These Terms of Service (the “Agreement”) are an agreement between you (“User” or “you” or “your”) and Octaniue (HK) Limited.
Use of the Services is also governed by the following policies, which are incorporated into this Agreement by reference. By using the Services, you also agree to the terms of the following policies: Acceptable Use Policy
I. Domain Registrations
A. Domain Registrations
8TECH HK utilizes an industry standard third party Registrar for domain name registration services. Once an order is placed for a new domain name through 8TECH HK, we register the domain for the customer through the Registrar. Domains registered in this manner are not eligible for a refund and the cost for such domains will be subtracted from any service refund from 8TECH HK. If you cancel your 8TECH HK service, you will retain ownership of your domain name for as long as you continue to renew the domain. You may renew the domain through 8TECH HK or through the Registrar. Domain names are only registered for a finite period of time.
Upon becoming a domain customer of 8TECH HK, you will receive reminders via email to the address stored in your client area prior to the expiration of your registration inviting you to renew your domain name and specifying the amount of time you have to renew your domain name. In the event that you fail to renew your domain name in a timely fashion within that amount of time, your registration will expire and we may, at our sole discretion, elect to assume the registration and hold it for our own account, delete it, or 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 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 default page may also feature advertisements posted by us for our own account
If we, in our sole discretion, have elected to renew the registration, you will be entitled to a grace period of thirty (30) days during which you may re-register the domain name from us. Additional costs for the redemption and re-registration will apply. During this grace period, we may elect to post a parked page and/or revise the “Whois” registration records to include our information. The domain name may also be listed for auction and promoted as being available for auction. If the name is sold during any such auction, it will be acquired by a third party and will not remain available for re-registration by you after our stated grace period. If you do not re-register the domain name during the grace period, the auction sale will be concluded and ownership of the domain will be transferred to a third party. 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. Should an expired domain enter the redemption period, the cost of restoring the domain shall be no more than HK$ 2,800.
B. Renewal Pricing Schedule for Shared Hosting Accounts
At 8TECH HK, we strive to keep our prices low and give our customers the best deals possible. That is why we fully disclose our pricing structure.
Initial Pricing: If we show our prices discounted, you will get the discounted price shown for your entire initial billing period (unless otherwise specified).
Renewal Pricing: We will automatically renew your plan at the end of your billing period (unless you’ve chosen otherwise) at the regular (non-discounted) rate for the same term duration as you initially chose at signup.
C. Trial Hosting on 8TECH HK
8TECH HK is offering to new customers, for a limited time, the opportunity to experience 8TECH HK services on a trial basis –free of charge– for a period of 10 days. After this 10 day period, the free trial ends and the customer has the option to remain with 8TECH HK and select a hosting plan that meets his needs or terminate the hosting services completely.
If the customer chooses to remain with 8TECH HK, he can accomplish this in two ways:
If the customer decides to cancel the free trial period and not become a paying customer of 8TECH HK, he can cancel the trial period at any time. He can also reinstate at any time prior to the free trial expiration date.
Cancellation will automatically occur if the customer violates the Terms of Service at any time during the free trial period.
Cancellation will also automatically occur if the customer billing information is no longer valid at the end of the free trial period.
II. 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
8TECH HK guarantees that your website will be up and running at least 99.9% of the time during any 12-month period. This guarantee includes network uptime, server uptime, web server and service uptime. It does not cover any areas where 8TECH HK has no direct influence, such as backbone provider failures, fibre-optic main line cuts, DNS or Registrar issues with subscriber’s domain name, routing issues between subscriber location and 8TECH HK data center. The uptime guarantee is also not applicable if the service interruption was caused by external issues such as Acts of God, Wars or any other natural or unnatural events that 8TECH HK cannot directly influence.
To request a service credit due to an uptime concern, please submit a request for this guarantee via 8TECH HK’s “Contact Us” form located at this URL: http://www.8tech.com.hk/contact-us/
If requesting a “service credit” we ask that subscriber briefly explains the reasons for doing so.
III. Use of Website
A. Prohibition of Adult Content
Subscribers of 8TECH HK’s services are prohibited from storing or posting adult content, or links to adult content, through the subscribed service. All material of pornographic nature is considered adult content.
B. Prohibition of Offensive Behavior
Racist, intolerant, “hate”, defamatory, “stalking”, invitations to fight, threatening or any communication of any nature that we decide, in our sole discretion, as being improper, will result in service termination without prior notice.
C. Age Requirements on Purchases
All subscribers must be of adult age in the subscribers’ jurisdiction to make purchases on this site. Parents or guardians of minors may make purchases on behalf of their minor children/wards but are solely responsible for the direct supervision of their children/wards while their minors visit the site or use any of the tools or services that the site provides.
D. Intellectual Property Provisions
Subscribers of 8TECH HK’s services are prohibited from storing or posting content or links to content that infringe, or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of third parties (e.g. trademark, patent or copyright infringements).
All content provided within or via this site is protected by international copyright laws, patent laws, trademark regulations and laws, and various intellectual property laws and international treaties and agreements. No intellectual property of any nature contained within or via this Site may be copied, published, reverse engineered, decompiled, exchanged, traded, or broadcast in any way without the written permission of the content owner.
IV. “Fair-Use” Resource Assignment
8TECH HK offers commercially reasonable high-limit or unlimited amounts of disk space and/or other resources, such as bandwidth transfer, number of email accounts or FTP accounts. File quota limits are enforced to ensure system operating integrity and reliability and are limited to 100,000 files on Linux shared web hosting plans. The intention of 8TECH HK is to provide ample resources for customer convenience, so that customers needn’t to worry about exceeding limits.
It is acknowledged by users of 8TECH HK services that these resource allotments are optimized and dedicated towards serving web documents and self-need email / FTP services and is not to be used as offsite storage area for electronic files, or as a provisioning service for third party email or FTP hosts. All downloadable files or files stored on the server must be available for download via a HTML document stored on the Internet in a publicly or privately accessible area, and must be directly related to the general nature of the website index. Illegal content such as pirated software, music or other media are strictly prohibited and are not allowed on 8TECH HK servers.
It is also acknowledged by users of 8TECH HK services that these resources are limited by physical restraints of technology as well as by reasonable limits of a shared resource environment. Users must realize that server technology limits the amount of available resources for use, including but not limited to disk drive space, CPU processing power, memory and access speed. 8TECH HK takes measures to utilize the latest and most economically feasible mass server market technology available to provide services. It is furthermore acknowledged by users of 8TECH HK services that all provided services are of a shared-server nature, and other users are sharing the provided space. Customer accounts are placed on a server with up to hundreds of other users. 8TECH HK, along with many other hosting providers use this business model in order to offer web hosting services en masse at inexpensive and affordable rates.
It is acknowledged that any single account is entitled to utilize the server resources, within reason, up to what is allotted or by what is physically available. If resources become scarce, 8TECH HK reserves the right to limit users of the affected machine to a lower limit to preserve the effectiveness of the service for all users. If a particular user is in extreme excess of what the average users of the machine have in use (actually used) of their resource allotments, that customer may be asked to remove content, cut resource usage, or relocate to a dedicated service provider. This policy only applies to web sites that are considered to be abusive in service, disk space or resource consumption and where it is evident that the “fair-use” of resources among customers has been breached, particularly in regards to disk space, bandwidth or CPU processing power utilization. Additionally, web sites that are found to contain either/or no html documents, a large number of unlinked files are subject to warning, suspension or cancellation at the sole discretion of 8TECH HK.
If a “Fair-Use” breach occurs, which’s determination is solely up to 8TECH HK, subscriber may have to remove files from or reduce access to subscriber’s account to an extent as determined by 8TECH HK, in order to restore full serviceability to other subscribers affected by the breach. In any case, the subscriber will be notified of any actions that 8TECH HK may have to take.
V. SPAM and Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE)
8TECH HK takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or SPAM through our network and services. Customers of 8TECH HK may not use, or permit others to use, our network to partake in UCE distribution. Customers of 8TECH HK may not host or permit hosting of sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks.
Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, 8TECH HK will initiate an immediate investigation. During the investigation, 8TECH HK may restrict customer access to the network to prevent further violations. Subscriber will thereafter be advised of the situation. If a subscriber is found to be in violation of this TOS, 8TECH HK may, at its sole discretion, unilaterally restrict, suspend or terminate the violating customer’s account. Further, 8TECH HK reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. 8TECH HK will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offense.
VI. Prohibited Scripts and Applications
8TECH HK strictly prohibits the use of certain scripts such as IRC, chat scripts, Proxy, SSH, Telnet, or any other script which may overwhelm server resources due to the inherent nature of the script itself or by defect in the coding of the script. If a user script is found to be in violation of this clause, or is found to be overwhelming system resources, the user may be requested to remove the script, or in cases of system resource abuse, it may be removed without prior warning and/or the user account may be suspended for further review.
VII. Payment
Establishment of this service is dependent upon receipt of payment of stated charges by 8TECH HK. Subsequent payments are due on the anniversary date of the month for that month’s service or whichever is the selected billing cycle.
VIII. Failure to Pay
8TECH HK may temporarily deny or terminate service upon the failure of the subscriber to pay the charges when due. Such termination or denial will not relieve the subscriber of responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges and any collection fees.
XIX. Account Cancellation
A subscriber may cancel his account at any time online via his account control panel. If requesting a cancellation, we ask that subscriber briefly explains the reasons for doing so, as well as any suggestions on how 8TECH HK could improve service. The cancellation will take effect immediately and the subscriber’s account will remain active until the end of the subscription. Account resumption is possible, in case you should redecide.
X. Subscriber Acknowledgement
Subscriber acknowledges that the service provided is of such a nature that the service can be interrupted for many reasons other than the negligence of 8TECH HK and that damages resulting from any interruption of service are impossible to ascertain. Therefore, subscriber agrees that 8TECH HK shall not be liable for any damages arising from such causes beyond the direct and exclusive control of 8TECH HK. Subscriber further acknowledges that the 8TECH HK’s liability for its own negligence may not in any event exceed an amount equivalent to charges payable by subscriber for services during the period damages occurred. In no event shall 8TECH HK be liable for any special or consequential damages, loss or injury.
XI. Change of Nameservers
In cases of new hosting accounts or additions / modifications to hosted domain names or any other cases which involve the change of nameservers of a domain from other DNS servers to 8TECH HK’s DNS servers, there may occasionally be a delay of several days, weeks or longer depending on the accessibility of control options at the respective registrar of the domain name registration. It is possible that if the registrar (or the entity having control over the domain registration) is not cooperative, the domain nameservers can not be changed at all. Due to the unpredictable nature of the nameserver change process, no guarantees are made regarding the amount of time a specific change may take. On customer request, nameserver change of domain names is done by 8TECH HK on behalf of the account holder. In such cases, a successful change of nameservers cannot be guaranteed in any way or fashion as it solely depends on the accessibility or cooperation by the domain name registration’s registrar.
XII. Support
Some of 8TECH HK services may require a certain level of knowledge in the use of Internet languages, protocols, and software, while other services may be handled for you. This level of knowledge varies depending on the anticipated use and desired content of subscriber’s website or the services to which you subscribe.
XIII. Network
A. IP Address Ownership
If 8TECH HK assigns a subscriber an IP address for use with the subscription, the right to use that IP address shall belong only to 8TECH HK and the subscriber shall have no right to use that IP address except as permitted by 8TECH HK. 8TECH HK shall maintain and control ownership of all IP numbers and addresses that may be assigned to subscribers by 8TECH HK. 8TECH HK reserves the right to change or remove all such IP numbers and addresses in its sole and absolute discretion, at any time.
B. Data Transfer and Disk Usage
Subscriber agrees that bandwidth and disk usage shall not exceed the maximum number of megabytes per month for the service plan subscribed by the customer (“Agreed Usage”). 8TECH HK will monitor subscriber’s bandwidth and disk usage. 8TECH HK shall have the right to take corrective action if subscriber’s bandwidth or disk usage exceeds the Agreed Usage. Such corrective action may include the assessment of additional charges, disconnection or discontinuance of any and all services, or termination of this Agreement, which actions may be taken is in 8TECH HK’s sole and absolute discretion, at any time deemed necessary by 8TECH HK. If 8TECH HK takes any corrective action under this section, subscriber shall be entitled to a pro-rated refund of any fees paid in advance prior to such action.
C. System and Network Security
Subscribers or any network users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of 8TECH HK’s network or any and all components there in. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. 8TECH HK will investigate occurrences which may involve such violations and may involve and cooperate with law enforcement authorities in prosecuting subscribers who are involved in such violations. These violations include, but are not limited to:
D. Use of Dedicated IP addresses
Subscriber agrees to only use a dedicated IP address for hosting domain names that are registered. Additionally, the domain must either point to 8TECH HK’s nameservers, or the A record must point to the dedicated IP address assigned to that domain in the control panel. If any of these qualifications are not met, 8TECH HK reserves the right to switch the assigned dedicated IP address to a shared IP.
E. Network Access – SPAM or Denial of Service Complaints
8TECH HK reserves the right to drop the section of IP space involved in SPAM or Denial-of-Service complaints if it is clear that the offending activity is causing great harm to parties on the Internet. In particular, if open relays are on your network or a customer’s network or if denial of service attacks are originating from your network. In certain rare cases, we may have to do this before attempting to contact the subscriber. 8TECH HK will contact the subscriber as soon as it is feasible.
XIV. Suspension of Service or Cancellation
8TECH HK reserves the right to suspend network access to any subscriber if in the judgment of 8TECH HK, the subscriber’s account is the source or target of a violation of any of the terms of the TOS, or for any other reason which 8TECH HK deems necessary. If inappropriate or illegal activity is detected or brought to our attention by a third party, all accounts of the subscriber in question will be deactivated until our investigation is complete. Multiple violations of the TOS will result in permanent suspension of the account without refund of any fee. With complaints of infringing or illegal content, a single complaint may be deemed sufficient for permanent suspension of the alleged infringing product. If multiple complaints of infringing or illegal content are received involving two or more products, all products under that customer’s ownership and/or control are subject to permanent suspension. Prior notification to the subscriber is not assured. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. The subscriber may not be credited for the time the subscriber’s machines were suspended if the subscriber is found to be at fault. The subscriber is also responsible for maintaining a backup of his current data at all times and no backups will be provided.
XV. Miscellaneous Provisions
Subscriber must provide 8TECH HK real and current contact information at all times. E-mail address, telephone and fax contacts are used, and in that order of preference.
Furthermore, 8TECH HK reserves the right to, but is not obligated to, review the content posted via the service and to refuse or remove any such materials in its sole discretion, without notice at any time.
XVI. Disclosure to Law Enforcement
The TOS specifically prohibits the use of our service for illegal activities. Therefore, subscriber agrees that 8TECH HK may disclose any and all subscriber information including assigned IP numbers, account history, account use, etc. to any court or law enforcement agency that requests such information, upon receipt of a subpoena, warrant or other legally binding order, without consent or notification to the subscriber.
XVII. Indemnification
Each party (the “Indemnifying Party”) hereby indemnifies the other party (the “Indemnified Party”), its officers, directors, employees and agents, and agrees to defend and hold them harmless from and against any and all liability, damage, loss or expense (including reasonable attorneys fees) arising from any claim, demand, action or proceeding based upon the alleged breach or untruthfulness of any of the Indemnifying Party’s representations or warranties, or incurred in the settlement or avoidance of any such claim, provided, however, that the Indemnified Party shall give prompt notice to the Indemnifying Party of the assertion of any such claims and provided further that Indemnifying Party shall have the right to select counsel and control the defense thereof, subject to right of the Indemnified Party to participate therein.
XVIII. Severability
If any provision of this TOS shall be held to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason, the remaining provisions shall continue to be valid and enforceable. If a court finds that any provision of this TOS is invalid or unenforceable, but that by limiting such provision it would become valid and enforceable, then such provision shall be deemed to be written, construed, and enforced as so limited.
XIX. Applicable Law
This TOS is subject to the governing laws of Hong Kong, China SAR.
XX. Data Integrity
The subscriber is responsible for keeping a complete and current copy of their website files as a backup on a remote system (not solely on 8TECH HK servers). 8TECH HK is NOT RESPONSIBLE for any lost files, information or data.
8TECH HK makes regular internal backups of internal system configurations and databases. These backups are NOT intended for keeping backups of subscriber websites. Although 8TECH HK backups may include subscriber sites and information for disaster recovery purposes, these backups are not to be relied on by the subscriber. 8TECH HK does not guarantee to possess the most current copy of a subscriber’s website in its own backups.
XXI. Non-Existing User Pages
8TECH HK reserves the right to supply content-enriched pages, including but not limited to search engines, advertisements, directory links, etc., for non-existent user pages that are served by 8TECH HK to requesting sources. These pages include error pages (i.e. 404 Not Found), new account place-holder pages, unused domains and suspended user sites.
All users of 8TECH HK services have the option of creating their own error pages and content pages. Unless created by the user, such pages will default to the 8TECH HK provided content.
XXII. Web Design Services
A. Ordering and Planning Process
Immediately after the completion of the ordering process 100% payment is required before the commencement of the project. The customer is responsible for providing the text, logos and requirements for the basic look and feel of the website. The customer’s quick responsiveness is mandatory at all stages of the project, but particularly during the planning process. Failure to provide all required information within the specified timeframes will result in a delay or cancellation of the project. If and how much of a refund will be issued depends on the amount of work already completed and is at the sole discretion of 8TECH HK as defined further below.
B. Revision Process
Each package comes with a certain number of total revisions. As soon as 8TECH HK provides a design and project update the customer must respond within three business days with all necessary feedback and corrections. If the customer does not respond within the specified timeframe it will be assumed that the suggested design and changes were accepted and approved so the work may progress further towards finalization.
C. Approval Process
During the project development process 8TECH HK provides regular design and project updates. While 8TECH HK performs its own testing of the entire website and functionality, the final responsibility lies with the customer to ensure that the modules and the complete project has been tested for any deficiencies or errors and to confirm that the site is operating as originally intended. It is expected that the customer responds with any feedback and corrections within the timelines specified with every update, to ensure that the project can be completed on time. If the customer does not respond within seven business days (unless pre-agreed) upon delivery of the website’s final version, it will be assumed that the work is accepted and the completion of the project approved. Any further changes must be requested in the form of maintenance for the existing website.
D. Refund Policy
For all projects a consolidated brief must be submitted that contains all requested information before starting the project. If the customer fails to submit the required information within 30 days of making the payment 8TECH HK may decide to consider the project inactive and not proceed with its implementation.
If an order is cancelled within 14 days of making the payment and before any work has been done, we will refund 75% of the payment. If the work has already begun the maximum refund will be 50% of the payment. There will be no refund if more than 50% of the work has been completed. Under special circumstances 8TECH HK reserves the right to negotiate and refund an appropriate portion of the amount paid by the customer.
8TECH HK is not liable for any damages that arise from misinformation or misrepresentation under any circumstances.
E. Ownership and Copyright
Upon final payment and approval of the completed website design project, our client becomes the owner of the website. He is free to take his site to another developer or host with another company. Please note that all the content on the customer’s website is the sole responsibility of its respective owner. 8TECH HK is not responsible or liable for any copyright or trademark claims regarding third party logos, trademarks or names used on the website. They are the property and responsibility of the respective owners. The customer agrees that 8TECH HK may use the created website in its portfolio to showcase completed work to prospective customers and for its own marketing purposes such as, but not limited to, newsletters.
XXIII. 8TECH HK – 1-2-3-Done Transfer Services
A. Ordering Process
Any 8TECH HK customer who wishes to utilize the 1-2-3-Done Transfer must fill-out the appropriate order forms for the service, providing all information requested.
Payment is required before commencement of the moving process. Charges for all orders will be done by 8TECH HK.
8TECH HK reserves the right to refuse any request for transfer service or to cancel the request if the project is deemed more complex than originally agreed to.
After completion of the ordering process, an 8TECH HK 1-2-3-Done Transfer Representative will contact the customer within one business day to gather all the necessary information to start the moving process.
Orders will be considered inactive and will be deleted if the customer fails to give all the requested information within 30 days of order placement.
B. Required Information
The customer is responsible in providing all information necessary to complete the move (i.e. passwords, script lists, database information, etc.). Path-specific scripts or functions must be described to 8TECH HK to ensure a proper update and transfer. Failure to provide all required information within the specified timeframes may result in a delay or cancellation of the project.
8TECH HK is not responsible for site functions or segments not listed or described by the customer. However, 8TECH HK may see the oversight and make the correction automatically, but this is not guaranteed.
C. The Transfer Process
Segment by segment, we will transfer and modify site scripts, content, databases, and accounts to 8TECH HK’s services. During the website transfer process, 8TECH HK will provide regular updates and perform its own testing of the entire functionality of the website.
The end result of this service is to have the customer’s web site transferred to 8TECH HK services and working properly.
Final responsibility is with the customer to ensure and confirm that the website is working properly, tested for any deficiencies or errors, and is working as originally intended.
If the customer does not respond with any feedback and corrections within five business days (unless pre-agreed) upon the final stage of the moving process, it will be assumed that the work is accepted and the completion of the website moving process is approved. Any further changes or modifications will be solely the responsibility of the customer.
D. Non-disclosure of Confidential Information
8TECH HK agrees not to use any Confidential Information disclosed to it by the customer for its own use or for any purpose other than to carry out discussions concerning, and the undertaking of, the moving process.
Confidential Information includes, but not limited to, login information, passwords, files, databases (including, but not limited to, products, services, and customers), web designs, configuration information, or financial information of the customer.
E. Refund Policy
Refunds may only be given provided that the customer’s hosting account is in a financially good standing. No refund requests shall be granted otherwise.
If an order is cancelled within 5 days after making the payment and before any work has been done, we will refund 75% of the payment.
If the work has already begun, the maximum refund will be 50% of the payment. There will be no refund if more than 50% of the work has been completed. If and how much of a refund will be issued depends on the amount of work already completed and is at the sole discretion of 8TECH HK.
F. Limited Liability
8TECH HK is not liable for any damages or data loss that arise from the use of this service. 8TECH HK is not liable for any damages that occur from misinformation or misrepresentation by the customer which may result in a loss or corruption of data. Under no circumstances shall the customer hold 8TECH HK responsible for any loss of data or inability to properly configure complex scripts or programs. All customers should have dedicated recent data backups in the event data loss or corruption occurs. The maximum liability of 8TECH HK is limited to the amount paid for by the customer for the 1-2-3-Done Transfer and shall not exceed that amount.
Version: TOS_v3.2_20110901
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