
account. You will also be liable for any damages awarded by a court of law. Affiliates
may not violate rules of newsgroups, message boards, chat rooms and other systems
by posting product information or links relating to the Sideshow Collectibles Affiliate
program.
Term of the Agreement
The term of this Agreement will begin upon our acceptance of your Affiliate Program
application and will end when terminated by either party. Either you or we may terminate
this Agreement at any time, with or without cause, by giving the other party written
notice of termination. An emailed notice of termination from any Affiliate must
originate from the email address listed within the account. Upon the termination
of this Agreement for any reason, you will immediately cease use of, and remove
from your site, all links to our site, and all Sideshow Collectibles trademarks,
trade dress, logos and other materials. You are eligible to earn referral fees only
on our sales of Qualifying Products that occur during the term of this Agreement,
and referral fees earned through the date of termination will remain payable only
if the related orders are not canceled or returned. We may withhold your final payment
for a reasonable time to ensure that the correct amount is paid.
Modification
We may modify any of the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement at any
time, in our sole discretion, by posting a change notice or a new agreement on our
site. Modifications may include, for example, changes in the scope of available
referral fees, referral fee schedules, payment procedures and Program rules. IF
ANY MODIFICATION IS UNACCEPTABLE TO YOU, YOUR ONLY RECOURSE IS TO TERMINATE THIS
AGREEMENT. YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE PROGRAM FOLLOWING OUR POSTING OF
A CHANGE NOTICE OR NEW AGREEMENT ON OUR SITE WILL CONSTITUTE BINDING ACCEPTANCE
OF THE CHANGE.
Relationship of Parties
You are an independent contractor, and nothing in this Agreement will create any
partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, and sales representative or employment
relationship between the parties. You will have no authority to make or accept any
offers or representations on Sideshow's behalf. You will not make any statement,
whether on your site or otherwise, that reasonably would contradict anything in
this Section.
Limitation of Liability
We will not be liable for indirect, special or consequential damages (or any loss
of revenue, profits or data) arising in connection with this Agreement or the Affiliate
Program, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Further,
Sideshow's aggregate liability arising with respect to this Agreement and the Program
will not exceed the total referral fees paid or payable to you under this Agreement.
Disclaimers
Sideshow may use the facilities of a third-party provider to host or administer
the Affiliate Program. While Sideshow will devote a commercially reasonable effort
to ensure the safety and backup of all Affiliate information by itself or any third-party
provider, Sideshow will not be responsible for injuries, claims, damages, losses,
costs or expenses of any kind (including without limitation attorney's fees) resulting
from or alleged to result from technical failure of servers, equipment, and/or back-up
systems, ISP mismanagement, electronic issues, security breaches (hacking), power
outages, acts of God, any action, regulation, order, or request by any governmental
or quasi-governmental entity (whether or not the action, regulations, order or request
proves to be invalid), equipment failure, terrorist acts, earthquake, war, fire,
flood, explosion, unusually severe weather, hurricane, embargo, labor dispute or
strike (whether legal or illegal) labor or material shortage, transportation interruption
of any kind, work slow-down, civil disturbance, insurrection, riot, international
carrier issues or any other.
Sideshow makes no express or implied warranties or representations with respect
to the Affiliate Program or any products sold through the program (including, without
limitation, warranties of fitness, merchantability, non-infringement, or any implied
warranties arising out of a course of performance, dealing, or trade usage). In
addition, we make no representation that the operation of our site will be uninterrupted
or error-free, and we will not be liable for the consequences of any interruptions
or errors.
Independent Investigation
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL ITS TERMS AND
CONDITIONS. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT WE MAY AT ANY TIME (DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY) SOLICIT
CUSTOMER REFERRALS ON TERMS THAT MAY DIFFER FROM THOSE CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT
OR OPERATE WEB SITES THAT ARE SIMILAR TO OR COMPETE WITH YOUR WEB SITE. YOU HAVE
INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATED THE DESIRABILITY OF PARTICIPATING IN THE PROGRAM AND ARE
NOT RELYING ON ANY REPRESENTATION, GUARANTEE, OR STATEMENT OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH
IN THIS AGREEMENT. BY COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING THE AFFILIATE AGREEMENT TO SIDESHOW
COLLECTIBLES, YOU THE AFFILIATE, ARE AGREEING TO THE TERMS PUT FORTH IN THIS OPERATING
AGREEMENT.
Termination of Account.
Sideshow Collectibles reserves the right to terminate an Affiliate at will. Termination
notice will be provided by e-mail and be effective immediately. Sideshow Collectibles
is not responsible if an Affiliate does not receive the notification for any reason.
All referral fees owed to a terminated Affiliate will be paid approximately 31 days
after the end of the month in which all referred orders have been either shipped
to customers or cancelled. You agree to forfeit your earned referral fees if your
Earned Commission Balance is less than $10.00 after all referred orders have been
shipped or cancelled. Sideshow Inc reserves the right to charge back and/or disallow
any and all commissions to an Affiliate who violates this agreement.
Miscellaneous
The laws of the United States and the state of California will govern this agreement,
without reference to rules governing choice of laws. You may not assign this Agreement,
by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Subject to
that restriction, this Agreement will be binding on, inure to the benefit of, and
be enforceable against the parties and their respective successors and assigns.
Our failure to enforce your strict performance of any provision of this Agreement
will not constitute a waiver of our right to subsequently enforce such provision
or any other provision of this Agreement.