TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE

Last updated: June 9, 2010.

 

Welcome to the Business Without Borders website (the "Website")\. Please read these terms and conditions of use (the "Terms") carefully before using the Websites. By using the Website or any of the products or services available on the Website, including services offered on a payment basis ("'Paid Services"), you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the Website. HSBC Bank Canada and its affiliates ("we", "us" and "our") reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify these Terms at any time, and such modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting of the modified Terms. You agree to review the Terms periodically to be aware of such modifications and your continued use of the Website shall be deemed your conclusive acceptance of the modified terms.

 

1.              PERMITTED USERS

The Website may be accessed and used only by individuals located in Canada who have reached the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence, can form legally binding contracts under applicable law, and have accepted this Agreement. The Website is not intended for persons resident or located in the United States or any other jurisdiction outside Canada. Persons using the Website must comply with all applicable laws. HSBC may in its discretion refuse permission to access and use the Website.

 

If you are located outside of Canada and you choose to access and enter this Website, you are advised that it may not be legal in that jurisdiction for you to access or use the facilities available on this Website and the legal requirements of that jurisdiction may prohibit you from dealing or otherwise transacting in that jurisdiction.

 

2.              PROPRIETARY NATURE OF WEBSITES AND CONTENT

The Website and all text, information, images, audio, video and other material ("Content") posted on the Website is protected by copyright, trade-mark and other applicable intellectual property and proprietary rights laws, and is owned, controlled, and/or licensed by HSBC or Rogers Media Inc., its affiliates, licensors and related companies (collectively, "Rogers"). All Content posted on the Website remains the valuable intellectual property of its owner(s) and is made available on the Website solely for your own personal, non-commercial, lawful use. You agree to abide by all copyright notices, information and restrictions contained in or displayed with any Content.

3.              NO RIGHTS GRANTED IN TRADE-MARKS OR CONTENT

Nothing contained on the Website should be considered as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any trade-marks, logos or other names, including but not limited to, those identifying HSBC or Rogers or their respective products and services displayed on the Website, without the expressed written consent of the applicable rights holder. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you do not acquire any ownership rights in the Content as a result of accessing or downloading it, nor are you granted any rights for sale, resale, reproduction, licensing, sub-licensing, distribution, publishing, broadcast, transmission, performance or promotional use, for commercial or non-commercial purposes with respect to the Content, other than for your own personal use and enjoyment. You agree to abide by all copyright notices, information and restrictions contained in or displayed with the Content. You are hereby advised that HSBC or Rogers, as the case may be, will aggressively enforce their intellectual property rights to the fullest extent permitted by law.

4.              PROHIBITED USE OF THE ROGERS MEDIA SITES AND CONTENT

Your use of the Website and Content must comply with these Terms, all applicable laws and all applicable policies of HSBC and Rogers. Without limitation, you may not use the Website to directly or indirectly:

(a)            invade another person's privacy or collect, disclose or store personal information about other persons (including telephone numbers, street addresses, email addresses, last names, etc.);

(b)           "stalk" or otherwise harass another person;

(c)            harm minors;

(d)           unlawfully promote or incite hatred; or

(e)            impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.

5.              RESPONSIBILITY FOR MINORS

In cases where you have authorized a minor to use the Website, you recognize that you are fully responsible for: (i) the online conduct of such minor; (ii) controlling the minor's access to and use of the Website; and (iii) the consequences of any misuse by the minor. You acknowledge that some of the areas of the Website may contain material that is inappropriate for minors.

6.              UPLOADED CONTENT

6.1           Grant of Rights

With respect to Content that you upload, post, transmit, distribute or otherwise disseminate or make available on or through the Website (your "Contributions"), you irrevocably grant us the world-wide, perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable and transferable right and license (without obligation) to use, distribute, reproduce, encode, modify, adapt, edit, display, exhibit, publish, translate, publicly perform, communicate, publicly display your Contributions and to incorporate them into other derivative works or compilations, in any format and through any media channel, whether now known or hereafter invented, including, without limitation, by way of the Website. Subject to the rights expressly granted to us, you retain ownership of the copyright in your Contributions.

6.2           Moral Rights Waiver

You irrevocably waive your moral rights with respect to your Contributions in connection with our exploitation of the rights granted to us in these Terms.

6.3           Prohibited Content

You agree not to upload, post, transmit, distribute or otherwise disseminate or make available on or through the Website any Content that:

(a)            is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary or contractual rights, including privacy and personality/publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have written permission from the rightful owner to post the Content and to grant us all of the rights granted herein;

(b)           is obscene, profane, defamatory, libelous, slanderous, fraudulent, deceptive, threatening, intimidating, pornographic, harassing, abusive, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, encourages or assists conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, could result in civil liability, or is otherwise objectionable, offensive, inappropriate or unlawful;

(c)            implies or suggests endorsement by us;

(d)           in the case of audio or video Content, is greater than (10) minutes in duration;

(e)            contains viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of our computer systems or those of any user;

(f)            contains advertising, a solicitation of funds or a solicitation for goods or services; or

(g)            otherwise violates these Terms or any applicable municipal, provincial, federal or international law, order or regulation.

6.4           Third Party Clearances

You represent and warrant that you own or have secured all necessary licenses, rights, consents and permissions to use, and to authorize us to use, any trade-marks, copyrighted material or other intellectual property and/or proprietary material contained in your Contributions, and that you have the written consent, release and/or permission of every identifiable individual person appearing or referenced in your Contributions to use his/her name and/or likeness.

6.5           Removal of Content

Neither HSBC nor Rogers has any obligation to, and does not and cannot, monitor or review every item of Content that you and other users make available through the Websites, and neither HSBC nor Rogers is not responsible for any of this Content. However, HSBC and Rogers each reserve the right to investigate, monitor, delete and/or refuse to transmit, move, remove, edit or refuse to post any material or information, in whole or in part, without notice to you, that it deems in its absolute discretion, unacceptable, undesirable or in violation of any law or these Terms.

6.6           Responsibility for Uploaded Content

You will be solely responsible for any Content that you make available through the Website and any liability resulting from its use as contemplated in these Terms. You will also be liable for any costs, losses or damage resulting, directly or indirectly, from your making any Content available on or through the Website.

6.7           Postings Non-Confidential

Any communications, comments, ideas or concepts that you post to the Websites will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary. You agree that HSBC is free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques that you send us for any purpose.

7.              THIRD PARTY CONTENT

7.1           Third Party Content

You acknowledge that despite the prohibitions above, Content posted on the Website by other end users may contain inaccurate, inappropriate, offensive or sexually explicit material, products or services and links to other web sites. We do not have control over Content provided by third parties and assume no responsibility or liability for such Content. Content you access, transmit or download using the Rogers Media Sites is accessed, transmitted and downloaded at your own risk.

7.2           Third Party Web sites

Third party websites accessed via links or other means from the Website have, unless otherwise indicated, been independently developed by third parties. The inclusion of any Content or links on the Websites should not be construed as an express or an implied endorsement of any third party products or services by us. We are not responsible for the Content or opinions expressed by any linked third party websites and we cannot guarantee the performance of any products and services provided by any advertisers or others to whose websites we link. Any dealings you have with advertisers found while accessing the Website are between you and the advertiser. Such third party websites are in no way investigated, monitored or checked by us.

8.              LINKING AND FRAMING

Links to the Website without the express written permission of HSBC are strictly prohibited. HSBC reserves the right to cancel and revoke any permission it may give to link to the Website at any time, for any reason, without any notice, and without any liability to you or any other person. The framing, mirroring, scraping or data-mining of the Website or any of its content in any form and by any method are strictly prohibited.

 

9.              SECURITY

You may be issued a unique user name and password to access portions of the Website. You are solely responsible for protecting your user name and password. We are not liable for any claims, losses, actions, damages, suits or proceedings relating to the sharing of your user name and password with others. You agree to notify HSBC immediately after you become aware of any unauthorized use of your user name and password, and to take such reasonable steps as are necessary to prevent any reoccurrence of such event.

10.           TERMINATION

These Terms shall continue indefinitely until terminated by us pursuant to the provisions hereof or in accordance with applicable law. We may discontinue or terminate your access to the Website or any portion thereof at any time without notice to you. Our discontinuance the Website or any portion thereof may result in the removal or deletion of Content made available by you. You are responsible for maintaining any required back up copies of such Content. Neither HSBC nor Rogers will not be liable to you with respect to the deletion of any Content.

11.           DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

 

THE WEBSITE AND ALL CONTENT, MATERIAL, INFORMATION OR POSTINGS FOUND ON, DOWNLOADED OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE WEBSITE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. HSBC AND ROGERS AND EACH OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONSULTANTS AND AGENTS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY AND ALL REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES OF TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABLE QUALITY, FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE, SUITABILITY FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS ARISING FROM ANY COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE, WITH RESPECT TO THE WEBSITE OR THE CONTENT CONTAINED IN OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE WEBSITE. NEITHER HSBC OR ROGERS NOR EACH OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONSULTANTS AND AGENTS MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, RELIABILITY, TRUTHFULNESS OR COMPLETENESS OF WEBSITE OR THE CONTENT CONTAINED IN OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE WEBSITE INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE CONTENT, INFORMATION, MATERIAL OR POSTING FOUND ON THE WEBSITE (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY PRESS RELEASES OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION), ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES PROVIDED THROUGH THE WEBSITE, OR ANY LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES MADE AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE OR THE CONTENT CONTAINED ON SUCH SITE(S). NEITHER HSBC NOR ROGERS NOR EACH OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONSULTANTS OR AGENTS MAKES ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES THAT THE WEBSITE OR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE WEBSITES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR FREE, OR FREE FROM DEFECTS, VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE WEBSITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.

 

12.           PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION DISCLAIMER

 

The Website may make available certain information provided by us or third parties related to various professional fields such as, without limitation, banking, law, tax, accounting and finance ("Professional Information"). THE Website is for informational purposes only. WHILE WE ENDEAVOUR TO ENSURE THAT THE INFORMATION POSTED ON THE WEBSITE IS CORRECT AND UP-TO-DATE, THE WEBSITE IS NOT GUARANTEED TO BE ACCURATE, COMPELTE OR TIMELY. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR MAKE CORRECTIONS TO ANY OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THE WEBSITE AT ANY TIME AND WITHOUT ANY PRIOR WARNING. THE WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A COMPREHENSIVE OR DETAILED STATEMENT CONCERNING THE MATTERS ADDRESSED. The Professional Information provided should not be interpreted as professional advice and does not replace the opinion of a qualified professional. you should obtain appropriate, qualified professional advice before acting or omitting to act based upon any information provided on or through the website. You expressly agree that your use of, or reliance on, any Professional Information is at your sole risk. You further agree that hsbc and Rogers will not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, in any way for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of, or in connection with your use of, or reliance on, any Professional Information.

 

13.           FINANCIAL INFORMATION DISCLAIMER

 

The Website may make information available provided by Us or third parties related to various financial matters. The financial information available on the Website is: (a) for information purposes only and not intended as investing advice; (b) not to be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or an endorsement, recommendation, or sponsorship of any entity or security by HSBC or Rogers; and (c) not necessarily reflective of the views or policies of HSBC or Rogers, or each of their respective directors, officers, employees, consultants and agents. The financial information on the webSite is not guaranteed and no representations or warranties can be made as to the accuracy or completeness of the financial information provided as part of the webSite. PRIOR TO THE EXECUTION OF A PURCHASE OR SALE OF ANY SECURITY OR INVESTMENT, YOU ARE ADVISED TO CONSULT WITH YOUR BROKER OR OTHER FINANCIAL ADVISOR TO VERIFY PRICING AND OTHER INFORMATION. NEITHER HSBC NOR ROGERS SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY FOR INVESTMENT DECISIONS BASED UPON, OR THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM, THE CONTENT PROVIDED HEREIN. NOTHING CONTAINED IN THE WEBSITE SHALL BE CONSTRUED AS INVESTMENT ADVICE. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of all financial information and you acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for the entire risk with respect to your use of and reliance on the financial information provided on the WEBSite. You further agree that hsbc and Rogers will not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, in any way for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of, or in connection with your use of, or reliance on, any financial Information provided.

 

14.           LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

 

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NEGLIGENCE, GROSS NEGLIGENCE, NEGLIGENT MISREPRESENTATION AND FUNDAMENTAL BREACH, SHALL HSBC OR ROGERS, NOR EACH OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONSULTANTS AND AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY LOSS THAT RESULTS FROM YOUR USE OF, OR YOUR INABILITY TO USE ANY CONTENT, INFORMATION, MATERIAL OR POSTINGS ON THE WEBSITE, DIRECTLY OR Indirectly. THESE Limitations APPLY REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE PARTY LIABLE OR ALLEGEDLY LIABLE WAS ADVISED, HAD OTHER REASON TO KNOW, OR IN FACT KNEW OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT NEITHER HSBC NOR ROGERS, NOR EACH OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONSULTANTS AND AGENTS SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF ANY USER, INCLUDING YOU.

 

15.           INDEMNIFICATION

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you will defend, indemnify and hold harmless HSBC and Rogers, and each of their respective directors, officers, employees, consultants and agents from and against all claims, liability and expenses, including all legal fees and costs arising out of: (a) your breach of any provision of these Terms; or (b) your use of the Website, the Content contained in the Websites and the placement or transmission of any Content on the Website made by you or others using your user name and password. Each of HSBC and Rogers reserve the right, in its sole discretion and at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you. You will co-operate as fully as reasonably required in the defense of any claim.

16.           PRIVACY

Our collection, use and disclosure of personal information in connection with the Website is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is posted at http://www.hsbc.ca/1/2/en/about-us/privacy. Personal information collected in connection with the Websites may be stored and processed in or outside Canada and may be subject to the laws of other jurisdictions.

17.           REMEDIES AND RECOURSE

16.1     If you are dissatisfied with the Website or with these Terms, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the Website.

16.2     HSBC reserves the right to seek all remedies available at law and in equity for violations of these Terms, including the right to block access from a particular IP address to the Website or any part thereof.

18.           CONTACT

To contact HSBC in connection with these Terms or the Website, send an e-mail to info@hsbc.ca or write to HSBC.

19.           MISCELLANEOUS TERMS

Any disputes arising hereunder shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the province of British Columbia and the laws of Canada applicable therein, without giving effect to their conflict of laws principles. You expressly consent to the exclusive forum, jurisdiction, and venue of the courts of British Columbia and/or the Federal Court of Canada in British Columbia, or any other judicial district or jurisdiction as HSBC may determine in any and all actions, disputes or controversies relating hereto. These Terms and any rules, policies, guidelines or other agreements posted on the Website by HSBC constitute the entire agreement between HSBC and you with respect to your use of the Website. No waiver by either HSBC or you of any breach or default hereunder shall be deemed to be a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default. If any provisions contained herein shall be determined to be void, invalid or otherwise enforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these Terms and such determination shall not affect the remaining provisions contained herein.

These Terms have been drawn up in the English language at the express request of the parties. La présente convention a été rédigée en anglais à la demande expresse des parties.