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Freelance Writer Agreement Congratulations, you have been selected to write or submit writing samples for the Starpulse.com Freelance Writers Program. If accepted into the program, your articles have the potential to be published on Starpulse, and viewed by millions of people both inside and outside the USA. We believe this exposure and experience will aid you in your professional writing career and help establish your legitimacy as an entertainment writer moving forward. We want to help you achieve that goal, so in the spirit of "Keeping it Real, the attorneys have approved the following agreement. This agreement ("Agreement") between You (the "Freelance Writer") and Media Holdings LLC, dba (Starpulse.com) 1. Freelance Writer - Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, the Company hereby engages the Freelance Writer to perform the services set forth herein, and the Freelance Writer hereby accepts such engagement. 2. Work - The Freelance Writer will write and submit articles in a format acceptable to Company as outlined in the assignment provided by your Starpulse.com Editorial Manager. The most common form of submission will be through the "Writers Blog Tools" provided as part of your login. Assignments may be amended in writing from time to time, by the Company. 3. Term - The term of engagement is ongoing on an as needed basis as services are required by the Company. 4. Compensation - If compensation is agreed upon in writing prior to an assignment or upon assignment, then all payments will be made to the person and address specified in the fields below, in US dollars. Any additional provisions for payment thereof shall be as set forth in Schedule A - 'Freelance Writers, DUTIES, & COMPENSATION' which may be amended in writing from time to time, by the Company. 5. Original Content - Freelance writers are expected to abide by the "Code of Conduct" outlined in Schedule B - "STARPULSE WRITING GUIDELINES". The Company reserves the right to proof and edit articles where necessary and that the freelance writer will submit only their own original content. Freelance Writers are expected to proof their own submissions and vet their own sources and assure to Company that the information contained in their submissions is accurate and truthful to the best of their knowledge and ability at the time of submission. 6. Copyright - The freelance writer grants to the Company the exclusive rights to reproduce submitted Work on Starpulse.com or any other site or outlet at Companies sole discretion. The freelance writer understands that the Company owns all copyrights to the submitted articles and that freelance writer's biography and supplied information may be published in conjunction with each of the published articles. The freelance writer certifies to the Company that they have not violated any copyrights. The freelance writer does have the rights to publish their submitted Work on his/her own web blog or web site provided the appropriate website copyright and links within that article are attributed to Starpulse.com. See sample below: (©2010 Starpulse.com™, all rights reserved worldwide) 7. Photo Usage - The photos displayed on Starpulse.com are licensed for usage on Starpulse.com only. The Freelance Writer can use photos from the Starpulse.com site his/her articles to be featured and displayed on Starpulse.com only. Starpulse.com photo licensing does not extent to the Freelance Writers personal blog outside of the Starpulse.com domain. If the Freelance Writer wishes to submit photos found outside of Starpulse.com, they need to submit proof that licensing or rights for each picture has been legally obtained by the Freelance Writer. 8. Conflicts of Interest; Non-hire Provision - The Freelance Writer represents that they are free to enter into this Agreement, and that this engagement does not violate the terms of any agreement between the Freelance Writer and any third party. Further, the Freelance Writer, in rendering their duties shall not utilize any invention, discovery, development, improvement, innovation, or trade secret in which they do not have a proprietary interest. During the term of this agreement, the Freelance Writer shall devote as much of their productive time, energy and abilities to the performance of their duties hereunder as is necessary to perform the required duties in a timely and productive manner. The Freelance Writer is expressly free to perform services for other parties while performing services for the Company. For a period of six months following any termination, the Freelance Writer shall not, directly or indirectly hire, solicit, or encourage to leave the Company's employment, any employee, consultant, or Freelance Writer of the Company or hire any such employee, consultant, or Freelance Writer who has left the Company's employment or contractual engagement within one year of such employment or engagement. 9. Right to Injunction - The parties hereto acknowledge that the services to be rendered by the Freelance Writer under this Agreement and the rights and privileges granted to the Company under the Agreement are of a special, unique, unusual, and extraordinary character which gives them a peculiar value, the loss of which cannot be reasonably or adequately compensated by damages in any action at law, and the breach by the Freelance Writer of any of the provisions of this Agreement will cause the Company irreparable injury and damage. The Freelance Writer expressly agrees that the Company shall be entitled to injunctive and other equitable relief in the event of, or to prevent, a breach of any provision of this Agreement by the Freelance Writer. Resort to such equitable relief, however, shall not be construed to be a waiver of any other rights or remedies that the Company may have for damages or otherwise. The various rights and remedies of the Company under this Agreement or otherwise shall be construed to be cumulative, and no one of the them shall be exclusive of any other or of any right or remedy allowed by law. 10. Merger - This Agreement shall not be terminated by the merger or consolidation of the Company into or with any other entity. 11. Termination - The Company may terminate this Agreement at any time without notice to the Freelance Writer. In addition, if the Freelance Writer is convicted of any crime or offence, fails or refuses to comply with the written policies or reasonable directive of the Company, is guilty of serious misconduct in connection with performance hereunder, or materially breaches provisions of this Agreement, the Company at any time may terminate the engagement of the Freelance Writer immediately and without prior written notice to the Freelance Writer. 12. Freelance Writer - This Agreement shall not render the Freelance Writer an employee, partner, agent of, or joint venture with the Company for any purpose. The Freelance Writer is and will remain a Freelance Writer in their relationship to the Company. The Company shall not be responsible for withholding taxes with respect to the compensation hereunder. The Freelance Writer shall have no claim against the Company hereunder or otherwise for vacation pay, sick leave, retirement benefits, social security, worker's compensation, health or disability benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, or employee benefits of any kind. 13. Successors and Assigns - All of the provisions of this Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective heirs, if any, successors, and assigns. 14. Choice of Law - The laws of Connecticut shall govern the validity of this Agreement, the construction of its terms and the interpretation of the rights and duties of the parties hereto. 15. Arbitration - Any controversies arising out of the terms of this Agreement or its interpretation shall be settled in Connecticut in accordance with the rules of the Connecticut Arbitration Rules, and the judgment upon award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. 16. Headings - Section headings are not to be considered a part of this Agreement and are not intended to be a full and accurate description of the contents hereof. 17. Waiver - Waiver by one party hereto of breach of any provision of this Agreement by the other shall not operate or be construed as a continuing waiver. 18. Assignment - The Freelance Writer shall not assign any of their rights under this Agreement, or delegate the performance of any of their duties hereunder, without the prior written consent of the Company. 19. Notices - Any and all notices, demands, or other communications required or desired to be given hereunder by any party shall be via email, notice shall be deemed constructively made at the time of sending. If such notice, demand or other communication is given by mail, such notice shall be conclusively deemed given ten days after deposit thereof in the United States mail addressed to the party to whom such notice, demand or other communication is to be given as follows: 20. If to the Company: ATTN Legal Department - Media Holdings LLC, (Starpulse.com), 25 Business Park Drive, Branford CT 06405 21. Any party hereto may change its address for purposes of this paragraph by written notice given in the manner provided above. 22. Modification or Amendment - This Agreement may be amended from time to time. Starpulse may amend this Agreement at any time from time to time without specific notice to Freelance Writer. Any changes to this Agreement shall be effective immediately following the posting of such changes on the System. You agree to review this Agreement from time to time and agree that any subsequent access or use by You of the System following changes to this Agreement shall constitute Your acceptance of all such changes. 23. Entire Understanding - This document and any exhibit attached constitute the entire understanding and agreement of the parties, and any and all prior agreements, understandings, and representations are hereby terminated and cancelled in their entirety and are of no further force and effect. 24. Unenforceability of Provisions - If any provision of this Agreement, or any portion thereof, is held to be invalid and unenforceable, then the remainder of this Agreement shall nevertheless remain in full force and effect. By checking the box below "The Freelance Writer checkbox" indicates the acceptance of the terms of this agreement. SCHEDULE A - DUTIES, & COMPENSATION DUTIES - The Freelance Writer will write and submit articles through the Writers Blog system, acceptable to Company as outlined in the Assignment memo or email provided before each assignment. The Freelance Writer will submit all Work and communicate to the Company using the online methods or email instructions provided by the Company. COMPENSATION - Unless otherwise notified in writing prior to each assignment there is no monetary compensation for the services rendered pursuant to this Agreement. Schedule B - STARPULSE WRITING GUIDELINES 1) Plagiarism won't be tolerated. By definition plagiarism is the use of another's original words or ideas as though they were your own. Anyone who borrows from published material will be terminated immediately. If you do reference a source, make sure to credit it in the article. For example, if you're doing a background check on Tom Cruise and learn from IMDb.com that he has dyslexia, make sure to credit IMDb. Unless Tommy calls you up himself to confirm it, the information has to be properly attributed. 2) Don't blindly trust the Internet. There is a lot of misinformation out there, so make sure your research is accurate. If something doesn't sound right, it probably isn't. Let's say one or two articles mention that Renee Zellweger had a lesbian tryst. Think twice before repeating gossip as gospel. Instead, you may write, "There have been rumors about Renee Zellweger batting for the other team." You would not write, "Renee Zellweger has unequivocally had a relationship with a woman." You get the point. 3) There are some things that don't need to be credited, such as general knowledge. We know Nicole Kidman has two adopted children and is married to Keith Urban. We know Gwyneth Paltrow & Brad Pitt dated several years ago. This type of information is widely known by the general public. If you're not sure what to credit, just ask. 4) Some obvious points: Check your spelling. Some names in particular (McConaughey, Zellweger, Schwarzenegger, etc.) are difficult to spell. 5) Punctuation such as periods and commas should be inserted "inside quotes." 6) Try to avoid cliches. Good writers are able to express themselves without falling into this trap. 7) Mix it up. Try to not to use the same words or phrases too often within a paragraph. Vary your sentence length. Sometimes very long sentences are difficult to read and make the reader sigh in relief when he finally comes to the end of the wordy sentence, which could have been split into two (and maybe even three!) separate sentences. 8) Try to keep articles to two pages on Word or less. Feature stories (approximately 700-1,000 words) shorter features (400-700 words). When it comes to interviews, keep only the interesting points and/or split it into two parts. We don't want to overwhelm readers with enormous copy. 9) Avoid the use of the first person if you can. (There are exceptions to this rule, particularly when it comes to episode recaps.) In the future we may turn some writers into columnists who will be more flexible with their writing styles. But for now, use the third person when cranking out your masterpieces. 10) Be as vigilant as possible with deadlines. At the very least, let us know if a story is going to be late. We're very flexible, but we expect each writer to keep track of his or her own timetable. We have a growing group of writers, and it's becoming increasingly difficult for us to keep tabs on everyone's schedule. 11) Don't be shy about submitting your own ideas for articles and interviews. Some of you have suggested some very interesting topics, and we count on you to make our readers come back for more. Also, we would really like to have writers commit to particular features. For example, we have a "Celebrity Spotlight" feature, which could be a weekly or biweekly item. We also have fashion editor. 12) Copyright When you write an article for Starpulse.com, we retain its rights. In other words, it cannot be published by another outlet (except on your personal websites) because it is the property of Starpulse.com.

I have read, and agree to, the Starpulse.com Freelance Writer Agreement (required)