1. ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Please read these Terms of Use carefully before using any of the websites of Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority, Inc. (“Ottawa Tourism”), including websites, microsites, and websites sponsored by third parties (collectively the “Sites”). By using any of the services offered on the Sites, You or the entity or company that You represent (“You” or “Your”) are unconditionally consenting to be bound by and are becoming a party to these terms of use, and any policies or guidelines incorporated herein (collectively, the “Terms of Use”). Your use of the services offered by Ottawa Tourism shall also constitute assent to these Terms of Use. If You do not unconditionally agree to all of these Terms of Use, You must not access or use the Sites. If these Terms of Use are considered an offer, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms.
2. SERVICES
Subject to these Terms of Use, Ottawa Tourism may offer to provide certain services that relate to the promotion of Ottawa as a tourism destination (the “Services”), as described more fully on the Sites, and which are selected by You through the process provided on the Sites, solely for Your own use, and not for the use or benefit of any third party. Services shall include, but not be limited to, any service Ottawa Tourism performs for You, as well as the offering of any Content (as defined in section 6 below) on the Sites, and access to and use of services offered by certain third-party service providers through the Sites (“Third Party Service”).
3. MODIFICATIONS TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND TO THE SITE
Ottawa Tourism may change, suspend, or discontinue any or all Services at any time, including the availability of any feature, database, Third Party Service, or Content. Ottawa Tourism may also impose limits on certain Services or restrict Your access to parts or all of the Services without notice or liability. Ottawa Tourism will not be liable if, for any reason, all or any part of the Sites is restricted to users or unavailable at any time or for any period.
Ottawa Tourism reserves the right, at its discretion, to modify these Terms of Use at any time and at its sole discretion. Any and all such modifications are effective immediately upon posting and apply to all access to and continued use of the Sites. You agree to periodically review the terms and conditions in order to be aware of any such modifications and Your continued use shall be Your acceptance of these.
Use of the Services by You following such modifications constitutes Your acceptance of the modified Terms of Use. You also certify to Ottawa Tourism that if You are an individual (i.e., not a corporation) You are of legal age in the jurisdiction in which You ordinarily reside to form a binding contract. You also certify that You are legally permitted to use the Services and access the Sites and take full responsibility for the selection and use of the Services and access to the Sites. These Terms of Use are void where prohibited by law and the right to access the Sites is revoked in such jurisdictions. You shall be responsible for obtaining and maintaining any equipment or ancillary services needed to connect to, access the Sites or otherwise use the Services, including, without limitation, hardware, software, and internet service. You shall be solely responsible for ensuring that such equipment or ancillary services are compatible with the Services. Ottawa Tourism or its licensors retains ownership of all right, title and interest in and to the Service, the Sites, Content (defined below), and any related software or materials and all related intellectual property rights.
4. ACCOUNT SET-UP AND SECURITY
Ottawa Tourism uses physical, electronic, and administrative measures designed to secure Your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure.
The safety and security of your information also depends on you. You are responsible for obtaining your own access to the Sites. You are required to ensure that all persons who access the Sites through Your internet connection are aware of these Terms and Conditions and comply with them. The Sites, including Content or areas of the Sites, may require user registration. It is a condition of Your use of the Sites that all the information You provide on the Sites is correct, current, and complete.
The transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although Ottawa Tourism does its best to protect Your personal information, it cannot guarantee the security of Your personal information transmitted to the Sites. Any transmission of personal information is at Your own risk. Ottawa Tourism is not responsible for the circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Sites.
You are prohibited from attempting to circumvent and from violating the security of Sites, including, without limitation: (a) accessing Content and data that is not intended for You; (b) attempting to breach or breaching the security and/or authentication measures which are not authorized; (c) restricting, disrupting or disabling service to users, hosts, servers, or networks; (d) illicitly reproducing TCP/IP packet header; (e) disrupting network services and otherwise disrupting Site owner's ability to monitor the Site; (f) using any robot, spider, or other automatic device, process, or means to access the Site for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Site; (g) introducing any viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic bombs, or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful; (h) attacking the Site via a denial-of-service attack, distributed denial-of-service attack, flooding, mailbombing, or crashing; and (i) otherwise attempting to interfere with the proper working of the Site.
5. CONDITIONS OF USE
You warrant, represent, and agree that You will not contribute any Content that, in Ottawa Tourism’s sole judgment, is infringing, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, offensive, false, inaccurate, misleading, does not comply with, or otherwise violates any law or right of any third party. You further represent, warrant, and agree not to impersonate any other person including, but not limited to, Ottawa Tourism or any of its employees. Content submitted by users will be considered non-confidential and Ottawa Tourism is under no obligation to treat Content as confidential or proprietary information.
By submitting user generated Content, You declare and warrant that You own or have the necessary rights to submit the said user generated Content and have the right to grant the licence hereof to Ottawa Tourism and its affiliates and service providers, and each of their and our respective licensees, successors, and assigns to the user generated Content and comply with these Terms and Conditions. You represent and warrant that all user generated Content complies with applicable laws and regulations.
Without limiting the foregoing, Ottawa Tourism reserves the right to use the user generated Content as it deems appropriate, including, without limitation, deleting, editing, modifying, rejecting, or refusing to post it. Ottawa Tourism is under no obligation to offer You any payment for Content that You submit or the opportunity to edit, delete or otherwise modify Content once it has been submitted to Ottawa Tourism. Ottawa Tourism has no duty to attribute authorship of user generated Content to You other than by using Your service User ID (defined below). Ottawa Tourism shall not be obligated to enforce any form of attribution by third parties. Ottawa Tourism reserves the right to remove any Content from the Sites at any time, for any reason including, but not limited to, upon receipt of claims or allegations from third parties or authorities relating to such Content or if Ottawa Tourism is concerned that You may have breached these Terms of Use, or for no reason at all.
Ottawa Tourism takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any Content posted, stored or uploaded by You, or for any loss or damage You may suffer as a result, nor is Ottawa Tourism liable for any mistakes, defamation, slander, libel, omissions, falsehoods, obscenity, pornography or profanity You may encounter. Ottawa Tourism is not liable for any statements, representations or Content provided by its users in any public forum, personal home page or any other area of the Sites. Although Ottawa Tourism has no obligation to screen, edit or monitor any of the Content posted to or distributed through the Sites, Ottawa Tourism reserves the right, and has absolute discretion, to remove, screen or edit without notice any Content posted or stored on the Sites at any time and for any reason, and You are solely responsible for creating backup copies of and replacing any Content You post or store on the Sites at Your sole cost and expense.
Any use of the Sites in violation of the foregoing violates these Terms of Use and may result in, among other things, termination, or suspension of Your rights to use the Sites. In order to cooperate with legitimate governmental requests, subpoenas or court orders, to protect Ottawa Tourism’s systems and users, or to ensure the integrity and operation of Ottawa Tourism’s business and systems, Ottawa Tourism may access and disclose any information it considers necessary or appropriate, including, without limitation, user profile information (i.e. name, email address, etc.), IP addressing and traffic information, usage history, and posted Content. Ottawa Tourism’s right to disclose any such information shall be in accordance with Ottawa Tourism’s privacy policy, the Privacy Act, Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985, chapter P-21, the Access to Information Act, Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985, chapter A-1, and legislation in the jurisdiction in which You are using the Service.
6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP
The Sites and all Content therein are intended solely for the use of end users of the Sites and may only be used in accordance with these Terms of Use. All materials displayed or published on the Sites (including, but not limited to text, graphics, news articles, blog articles, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips and video clips, collectively known as “Content”) are protected by copyright and trademark laws. You shall abide by all copyright notices, information, and restrictions contained in any Content accessed through the Services. The Sites are protected by copyright as a collective work and/or compilation, pursuant to Canadian copyright laws and international conventions. Trademarks used and/or displayed on the Sites are the registered or unregistered trademarks or official marks (Canada) of Ottawa Tourism or are trademarks licensed to Ottawa Tourism by the trademark holder. No license to use the trademarks is granted without the express written permission of Ottawa Tourism.
Except where expressly provided You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce (except as provided in this Section), create derivative works based on, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the Content, software, materials, or Services in whole or in part. You may download or copy the Content, and other items displayed on the Sites for download, for personal use only, provided that You maintain all copyright attribution and other notices contained in such Content. You may store the Content only for personal, non-commercial use. Copying or storing of any Content for other than personal, non-commercial use is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from Ottawa Tourism, or from the copyright holder identified in such Content’s copyright notice.
You acknowledge and agree that if You use any of the Services to contribute Content to the Sites, Ottawa Tourism is hereby granted a non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable right to fully perform, display, distribute, make derivative works from, and otherwise exploit such Content in any medium now known or hereafter invented (including all related intellectual property rights) and to allow others to do so. You expressly waive, to the fullest extent permitted by law, any moral rights You have in any Content that You have contributed and agree that no rights of attribution shall be enforced by You. You grant these rights free of charge. To the extent You retain any moral rights to the Content under applicable law, You hereby ratify and consent to any action that may be taken with respect to such moral rights by Ottawa Tourism and agree not to assert any moral rights with respect thereto.
If You believe in good faith that materials hosted by Ottawa Tourism infringe Your copyright, You must provide Ottawa Tourism with written notification. The procedure outlined below is exclusively for notifying Ottawa Tourism that Your copyrighted material has been infringed and is not a final assertion of any rights to the Content that You may have.
Your written notification must include the following:
- a clear identification of Your copyrighted work that You claim is being infringed;
- a clear identification on the Site(s) of the location of Your copyrighted work;
- Your full name, telephone number, email address and physical address and Your signature; and
- send Your notice to:
Ottawa Tourism
Attention: Legal Services
150 Elgin Street, Suite 1405
Ottawa, ON, K2P 1L4
Tel: (613) 237-5150
Please note that You may be liable for damages if You make a false claim of copyright infringement.
Ottawa Tourism will review and appropriately address all notices that comply with the requirements above.
7. MODERATION
Ottawa Tourism has no obligation nor any responsibility to any party to monitor the Sites or their use, and does not and cannot undertake to review material that You or other users submit to the Sites. Ottawa Tourism does not and cannot ensure prompt removal of objectionable material after it has been posted and has no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications, or Content provided by any user or third party, subject to applicable laws.
8. RESTRICTIONS
You are responsible for all of Your activity in connection with the Services and accessing the Sites. Any fraudulent, abusive, or otherwise illegal activity may be grounds for termination of Your right to use the Services or to access the Sites. You may not post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, any communication or solicitation designed or intended to obtain password, account, or private information from any user. Use of the Sites or Services to violate the security of any computer network, crack passwords or security encryption codes, transfer, or store illegal material, including material deemed threatening or obscene, or engage in any kind of illegal activity is expressly prohibited. You will not run Mail-list, Listserv, any form of autoresponder, "spam" on the Sites, or any processes that run or are activated by You.
9. THIRD PARTY TOURISM EXPERIENCES
Ottawa Tourism is not a booking agent or tour operator. You should be aware that organizations that are featured on Ottawa Tourism’s Sites will have their own terms and rates for booking tourism experiences. When You book any tourism experience with a third party, please be sure to check with them for disclosure of all applicable terms, restrictions, rates and fees.
Ottawa Tourism may include Content provided by third party companies or individuals which may include offers for third party tourism experiences. Your business dealings or correspondence with, or participation in promotions of advertisers or any other third party other than Ottawa Tourism, and any terms, conditions, warranties, or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between You and such third party. Ottawa Tourism is not responsible or liable for any loss or damage You may incur as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of third-party tourism experience offerings on the Sites.
10. WARRANTY DISCLAIMER
Ottawa Tourism has no special relationship with, or fiduciary duty, to You. You acknowledge that Ottawa Tourism has no control over, and no duty to take any action regarding:
- which users gain access to the Sites;
- what Content You access via the Sites;
- what effects the Content may have on You;
- how You may interpret or use the Content; or
- what actions You may take as a result of having been exposed to the Content.
You release Ottawa Tourism from all liability for Your having renewed, acquired, or not acquired Content through the Sites. Ottawa Tourism makes no representations concerning any Content contained in or accessed through the Sites or any Content contained in or accessed through a Third Party Service, and Ottawa Tourism will not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality or decency of material contained in or accessed through the Sites or any Third Party Service linked to the Sites.
YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SITES, THE CONTENT, AND ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS FOUND OR ATTAINED THROUGH THE SITES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SITES, ITS CONTENT, AND ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS FOUND OR ATTAINED THROUGH THE SITES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE FOREGOING DOES NOT AFFECT ANY WARRANTIES THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.
NEITHER OTTAWA TOURISM NOR ITS AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, CONTRACTORS, LICENSORS, LICENSEES, SUPPLIERS, OR SUCCESSORS MAKE ANY WARRANTY, REPRESENTATION, OR ENDORSEMENT WITH RESPECT TO THE COMPLETENESS, SECURITY, RELIABILITY, SUITABILITY, ACCURACY, CURRENCY, OR AVAILABILITY OF THE SITES OR THEIR CONTENTS. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER THE COMPANY NOR ITS AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, CONTRACTORS, LICENSORS, LICENSEES, SUPPLIERS, OR SUCCESSORS REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE SITES, THEIR CONTENTS, OR ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS FOUND OR ATTAINED THROUGH THE SITES WILL BE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, ERROR-FREE, OR UNINTERRUPTED, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, THAT OUR SITES OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES IT AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.
WE CANNOT AND DO NOT GUARANTEE OR WARRANT THAT FILES OR DATA AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOADING FROM THE INTERNET OR THE SITES WILL BE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER DESTRUCTIVE CODE. YOU ARE SOLELY AND ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR USE OF THE SITES AND YOUR COMPUTER, INTERNET, AND DATA SECURITY. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PROVIDED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY DENIAL-OF-SERVICE ATTACK, DISTRIBUTED DENIAL-OF-SERVICE ATTACK, OVERLOADING, FLOODING, MAILBOMBING, OR CRASHING, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, WORMS, LOGIC BOMBS, OR OTHER TECHNOLOGICALLY HARMFUL MATERIAL THAT MAY INFECT YOUR COMPUTER EQUIPMENT, COMPUTER PROGRAMS, DATA, OR OTHER PROPRIETARY MATERIAL DUE TO YOUR USE OF THE SITES OR ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS FOUND OR ATTAINED THROUGH THE SITES OR TO YOUR DOWNLOADING OF ANY MATERIAL POSTED ON IT, OR ON ANY SITES LINKED TO IT.
Ottawa Tourism makes no guaranty of confidentiality or privacy of any communication or information transmitted on any web site not owned and operated exclusively by Ottawa Tourism (“Third-Party Party Web Site”) linked to Ottawa Tourism’s Sites or otherwise in connection with the Services.
Ottawa Tourism will not be liable for the privacy of e-mail addresses, registration and identification information, disk space, communications, third-party confidential or trade-secret information, or any other Content stored on Ottawa Tourism's equipment, transmitted over networks accessed by the Sites, or otherwise connected with Your use of the Sites, Services, or Third-Party Service.
11. REGISTRATION AND SECURITY
As a condition to accessing or using certain Services, receiving Content or participating in promotional events such as contests, You may be required to register with Ottawa Tourism and select a password and user name (“User ID”). You shall provide Ottawa Tourism with accurate, complete, and updated registration information. Failure to do so shall constitute a breach of these Terms of Use which may result in immediate termination of Your account. You may not (i) select or use as a User ID a name of another person with the intent to impersonate that person; or (ii) use as a User ID a name subject to any rights of a person other than You without appropriate authorization. Ottawa Tourism reserves the right to refuse registration of, or cancel a User ID in its sole discretion. You shall be responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of Your password associated with Your User ID.
12. PRIVACY
By submitting Your personal information and using the Sites, You consent to the collection, use, reproduction, hosting, transmission, and disclosure of any such user Content submissions in compliance with the Privacy Policy, found at Privacy Policy | Ottawa Tourism, as deemed necessary by Ottawa Tourism.
By using the Sites, You are consenting to the use of cookies which allow a server to recall previous requests or registration and/or IP addresses to analyze website use patterns. You can set Your browser to notify You before You receive a cookie, giving You the chance to decide whether to accept it. You can also set Your browser to turn off cookies. If You do, however, some areas of the Sites may not function adequately.
13. NO RELIANCE
The Content on the Sites is provided for general information purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which You should rely. You must obtain more specific or professional advice before taking, or refraining from, any action or inaction on the basis of the Content on the Sites
Although Ottawa Tourism makes reasonable efforts to update the information on the Sites, it make no representations, warranties, or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the Content on the Sites is accurate, complete, or up to date. Your use of the Sites is at Your own risk and neither Ottawa Tourism nor its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, and their respective directors, officers, employees, agents, service providers, contractors, licensors, licensees, suppliers, or successors have any responsibility or liability whatsoever for Your use of the Sites.
The Sites includes Content provided by third parties, including from other users and third-party licensors. All statements and/or opinions expressed in any such third-party Content, other than the Content provided by Ottawa Tourism, are solely the opinions and the responsibility of the person or entity providing those materials. Such materials do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Ottawa Tourism.
14. THIRD PARTY WEBSITES
For Your convenience, the Sites may provide links or pointers to third-party sites. We make no representations about any other websites that may be accessed from the Sites. If You choose to access any such sites, You do so at Your own risk. We have no control over the Contents of any such third-party sites and accept no responsibility for such sites or for any loss or damage that may arise from Your use of them. You are subject to any terms and conditions of such third-party sites.
15. INDEMNITY
You will indemnify all costs and legal fees, and hold harmless, Ottawa Tourism, their affiliates, directors, officers and employees, from (i) any claim or demand made by any third party due to or arising out of Your access to the Sites, (ii) use of the Services, (iii) Your violation of these Terms of Use, or (iv) the infringement by You, or any third party using the Your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.
16. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
IN NO EVENT SHALL OTTAWA TOURISM BE LIABLE TO YOU WITH RESPECT TO THE SITES OR THE SERVICES OR ANY THIRD-PARTY WEB SITE OR TOURISM EXPERIENCE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES DUE TO LOSS OF DATA OR FAILED COMMUNICATIONS.
17. TERMINATION
Ottawa Tourism may terminate or suspend any and all Services and access to the Sites (i) immediately, without prior notice or liability, if You breach these Terms of Use or (ii) upon fifteen (15) days notice for any reason or for no reason. You may terminate Your access to the Services at any time upon written notice to Ottawa Tourism. Upon termination of the Your account, Your right to use the Services, access the Sites and any Content will immediately cease. All provisions of these Terms of Use which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability.
18. MISCELLANEOUS
a. Waiver
The failure of either party to exercise in any respect any right provided for herein shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder. Ottawa Tourism shall not be liable for any failure to perform its obligations hereunder where such failure results from any cause beyond Ottawa Tourism’s reasonable control, including, without limitation, mechanical, electronic or communications failure or degradation.
b. Severability
If any provision of these Terms of Use is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that these Terms of Use shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable.
c. No Assignment without Consent
These Terms of Use are not assignable, transferable or sub-licensable by You except with Ottawa Tourism’s prior written consent. Ottawa Tourism may freely assign these Terms of Use.
d. Governing Law and Choice of Forum
These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada and the applicable federal laws of Canada without regard to the conflict of laws provisions thereof. You agree that all claims You may have against Ottawa Tourism arising from or relating to the Sites will be heard and resolved in a court of competent subject matter jurisdiction located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. You consent to the personal jurisdiction of such courts over You, stipulate to the fairness and convenience of proceeding in such courts, and covenant not to assert any objection to proceeding in such courts.
e. Entire Agreement
Both parties agree that these Terms of Use are the complete and exclusive statement of the mutual understanding of the parties and supersede and cancel all previous written and oral agreements, communications and other understandings relating to the subject matter of these Terms of Use.
f. Notice
Ottawa Tourism may provide You with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms of Use by posting on the Sites. Your continued use of the access or use of the Service after communicating that these Terms of Use have been changed will be considered Your assent to any such changes.
If You are required to send notice to Ottawa Tourism pursuant to these Terms and Services, notice may be sent to:
Ottawa Tourism
150 Elgin Street, Suite 1405
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 1L4
info@ottawatourism.ca
