Agreement to Terms
These Terms of Service constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Hikari Albums ("Company," "we," "us," or "our") concerning your access to and use of our cloud-based photo album editing and printing platform, including all associated services, features, content, and applications.
By accessing or using our services, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of these Terms, you may not access or use our services. We reserve the right to update these Terms at any time, and your continued use after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms.
Account Registration and Eligibility
To use our services, you must register for an account and provide accurate, complete, and current information. You must be at least 18 years old or have parental consent to create an account. Professional photographer accounts may require additional verification of business credentials.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account. You must immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your account or any other security breach. We will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your account information.
You may not transfer or share your account with others, create multiple accounts, or use automated means to create accounts. Accounts found in violation may be suspended or terminated without notice.
Service Description and Availability
Hikari Albums provides cloud-based tools for photo and video editing, album layout design, collaborative workspaces, client proofing galleries, and integration with printing partners. We offer multiple subscription tiers with varying storage limits, features, and capabilities.
We strive to maintain high service availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access. Services may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, updates, technical issues, or circumstances beyond our control. We will provide reasonable notice of planned maintenance when possible.
We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of our services at any time, with or without notice. We may also impose limits on certain features or restrict access to parts of the service without liability.
Subscription Plans and Billing
Our services are offered through various subscription plans, including free and paid tiers. Subscription fees are billed in advance on a monthly or annual basis, as selected during sign-up. Payment is due immediately upon subscription or renewal.
All fees are non-refundable except as expressly stated in these Terms or required by law. If you cancel your subscription, you will continue to have access until the end of your current billing period, after which your account will revert to a free plan (subject to free plan limitations) or be suspended.
We may change subscription pricing with 30 days' advance notice. Price changes will not affect your current billing cycle but will apply upon renewal. You may cancel your subscription before renewal to avoid the new pricing.
If payment fails, we will attempt to collect payment using updated payment information if available. Continued payment failure may result in service suspension or account termination. You remain responsible for all charges incurred before suspension or termination.
Content Ownership and Licensing
You retain all ownership rights to the photos, videos, and other content you upload to our platform. We do not claim ownership of your content. However, by uploading content, you grant us a limited license to use, store, process, and display your content solely to provide and improve our services.
This license includes the right to make copies for backup and disaster recovery purposes, process your content through our AI and editing tools, display your content back to you and users you've authorized, and perform technical operations necessary to deliver our services.
When you share content with other users through collaborative albums or client galleries, you grant those users the permissions you've assigned. You are responsible for ensuring you have the right to share the content and that sharing it doesn't violate any third-party rights or agreements.
For content you make publicly available, you grant us and other users the right to view and interact with that content as enabled by the features you've activated. You can control the visibility and permissions of your content through your account settings.
Acceptable Use and Restrictions
You agree to use our services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You may not:
Upload content that is illegal, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise objectionable; infringe on intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or other rights of any party; upload viruses, malware, or other malicious code; attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems or other users' accounts; use our services to send spam or unsolicited communications; interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of our services; scrape, crawl, or use automated means to access our services beyond what we explicitly allow; reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code from our software; resell, sublicense, or redistribute our services without authorization; use our services in any way that could damage our reputation or business.
We reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who violates these restrictions, including removing content, suspending or terminating accounts, and reporting violations to law enforcement authorities.
Print Orders and Fulfillment
When you place a print order through our platform, we partner with local Japanese printing facilities to produce and deliver your albums. Print orders are subject to separate order terms presented at checkout, which become part of these Terms of Service.
You are responsible for reviewing and approving all album designs before placing a print order. Once an order enters production, changes may not be possible, and cancellation may incur fees. We are not responsible for errors in the final product if they were present in your approved design.
Print orders are non-refundable once production begins, except in cases of manufacturing defects or delivery errors on our part. Refund requests must be submitted within 30 days of delivery with photographic evidence of any defects.
Delivery times are estimates and may vary based on order complexity, print partner availability, and shipping conditions. We are not liable for delays caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
Intellectual Property Rights
The Hikari Albums platform, including all software, designs, text, graphics, logos, icons, images, audio clips, and other materials, is owned by or licensed to us and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.
Our trademarks, service marks, and logos may not be used without our prior written permission. The absence of a product or service name or logo in this list does not constitute a waiver of our trademark or other intellectual property rights.
Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use our services for your personal or internal business purposes. This license does not include any resale or commercial use of our services or derivative works based on our services.
Privacy and Data Protection
Your privacy is important to us. Our collection, use, and protection of your personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using our services, you consent to our data practices as described in the Privacy Policy.
We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data, but no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. You acknowledge that you provide information at your own risk and that we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Third-Party Services and Links
Our platform may integrate with or contain links to third-party services, websites, or resources. These third parties operate independently, and we do not control or endorse their content, policies, or practices. Your interactions with third parties are solely between you and them.
We are not responsible for any loss or damage arising from your use of third-party services. You should review the terms and privacy policies of any third party before providing information or conducting transactions.
Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability
Our services are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. We disclaim all warranties, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
We do not warrant that our services will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, that defects will be corrected, or that our servers are free of viruses or other harmful components. You assume all responsibility and risk for your use of our services.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from your use of or inability to use our services.
Our total liability to you for all claims arising from or related to these Terms or our services shall not exceed the amount you paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim, or one hundred dollars ($100), whichever is greater.
Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Hikari Albums, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents, and partners from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from:
Your violation of these Terms; your violation of any third-party rights, including intellectual property or privacy rights; your use of our services; content you upload or share through our services; your violation of any applicable laws or regulations.
We reserve the right to assume exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification, and you agree to cooperate with our defense of such claims.
Dispute Resolution and Governing Law
These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Japan, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising from or relating to these Terms or our services shall be resolved through binding arbitration in Osaka, Japan, except where prohibited by law.
Before initiating arbitration, you agree to attempt to resolve disputes informally by contacting us. If we cannot resolve a dispute within 60 days, either party may proceed to arbitration. You waive any right to participate in class actions or class arbitrations.
Notwithstanding the arbitration requirement, either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in court to protect intellectual property rights or confidential information.
Account Termination
You may terminate your account at any time by following the account deletion process in your settings. Upon termination, your access to paid features will cease immediately, though you may continue to access your content for 30 days to facilitate export or backup.
We may suspend or terminate your account immediately, without notice, if you violate these Terms, fail to pay fees when due, or engage in conduct that we determine is harmful to our services, other users, or our business interests.
Upon termination, all licenses granted to you will immediately cease. Provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, and limitations of liability.
Modifications to Services and Terms
We reserve the right to modify or discontinue our services or any part thereof at any time. We may also update these Terms periodically. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email or through a prominent notice on our platform at least 30 days before the changes take effect.
Your continued use of our services after the effective date of changes constitutes your acceptance of the modified Terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using our services and may terminate your account.
General Provisions
Entire Agreement: These Terms, along with our Privacy Policy and any other policies referenced herein, constitute the entire agreement between you and Hikari Albums regarding our services and supersede all prior agreements.
Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
Waiver: Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision.
Assignment: You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights and obligations without restriction.
Force Majeure: We shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance due to causes beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, labor disputes, or government actions.
Contact Information
If you have questions about these Terms of Service, please contact us:
Email: info@jorenthill.com
Phone: +81 6-4393-7888
Address: 2 Chome-24-15 Kujo, Nishi Ward, Osaka, 550-0027, Japan