About Bermuda Online & Conditions of Use (original) (raw)

Photo taken by and cc author Keith A. Forbes

Who, on this Atlantic island, wrote, updated, owns and publishes this advertising-free website

By Editor/Author Keith Archibald Forbes

About the author/editor/administrator, copyright holder, updater, webmaster, until September 2020

Some websites do not show who owns and operates them. Done here, in compliance with the ethics, codes of conduct and methodologies of the UK's Society of Authors and USA's Society of Authors and Writers. Author Keith Forbes is shown with his Forbes family clan's coat of arms.

All the 165+ web files on this Bermuda Online (BOL) website were authored, written and updated solely by Bermudian-British author and BOL Editor (until October 2020 when he resigned, after nearly 30 years) Keith Archibald Forbes (pictured above). He began BOL in 1990. Keith was happily married for 34 years to his beloved wife Lois, an American Bermudian from New England, until her death in Eastbourne, England, on on 3 January 2022 from stage 4 metastatic lung cancer. Keith, a Bermudian author, is a former member of Bermuda's Broadcasting Commission, Consumer Affairs Board, Board of Education, Junior Chamber International, Reserve Constabulary, Bermuda Regiment, Kiwanis and more. Keith has always written this website as an independent contractor, has never been an employees of the Royal Gazette nor enjoyed any of its employment benefits,

BOL has grown hugely. On October 1, 2005 BOL's size was 35.4 MB. But on October 21, 2020, under the same author for nearly 30 years**,** **BOL's size is 375 MB, more than 10 times bigger,**comprising 3,479 items including 165 sub-sites on unique aspects of Bermuda, copyrighted photos and graphics.

About the owner of this Bermuda Online website platform

The Royal Gazette Ltd daily newspaper of Bermuda

Advertising and linkage on Bermuda Online(BOL)

To advertise on BOL, if you are a Bermudian business or civic or corporate entity, or one dealing regularly with Bermuda and would like to create a non-exclusive courtesy link to BOL we'll reciprocate with a similar free courtesy link to your website. Our Links & Mentions page gives further details. Reciprocal non-exclusive linkage ensures that when you link to us as one of your Bermuda information resources and services we return the courtesy by showing your website as one of the Bermuda information resources and services.

If you or your entity are not Bermudian or Bermuda-based or Bermuda-focused, and/or your Bermuda-based website does not link to us, we cannot link to or mention you unless there is a strategic reason to do so, in our opinion. However, you are welcome to buy advertising.

What Bermuda Online (BOL) is and does

• BOL, published since 1990, focuses solely on Bermuda, in the many ways described on our website. Only for comparative purposes are other countries or islands occasionally mentioned. Visitors to or residents in Bermuda are welcome to comment about their visit or experiences in our Guest bookabout Bermuda.
• BOL is a private sector website, the most comprehensive of all portal websites on Bermuda. BOL files provide information about Bermuda not found on other Bermuda websites. The files are written in American English because more than 80% of Bermuda's visitors come from the USA and while Bermuda is a (self-governing) British Overseas Territory its nearest neighbor is the USA, from where 80% of all business and tourism economic activities come.
• All BOL files comply 100% with Bermudian, American, Canadian, European and other international e-commerce and data protection laws, rules, regulations and etiquette. For international copyright protection it is deliberate policy to have**BOL** registered beyond Bermuda, to have up-to-date (from 2019) multinational registered copyright protection in a way presently not legislated for in Bermuda.
• BOL is non-commercial, does not favor one product over another, unlike other sites that may focus on a specific service or product that pay to be advertised.
• BOL files are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (24/7/365) via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) accessible at any time from anywhere in the world. Many other Bermuda websites operate via a web server on a 5-day Bermuda time week but BOL operates 7 days a week including public holidays.
• BOL files not require fancy or specialized software to access. Anyone with any PC or Mac or Google, etc desktop or laptop computer or tablet or smartphone can do so, via any web browser.
• BOL will gladly refer any non-BOL matters to another website, government or private sector, when that website reciprocates the favor by linking to us. We create and continue hyperlinks (Iinks) to other world-wide web entities when they create and continue a link to us and are relevant to Bermuda and Bermudian residents and are legal under Bermuda laws.
• Before sending us any photograph of your Bermuda stay or Bermuda image, please contact us with subject-matter. Our website security system automatically blocks any attachment including any photograph from anyone who has not pre-advised us. If we are unable to respond we may refer it to a third party with appropriate expertise if and when that third party has a reciprocal link to us.

What Bermuda Online(BOL) does not do

• When you do not use our sole email address above (our Editor), your email will not be answered, will be regarded as unsolicited, unwanted and treated as suspect. Sorry, no exceptions. We do not buy - are not funded to purchase - any computer or other goods or services.
• We are not employers. We do not have staff to assist any individuals who seek information beyond what we show on our website. We cannot provide any genealogical or family or military or wartime history or conduct any personal research or assistance. We cannot refer any non-BOL matters to any other website or entity when it does not have a reciprocal electronic link to us. For any military-related genealogical research please note that when the American (in 1995), British (1953) and Canadian (1995) forces left Bermuda they took all their personnel-related records with them to USA, Canada and UK respectively. Relatives searching for details of their military times in Bermuda should contact the military headquarters in those countries. Their Bermuda military-related experiences were never given by their military authorities then in Bermuda or later to Bermuda's civilian authorities.
• This website is not paid for or part of or subsidized by the Bermuda Government or any government quango or Bermuda Tourism Authority or Bermuda Chamber of Commerce or any other third-party accommodation, advisory, business, property, or real estate service.
• We, unlike many other local websites, do not receive any commission or similar from any Bermuda Government or Tourism or Chamber of Commerce or hotel or any other accommodation or individual or commercial or other entity.
• We do not offer guest submissions to any contributors from the USA or UK or elsewhere beyond Bermuda whose offerings are not Bermuda-specific and are not relevant or only partly so under Bermuda laws. (Note: our Bermuda laws are unique to Bermuda, they are not the laws of the USA or UK or Canada**,** etc).
• We cannot give, are not qualified to offer**,** interpretations or any advice on any aspect of Bermuda laws.
• We cannot supply any information, due to strict data privacy laws in Bermuda and elsewhere, about any present or former resident.
• We cannot supply any high-resolution photographs of items shown on any of our websites. We operate exclusively on a WYSIWYG basis.
• We do not retain email addresses, nor do we pass them on to any person or entity.

Commission free links

**No commissions or kickbacks or any kind or payments of any type are earned by this author or this website.**When links on a reciprocal basis are made to other sites, it is on the clear understanding they will not earn secret commissions from their readers from the efforts Bermuda Online puts into this site but they do not. Nor will Bermuda Online earn any commissions from work they put into their sites.

Conditions of use, with International copyright laws applying

**Bermuda Online (BOL) is 100% copyrighted in full under USA, Europe and foreign and Bermuda copyright laws.**All contents of this web site are Copyright � 2019 Bermuda Online in Bermuda, USA, Canada, Europe, China and all other places worldwide. For the avoidance of any doubt the copyright law protecting all Bermuda Online material comes not under Bermuda laws or US or Canadian or British laws but under 2019 European law enacted in Europe by the European Commission, where this website is fully registered for multinational copyright protection reasons.

BOL is for your personal, private, non-commercial, non-circulated, home use only. Any use by you of this site is subject to your acceptance of the terms and conditions set out in this legal notice. If you do not accept these terms and conditions please leave the site now. No unlawful or prohibited use. As a condition of your use of this web site, you warrant to us that you will not use this web site for any purpose that contravenes any copyright protection (see below) or is in any other way unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices. Under no circumstances can any of the information or text or photographs or graphics in whole or in part from any of them be used for or by or be passed on or circulated to any third parties including friends, colleagues, group members, students or employees or corporations, companies or entities or any website or social media or research or book or magazine. We cannot give any permissions under any circumstances for anyone to use or copy on their blog or computer or laptop or tablet or smartphone or cellphone or website or social media or any other world-wide-web related purpose, or otherwise distribute in any way, any of our graphics or photos or text, or those we use with exclusive and sole permission, that appear on any of the many files contained in Bermuda Online. Americans and other nationals who may be concerned by this should note that all legal provisions relating to this website are governed by specific global copyright laws, not American laws. British (United Kingdom) users should note the copyright notices available for inspection at any library.

All rights are reserved, including the right to change the terms, conditions, and notices under which this web site is offered. Copyright was invented to protect the creators of artistic works from their work being exploited by others. Copyright is there to prevent others from copying or reproducing photos, displaying them in public or making derived works from them (e.g. using a photo in a collage, or making a painting from them). Most countries recognize copyright under local law in a broadly similar way. The US Library of Congress and its international equivalents now prohibit, for copyright law protection purposes, anybody - including students of any age - from stealing a site or any information and/or graphics and using it as theirs. Copyrighted material is marked and/or watermarked so that its legal owners can tell immediately if any part has been pirated, by whom and when. Plus, search engines are used to detect violations.

When we go to the time, huge expense and trouble of giving and adding so much good information and of the type many other sites don't have, we have to ensure all our information, graphics, photographs, text, etc. are fully legally protected world-wide and we pay to have this done. Avoidcopyright contravention. Instead, create a hyperlink (**link)to BOL. Linkage does not require you to link to us at BOL.**The author is a professional writer, member of an international society of authors with 25 years of research in copyright and a past president of a national online computer user group. He ensures he gives all the web files he researches, writes and/or photographs locally and overseas the fullest multinational copyright protection.

If this is ignored, a legally actionable violation is committed. We employ means to track abuses, when our images or photographs are used illegally, in defiance of our multinational copyright protections. Abusers will face action including a formal complaint to regulatory authorities in their area, their ISPs and social media.

Authors, composers, photographers, musicians, newspapers, travel agents, etc. all take steps to preserve their copyright on works they write or compose or control on the World Wide Web (WWW) We do the same. The WWW is not a place to commit and should not be allowing copyright violation.

We may amend this legal notice from time to time without notice.

Copyright

All content of this website (such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, digital downloads, data compilations and software) is our property or that of the website owners specified above and is, unless specifically stated otherwise, universally protected by copyright or similar ownership rights. It is published by us and may not be reproduced other than by downloading and viewing on a single computer and/or printing a single hard copy, for private purposes only. It is not to be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, made available on a network or used to create derivative works without our prior written consent which will not be given unless exceptional circumstances warrant this.

E-mail provisos

As shown in our Emailacceptances. You agree to accept these provisos.

Errors & Omissions and disclaimer of any liability

Every effort to be accurate and up-to-date but under no circumstances will we be held legally responsible for any errors or omissions. This is a very specific one of our conditions. We often rely on government and other organizations to provide us with up-to-date contact and other appropriate and relevant information as we are not funded to research them ourselves. When companies and organizations let the author know of any changes in their addresses and contact details, for updating purposes, they will be shown almost immediately.

Disclaimed is any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors, omissions, misleading information, or any potential travel problem caused by information provided or not provided. If the information and services published on this web site include inaccuracies or typographical errors, it will be because the author has not been advised by electronic mail of the correct information.

We (and all of our parent, subsidiary and partner companies) hereby exclude all liability for any loss or damage (including but not limited to direct, indirect, economic or consequential loss or damage) suffered by you as a result of your use of this site or of any materials provided on it or downloaded from it or your inability to use this site or any error in the provision of this site or any computer virus transmitted through this site whether such loss or damage arises from our negligence or otherwise and even if we are expressly informed of the possibility of such loss or damage.

The Royal Gazette and Bermuda Online, via its authors or agents or editors or systems, may make improvements and or changes in this web site at any time. No representations are made about the suitability of the information, software used and services contained on this web site for any purpose. All such information and services are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Bermuda Online and its owner disclaim all warranties and conditions with regard to this information including all implied warranties and conditions of merchandising fitness for a particular purpose and title.

In no event shall Bermuda Online or The Royal Gazette Limited or any of their online partners or associates or subsidiaries be liable for any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of or in any way connected with the use of this web site or with the delay or inability to use this web site, or for any information obtained through this web site, or otherwise arising out of the use of this web site, whether based on contract, tort, strict liability or otherwise.

Graphics

All our graphics are World Wide Web quality - low resolution and 75 dots per inch. They are NOT of fine print quality. Sorry, we don't offer any custom or high resolution images.

Junk or obscene or unsolicited e-mail

We promptly throw away unopened any fraudulent or irrelevant or lewd or offensive or racial or unsolicited and unwanted e-mail with or without any attachment.

Laws applicable

This Bermuda Online portal website deliberately - for advanced copyright protection reasons - is not governed by the laws of Bermuda. Instead, as mentioned above it has been registered under European Commission copyright laws and operates in full compliance with the laws of the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. Thus Full and unrestricted reciprocal international copyright and their applicable legal systems apply.

Links to and mentions of other websites& links policy

Note the policy. This portal web site contains links to web sites operated by parties other than Bermuda Online and its Royal Gazette parent. These links are provided for your reference only, as a service to you. Bermuda Online does not control such web sites and is not responsible for their contents. The inclusion of links to such web sites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such web sites or any association with their operators. A link is an active hyperlink from one site to another site. A link in this context protects the integrity, authorship, photographs, graphics, ownership and legal copyright law protection of a website while giving the site which accesses it or the person who does so full access to it via the link. Links to any web site not reciprocating the courtesy hyper link or paying their way separately to the Royal Gazette will be discontinued at the discretion of this website's administrator.

No warranties

This site is provided "as is" and we give no warranties that you will be able to use this site or that it will continue to be made available in its current or any other form or that any material or information contained on it will be accurate or complete. Any warranties which would otherwise be implied by law including warranties as to satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose or skill and care are hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Trade marks

Some of ours, or our parent's, subsidiary and partner companies', trade marks are used on this site. These trade marks are registered in many jurisdictions across the world. Save as provided in this legal notice any use or reproduction of these trade marks is prohibited.

Authored, researched, compiled and website-managed by Keith A. Forbes.
Multi-national � 2023. All Rights Reserved. Revised 8 January 2023.