Acceptable Use Policy - Boing Hosting

Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

This Acceptable Use Policy specifies certain actions prohibited by Boing! International for users of the Boing! International Network. Boing! International reserves the right to modify this Policy at any time to stay in compliance with any laws, regulations and security requirements. By using Boing! International services, any customer, employee or third party unconditionally accepts the terms of this policy.

Illegal Use
Network and Machine Resoiurces
System and Network Security
Email
Usenet
Defamation
Misuse
IP Allocation
Copyright Infringement
Interaction with Boing! International Staff

Illegal Use

The Boing! International Network may be used only for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws. Boing! International will not be held liable for any data found hosted on our customers websites that may be in violation of any of the above. A taken notice sent via email must be issued to have the data removed. Send this notice to the owner of the website and CC it to takedown@boing.net.

Network and Machine Resources

Boing! International reserves the right to monitor and allocate network and machine resources. IP addresses are allocated per server and according to virtual server specifications. CGI resources are allocated one per domain (a virtual host is required for each cgi-bin and is considered a virtual host). Boing! International in its sole discretion and upon reasonable notice to customer reserves the right to discontinue any hosting account and/or any script which causes excessive server load and/or uses excessive server and network resources.

System and Network Security

Violations of system or network security are prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability. Boing! International will investigate incidents involving such violations and may involve and cooperate with law enforcement authorities if a criminal violation is suspected. Boing! International respects the privacy of customer data and vigilantly protects that data and ALL customers who host with Boing! International. If any violation of the law or this AUP is suspected, Boing! International reserves the right to investigate. Use of the Boing! International network constitutes consent to monitoring. Examples of unlawful acts, system, or network security violations include, without limitation, the following:

Unauthorized access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, damage, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without express authorization of the owner of the system or network.
Unauthorized monitoring of data or traffic on any network or system without express authorization of the owner of the system or network. Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mailbombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks.
Unauthorized access to any data, system, or network from an unauthorized system or network for any purpose which is not lawful or which is intended to do harm.
Forging of any TCP-IP packet header or any part of the header information in an email or a newsgroup posting. Electronic forging of any kind to include but not limited to IP addresses, domains, business names, etc.

Email

Sending unsolicited mail messages, including, without limitation, unwanted advertising and informational announcements, is explicitly prohibited. A user shall not use another site's mail server to relay mail without the express permission of the site owner. Legitimate opt-in mailing lists and subscriber lists are acceptable. Otherwise, it is spam.

Usenet

Posting the same messages to multiple newsgroups (excessive cross-posting or multiple-posting, also known as "SPAM") is expressly prohibited.

INDIRECT OR ATTEMPTED VIOLATIONS OF THE POLICY, AND ACTUAL OR ATTEMPTED VIOLATIONS BY A THIRD PARTY ON BEHALF OF A BOING! INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMER OR A CUSTOMER'S END USER, SHALL BE CONSIDERED VIOLATIONS OF THE POLICY BY SUCH CUSTOMER OR END USER.

Complaints regarding illegal use or system or network security issues should be sent to network@boing.net
Complaints regarding email abuse should be sent to abuse@boing.net
Complaints regarding Usenet abuse or spam should be sent to abuse@boing.net

Defamation

Tortuous conduct, including but not limited to posting of defamatory, scandalous, or private information about a person without their consent, intentionally inflicting emotional distress, or violating trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights is expressly prohibited.

Misuse

Misuse of system resources, including but not limited to employing posts or programs which consume excessive CPU time, bandwidth or storage space; permitting use of mail services, mail forwarding capabilities, POP accounts, or auto-responders other than for the customer's own account; resale of access to CGI scripts installed on Boing! International's servers; or attempting to use a single customer account for third party web sites by allowing more than one domain pointer to be used to reference pages within the customer's site.

IP Allocation

ARIN (the American Registry for Internet Numbers) is becoming very stringent with IP addresses, and refuses to grant them without a strict accounting of use of existing IP's.

Any IP numbers which remain unused after a 30-day period, according to our periodic 'ping' testing, will be subject to reassignment. No prior notice will be given, but we will email you at your current contact address to inform you that we have taken back the IP numbers. You can of course request more when you are ready to use them.

While we will allocate our customers an "limited" number of IP addresses, our allocation of IP addresses is limited by ARIN's new policies. These new policies state that use of IP addresses for IP based virtual hosts will not be accepted as justification for new IP addresses. What this means to you is that you MUST use name-based hosting where possible. We will periodically review IP address usage, and if we find that clients are using IP addresses where name-based hosting could be used, we will revoke authorization to use those IP addresses that could be used with name-based hosting."

Copyright Infringement

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides limitations for service provider liability relating to material online with regard to information residing, at the discretion of the user, on a system or network that the service provider controls or operates. 17. U.S. 512(c). The designated agents for notification of claimed infringement are:

Boing! International,
P O Box 3, Brunswick
Victoria 3056, Australia

For other legal issues or concerns email: legal@boing.net

Boing! International does not tolerate any pornographic material or spamming and both infringements will result in an investigation and possible termination and removal of the site and/or virtual server without a refund. Boing! International prides itself as a responsible member of the Internet community and is committed to protecting the data of and providing quality service to all Boing! International customers all of the time.

Interaction with Boing! International Staff

Any threat, vulgar and profane language directed at any Boing! International staff member through phone or email may result in immediate termination of an account. Any violation of this policy by any employee, contractor or third party programmer of Boing! International should be reported immediately. Bottom line is let's work together toward a mutually beneficial relationship and create a prosperous and responsible Internet community.