Acceptable use policy for shared hosting clients

A+ Hosting Inc. DBA ServerPoint.Com maintains this Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") to provide users of its Services with a clear statement of rules and use restrictions that apply to the use of ServerPoint's Services. This AUP forms an integral part of the Service Agreement that govern your use of ServerPoint's Services.

The evolving nature of the Internet makes it necessary for ServerPoint to reserve the right to make changes to this AUP at any time. You agree that any changes will be effective when posted on-line at this location and that your continued use of ServerPoint's Services will constitute your acceptance of any changes or additions to this AUP. You may determine the date of posting at the Effective Date section at the end of this AUP.

This AUP is not intended to address all possible unacceptable uses of ServerPoint's Services. As a result, ServerPoint reserves complete discretion to determine what constitutes an unacceptable use of its Services and reserves the right to suspend or terminate your Services, or take such other action as ServerPoint deems appropriate in its sole discretion.

Failure to respond to email from our abuse department within 24 hours may result in the suspension or termination of your services. All abuse issues must be dealt with via troubleticket/email and will have a response within 48 hours.

ServerPoint will give you a warning (by email) if we consider that your policy violation is not of a serious matter. Warnings must be replied within 24 hours. If not, clean up fee and/or termination of account might follow. We hope this AUP is helpful in clarifying the obligations of Internet users, including ServerPoint and its subscribers, as responsible members of the Internet.

Prohibited Uses

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YOUR USE OF SERVERPOINT.COM'S SERVICES MAY NOT VIOLATE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING PROVISIONS. SERVERPOINT.COM MAY SUSPEND OR TERMINATE YOUR SERVICES IF IT DETERMINES, IN ITS SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE DISCRETION, THAT YOU HAVE ENGAGED IN ANY ACTIVITY THAT VIOLATES THIS AUP. YOU VIOLATE THIS AUP WHEN YOU, YOUR END USERS OR ANY THIRD PARTY ACTING ON YOUR OR YOUR END USERS BEHALF, ENGAGE IN ANY ACTIVITY, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, OR ATTEMPT TO ENGAGE IN AN ACTIVITY, WHETHER SUCCESSFULLY OR OTHERWISE, CONTRARY TO THE TERMS OF THIS AUP.

SERVERPOINT.COM WILL NOT INTERVENE OR BECOME INVOLVED IN ANY DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND A THIRD PARTY. CONSEQUENTLY, SERVERPOINT.COM RESERVES THE RIGHT, IN ITS SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE DISCRETION, TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE YOUR SERVICES UPON ITS RECEIPT OF ANY THIRD PARTY COMPLAINT THAT YOU HAVE ENGAGED IN ANY ACTIVITY THAT VIOLATES THIS AUP.

SERVERPOINT.COM MAY SUSPEND AND TERMINATE YOUR SERVICES UNDER THIS AUP WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU AND YOUR END USERS. SERVERPOINT.COM MAY ALSO REPORT YOUR ACTIVITIES TO FEDERAL AND/OR STATE LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES.

SUBSCRIBERS VIOLATE SERVERPOINT.COM AUP AND THE SERVICE AGREEMENT WHEN THEY, THEIR CUSTOMERS, AFFILIATES, OR SUBSIDIARIES ENGAGE IN THE FOLLOWING PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES:

Illegal or Unauthorized Access to Other Computers or Networks

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Illegally accessing computers, accounts, or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another individual's system (often known as "hacking"). Also, any activity that might be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (i.e. port scan, stealth scan, or other information gathering activity).

Right to refuse service

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ServerPoint.Com reserves the right to deny services to any clients for any reasons. With prior notification, ServerPoint.com reserves the right to terminate services to an existing client that is abusing the system or our staff. We enforce this policy to ensure a professional environment for the users of our system and our staff.

Intellectual Property Violations

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Engaging in any activity that infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property rights of others, including copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, software piracy, and patents held by individuals, corporations, or other entities. Also, engaging in activity that violates privacy, publicity, or other personal rights of others. ServerPoint is required by law to remove or block access to customer content upon receipt of a proper notice of copyright infringement. It is also ServerPoint's policy to terminate the privileges of customers who commit repeat violations of copyright laws.

Distribution of Internet Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, or Other Destructive Activities

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Distributing information regarding the creation of and sending Internet viruses, worms, Trojan horses, pinging, flooding, mailbombing, denial of service attacks,etc. Also, activities that disrupt the use of or interfere with the ability of others to effectively use the network or any connected network, system, service, or equipment.

Spamming

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Sending unsolicited bulk and/or commercial messages over the Internet (known as "spamming"). It is not only harmful because of its negative impact on consumer attitudes toward ServerPoint, but also because it can overload ServerPoint's network and disrupt service to ServerPoint subscribers. Also, maintaining an open SMTP relay is prohibited. When a complaint is received, ServerPoint has the discretion to determine from all of the evidence whether the email is spam or not. Clean up fee and/or termination of account might follow.

Defamatory or Abusive Language

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Using ServerPoint's network as a means to transmit or post defamatory, harassing, abusive, or threatening language.

CGI Scripts

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Any scripts that pose a potential security risk or are deemed to be adversely affecting server performance or network integrity will be shut down or will be automatically removed without prior notice. ServerPoint does not permit CGI script sharing with domains not hosted by ServerPoint or any scripts that may be abused for UCE purposes. You may not use the application capabilities of a shared hosting plan to offer hosting of applications, as this may overload our servers.

Background Running Programs and Cron Jobs

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ServerPoint may allow programs to run in the background. These programs will be considered on an individual basis and shared hosting customers will incur extra charges based on system resources used and operational maintenance needed. If you wish to run background programs please contact ServerPoint to arrange set-up (if possible).

Scripts

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It is your responsibility to ensure that scripts/programs installed under your account are secure and permissions of directories are set properly, regardless of installation method. When at all possible, set permissions on most directories to 755 or as restrictive as possible. Users are ultimately responsible for all actions taken under their account. This includes the compromise of credentials such as user name and password. It is required that you use a secure password. If a weak password is used, your account may be suspended until you agree to use a more secure password. Audits may be done to prevent weak passwords from being used. If an audit is performed, and your password is found to be weak, we will notify you and allow time for you to change/update your password.

IRC

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ServerPoint does not allow IRC servers or IRC bots to be operated within our network without our express permission.

Forging of Headers

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Forging or misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the originator of the message.

Racist or hate related material

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Any racist or hate related material must be deleted immediately

Child Pornography

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You may not use ServerPoint's Services to disseminate or display images or other content that constitutes child pornography. ServerPoint applies a zero tolerance policy to the enforcement of this prohibition. ServerPoint takes an active role in cooperating with law enforcement officials in their efforts to prosecute violations of statutes that prohibit the dissemination of child pornography. You will not be notified that ServerPoint may be cooperating with law enforcement or that ServerPoint has reported the use of its Services in this manner. For further information about child pornography, you may visit the web site of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at ncmec.org.

Warez or Copyright violations

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If you are found to be distributing or storing "warez" software (for example, a copy of Adobe Photoshop or MSOffice), then the files will be deleted inmediately and your account may be terminated immediately. You will be given an immediate warning if a copyright holder of some file you are distributing contacts us for removal and submits evidence, however, we will not await your reply before taking action if we feel it is necessary.

Export Control Violations

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Exporting encryption software over the Internet or otherwise, to points outside the United States.

Facilitating a Violation of this AUP

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Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to violate this AUP, which includes the facilitation of the means to spam, initiation of pinging, flooding, mailbombing, denial of service attacks, warez and piracy of software.

Usenet Groups

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ServerPoint reserves the right not to accept postings from newsgroups where we have actual knowledge that the content of the newsgroup violates the AUP.

IP Addresses

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In connection with your use of ServerPoint's Services, you may only use IP addresses that are assigned to you by ServerPoint. If you use IP addresses that are not assigned to you by ServerPoint, ServerPoint will suspend your Services from network access until such time as the IP address overlap is corrected. ServerPoint owns all IP addresses that may be assigned to you by ServerPoint.

Storage

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Your shared hosting space may only be used for the direct purpose of maintainting your web site hosted in our server. This means it may not be used for backup purposes, hosting mirros for other web sites on the Internet, etc.

Outsourcing of services

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Email, database, and other features of your shared hosting plan are not to be provided as a free or fee based service to third parties.

Adult content

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The hosting of legal adult content on our shared hosting plans is not allowed without our express permission.

Resource usage

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On a shared hosting plan, if your web site is found to be resource intensive and it affects the performance of other customers within the same server or the performance of the network, we have the right to limit the resource consumption of your web site, and/or shut it down until you can find a solution to the source of the problem.

Other Activities

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Engaging in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that ServerPoint determines to be harmful to its subscribers, operations, reputation, goodwill, or customer relations.

Certain Restrictions Applicable to Shared Customers

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If you are the registered user of a ServerPoint account, your Services may not be transferred or used by anyone other than you. You may not sell, lease or assign the Services or any part of the Services to any party not named in ServerPoint?s records. When you utilize an excessive amount of system resources, ServerPoint reserves the right to place CPU process limits on your account to prevent disruption of ServerPoint Services to other customers. ServerPoint reserves sole discretion to determine what constitutes excessive usage of system resources. Engaging in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that ServerPoint determines to be harmful to its subscribers, operations, reputation, goodwill, or customer relations.

Resellers: we will suspend the site in question and will notify you so you may terminate the account. We will further monitor your activity; more than one infraction of this type may result in the immediate termination of your account.

Direct customers: Your services will be terminated with or without notice.

No Credits or Refunds for Suspension and/or Termination of Services

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ServerPoint does not issue credits or refunds for outages incurred as a result of its decision to suspend or terminate its Services for a violation of this AUP. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless ServerPoint from any claims by your end users and any third party that they have been damaged by reason of such suspension or termination of ServerPoint?s Services.

Clean-up Fee

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YOU WILL BE CHARGED A "CLEANUP" FEE OF $60 WITH NO ADVANCED NOTICE IF YOU HAVE ENGAGED IN ANY ACTIVITY THAT VIOLATES THIS AUP.

Notification

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ServerPoint will give you a warning (by email or phone) if we consider that your policy violation is not of a serious matter. Warnings must be replied within 24 hours. If not, clean up or termination of account might follow. Any account that is terminated due to violations to our policies will not be refunded the current month of service and will not qualify for any money back guarantee. Months that have been paid in advanced will be refunded after the "cleanup" fee of $60 is substracted.

Monitoring of Services; Cooperation with Law Enforcement; Legal Documents

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You are solely responsible for ensuring that materials disseminated or posted using ServerPoint?s Services comply with this AUP and all applicable laws and regulations. ServerPoint does not review, edit, censor or take responsibility for any information you, other customers or your end users may create. ServerPoint may disclose information, including information that you may consider confidential, in order to comply with a court order, subpoena, summons, discovery request, warrant, regulation or governmental request. ServerPoint assumes no obligation to inform you that such information has been provided and, in some cases, may be prohibited by law from providing you with notice. On occasion, ServerPoint may have a need to communicate with you about issues that relate to billing, service changes, additions and modifications to its Services. ServerPoint may choose the method of such communication in its sole discretion. The preferred method of communication is via e-mail. It is your responsibility to provide and check the account and contact information, including a required valid e-mail address, that you provide to ServerPoint during the sign-up process. It is your responsibility to inform ServerPoint promptly of any changes to your account or contact information. ServerPoint has no responsibility for communications that are misdirected as a result of your failure to provide ServerPoint with updated contact information.

Communications Decency Act

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Sites hosted on ServerPoint's service(s) are regulated only by U.S. law. Given this fact, and pursuant to Section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act, we do not remove allegedly defamatory material from domains hosted on our service(s). The only exception to this rule is if the material has been found to be defamatory by a court, as evidenced by a court order. ServerPoint is not in a position to investigate and validate or invalidate the veracity of individual defamation claims, which is why we rely on the legal system and courts to determine whether or not material is indeed considered defamatory. In any case in which a court order indicates material is defamatory, libelous, or slanderous in nature; we will disable access to the material. Similarly, in any case in which a US Court has placed an injunction against specified content or material; we will comply and remove or disable access to the material in question.

The language of Section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act fundamentally states that Internet services providers like ServerPoint.com and many other webhosting services and brands are republishers and not the publisher of content. Our service merely provides a hosting platform and space on which to host content, and any creation or publication of content on our services is the sole responsibility of the third-party user which creates or publishes the content. Therefore, ServerPoint.com should not be held liable for any allegedly defamatory, offensive or harassing content published on sites hosted under ServerPoint.com's webhosting service(s).

Effective Date

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This Privacy Policy was last updated on March 29, 2005.

We are not responsible for any typographical or translation error.