As a provider of web site hosting,
and other Internet-related services, BusinessPower.com offers its
customers (also known as
subscribers), and their customers and users, the means to acquire and
disseminate a wealth of private,
public, commercial, and non-commercial information.
BusinessPower.com respects that the
Internet provides a forum for free and open discussion and
dissemination of information,
however, when there are competing interests at issue, BusinessPower.com
reserves the right to take certain
preventative or corrective actions. In order to protect these competing
interests, BusinessPower.com 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 BusinessPower.com's services. This AUP will be
revised from time to time. A
customer's use of BusinessPower.com's services after changes to the AUP
are posted on BusinessPower.com's
web site, 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, both in the information
they acquire and in the information they
disseminate to others. When
subscribers obtain information through the
Internet, they must keep in mind that
BusinessPower.com cannot monitor, verify, warrant,
or vouch for the accuracy and quality
of the information that subscribers may
acquire. For this reason, the
subscriber must exercise his or her best
judgment in relying on information
obtained from the Internet, and also
should be aware that some material
posted to the Internet is sexually
explicit or otherwise offensive.
Because BusinessPower.com cannot monitor or censor the
Internet, and will not attempt to do
so, BusinessPower.com cannot accept any responsibility
for injury to its subscribers that
results from inaccurate, unsuitable, offensive,
or illegal Internet communications.
When subscribers disseminate
information through the Internet, they also
must keep in mind that
BusinessPower.com does not review, edit, censor, or take
responsibility for any information
its subscribers 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 BusinessPower.com's network and
may reach a large number of people,
including both subscribers and
nonsubscribers of BusinessPower.com,
subscribers' postings to the Internet may affect
other subscribers and may harm
BusinessPower.com's goodwill, business reputation, and
operations. For these reasons,
subscribers violate BusinessPower.com 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
BusinessPower.com, but also because it can overload BusinessPower.com's
network and disrupt service to
BusinessPower.com subscribers. Also,
maintaining an open SMTP relay
is prohibited. When a
complaint is received,
BusinessPower.com has the discretion to determine
from all of the evidence
whether the email recipients were from
an "opt-in" email list.
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.
BusinessPower.com is required
by law to remove or block access to customer
content upon receipt of a
proper notice of copyright
infringement. It is also
BusinessPower.com's policy to terminate the
privileges of customers who
commit repeat violations of
copyright laws.
Obscene Speech or Materials -
Using BusinessPower.com's network to
advertise, transmit, store,
post, display, or otherwise make
available child pornography or
obscene speech or material.
BusinessPower.com is required
by law to notify law enforcement agencies
when it becomes aware of the
presence of child pornography
on or being transmitted through
BusinessPower.com's network.
Defamatory or Abusive Language - Using BusinessPower.com'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).
Distribution of Internet 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 -
BusinessPower.com 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
BusinessPower.com determines to be harmful to its
subscribers, operations,
reputation, goodwill, or customer
relations.
As we have pointed out, the
responsibility for avoiding the harmful activities
just described rests primarily with
the subscriber. BusinessPower.com will not, as an ordinary
practice, monitor the communications
of its subscribers to ensure that they
comply with BusinessPower.com policy
or applicable law. When BusinessPower.com 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.
BusinessPower.com also is aware that
many of its subscribers are, themselves, providers of
Internet services, and that
information reaching BusinessPower.com's facilities from those
subscribers may have originated from
a customer of the subscriber or from
another third-party.
BusinessPower.com does not require its subscribers who offer Internet
services to monitor or censor
transmissions or web sites created by customers
of its subscribers. BusinessPower.com
has the right to directly take action against a
customer of a subscriber. Also,
BusinessPower.com may take action against the BusinessPower.com
subscriber because of activities of a
customer of the subscriber, even though
the action may effect other customers
of the subscriber. Similarly, BusinessPower.com
anticipates that subscribers who
offer Internet services will cooperate with
BusinessPower.com in any corrective
or preventive action that BusinessPower.com deems necessary.
Failure to cooperate with such
corrective or preventive measures is a violation
of BusinessPower.com policy.
BusinessPower.com 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,
BusinessPower.com urges its subscribers to assume that all of
their on-line communications are
insecure. BusinessPower.com cannot take any
responsibility for the security of
information transmitted over BusinessPower.com's facilities.
BusinessPower.com will not
intentionally monitor private electronic mail messages sent or
received by its subscribers unless
required to do so by law, governmental
authority, or when public safety is
at stake. BusinessPower.com may, however, monitor its
service electronically to determine
that its facilities are operating
satisfactorily. Also,
BusinessPower.com may disclose information, including but not limited
to, information concerning a
subscriber, 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. BusinessPower.com assumes no
obligation to inform the subscriber that subscriber
information has been provided and in
some cases may be prohibited by law
from giving such notice. Finally,
BusinessPower.com may disclose subscriber information or
information transmitted over its
network where necessary to protect BusinessPower.com and
others from harm, or where such
disclosure is necessary to the proper
operation of the system.
BusinessPower.com expects that its
subscribers who provide Internet services to others will
comply fully with all applicable laws
concerning the privacy of on-line
communications. A subscriber's
failure to comply with those laws will violate
BusinessPower.com policy. Finally,
BusinessPower.com wishes to emphasize that in signing the service
agreement, subscribers indemnify
BusinessPower.com for any violation of the service
agreement, law, or BusinessPower.com
policy, that results in loss to BusinessPower.com or the
bringing of any claim against
BusinessPower.com by any third-party. This means that if
BusinessPower.com is sued because of
a subscriber's or customer of a subscriber's activity,
the subscriber will pay any damages
awarded against BusinessPower.com, plus costs and reasonable
attorneys' fees.
We hope this AUP is helpful in
clarifying the obligations of Internet users,
including BusinessPower.com and its
subscribers, as responsible members of the Internet.
Any complaints about a subscriber's
violation of this AUP should be sent to
abuse@BusinessPower.com
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