Acceptable Usage Policy
This Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) forms part of the Universal Terms and Conditions of Hosted.com. By accessing the Site, or by contracting with us for any of our Services, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this policy and the terms and conditions contained herein, as well as any other additional terms, conditions, rules, or policies which may be displayed to you in connection with the Services/Site.
Hosted.com is committed to complying with all applicable U.S. and foreign laws and to providing Users with Services that do not infringe on the rights of others.
The purpose of this AUP is to:
- ensure compliance with the relevant laws;
- specify to Users of Hosted.com’s Services what activities and online behavior may be considered an unacceptable use of the Service;
- protect the integrity of Hosted.com’s network; and
- specify the consequences that may flow from undertaking prohibited activities.
By contracting with Hosted.com for services, the User agrees, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this AUP, as well as any other additional terms, conditions, rules, or policies which are displayed to the User in connection with the Services.
Interpretation
The provisions of this Policy are intended as guidelines and are not meant to be exhaustive. Generally, conduct that violates a law, regulation, or the accepted norms of the Internet community, whether or not expressly mentioned in this Policy, is prohibited. Hosted.com reserves the right at all times to prohibit activities that may damage its commercial reputation and goodwill.
The AUP applies to Hosted.com Services namely Internet services, including but not limited to, any service providing access to the Internet, hosting services (data/content hosting, server hosting, web hosting, domain reservation), or any other services provided over the Internet or wireless data networks (together "IP Services").
Unlawful Use
Hosted.com’s Services may only be used for lawful purposes and activities. Transmission, distribution, or storage, of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation, is prohibited. Prohibited conduct includes without limitation:
- Any violation of local and international laws prohibiting child pornography; obscenity; discrimination (including racial, gender, religious or country of origin) and hate speech; or speech designed to incite violence or hatred, or threats to cause bodily harm.
- Any activity designed to defame, abuse, stalk, harass or physically threaten any individual; including any attempt to link to, post, transmit or otherwise distribute any inappropriate or defamatory material.
- Any violation of Intellectual Property laws including materials protected by local and international copyright, trademarks, and trade secrets. Moreover Hosted.com cannot be held liable if the User makes any unlawful use of any multimedia content accessed through the search facility provided by Hosted.com’s network or infrastructure, or otherwise available through access to Hosted.com’s network, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
- Any violation of the individual's right to privacy, including any effort to collect personal data of third parties without their consent, or any phishing attempts, or any system designed to collection personal information, under false, misleading, or any other pretenses.
- Any fraudulent activity whatsoever, including dubious financial practices, such as pyramid schemes; the impersonation of another User or third party without the User’s and / or third party’s consent; or any attempt to enter into a transaction with Hosted.com, on behalf of another User or third party without that User’s and / or third party’s consent.
- Any activity that results in the sale, transmission, acquisition, or distribution of pirated or illegal software and multimedia.
Hosted.com will take swift and firm action against any User engaging in any of the above unacceptable practices, this may be suspension and / or deletion of accounts and or Services. The suspension and / or deletion will be at the sole discretion of Hosted.com and no communication / correspondence and / or
discussions will be entered into, nor will Hosted.com be liable for loss, damages or costs of any kind as a result hereof.
Spam and Unsolicited Bulk Mail
Hosted.com regards all unsolicited bulk email (whether commercial in nature or not) as Spam, with the following exceptions:
- Mail sent by one party to another where there is already a prior relationship between the two parties and the subject matter of the message(s) concerns that relationship;
- Mail sent by one party to another with the explicit consent of the receiving party.
- Users should only receive bulk mail that they have requested and/or consented to receive and/or which they would expect to receive as a result of an existing relationship.
Hosted.com will take swift and firm action against any User engaging in any of the following unacceptable practices:
- Sending unsolicited bulk mail for marketing or any other purposes (political, religious, or commercial) to people who have not consented to receiving such mail.
- Using any part of Hosted.com’s infrastructure for the purpose of unsolicited bulk mail, whether sending, receiving, bouncing, or facilitating such mail.
- Operating or maintaining mailing lists without the express permission of all recipients listed. In particular, Hosted.com does not permit the sending of "opt-out" mail, where the recipient must opt out of receiving mail which they did not request. For all lists, the sender must maintain meaningful records of when and how each recipient requested or consented to receiving mail. Hosted.com will also monitor Users deemed to be operating “cleaning lists”, which is using illegally obtained email addresses but removing addresses as complaints arise. Should Hosted.com, at its discretion, believe that this is the case; the practice will be treated as Spam.
- Hosted.com servers are set to limit outgoing mails to 350 per hour.
- Failing to promptly remove from lists invalid or undeliverable addresses, or addresses of unwilling recipients, or a recipient who has indicated he/she wishes to be removed from such list or failing to provide the recipient with a facility to opt-out.
- Using Hosted.com's service to collect responses from unsolicited email sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or email services that violate this AUP or the AUP of any other Internet service provider. Advertising any facility on Hosted.com’s infrastructure in unsolicited bulk mail (e.g. a web site advertised in Spam).
- Including Hosted.com's name in the header or by listing an IP address that belongs to Hosted.com in any unsolicited email whether sent through Hosted.com's network or not.
- Failure to secure a User's mail server against public relay as a protection to themselves and the broader Internet community. Public relay occurs when a mail server is accessed by a third party from another domain and utilized to deliver mails, without the authority or consent of the owner of the mail server. Mail servers that are unsecured against public relay often become abused by unscrupulous operators for Spam delivery and upon detection such delivery must be disallowed. Hosted.com reserves the right, but is not obliged, to examine Users' mail servers to confirm that no mails are being sent from the mail server through public relay and the results of such checks may be made available to the User. Hosted.com also reserves the right, but is not obliged, to examine the mail servers of any Users using Hosted.com's mail servers for "smarthosting" (when the User relays its mail via a Hosted.com mail server to a mail server of its own or vice versa) or similar services at any time to ensure that the servers are properly secured against public relay. All relay checks will be done in strict accordance with Hosted.com's Privacy Policy and the laws of the United States.
Hosting
Due to the nature of a Shared Web Hosting environment, a User’s website, or usage of the shared hosting service, may adversely affect the network or server performance for the majority of Hosted.com’s hosting Users. Hosted.com reserves the right to ask the User to upgrade to the relevant, or suitable service option, or to correct the issue, or request the User to migrate his services to another more suitable provider. Hosted.com reserves the right to terminate the User’s Services should the User fail to comply with such request(s). Hosted.com reserves the right to migrate or move a User’s website to a “quarantine zone” until the issues have been corrected. Hosted.com employs complex mechanisms to protect its User and / or End User and systems from abuse. Hosted.com’s offering of “unlimited bandwidth” is not intended to allow the actions of a single, or a few Users, to unfairly or adversely impact the experience of other Users.
Hosted.com’s Shared Web Hosting platform is intended for hosting a website with relevant content and function for a personal, SME, or small home business without the concern of traffic overages or over use. It is NOT intended to support the sustained demand of large enterprises, internationally based businesses, or non-typical applications better suited to a Cloud or dedicated server.
Hosted.com strictly prohibits the use of the Shared Web Hosting platforms and / or Cloud server solutions for any unsolicited bulk email. Bulk emailing of this nature has a negative impact on the other Users’ email delivery. In some cases, even marketing emails sent out to clients will be blocked due to the Shared Web Hosting environment.
Hosted.com prohibits the use of the Shared Web Hosting service disk space to be utilized for purposes other than its intended function: content hosting, personal and small enterprise email, and relevant web files.
- The usage of a Shared Web Hosting account as a backup or storage device is not permitted.
- The following are examples of unacceptable material which cannot be hosted on Hosted.com’s shared hosting servers:
- Topsites
- IRC Scripts/Bots
- Proxy Scripts/Anonymizers
- Pirated Software/Warez
- Image Hosting Scripts (similar to Photobucket or Tinypic)
- AutoSurf/PTC/PTS/PPC sites
- IP Scanners
- Bruteforce Programs/Scripts/Applications
- Mail Bombers/Spam Scripts
- Banner-Ad services (commercial banner ad rotation)
- Auto Blogging Scripts
- Search Engine Scripts/Spiders/Bots
- File Dump/Mirror Scripts (similar to rapidshare)
- Commercial Audio Streaming
- Escrow/Bank Debentures
- High-Yield Interest Programs (HYIP) or Related Sites
- Investment Sites (FOREX, E-Gold Exchange, Second Life/Linden Exchange, Ponzi, MLM/Pyramid
- Scheme)
- Sale of any controlled substance without prior proof of appropriate permit(s)
- Prime Banks Programs
- Lottery/Gambling Sites
- MUDs/RPGs/PBBGs
- Hacker focused sites/archives/programs
- Sites promoting illegal activities
- Forums and/or websites that distribute or link to warez/pirated/illegal content
- Bank Debentures/Bank Debenture Trading Programs
- Fraudulent Sites (Including, but not limited to sites listed at aa419.org & escrow-fraud.com)
- Push button mail scripts
- Broadcast or Streaming of Live Sporting Events (UFC, NASCAR, FIFA, NFL, MLB, NBA, WWE, WWF, etc.)
- Tell A Friend Scripts
- Anonymous or Bulk SMS Gateways
- Otherwise circumventing the Acceptable Usage Policy or intended use of the product.
Hosted.com offers unlimited bandwidth (web traffic) usage on Shared Web Hosting platforms. However, this is subject to reasonable and responsible usage, as determined at Hosted.com's discretion. Shared Web Hosting is designed for serving personal hosting requirements or that of small enterprises, and not medium to large enterprises. Hosted.com reserves the right to move Users deemed to have excessive bandwidth usage to a Cloud product, which will better suit their requirements. Users will be given notice as such and will be informed of any cost implications.
Disk space on Shared Web Hosting may only be used for website content, emails, and related system files. General data storage, archiving or file sharing of documents, files or media not directly related to the website content is strictly prohibited. Unauthorized storage or distribution of copyrighted materials is prohibited, via FTP hosts or any other means.
For Shared Web Hosting, Hosted.com will implement security updates, software patches and other updates or upgrades from time to time, to maintain the best performance, at its sole discretion. Hosted.com is under no obligation to affect such upgrades, or to rectify any impact such changes could potentially have to Shared Web Hosting Users.
Hosted.com will not be liable or responsible for the backing up, restoration or loss of data under any circumstances. Users are solely responsible for ensuring their data is regularly backed up and for restoring such backups in the event of data loss or corruption.
Protection of Minors
Hosted.com prohibits Users from using Hosted.com's Services to harm or attempt to harm a minor, including, but not limited to, by hosting, possessing, disseminating, distributing, or transmitting material that is unlawful, including child pornography and cyber bullying. Hosted.com prohibits Users from using Hosted.com’s Services to host sexually explicit or pornographic material of any nature.
User Responsibilities
Users are responsible for any misuse of Hosted.com's Services that occurs through the User's account. It is the User's responsibility to ensure that unauthorized persons do not gain access to or misuse Hosted.com's Service(s).
Hosted.com urges Users not to reply to unsolicited mail or "Spam", not to click on any suggested links provided in the unsolicited mail. Doing so remains the sole responsibility of the User and Hosted.com cannot be held liable for the User being placed on any bulk mailing lists as a result.
Where the User has authorized a minor to use any of the Hosted.com's Services or access its websites, the User warrants that he/she is the parent or legal guardian of the minor and accepts that as the parent/legal guardian of that minor, the User is fully responsible for: the online conduct of such minor, controlling the minor's access to and use of any Services or websites, and the consequences of any misuse by the minor.
Complaints Procedure
Complaints relating to the violation of this AUP can be submitted via the Acceptable Usage Policy Form below.
Complaints must be substantiated, and unambiguously state the nature of the problem and its connection to Hosted.com’s network and Services. Complaints in any language other than English will not be addressed.
Action Following Breach of the AUP
Upon receipt of a complaint, or having become aware of an incident, Hosted.com may, but is not obliged to, in its sole discretion take any of the following steps:
- In the case of Users, warn the User, suspend the User account and/or revoke or cancel the User’s Service access privileges completely;
- In the case of an abuse emanating from a third party, inform the third party’s network administrator of the incident and request the network administrator or network owner to address the incident in terms of this AUP;
- In severe cases suspend access of the third party’s entire network until abuse can be prevented by appropriate means;
- In all cases, charge the offending parties for administrative costs as well as for machine and human time lost due to the incident;
- Assist other networks or website administrators in investigating credible suspicions of any activity listed in this AUP;
- Institute civil or criminal proceedings;
- Share information concerning the incident with other Internet access providers, or publish the information, and/or make available the User’s details to law enforcement agencies; and/or
- suspend or terminate the Service(s) as provided for in the Agreement.
This policy applies to and will be enforced for intended and unintended (e.g., viruses, worms, malicious code, or otherwise unknown causes) prohibited usage.
Reservation and Non-Waiver of Rights
- Hosted.com reserves the right to amend or alter this policy at any time, and without notice to the User.
- Hosted.com reserves the right to take action against any individuals, companies or organizations that violate the AUP, or engage in any illegal or unlawful activity while accessing Hosted.com’s Services, to the fullest extent of the law.
- Hosted.com reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to act against other types of abuse not listed in this document and to investigate or prevent illegal activities being committed over Hosted.com’s network.
- Hosted.com does not waive its right to enforcement of this AUP at any time, or prejudice its right to take subsequent action, should Hosted.com fail, neglect, or elect not to enforce a breach of the AUP at any time.