Terms of
Service
Last Updated: 02.27.2006
Tucows Registration Agreement (Exhibit A)
1. IN THIS REGISTRATION AGREEMENT ("Agreement"),
“Registrant”, "you" and "your" refers to the Registrant of each domain
name registration, "we", “us" and "our" refers to Tucows.com Co., and
“Services” refers to the domain name registration services provided by
us as offered through SpaBoom, the
Registration Service Provider (“Reseller”). Any reference to a
“registry,” “Registry” or “Registry Operator” shall refer to the
registry administrator of the applicable TLD or ccTLD. This Agreement
explains our obligations to you, and explains your obligations to us
for the Services. By agreeing to the terms and conditions set forth in
this Agreement, you are also agreeing to be bound by the rules and
regulations set forth by a registry for that particular registry only.
2. SELECTION OF A DOMAIN NAME. You acknowledge and agree
that we cannot guarantee that you will obtain a desired domain name
registration, even if an inquiry indicates that a domain name is
available at the time of your application for same. You represent that,
to the best of the your knowledge and belief, neither the registration
of the domain name nor the manner in which it is directly or indirectly
to be used, infringes upon the legal rights of a third party and
further, that the domain name is not being registered for nor shall it
at any time whatsoever be used for any unlawful purpose. During the
period following registration of a domain name and the appointment of
active name servers, we may post a stagnant web page and any revenues
generated from same shall be for our own account.
3. FEES. As consideration for the Services, you agree to
pay Reseller the applicable service(s) fees prior to the effectiveness
of a desired domain name registration or any renewal thereof. All fees
payable hereunder are non-refundable even if your domain name
registration is suspended, cancelled or transferred prior to the end of
your current registration term. As further consideration for the
Services, you agree to: (1) provide certain current, complete and
accurate information about you as required by the registration process,
and (2) maintain and update this information as needed to keep it
current, complete and accurate. All such information shall be referred
to as account information ("Account Information"). You represent that
the Account Information and all other statements put forth in your
application are true, complete and accurate. Both Tucows and each
registry reserves the right to terminate your domain name registration
if: (i) information provided by you or your agent is false, inaccurate,
incomplete, unreliable, misleading or otherwise secretive; or (ii) you
have failed to maintain, update and keep your Account Information true,
current, complete, accurate and reliable. You acknowledge that a breach
of this Section 3 will constitute a material breach of our Agreement,
which will entitle either us or a registry to terminate this Agreement
immediately upon such breach without any refund and without notice to
you.
4. TERM. This Agreement will remain in effect during the
term of your domain name registration as selected, recorded and paid
for at the time of registration or any renewal thereof. Should the
domain name be transferred to another registrar, the terms and
conditions of this Agreement shall cease.
5. MODIFICATIONS TO AGREEMENT. You acknowledge that the
practice of registering and administering domain names is constantly
evolving; therefore, you agree that Tucows may modify this Agreement,
or any other related and/or applicable agreement, as is necessary to
comply with its agreements with ICANN, a registry or any other entity
or individual, as well as to adjust to changing circumstances. All
amendments to this Agreement will be posted on our website. Your
continued use of the domain name registered to you will constitute your
acceptance of this Agreement with any revisions. If you do not agree to
any change, you may request that your domain name registration be
cancelled or transferred to a different accredited registrar. You agree
that such cancellation or request for transfer will be your exclusive
remedy if you do not wish to abide by any change to this Agreement, or
any other related and/or applicable agreement.
6. MODIFICATIONS TO YOUR ACCOUNT. In order to change any
of your account information with us, you must use the Account
Identifier and Password that you selected when you opened your account
with us. You agree to safeguard your Account Identifier and Password
from any unauthorized use. In no event shall we be liable for the
unauthorized use or misuse of your Account Identifier or Password.
7. NO GUARANTY. You acknowledge that registration or
reservation of your chosen domain name does not confer immunity from
objection to the registration, reservation or use of the domain name.
8. DOMAIN NAME DISPUTES. You agree that, if the
registration or reservation of your domain name is challenged by a
third party, you will be subject to the provisions specified in the
dispute policy adopted by the applicable registry. You agree that in
the event a domain name dispute arises with any third party, you will
indemnify and hold us harmless pursuant to the terms and conditions
contained in the applicable policy. If Tucows is notified that a
complaint has been filed with a judicial or administrative body
regarding your domain name, Tucows may, at its sole discretion, suspend
your ability to use your domain name or to make modifications to your
registration records until (i) Tucows is directed to do so by the
judicial or administrative body, or (ii) Tucows receives notification
by you and the other party contesting your domain that the dispute has
been settled. Furthermore, you agree that if you are subject to
litigation regarding your registration or use of your domain name,
Tucows may deposit control of your registration record into the
registry of the judicial body by supplying a party with a registrar
certificate from us.
9. POLICY. You agree that your registration of the
domain name shall be subject to suspension, cancellation, or transfer
pursuant to a Tucows, registry, ICANN or government-adopted policy, or
pursuant to any registrar or registry procedure not inconsistent with a
Tucows, registry, ICANN or government-adopted policy, (1) to correct
mistakes by us or a registry in registering the name or (2) for the
resolution of disputes concerning the domain name.
10. AGENCY. Should you intend to license use of a domain
name to a third party you shall nonetheless be the domain name holder
of record and are therefore responsible for providing your own full
contact information and for providing and updating accurate technical
and administrative contact information adequate to facilitate timely
resolution of any problems that arise in connection with the domain
name. You shall accept liability for harm caused by wrongful use of the
domain name. You represent that you will secure the agreement of any
third party to the terms and conditions in this Agreement.
11. ANNOUNCEMENTS. We reserve the right to distribute
information to you that is pertinent to the quality or operation of our
services and those of our service partners. These announcements will be
predominately informative in nature and may include notices describing
changes, upgrades, new products or other information to add security or
to enhance your identity on the Internet.
12. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. You agree that our entire
liability, and your exclusive remedy, with respect to any Services(s)
provided under this Agreement and any breach of this Agreement is
solely limited to the amount you paid for the initial registration of
your domain name. Tucows and its directors, employees, affiliates,
subsidiaries, agents and third party providers, ICANN and the
applicable registries shall not be liable for any direct, indirect,
incidental, special or consequential damages resulting from the use or
inability to use any of the Services or for the cost of procurement of
substitute services. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or
limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, in
such states, our liability is limited to the extent permitted by law.
We disclaim any and all loss or liability resulting from, but not
limited to: (1) loss or liability resulting from access delays or
access interruptions; (2) loss or liability resulting from data
non-delivery or data mis-delivery; (3) loss or liability resulting from
acts of God; (4) loss or liability resulting from the unauthorized use
or misuse of your account identifier or password; (5) loss or liability
resulting from errors, omissions, or misstatements in any and all
information or services(s) provided under this Agreement; (6) loss or
liability resulting from the interruption of your Service. You agree
that we will not be liable for any loss of registration and use of your
domain name, or for interruption of business, or any indirect, special,
incidental, or consequential damages of any kind (including lost
profits) regardless of the form of action whether in contract, tort
(including negligence), or otherwise, even if we have been advised of
the possibility of such damages.
13. INDEMNITY. You agree to release, indemnify, and hold
Tucows, its contractors, agents, employees, officers, directors and
affiliates, ICANN, the applicable registries and their respective
directors, officers, employees, agents and affiliates harmless from all
liabilities, claims and expenses, including attorney's fees, of third
parties arising out of or relating to the registration or use of the
domain name registered in your name, whether used by yourself, licensed
to a third party or pursuant to the Whois Privacy Service, including
without limitation infringement by you or a third party with access to
your Account Identifier and Password. You also agree to release,
indemnify and hold us harmless pursuant to the terms and conditions
contained in the applicable Dispute Policy. When we are threatened with
suit by a third party, we may seek written assurances from you
concerning your promise to indemnify us; your failure to provide those
assurances may be considered by us to be a breach of your Agreement and
may result in the suspension or cancellation of your domain name. This
indemnification obligation will survive the termination or expiration
of this Agreement.
14. TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP. The person named as
Registrant on the Whois shall be the registered name holder. The person
named as Administrative contact at the time the controlling Account
Identifier and Password are secured, shall be deemed the designate of
the Registrant with the authority to manage the domain name. You agree
that prior to transferring ownership of your domain name to another
person (the “Transferee") you shall require the Transferee to agree, in
writing to be bound by all the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
If the Transferee fails to be bound in a reasonable fashion (as
determine by us in our sole discretion) to the terms and conditions in
this Agreement, any such transfer will be null and void.
15. RENEWALS AND FORFEITURE. Domain names are registered
for a finite period of time. You will receive reminders immediately
prior to the expiration of your registration inviting you to renew your
domain name. In the event that you fail to renew your domain name in a
timely fashion, your registration will expire and we may, at our
discretion, elect to assume the registration and may hold it for our
own account, delete it or we may sell it to a third party. You
acknowledge and agree that your right and interest in a domain name
ceases upon its expiration and that any expired domain name may be made
available for registration by a third party.
If you fail to renew your registration, your domain name may cease
to resolve and visitors to your site may be redirected to a default
page informing them that the site is no longer in service. This parked
or default page may feature advertisements posted by us for our own
account.
If we have elected to renew the registration, you will be entitled to a
grace period during which you may re-register the domain name from us.
Additional costs may apply. During this grace period, we may post a
parked page and/or may revise the “Whois” registration records to
include either our information or that of your Reseller. The domain
name may also be listed for auction. If the name is sold during any
such auction, it will be acquired by a third party on a provisional
basis and will remain available for re-registration by you during our
stated grace period. If you do not re-register the domain name during
the grace period, the auction sale will be concluded and you will
receive a share of the proceeds received from the new registrant.
Tucows will send an email to the last address you have provided
advising you of the sale and your interest in same. At present, we
agree to pay you forty (40) per cent of the net proceeds of any such
auction. You will have one (1) year following the issue of the email to
claim your share of the proceeds. Any amounts not claimed within one
(1) year will be deemed to have been abandoned by you and will be
deposited by us for our own account.
If you fail to renew your domain name registration during the grace
period, you acknowledge that you have abandoned the domain name and
that it is available for sale and registration by any third party.
16. BREACH. You agree that failure to abide by any
provision of this Agreement, any operating rule or policy or the
Dispute Policy provided by us, may be considered by us to be a material
breach and that we may provide a written notice, describing the breach,
to you. If within thirty (30) calendar days of the date of such notice,
you fail to provide evidence, which is reasonably satisfactory to us,
that you have not breached your obligations under the Agreement, then
we may delete the registration or reservation of your domain name. Any
such breach by you shall not be deemed to be excused simply because we
did not act earlier in response to that, or any other breach by you.
17. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. You agree that your use of
our Services is solely at your own risk. You agree that such Service(s)
is provided on an "as is," "as available" basis. We expressly disclaim
all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but
not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a
particular purpose and non-infringement. We make no warranty that the
Services will meet your requirements, or that the Service(s) will be
uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error free; nor do we make any
warranty as to the results that may be obtained from the use of the
Service(s) or as to the accuracy or reliability of any information
obtained through the Service or that defects in the Service will be
corrected. You understand and agree that any material and/or data
downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of Service is done at
your own discretion and risk and that you will be solely responsible
for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results
from the download of such material and/or data. We make no warranty
regarding any goods or services purchased or obtained through the
Service or any transactions entered into through the Service. No advice
or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from us or
through the Service shall create any warranty not expressly made
herein.
18. INFORMATION. As part of the registration process,
you are required to provide us certain information and to update us
promptly as such information changes such that our records are current,
complete and accurate. You are obliged to provide us the following
information:
- your name and postal address (or, if different, that of the domain name holder);
- the domain name being registered;
- the name, postal address, email address, and voice and fax (if available) telephone numbers of the administrative contact for the domain name;
- the name, postal address, email address, and voice and fax (if available) telephone numbers of the billing contact for the domain name; and
- the name, postal address, email address, and voice and fax (if available) telephone numbers of the technical contact for the domain name.
Any voluntary information we request is collected in order that we can
continue to improve the products and services offered to you through
your Reseller.
19. DISCLOSURE AND USE OF REGISTRATION INFORMATION. You
agree and acknowledge that we will make domain name registration
information you provide available to ICANN, to the registry
administrators, law enforcement agencies and to other third parties as
applicable. You further agree and acknowledge that we may make publicly
available, or directly available to third party vendors, some or all,
of the domain name registration information you provide, for purposes
of inspection (such as through our Whois service) or other purposes as
required or permitted by ICANN and applicable laws.
- You hereby consent to any and all such disclosures and use of, and guidelines, limits and restrictions on disclosure or use of, information provided by you in connection with the registration of a domain name (including any updates to such information), whether during or after the term of your registration of the domain name. You hereby irrevocably waive any and all claims and causes of action you may have arising from such disclosure or use of your domain name registration information by us.
- You may access your domain name registration information in our possession to review, modify or update such information, by accessing our domain manager service, or similar service, made available by us through your Reseller.
- We will not process or maintain data about any identified or identifiable natural person that we obtain from you in a way incompatible with the purposes and other limitations which we describe in this Agreement.
- We will take reasonable precautions to protect the information we obtain from you from our loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction of that information.
20. OBLIGATION TO MAINTAIN WHOIS. Your wilful
provision of inaccurate or unreliable information, your wilful failure
promptly to update information provided to us, or any failure to
respond to inquiries by us addressed to the email address of the
registrant, the administrative, billing or technical contact appearing
in the Whois directory with respect to a domain name concerning the
accuracy of contact details associated with the registration shall
constitute a material breach of this Agreement and be a basis for
cancellation of the domain name registration. Any information collected
by us concerning an identified or identifiable natural person
(“Personal Data”) will be used in connection with the registration of
your domain name(s) and for the purposes of this Agreement and as
required or permitted by ICANN or an applicable registry policy.
21. REVOCATION. We, in our sole discretion, reserve
the right to deny, cancel, suspend, transfer or modify any domain name
registration to correct a mistake, protect the integrity and stability
of the company and any applicable registry, to comply with any
applicable laws, government rules, or requirements, requests of law
enforcement, in compliance with any dispute resolution process, or to
avoid any liability, civil or criminal. You agree that we shall not be
liable to you for loss or damages that may result from our refusal to
register or cancel, suspend, transfer or modify your domain name
registration.
22. INCONSISTENCIES WITH REGISTRY POLICIES. In the
event that this Agreement may be inconsistent with any term, condition,
policy or procedure of an applicable registry, the term, condition,
policy or procedure of the applicable registry shall prevail.
23. NON-WAIVER. Our failure to require performance
by you of any provision hereof shall not affect the full right to
require such performance at any time thereafter; nor shall the waiver
by us of a breach of any provision hereof be taken or held to be a
waiver of the provision itself.
24. NOTICES. Any notice, direction or other
communication given under this Agreement shall be in writing and given
by sending it via email or via regular mail. In the case of email,
valid notice shall only have been deemed to be given when an electronic
confirmation of delivery has been obtained by the sender. Email
notification to Tucows must be sent to lhutz@tucows.com. Any notice to
you will be sent to the email address provided by you in your Whois
record. Any email communication shall be deemed to have been validly
and effectively given on the date of such communication, if such date
is a business day and such delivery was made prior to 4:00 p.m. EST,
otherwise it will be deemed to have been delivered on the next business
day. In the case of regular mail notice, valid notice shall be deemed
to have been validly and effectively given five (5) business days after
the date of mailing Postal notices to Tucows shall be sent to:
Tucows.com Co.
Registrant Affairs Office
96 Mowat Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M6K 3M1
CANADA
Attention: Legal Affairs
and in the case of notification to you shall be sent to the
address specified in the “Administrative Contact” in your Whois record.
25. ENTIRETY. You agree that this Agreement, the
applicable dispute policy and the rules and policies published by
Tucows and any applicable registry or other governing authority, are
the complete and exclusive agreement between you and us regarding our
Services.
26. GOVERNING LAW. THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE
GOVERNED BY AND INTERPRETED AND ENFORCED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF
PROVINCE OF ONTARIO AND THE FEDERAL LAWS OF CANADA APPLICABLE THEREIN
WITHOUT REFERENCE TO RULES GOVERNING CHOICE OF LAWS. ANY ACTION
RELATING TO THIS AGREEMENT MUST BE BROUGHT IN ONTARIO AND YOU
IRREVOCABLY CONSENT TO THE JURISDICTION OF SUCH COURTS.
27. INFANCY. You attest that you are of legal age to enter into this Agreement.
28. FORCE MAJEURE. You acknowledge and agree that
neither we nor the applicable registry shall be responsible for any
failures or delays in performing our respective obligations hereunder
arising from any cause beyond our reasonable control, including but not
limited to, acts of God, acts of civil or military authority, fires,
wars, riots, earthquakes, storms, typhoons and floods.
29. PRIVACY. Information collected about you is
subject to the terms of Tucows’ privacy policy, the terms of which are
hereby incorporated by reference. Tucows’ privacy policy can be found
at: http://www.tucows.com/privacy.html
30. CONTROLLING LANGUAGE. In the event that you are
reading this Agreement in a language other than the English language,
you acknowledge and agree that the English language version hereof
shall prevail in case of inconsistency or contradiction in
interpretation or translation.
31. TLD’S. The following additional provisions apply to any domain names that you register through Tucows with the various registries:
- .com/net Domains: In the case of a “.com” or “.net” registration, the following terms and conditions will apply:
- Submission to UDRP. Registrant agrees to submit to proceedings under ICANN's Uniform Domain Dispute Policy (“UDRP”) (http://www.icann.org/dndr/udrp/policy.htm) and comply with the requirements set forth by the Registry; these policies are subject to modification;
- For the adjudication of disputes concerning or arising from use of the domain name, the Registrant shall submit, without prejudice to other potentially applicable jurisdictions, to the jurisdiction of the courts (1) of the Registrant’s domicile, and (2) where Tucows is located, presently Toronto, Ontario.
- .org Domains: In the case of a “.org” registration, the following terms and conditions will apply:
- Submission to UDRP. Registrant agrees to submit to proceedings under ICANN's Uniform Dom ain Dispute Policy (“UDRP”) (http://www.icann.org/dndr/udrp/policy.htm) and comply with the requirements set forth by the Registry. These policies are subject to modification;
- For the adjudication of disputes concerning or arising from use of the domain name, the Registrant shall submit, without prejudice to other potentially applicable jurisdictions, to the jurisdiction of the courts (1) of the Registrant’s domicile, and (2) where Tucows is located, presently Toronto, Ontario.
- .biz Domains. In the case of a “.biz” registration, the following terms and conditions will apply:
- .biz Restrictions. Registrations in the .biz top-level domain must be used
or intended to be used primarily for bona fide business or commercial
purposes. For the purposes of the .biz registration restrictions, “bona
fide business or commercial use” shall mean the bona fide use or bona
fide intent to use the domain name or any content, software, materials,
graphics or other information thereon, to permit Internet users to
access one or more host computers through the DNS:
- to exchange goods, services, or property of any kind;
- in the ordinary course of business; or
- to facilitate (i) the exchange of goods, services, information or property of any kind; or (ii) the ordinary course of trade or business.
- Selection of a Domain Name. You represent that:
- the data provided in the domain name registration application is true, correct, up to date and complete, and that you will continue to keep all of the information provided correct, up-to-date and complete;
- to the best of the your knowledge and belief, neither this registration of a domain name nor the manner in which it is directly or indirectly to be used infringes upon the legal rights of a third party;
- that the domain name is not being registered for nor shall it at any time whatsoever be used for any unlawful purpose whatsoever;
- the registered domain name will be used primarily for bona fide business or commercial purposes and not (a) exclusively for personal use, or (b) solely for the purposes of (1) selling, trading or leasing the domain name for compensation, or (2) the unsolicited offering to sell, trade or lease the domain name for compensation;
- you have the authority to enter into this Registration Agreement; and
- the registered domain name is reasonably related to your business or intended commercial purpose at the time of registration.
- Provision of Registration Data. As part of the registration process, you are
required to provide us with certain information and to keep the
information true, current, complete, and accurate at all times. The
information includes the following:
- your full name;
- your postal address;
- your email address;
- your voice telephone number;
- your fax number (if applicable);
- the name of an authorized person for contact purposes in the case of a registrant that is an organization, association, or corporation;
- the IP addresses of the primary nameserver and any secondary nameserver for the domain name;
- the corresponding names of the primary and secondary nameservers;
- the full name, postal address, email address, voice telephone number, and, when available, fax number of the administrative, technical, and billing contacts, and the name holder for the domain name; and
- any remark concerning the domain name that should appear in the Whois directory.
- Domain Name Disputes. You acknowledge having read and understood and agree to
be bound by the terms and conditions of the following documents, as
they may be amended from time to time, which are hereby incorporated
and made an integral part of this Agreement:
- The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“Dispute Policy), available at:
http://www.icann.org/dndr/udrp/policy.htm; - The Restrictions Dispute Resolution Criteria and Rules (“RDRP”), available at:
http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/biz/registry-agmt-appm-27apr01.htm;
- The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“Dispute Policy), available at:
- The Dispute Policy sets forth the terms and conditions in connection with a dispute between a Registrant and any party other than the Registry or Registrar over the registration and use of an Internet domain name registered by Registrant.
- The RDRP sets forth the terms under which any allegation that a domain name is not used primarily for business or commercial purposes shall be endorsed on a case-by-case, fact specific basis by an independent ICANN-accredited dispute provider.
- For the adjudication of disputes concerning or arising from use of the domain name, the Registrant shall submit, without prejudice to other potentially applicable jurisdictions, to the jurisdiction of the courts (1) of the Registrant’s domicile, and (2) where Tucows is located, presently Toronto, Ontario.
ACCEPTANCE OF AGREEMENT. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU HAVE INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATED THE DESIRABILITY OF THE SERVICE AND ARE NOT RELYING ON ANY REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT, GUARANTEE OR STATEMENT OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT.
