WEBSITE TERMS OF USE / PUBLIC TERMS

1. Contract

The Website on which these Terms appear (“DAC Website”) is owned and operated by Down Association of Canada/Association Canadienne du Duvet (“DAC”). By accessing or using the DAC Website, you are expressing and confirming your agreement to be bound by these Terms.

If you are not willing to be bound by, and comply with, these Terms, then, you are not permitted to access or use the DAC Website, and you must immediately exit the DAC Website.

DAC may modify or expand these Terms, at any time as it sees fit in its discretion. Accordingly, each time that you access or use the DAC Website you are confirming your agreement to be bound by the Terms in their form at that time, and each such instance establishes a new contract between you and DAC on the basis set out in the modified and/or expanded Terms.

2. Ownership

Except as otherwise noted to the contrary, DAC owns:

(a) all content, programming, and data that comprise this Website or that are made available through this Website (“Website Assets”), including goods and services, information, text, publications, documents, opinions, views, graphics, images, HTML code, multimedia clips, Java code, and the selection and arrangement of information; and

(b) all intellectual property in, to or associated with Website Assets, including copyrights, design rights, confidential information, trade secrets, trademarks, and certification marks (“DAC’s IP”).

3. Certification Marks

DAC’s IP includes certification marks that DAC uses to certify down and feather products of its Members that meet standards established by DAC. Misuse of DAC’s certification marks: (a) infringes and misappropriates DAC’s IP; and (b) may also constitute material misrepresentation to the public, consumer deception, illegal trade practices, and/or misleading advertising.

4. Access, Use, Downloading and Copying

Restricted Areas

Unauthorized persons must not access or use areas of the DAC Website that restrict or limit access only to authorized persons. Such restrictions and limitations may be implemented in a variety of ways, including written notice or technological protective measures (such as user ID and password).

Unrestricted Areas

You may access and use unrestricted areas of the Website as reasonably required to learn about DAC and its operations (including its certification activities), the Canadian down and feather industry, down and feather products, DAC’s members, consumer education, and how to become a member of DAC (“Authorized Purposes”). You may download and copy pages from unrestricted areas of the DAC Website, in good faith, exclusively for your own personal, non-commercial, reference to the extent reasonably required for Authorized Purposes. You must not engage in or authorize, directly or indirectly, any activity that involves DAC’s Website Assets or DAC’s IP except to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by these Terms. For greater certainty, any use, reproduction or dissemination of Website Assets or DAC’s IP for public or commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.

Unauthorized Activities

DAC reserves all other rights, interests, and remedies in and related to the Website Assets and DAC’s IP. Unauthorized access, use, sharing, modification, downloading, and/or copying of any Website Assets or any of DAC’s IP will breach these Terms and may also violate laws, including those that protect DAC’s IP. If you make an authorized copy of any Website Assets or any of DAC’s IP, you must retain all DAC’s copyright and other proprietary notices that may be displayed on the original Website Assets.

5. Privacy and Personal Information

DAC’s collection and use of your information is governed by its Privacy Policy, which is also set out in the Website. For convenience, a link to the Privacy Policy is provided here, but if the link is not functional, you can find the link in the same area of the Website that contains these Terms.

6. Disclaimer of Warranties

Website Assets are provided for convenience and informational purposes, AS IS, without any representations, warranties or conditions of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to, implied warranties of merchant-ability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement of intellectual property rights.

No representations or warranties are made concerning the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or reliability of the Website Assets, or of any information contained in any site linked to the DAC Website.

DAC reserves the right to make changes and corrections to Website Assets at any time, without notice. DAC does not warrant or guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access to this Website, to any site linked to this Website, or to the availability of Internet e-mail links that may be provided on this Website. The Internet is not a secure medium and the confidentiality of communications and transmissions through the Internet cannot be ensured by DAC.

7. Exclusion of Liability

DAC has no control and takes no responsibility for the non-delivery, loss, delay, defect or alteration to communications and transmissions through the Internet.

Further, DAC will not be responsible for any damages you or any third party may suffer caused by the transmission of confidential information through the Internet e-mail links or forms on this Website.

IN NO EVENT SHALL DAC, ITS VOLUNTEERS, MEMBERS, SUBSIDIARIES OR AFFILIATES, OR THEIR EMPLOYEES, DIRECTORS OR OFFICERS, BE LIABLE TO A WEBSITE USER OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INJURY, LOSS, COSTS OR EXPENSES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOST REVENUE OR GOODWILL, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOST OR DAMAGED DATA OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL OR ECONOMIC LOSS THAT MAY ARISE OR BE INCURRED IN CONNECTION WITH ACCESSING OR USING THIS WEBSITE, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR ANY OTHER THEORY OF LIABILITY.

The foregoing exclusion shall apply even if DAC has been advised or should have known of the possibility of such damages.

8. Hyperlinks

This Website may contain hyperlinks to other sites that are provided as a convenience. These other sites were independently developed by parties other than DAC and DAC assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or appropriateness of the information or links contained on such sites.

The inclusion of any link to another site does not imply endorsement of the content or practices of any such site by DAC. If you decide to access a linked third party Website, DAC disclaims, and you waive, any warranty or liability for damages associated to the use of such links.

If you wish to establish a hyperlink to the Home Page of DAC’s Website, you:

(a) must first obtain DAC’s express approval;

(b) you must do so using text and images provided or approved by DAC, in the manner and location specified by DAC; and

(c) you must abide by any terms and conditions stipulated by DAC at that time. If approval of the link is granted, DAC may provide you with a non-exclusive, limited license to use one or more of DAC’s trade-marks solely for the purpose of hyperlinking to DAC’s site.

9. Malware

While DAC makes reasonable efforts to protect DAC’s Website from computer viruses and the like, DAC cannot guarantee that a virus or other malware will not be distributed via the DAC Website. You are exclusively responsible to take the appropriate precautions to scan and filter communications for computer viruses and other malware.

Under no circumstances will DAC be liable in any way for the unintentional distribution of any viruses or malware. You must not intentionally, and by using this Website you agree to use best efforts not to, post or send communications to DAC that contain viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, malware or other computer malware intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, or surreptitiously intercept any system, data or information.

10. General

If you access this Website from outside of Canada, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with the laws of your jurisdiction. These Terms of Use are governed by and shall be interpreted in accordance with the laws of the province of Ontario and the laws of Canada, excluding conflicts of laws principles. If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid by any court having competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of these Terms, which shall remain in full force and effect.

MEMBERS TERMS

By accessing or using DAC’s Member Only Area, members of DAC (“Members”) agree to the following Terms of Service:

1. Application of Public Terms

Except as may be expressly provided otherwise below, DAC’s Terms of Access/Use for the public apply equally to Members, and the Members agree to be contractually bound by them.

2. Passwords and Accounts

To the extent that DAC establishes a secure login area for Members:

2.1 Members are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their Members Only Area password and account information, and they are fully responsible for all activities that occur under their password or account

2.2 Each Member agrees that:

(a) it will immediately notify DAC of any unauthorized use of the Member’s password or account or any other breach of security; and

(b) its representatives will exit from the Member’s account at the end of each session.

2.3 Each Member accepts full responsibility for complying with this Section 2, and for all liability that may arise as a consequence of the Member or any of its representative failing to comply with this provision. 

3. Members Only Area

The Members Only Area (if any) is to be used only for purposes, and in the manner, established by DAC from time to time. DAC is not responsible for any access, use or functionality of the Members Only Area. Any opinion expressed on the Members Only Area is the opinion of the Member who posted it and is not the opinion of DAC.

All information, data, text, software, messages or other materials (“Content”), whether publicly posted at, or privately transmitted through, the Members Only Area is the sole responsibility of the Member who posts or transmits it. The Member is entirely responsible for all Content that the Member uploads, posts, emails or otherwise transmits via the Members Only Area.

DAC does not control and has no responsibility or liability for such items. For greater certainty, DAC does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content.

Under no circumstances will DAC be liable in any way for any Content posted at or transmitted through the Members Only Area, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind that may be incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed or otherwise transmitted through the Members Only Area. You waive all claims relating to Content.

4. Specific Prohibitions

For greater certainty, Members must not use the Members Only Area in a manner that constitutes or enables any of the following acts or omissions:

(a)  uploading, posting, emailing or otherwise transmitting any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

(b) harming minors in any way;

(c) impersonating any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a forum leader, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent affiliation with any person or entity;

(d) forgoing headers or otherwise manipulating identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Members Only Area;

(e) uploading, posting, emailing or otherwise transmitting any Content contrary to any law or under contractual or fiduciary obligations (including inside information, proprietary and confidential information);

(f) uploading, posting, emailing or otherwise transmitting any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or any other kind of proprietary right (“Rights”) of any party;

(g) uploading, posting, emailing or otherwise transmitting any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters”, “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;

(h) uploading, posting, emailing or otherwise transmitting any material that contains software viruses, malware, or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;

(i) disrupting the normal flow of dialogue or otherwise impairing or subverting other Members’ ability to engage in real time exchanges;

(j)  interfering with or disrupting the Members Only Area or servers or networks connected to the Members Only Area, or violating any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Members Only Area;

(k) violating any applicable local, provincial, national or international law, and any regulations having the force of law; (l) “stalking” or otherwise harassing another user; or

(m) collecting or storing personal data about other users.

5. Managing Members Only Area

Members acknowledge and agree that:

(a) DAC does not pre-screen Content;

(b) DAC and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse, move or delete any Content that is available via the Members Only Area;

(c) for greater certainty, DAC and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates these Terms of Service or is otherwise objectionable;

(d) Members must evaluate and bear all risks associated with the use of any Content at the Members Only Site, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content.

6. Preservation and Disclosure of Content

Members acknowledge and agree that DAC may preserve Content and may also disclose Content if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to:

(a) comply with legal process;

(b) enforce these Terms;

(c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third-parties; or

(d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of DAC, its users and the public.

7. Compliance With Law

Recognizing the global nature of the Internet and the fact that Members may operate in many countries, each Member agrees to comply with all local rules regarding online conduct and acceptable Content. For greater certainty, Members agree to comply, inter alia, with all applicable laws regarding the use of personal information, protection of privacy, contacting others without their consent, and the transmission of technical data exported from Canada, the United States or the country in which the member resides.

8. Compulsory License

Each Member grants to DAC a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sub-licensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide, and/or to incorporate the Content in other works in accordance with the policies and procedures that may be adopted by DAC from time to time.

9. Misappropriation / Misuse

In addition to the other restrictions set out or referenced in these Terms, Members must not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes, or in any manner not expressly permitted by DAC, any portion of the Members Only Area (including Content posted by other Members), use of the Members Only Area, or access to the Members Only Area.

10. DAC’s Discretion

DAC may, at any time and from time to time, modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, in whole or in part, the Members Only Area, with or without notice. DAC shall not be liable to Members or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Members Only Area.

DAC in its sole discretion, may terminate a Member’s password, account (or any part thereof) or use of the Members Only Area, and may remove and discard any Content within the Members Only Area, for any reason, including, without limitation, for lack of use or if DAC believes that the Member has violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of these Terms of Service.