Acceptable Use Policy
As a provider
of web site hosting, and other Internet-related services, Thompson Global Media and it's Web sites (hereafter, refereed to as "The Company/'s") offers
its clients, and their customers and users, the means to disseminate a wealth of
public, private, commercial, and non-commercial information. The Company
respects that the Internet provides a forum for free and open discussion and
dissemination of information, however, when there are competing interests at
issue, Thompson Global Media (The Company) reserves the right to take certain nformation, however, when there are competing interests at
issue, Thompson Global Media (The Company) reserves the right to take certain
preventative or corrective actions. In order to protect these competing
interests, The Company has developed an Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP"),
which supplements and explains certain terms of each customer's respective
service agreement and is intended as a guide to the customer's rights and
obligations when utilizing The Company’s services. This AUP will be revised from
time to time. A customer's use of The Company after changes to the AUP are
posted on The Company’s web site's, will constitute the customer's acceptance
of any new or additional terms of the AUP that result from those
changes.
One
important aspect of the Internet is that no one party owns or controls it. This
fact accounts for much of the Internet's openness and value, but it also places
a high premium on the judgment and responsibility of those who use the Internet
to disseminate information to others.
When information is disseminated
through the Internet, they also must keep in mind that The Company does not
review, edit, censor, or take responsibility for any information its clients may
create. When users place information on the Internet, they have the same
liability as other authors for copyright infringement, defamation, and other
harmful speech. Also, because the information they create is carried over The
Company’s network and may reach a large number of people, including both clients
and non-clients of The Company, clients' postings to the Internet may affect
other clients and may harm The Company’s goodwill, business reputation, and
operations. For these reasons, clients violate The Company policy and the
service agreement when they, their customers, affiliates, or subsidiaries engage
in the following prohibited activities:
Spamming
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 The Company, but also
because it can overload The Company's network and disrupt service to The
Company's clients. Also, maintaining an open SMTP relay is prohibited. When a
complaint is received, The Company has the discretion to determine from all of
the evidence whether the e-mail recipients were from an "opt-in" e-mail list.
Refer to our UCE/SPAM Policy for more informtion.
Intellectual Property
Violations
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. The Company is required
by law to remove or block access to customer content upon receipt of a proper
notice of copyright infringement. It is also The Company’s policy to terminate
the privileges of customers who commit repeat violations of copyright laws.
Adult Material
Because the Internet
is a global communication tool, and we have clients from nearly every country in
the world it is difficult to dictate what is considered "adult material."
However, it is not our function to discriminate against those who choose to
utilize adult content or adult related material. This being said, there are
still several reasons why The Company has been forced to create it's no adult
sites policy for its virtual server users.
What does The Company consider
"Adult Material?"
Any site whose revenue is gained in part or whole from
its adult content.
Photos or videos showing frontal nudity on either men or
women for non-scientific or non-artistic purposes.
Revenue-generating
hyperlinks to sites who violate policy #1.
Sites that have discussion boards
and share information that is ‘adult’ in nature.
Why does The Company Online
have this policy?
Bandwidth and
Resources
A virtual server is a shared environment where many servers
reside on each particular machine. This being said, consider that an average
"adult site" gets more hits than 100 standard websites. Some of the smaller
adult sites get around 5 GB or more of transfer per day. With these types of
resources being utilized, our servers would be severely slowed if we allowed
these high traffic sites to also reside on our servers. On top of that, we would
be forced to raise our prices to pay for the additional bandwidth. We strive to
keep our servers fast and inexpensive, and our bandwidth clear; therefore, adult
sites are not an option.
The Company reserves the right to decide what
it considers "adult content", "adult material", "sexually explicit", or
"sexually related". Let us know if you are unsure of the approval of your site
before placing an order.
Defamatory or Abusive
Language
Using The Company’s network as a means to transmit or post
defamatory, harassing, abusive, or threatening language.
Forging of Headers
Forging or
misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the
originator of the message.
Illegal or Unauthorized
Access to Other Computers or Networks
Accessing illegally or without
authorization 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).
Background Running
Programs
Background Daemons in general are prohibited on Thompson Global Media (The Company)
servers, including, but not limited to, IRC bots, eggdrop, BitchX, XiRCON, warez
sites and any other program that interferes with normal server
operation.
The Thompson Global Media will be the sole arbitor of what consitutes a
violation of the above policy.
Distribution of Internet
Viruses
Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, or Other Destructive Activities.
Distributing information regarding the creation of and sending Internet
viruses, worms, Trojan horses, pinging, flooding, mailbombing, or denial of
service attacks. 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.
Facilitating a Violation of
this AUP
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, and piracy of software.
Export Control
Violations
Exporting encryption software over the Internet or otherwise,
to points outside the United States.
Usenet Groups
The Company reserves the right
not to accept postings from newsgroups where we have actual knowledge that the
content of the newsgroup violates the AUP.
Other Illegal Activities
Engaging in
activities that are determined to be illegal, including advertising,
transmitting, or otherwise making available ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes,
fraudulently charging credit cards, and pirating software.
Other Activities
Engaging in activities,
whether lawful or unlawful, that The Company determines to be harmful to its
clients, operations, reputation, goodwill, or customer relations.
As we
have pointed out, the responsibility for avoiding the harmful activities just
described rests primarily with the client. The Company will not, as an ordinary
practice, monitor the communications of its client to ensure that they comply
with The Company policy or applicable law. When The Company becomes aware of
harmful activities, however, it may take any action to stop the harmful
activity, including but not limited to, removing information, shutting down a
web site, implementing screening software designed to block offending
transmissions, denying access to the Internet, or take any other action it deems
appropriate.
Thompson Global Media also is concerned with the privacy of on-line
communications and web sites. In general, the Internet is neither more nor less
secure than other means of communication, including mail, facsimile, and voice
telephone service, all of which can be intercepted and otherwise compromised. As
a matter of prudence, however, The Company urges its clients to assume that all
of their on-line communications are insecure. The Company cannot take any
responsibility for the security of information transmitted over The Company's
facilities.
The Company will not intentionally monitor private
electronic mail messages sent or received by its clients unless required to do
so by law, governmental authority, or when public safety is at stake. The
Company may, however, monitor its service electronically to determine that its
facilities are operating satisfactorily. Also, The Company may disclose
information, including but not limited to, information concerning a client, a
transmission made using our network, or a web site, in order to comply with a
court order, subpoena, summons, discovery request, warrant, statute, regulation,
or governmental request. The Company assumes no obligation to inform the client
that client information has been provided and in some cases may be prohibited by
law from giving such notice. Finally, The Company may disclose client
information or information transmitted over its network where necessary to
protect The Company and other's from harm, or where such disclosure is necessary
to the proper operation of the system.
We hope this AUP is helpful in
clarifying the obligations of Internet users, including The Company and its
clients, as responsible members of the Internet.
Any complaints about a
client's violation of this AUP should be sent to: abuse@Thompson Global Media.
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