White Bear Hosting Terms of Service (TOS) and Conditions of Use
1. Overview
This service contract (hereinafter the “CONTRACT”) is between whitebearhosting.com / White Bear Hosting (hereinafter WBH) and the applicant, You: (hereinafter CLIENT) who wishes Internet Web Hosting and/or Co-location services with WBH.
The Virtual Web Server Internet account and related electronic services can only be used for legal purposes under all federal, provincial, state and local laws.
2. Relationship Between WBH and CLIENT
a) WBH will use its best efforts to maintain a full time 24/7 Internet presence for CLIENT.
b) CLIENT’s rights and privileges can not be sold or transferred without the written consent and approval from WBH sixty (60) days in advance.
c) This contract represents the complete understanding between CLIENT and WBH. If CLIENT sells advertising to a third party the CLIENT will be held responsible for the content of that advertising and the actions of that third party.
d) CLIENT agrees not to harm WBH, its reputation, computer systems, programming and/or other CLIENTS using WBH’s services.
3. Interruptions in Service
WBH is not liable for any errors or interruption in service, whether within or outside of WBH ‘s reasonable control. CLIENT understands interruptions may or may not occur and CLIENT will hold WBH free and harmless from any damages incurred in any event of any time of loss. Service may be temporarily unavailable for scheduled maintenance, either by WBH or by third-party providers, or because of power interruptions or other causes.
4. Password Protection
CLIENT is responsible for protecting CLIENT’S password and for any authorized or unauthorized use made of CLIENT’s password. CLIENT will not use or permit anyone to use WBH’s service to guess passwords or to access other systems or networks without authorization. WBH will fully co-operate with law enforcement authorities in the detection and prosecution of illegal activity.
5. IP Addresses
CLIENT must return to WBH all IP addresses issued by WBH to CLIENT if CLIENT discontinues service with WBH or if WBH discontinues service.
6. Internet Etiquette
CLIENT is expected to be familiar with and to practice good Internet etiquette (Netiquette). CLIENT will comply with the rules appropriate to any network to which WBH may provide access. CLIENT should not post, transmit, or permit Internet access to information CLIENT desires to keep confidential. CLIENT is not permitted to post any material that is illegal, libelous, tortuous, or likely to result in retaliation against WBH by offended users. WBH reserves the right to refuse or terminate service at any time. CLIENT will indemnify WBH and hold WBH harmless from any damage to WBH’s business, service, equipment, network(s) operations, or reputation resulting from CLIENT’s actions, including but not limited to any government actions, acts of vandalism or other retaliation, and any claims of libel, unfair competition, infringement of any patent, copyright, trademark, service mark, or other intellectual property right, violation of privacy, or other tort.
7. Content
WBH has the right to refuse service if CLIENT content of information provided is deemed illegal, unethical, misleading, contains child pornography, bestiality, promotion of illicit drugs, hate groups or literature by CLIENT and/or CLIENT’s third-party.
Use of our services to infringe upon any copyright or trademark is prohibited. This includes but is not limited to unauthorized copying of music, books, photographs, or any other copyrighted work. The offer of sale of any counterfeit merchandise of a trademark holder will result in the immediate termination of your account. Any account found to be in violation of another person’s or business’ copyright will be expeditiously removed, or access to the material disabled. Any account found to be in repeated violation of copyright laws will be suspended and/or terminated from our hosting. If you believe that your copyright or trademark is being infringed upon, please email us at hosting@whitebearhosting.com.
The use of a server account as a backup/storage device is not permitted with the exception of one backup of the same account. Please do not take backups of your backups.
Do not backup the content of your local computer to our servers. All content stored on the server must be publicly accessible via the website. WhiteBearHosting.com provides multiple backups of your site & database, on & offline.
Examples of unacceptable material on all hosting plans include:
- Email Marketing
- Topsites
- IRC Scripts/Bots
- Proxy Scripts/Anonymizers
- Pirated Software/Warez
- Image Hosting Scripts (similar to Photobucket or Tinypic)
- AutoSurf/PTC/PTS/PPC sites
- IP Scanners
- Bruteforce Programs/Scripts/Applications
- Mail Bombers/Spam Scripts
- Large collection of MP3 files and/or DVD/CD ISO Image Files
- Banner-Ad services (commercial banner ad rotation)
- File Dump/Mirror Scripts (similar to rapidshare)
- Commercial Audio Streaming (more than one or two streams)
- Escrow/Bank Debentures
- High-Yield Interest Programs (HYIP) or Related Sites
- Investment Sites (FOREX, E-Gold Exchange, Second Life/Linden Exchange, Ponzi, MLM/Pyramid Scheme)
- Sale of any controlled substance without prior proof of appropriate permit(s)
- Prime Banks Programs
- Lottery Sites
- MUDs/RPGs/PBBGs
- Hateful/Racist/Harassment oriented sites
- Hacker focused sites/archives/programs
- Sites promoting illegal activities
- Forums and/or websites that distribute warez/pirated/illegal content
- Bank Debentures/Bank Debenture Trading Programs
- Fraudulent Sites (Including, but not limited to sites listed at aa419.org & escrow-fraud.com)
- Mailer Pro
CLIENTS who provide the above-mentioned content are in breach of the contract. WBH may terminate service without notice and without any refunds of CLIENT’s unused pre-paid portion of funds
8. Resource Usage
The following restrictions on hosting plans:
- Taking up more than 25% system resources for more than 90 seconds. Numerous activities can cause this such as CGI scripts, FTP, PHP, HTTP, MySQL, etc
- Running unattended standalone server side daemons such as IRCD
- Running any scripts (web spider) which indexes websites
- Running any BitTorrent application, tracker, or client. You may link to torrents off-site, but may not host or store
- Running any file-sharing/peer-to-peer activities
- Running any game servers such as Counter Strike, Half Life, BattleField 1942, etc
- Running any cronjobs less than 15 minute intervals
- Accounts found to be exceeding the 50,000 inode limit will automatically be removed from our backup system to avoid over-usage. Every file (webpage, image file, email, etc) on your account uses up 1 inode. The use of more than 250,000 inodes on any account may potentially result in a warning first, and if no action is taken suspension may occur.
9. Backups and Data Loss
The backup service is provided as a service to our customers. WBH backup service runs once daily on a two week of backups are kept. WBH will not be responsible for files and/or data residing on your account. Backups will not be provided for accounts that have been suspended or terminated for any reason unless otherwise agreed to in writing by WBH.
10. Uptime Guarantee
If your hosting server is less than uptime of 100%, then we will credit you 5% of your total monthly amount per hour of downtime. Third party monitoring service reports may not be used for justification due to a variety of factors including the monitor’s network capacity/transit availability. The uptime of the server is defined as the reported uptime from the operating system and the Web Server which may differ from the uptime reported by other individual services.
11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
Limit. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY OF WBH’s (INCLUDING ITS REPRESENTATIVES AND SUPPLIERS) TO YOU, THE CLIENT, FOR ANY CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THIS AGREEMENT, EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU, THE CLIENT, DURING THE 12 MONTH PERIOD PRECEDING THE DATE ON WHICH YOU, THE CLIENT, MAKE YOUR FIRST CLAIM FOR DAMAGES.
Indirect Damages. WBH (INCLUDING ITS REPRESENTATIVES AND SUPPLIERS) SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU, THE CLIENT, OR YOUR END USERS IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER, FOR ANY INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF DATA, REVENUE OR PROFIT RESULTING FROM OR ARISING IN CONNECTION
WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR THE PROVISION OR USE OF THE HOSTING SERVICES. THIS LIMITATION SHALL APPLY WHETHER OR NOT SUCH DAMAGES ARE FORESEEABLE, OR WHETHER HOSTPAPA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of incidental, special or consequential damages. If any jurisdiction having applicability to Standard Services Agreement does not permit any such exclusion or limitation, WBH’s total liability to you in connection with any incidental, special or consequential damages will be limited by the amounts described on this section.
Allocation of Risk. You (the Client) and WBH understand and agree that, to the extent permitted by applicable law, the foregoing exclusions and limitations of liability represent the parties’ agreement as to allocation of risk between them in connection with their respective obligations under this Agreement. The fees payable to WBH reflect, and are set in reliance upon, this allocation of risk and the exclusions and limitations of liability set forth in this Agreement.
12. INDEMNIFICATION
You agree to indemnify and hold WBH and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, and agents harmless from and against any liabilities, losses, damages or costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, incurred in connection with or arising from any third-party allegations, claims, actions, disputes, or demands asserted against any of them as a result of or relating to Your Content, your use of the Services or any wilful misconduct on your part.
12.5 Service Level Agreement SLA
WBH guarantees a 98% network uptime. If in any given month we fail to meet this guarantee a WBH customer is eligible for a credit on their current hosting account. You must meet the below requirements in order to be eligible for an SLA credit:
- Your account must be in good standing
- You must submit a ticket through our helpdesk (https://accounts.searchengineop.com/) to the billing department
- All requests must be submitted within 5 days of the reported downtime
SLA Credit will be generated as follows based on your monthly renewal price:
Uptime Guarantee | SLA Credit |
---|---|
99% | Guaranteed |
98% | 5% |
97.5% | 7.5% |
97% | 10% |
95% | 15% |
94% | 30% |
92% | 60% |
90% | 90% |
89% | 100% |
WBH is not responsible for downtime related to the services listed below and as such will not issues credits for the following:
- Internal services such as MySQL, Apache, PHP, etc.
- Scheduled downtime or planned maintenance
- Interruption of service due to unpaid invoices, abuse notifications and violations of TOS
- ISP or local connection problems
- Customer-controlled downtime
- Acts of Force Majeure
This SLA is subject to change at the sole discretion of WBH and will be updated on the web site. Any changes made to this SLA will take effect 5 days after it is published.
13. Unsolicited Commercial Email
The WBH network(s) may not be used to transact Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE). This is commonly referred to as SPAM. CLIENTS of WBH may not use, or permit others to use, the WBH network(s) to send UCE. WBH will not host, or permit hosting of sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. WBH will not permit CLIENTS to SPAM newsgroups, or SPAM from other networks or that may or may not point to a site on WBH’s network. CLIENTS that transact UCE are in breach of this contract. Every reasonable attempt will be made to contact the CLIENT and allow them to resolve the problem or complaint before taking action. WBH reserves the right to place a temporary block in the event the CLIENT is unreachable, or is unable to stop the UCE. CLIENT will constitute this contract as “fair warning” as to WBH’s strict “NO SPAM” policy. WBH reserves the right to terminate services without any refunds of the unused portion prepaid by CLIENT when CLIENT is in violation of “NO SPAM” policy. Notice given by electronic mail shall be deemed received on (1) business day after it is posted to the recipient’s e-mail address. WBH will also fine the account holder $650.00 per SPAM incident.
14. Warranty and Assumption of Risk
CLIENT uses WBH services at CLIENT’s own risk. WBH makes no warranty expressed or implied, including but not limited to any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. WBH shall not be liable for any loss or other damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, resulting from any failure to provide service or from any termination of service. WBH has no control whatsoever and shall not be responsible to CLIENT for the content of any web site or for the content of any third-party material passing through or associated with CLIENT’s web site, some of which may be illegal, inaccurate, adult in nature, harmful, or offensive.
15. Term of Contract, Termination, and Renewal
a) All contracts are on a recurring basis. CLIENT shall pay WBH recurring fees (hereinafter “Recurring Fees”), plus bandwidth charges as outlined on invoice (for details see your invoice). Pre-payment of recurring fees is due by the time stated on WBH’s invoice. Amounts past due may result in the termination of CLIENT’s account. Taxes, special services and third party charges will be stated separately on the invoice. CLIENT shall pay all taxes, fees, and governmental charges. WBH may change prices without notice and it is the CLIENT’s responsibility to check the website for updates. Grandfathered accounts will not be affected.
b) All cancellations by CLIENT of service or changes in service must be done in writing to WBH. It can be done by email (hosting@whitebearhosting.com), or via regular postal to whitebearhosting.com, 441 Scottsdale Drive, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W6, Canada. 30 day money back guarantee is offered on all hosting plans. After 30 days, cancellations will be refunded on a prorated basis of any unused time. The following methods of payments are non-refundable, and refunds will be posted as credit to the hosting account: bank wire transfers, Interac Email Transfers, Western Union Money Transfer, cheques, and money orders. There are no refunds on install fees for custom software, domain name purchases, or SSL purchases. Only first-time accounts are eligible for a refund. For example, if you’ve had an account with us before, canceled and signed up again, you will not be eligible for a refund or if you have opened a second account with us. Violations of the legal agreement will waive the refund policy.
c) If CLIENT breaches any part of this contract and WBH has to engage the services of an attorney, the CLIENT will pay any and all of WBHs reasonable attorney fees and court costs.
d) All CLIENT fees are due in advance of the first day of the relevant term. For example, the fees for such services, ie. Web Hosting, during the term shall be due on the Effective Date or before the provision of Services. The fees for Services for Renewal Term are due on or prior to the Anniversary Date for such Renewal Term. The amount due may be adjusted by addition of Services, Upgrade of Services, discontinuance of services or downgrade of services and through the use of any SLA Credits applied. The fees for additional or upgraded services for which the “Order” is accepted on the anniversary billing date will be due on the anniversary billing date will be pro-rated on a calendar day basis to the next Anniversary Billing Date and billed as a one time pro-rata charge on the next Billing date. All fees will be due for the following renewal terms until cancelled in Section 13a. In the event that a customer does not pay service fees by the Renewal Date, customer will be assessed a fee of $20.00 and must be submitted within 7-days of the customers renewal date. At the end of 7-days, services including Web Hosting Servers and Data, will become inaccessible and will automatically be reclaimed.
16. Limitation of Liability
In no event shall WBH or any of its officers, contractors, or employees be liable for any loss of profit or revenue by CLIENT or for any consequential, incidental, special or exemplary damages incurred or suffered by CLIENT, nor for any loss of power or heating, ventilation, and air conditioning interruption, even if WBH has been advised of the possibility of such loss or damage. CLIENT shall indemnify and hold harmless WBH from and against any all claims, costs, expenses or liability arising out of CLIENT’s (inclusive CLIENT’s officer, contractors, employee agents and invitees) collective or individual use, occupancy or operation of CLIENT’s web site content and/or information.
17. Changes
This SLA is subject to change at the sole discretion of WBH and will be updated on the web site. Any changes made to this SLA will take effect 5 days after it is published.
Products will automatically renew until cancelled. You may turn off the auto-renewal feature by visiting your White Bear Hosting account.