Mandatory Terms of Use
Effective Date: November 1, 2011
YOU MUST READ AND AGREE TO THIS MANDATORY TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT BEFORE AND AS A CONDITION PRECEDENT TO USING THIS WEBSITE.
Ross Buehler Falk & Company, LLP (hereinafter “RBF”) provides this website and website-related services (collectively, the “Website”) subject to your compliance with the Mandatory Terms of Use set forth in this agreement (the “Agreement”). This Agreement, and the terms and conditions listed in the Privacy Policy, govern the relationship between RBF and you, the Visitor, solely with respect to your use of the Website, and shall supplement any agreement you have with RBF. In addition, the [Liscio Terms] govern your use of the Liscio. This Website is the property of RBF, and your entry and use is not without conditions. YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE BINDS YOU TO THESE MANDATORY TERMS OF USE AND THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CONTAINED IN THE PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE MANDATORY TERMS OF USE, YOU MUST NOT USE THE WEBSITE.
As used in this Agreement, the words “you” and “your” refer to any person accessing the RBF Website. The words “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to RBF. RBF may, at any time and in our sole discretion, revise or update this Agreement by posting an amended Agreement on the Website. Any changes that are made to this Agreement will be effective immediately upon posting. Please check this page periodically for changes to the Agreement. Your use of the Website following the posting of an updated Agreement constitutes acceptance of the last updated Agreement. If you have any questions about this Agreement, please contact us at rbfco@rbfco.com.
LICENSE TO USE WEBSITE
RBF hereby grants you a limited, non-exclusive license to access and use the Website subject to and in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. The Mandatory Terms of Use impact your legal rights and responsibilities and should be read carefully. Any violation of the terms or conditions of this Agreement is grounds for immediate termination of this limited license. If you do not agree to these Mandatory Terms of Use, discontinue your use of this Website immediately.
IMPORTANT NOTICES/DISCLAIMER
RBF makes available the information and materials on the Website, including but not limited to summaries, descriptions, publications, white papers, agendas, newsletters and any other such materials appearing on the Website (the “Materials”) as is, for general informational purposes only. No client relationship is made by visiting the Website or interacting therewith. A client relationship can only be made per agreement with RBF.
The Materials are not intended to constitute, and DO NOT constitute, financial, tax, investment or business advice. Those accessing the Materials should not act upon them without first seeking legal, financial, tax or other relevant counsel, as these Materials are general in nature, and may not apply to particular factual or legal circumstances. As such, the Materials should not be used as a substitute for consultation with a professional advisor. Materials are not intended to be used, and cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding accuracy-related penalties that may be imposed on taxpayers. Please consult a professional advisor should you have questions regarding legal, financial, tax or other such counsel. Neither RBF, nor its affiliates, employees, agents, officers or directors will be responsible for any financial, legal, tax, business or other decisions you may make.
Circular 230 Disclosure: Pursuant to recently-enacted U.S. Treasury Department Regulations, we are now required to advise you that, unless otherwise expressly indicated, any federal tax advice contained in this Website, including attachments and enclosures, is not intended or written to be used, and may not be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax-related matters addressed herein.
Please send all information pertaining to your business or issues facing it directly to your advisor. Do not send or submit any confidential or client related information to the Website, through any links or other communication tools contained thereon, except through the Liscio area of the Website. You understand that use of the Liscio is subject to additional [Liscio Terms], and if you are authorized to utilize the Liscio, you represent that you have read and agree to such terms. In accordance with the [Liscio Terms], RBF will take reasonable steps to ensure that the Liscio file exchange remain secure, but we cannot guarantee the security of such transmission tools or of the security of information held by trusted third parties.
Any price quotation, service information, employment benefits information or any other such information regarding the provision and fees for any service offered by RBF or the benefits of employment by RBF are provided purely for informational and illustrative purposes. RBF does not guarantee, and makes no warranty, promise, or agreement that any depicted or described service or benefit is actually offered or comports with its depiction or description on the Website. RBF reserves the right to cease offering any such services or benefits to prospective or current employees or clients at any time, in all cases without notice or liability.
This Website may contain typographical errors or inaccuracies, and may not be complete or current. RBF therefore reserves the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions and to change or update information at any time without prior notice.
AVAILABILITY OF SERVICE
While RBF makes reasonable efforts to ensure that the Website is available at all times, RBF does not guarantee, represent or warrant that access to the Website will be uninterrupted or error-free, and RBF does not guarantee that users will be able to access or use all or any of the Website features at all times.
Further, RBF reserves the right, at any time, to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Website or any part thereof, including but not limited to the Liscio, without notice to you. RBF may also impose limits on the use of or access to certain features or portions of the Website, or restrict your access to any part or all of the Website, in all cases without notice or liability. You agree that RBF shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Website, or of any Materials.
RBF is under no obligation to maintain the Website or any information, Content, Submissions, Materials (as defined hereunder), or other matters that you submit, post or make available to the Website, or are otherwise available on the Website. RBF reserves the right to withhold, remove and or discard any such material on the Website or available or placed by you thereon, with or without notice at any time.
RULES OF CONDUCT
You agree to comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations in accessing and/or using the Website and/or any Materials. In addition, your use of the Website is conditioned on your compliance with the following rules of conduct as well as all other terms of the Agreement.
You agree not to use the Website for any unlawful or fraudulent purpose, including impersonating any person or entity, including, but not limited to, any employment applicant, RBF client or an authorized representative of a RBF client, government representative, RBF employee, agent, or representative; or expressing or implying that RBF endorses any statement you make.
You also may not modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of the Website or the Materials. Further, you may not interfere with or disrupt the operation of the Website or the Materials, including restricting or inhibiting any other person from using the Website or the Materials by means of hacking, or defacing any portion of the Website. Further, transmitting or otherwise making available in connection with the Website any virus, worm, Trojan horse, root kit or other harmful or unauthorized code is prohibited.
Moreover, you may not interfere with or violate any other Website visitor’s or user’s right to privacy or other rights, or harvest or collect personally identifiable information about Website visitors or users, or about RBF employees or other individuals identified on the Website, without their express written consent. Disregarding these instructions may subject you to criminal and civil penalties.
You may not access any non-public areas of the Website, including but not limited to employee areas and client areas, unless you are granted explicit permission to access such areas by RBF. You may not share any password or access to any area of the Website granted to you by RBF with any other person.
You must keep your user password and any other information needed to log-in to the Liscio confidential and secure. RBF is not responsible for any unauthorized access to your account or profile by other Website visitors and any ramifications of such access, and may take no action to disable any account until given explicit notice by you. Under confirmed unauthorized use circumstances, RBF may take reasonable efforts with reasonable speed, to disable, lock or otherwise address your situation. In the event that you would like to report a breach, please contact rbfco@rbfco.com with the term “Account Breach Notice” in the subject line.
You are also proscribed from selling, reselling, transferring, licensing or exploiting for any commercial purposes any use of or access (including sharing of passwords and login information) to the Website or the Materials. Finally, you may not frame, mirror, in-line link to, or make other similar use of, all or any part of the Website or the Materials, including RBF’s or any other party’s intellectual property thereon, without our prior express written authorization.
To the extent that you may access or download any software that is made available through RBF from the Website (“Software”), such Software is the copyrighted work of RBF and/or its various third party licensors. Your use of the Software may be governed by the terms of an additional end user license agreement which may accompany or be included with the Software. You may not install or use any Software that is accompanied by or includes such an end user license agreement unless you first agree to the terms of such agreement. Any warranty applicable to the Software may be specified in the terms of the License Agreement and no additional warranties are provided herein. If you have any inquiries concerning these terms, please consult RBF before accessing any programs.
CONTENT SUBMITTED OR MADE AVAILABLE TO RBF
By submitting any documents, comments, questions, suggestions, plans, notes, drawings, ideas, proposals, or materials similar thereto (“Submissions”) to RBF, through feedback, email message, or in any other manner not designated as confidential, you hereby explicitly agree that: (a) your Submissions do not contain confidential or proprietary information; (b) RBF is not under any obligation of confidentiality relating to the Submissions, either express or implied; (c) RBF shall be entitled to use or disclose the Submissions in any way, manner, purpose or otherwise, worldwide; (d) RBF may have under consideration or development similar ideas to the Submissions; and (e) you are not entitled to any compensation or reimbursement of any kind from RBF in exchange for the Submissions.
Further, RBF may access and use the Website and any information stored thereon, including the contents of any Submissions, for any lawful purpose. Further, we may disclose the contents of any Submissions to any third party, including any law enforcement agency, to protect our rights or property, or for any other reason.
RBF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
The Website and its downloadable contents are protected by the copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions. You may print and/or download a copy of any part of the Website for your personal, non-commercial use, but you may not copy any part of the Website for any other purpose without the express written consent of RBF, and you may not modify any part of the Website for any reason. Inclusion of any part of the Website in another work, whether in printed, electronic or other form, or inclusion of any part of the Website in another website by linking, framing, in-line linking, or otherwise, is strictly prohibited without agreeing to RBF’s Terms of Use and obtaining RBF’s prior express written authorization.
The trademarks, service marks, logos and any designs used or displayed on the Website specific to RBF are trademarks and/or service marks owned by RBF. Any use of copyrighted works, trademarks or service marks, including the reproduction, modification, distribution or republication of same without the prior express written permission of RBF is strictly prohibited.
Other copyrighted works, trademarks, service marks, trade names and company logos utilized on the Website are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. The appearance of any such third party trademarks does not in any way imply any connection, license, approval or other such relationship of any kind with such third party.
In the event that you believe any material appearing on the RBF Website infringes rights you own, please contact RBF immediately.
The Website may also contain samples of RBF’s programs for informational purposes. These programs cannot be used for any commercial purpose without RBF’s express written consent. Moreover, certain technology and programs may be subject to intellectual property rights, and any unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
RBf can be reached by directing communications to: rbfco@rbfco.com.
ENFORCEMENT OF THE AGREEMENT
RBF may investigate any reported, alleged or suspected violation of this Agreement, and take any action that RBF, in its sole discretion, deems appropriate. Such action may include issuing warnings, suspension of a user’s access to the Website or complete termination of such access, at any time.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
IN NO EVENT SHALL RBF, ITS SUPPLIERS OR OTHER THIRD PARTIES MENTIONED ON THE WEBSITE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM YOUR USE OR ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL’S USE OF OR ACCESS TO THE WEBSITE OR THE LISCIO. RBF DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ACCESS TO THE WEBSITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE. ADDITIONALLY, RBF DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY INFORMATION TRANSMITTED BY RBF TO ANY INDIVIDUAL VIA THE WEBSITE IS ACCURATE, SECURE OR EFFECTIVE. FURTHER, NEITHER RBF, NOR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION OR HOSTING OF THE WEBSITE SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE AND/OR ACCESS TO THE WEBSITE AND ANY SERVICES CONTAINED HEREON. YOUR SOLE REMEDY FOR DISSATISFACTION WITH THE WEBSITE OR THE MATERIALS IS TO STOP USING THE WEBSITE OR THE MATERIALS.
Without limiting the foregoing, everything on the Website is provided to you “AS IS” and RBF SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT WITH RESPECT TO THE WEBSITE, ITS CONTENTS, AND ANY SERVICE PROVIDED VIA THE WEBSITE.
INDEMNITY
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless RBF, its affiliates and its suppliers, and each of their respective partners, employees, representatives and agents, from and against all claims, losses, costs, damages, liabilities and expenses (including, but not limited to, attorney fees) arising out of:
• Your activities in connection with the Website;
• Any violation of this Agreement by you;
• Any improper or unauthorized use of the Materials by you;
• Any allegation that anything you transmitted or attempted to transmit, including but not limited to any Material or Submission you submit, post, or otherwise make available, through or in connection with the Website, including but not limited to the Liscio, infringes or otherwise violates the intellectual property, privacy or other rights of any third party; and
• Any conduct, activity or action which is unlawful or illegal under any state, federal or common law, or violative of the rights of any individual or entity, engaged in, caused by, or facilitated in any way through the use of the Website, software appearing thereon, or the Materials or information which appears on the Website.
SEVERABILITY
If any provision of this Agreement is found for any reason to be unlawful, void or unenforceable, then that provision will be deemed severable from this Agreement and will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
INCORPORATION OF PRIVACY POLICY
We use your information only as described in the [Privacy Policy], which is expressly incorporated as terms of this Agreement. If you object to anything in the [Privacy Policy], please do not use our services or contact us directly to determine whether a special exemption or modification may be warranted.
CHOICE OF LAW AND JURISDICTION
Unless otherwise specified, the Website and its contents are provided solely for providing information. The Website is controlled and operated by RBF from Pennsylvania. As such, any dispute arising under or related to the Agreement or your use of the Website shall be resolved exclusively by Pennsylvania state or federal courts, applying Pennsylvania law, and, by your use, you waive any jurisdictional, venue or inconvenient forum objections to such courts for purposes of resolving these disputes.
Although the Website may be available worldwide, you understand and agree that the law of your home jurisdiction may provide protections not provided in the United States, and that by visiting the Website, you unequivocally and unambiguously agree to submit and adjudicate any disputes which arise out of such use pursuant to the terms and conditions stated in this Choice of Law and Jurisdiction clause.
LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES
The Website may contain links to other sites (“Third Party Websites”). These links are provided solely for the convenience of our users. RBF does not endorse, sanction or verify the accuracy of the information contained on Third Party Websites. Once you access a Third Party Website through a link on the Website, you may no longer be protected by the Privacy Policy or Terms of Use of the Website. Concerns regarding a Third Party Website should be directed to the Third Party Website itself. RBF bears no responsibility for any action associated with any Third Party Website.
POLICIES FOR CHILDREN
The Website is not directed to individuals under the age of 13, nor does it contain information which would be potentially harmful to minors in any way. However, we advise all visitors to the Website under the age of 13 not to disclose or provide any Personally Identifiable Information. In the event that RBF discovers that a child under the age of 13 has provided Personally Identifiable Information to us, we will delete the child’s Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.
Please see the Federal Trade Commission’s website for this act:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy/ for more information.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Section 230 (d), as amended, we hereby notify you that parental control protections are commercially available to assist you in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors. More information on the availability of such software can be found through publicly available sources. You may wish to contact your Internet Service Provider for more information.
