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 neither we nor our service providers or partners (collectively “We”) can monitor, verify, warrant, or vouch for the accuracy and quality of the information that subscribers may acquire. Because of this, subscribers must exercise their best judgment in relying on information obtained from the Internet, and also should be aware that some material posted to the Internet may be offensive or illegal. Because We cannot monitor or censor the Internet, and will not attempt to do so, We 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 We do not review, edit, censor, or take responsibility for any information subscribers may create. When people place information on the Internet, they have the same liability as other authors for copyright infringement, defamation, and other harmful speech. In addition, because the information they create is carried over Our network and may reach a large number of people, including both Our subscribers and others, subscribers' postings to the Internet may affect other subscribers and may harm Our goodwill, business reputation, and operations. For these reasons, subscribers violate Our policy and the service agreement when they, their customers, affiliates, or subsidiaries engage in any of the following activities:
Spamming
This is the sending of unsolicited bulk and/or commercial messages over the Internet. It is not only harmful because of its negative impact on attitudes toward Us, but also because it can overload Our network and disrupt service to Our subscribers.
Also, maintaining an open SMTP relay is prohibited.
When a complaint is received, We have the discretion to determine from all of the evidence whether the email recipients were from an "opt-in" email list.
Intellectual Property Violations
This involves engaging in any activity that infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property rights of others, including copyright, trade marks, trade secrets, and patents. Also, engaging in activity that is defamatory or violates privacy, publicity, or other personal rights of others. We may remove or block access to customer content upon receipt of a proper notice of infringement. It is also Our policy to terminate the privileges of customers who commit repeat infringements or breaches.
Obscene Speech or Materials
This involves using Our network to advertise, transmit, store, post, display, or otherwise make available child pornography or obscene speech or other unlawful material.
We may be required by law to notify law enforcement agencies when We become aware of the presence of such unlawful material on, or being transmitted through, Our network or systems.
Defamatory or Abusive Language
This involves using Our network or systems as a means to transmit or post defamatory, harassing, abusive, or threatening language.
Forging of Headers
This includes forging or misrepresenting all or any part of message headers, to mask the originator of the message.
Illegal or Unauthorized Access to Other Computers or Networks
This includes accessing illegally or without authorization any systems, computers, accounts, files or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another's computers, accounts, files or networks (often known as "hacking").
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) is also considered as falling within this heading.
Distribution of Internet Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, or Other Destructive Activities
This includes distributing information regarding the creation of and sending Internet viruses, worms, Trojan horses, pinging, flooding, mailbombing, or denial of service attacks.
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, also falls within this heading.
Facilitating a Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy
Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to violate this Acceptable Use Policy (which includes the facilitation of the means to SPAM, initiation of pinging, flooding, mailbombing, denial of service attacks, and piracy of software) all fall within this heading.
Other Illegal Activities
Engaging in activities that are or may be determined to be illegal (including advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available pyramid schemes, fraudulently charging credit cards, debit cards or bank accounts, internet gambling and pirating software) would all fall within this heading.
Other Activities
This includes engaging in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that We determine to be harmful to Our subscribers, operations, reputation, goodwill, customer relations or others.
System and Network Resource Usage
Our servers and networks are maintained to provide optimum performance for serving web content on the Internet. Subscribers are expected to operate their accounts in such a manner that is not detrimental to system and network performance and stability. We monitor Our servers and networks, and failure to comply with the following conditions may result in termination of the subscriber's service and fees assessed against the subscriber:
(a) Excessive System Utilization
CGI or PHP scripts utilizing a significant percentage of a server's system resources will, at Our discretion, be terminated and/or prevented from running. It is the subscriber's responsibility to ensure their processes use a minimum of server resources.
(b) Excessive Network Utilisation
While subscribers are allocated a certain amount of data transfers per month, We generally prefer not to cap subscribers' bandwidth. However, subscribers using an excessive amount of bandwidth in a short period of time will, at Our discretion, be throttled or have their site and/or account otherwise rendered unusable until the subscriber is able to rectify their usage.
(c) Overuse of Scheduled Processes
Scheduled processes can significantly drain server and network resources. We reserve the right to stop any scheduled process from running or reduce the frequency of operation should it be found to be using more than a reasonable share of a server's resources.
(d) Excessive Database Access
We monitor database resources, such as MySQL and MSSQL. Overuse of database resources, including excessive or mismanaged connections, long queries and missing or inappropriate indexing, may result in the database queries being terminated and/or the correlating script being stopped.
(e) Sending Bulk Email
Sending unsolicited bulk email or spam, is prohibited by Australian Federal law and laws in other places. Sending solicited or opt-in bulk email is limited to 250 emails per hour from any one account. To facilitate this requirement, subscribers can request that a cron job be set up to batch process large email lists.
(f) Exceeding permitted usage space or monthly transfers
The Customer is permitted an allowance for the storage space and transfers of their website as stated in the Service Schedule. We will not block the available storage space to the customer, but may, at our discretion; suspend the account until the space usage can be reduced to acceptable levels or notify the Customer of excess charges that may be applicable if they exceed their allowance without remedy after a certain date. The rates applicable are advertised on Flint Interactive's website as "Hosting Excess Usage Charges".
Resolution of System and Network Resource Usage Problems
All problems found that are within the subscriber's control and that breach any of the above provisions, or other system or network misuse are the responsibility of the subscriber to fix. We will attempt to notify subscribers about issues and the underlying reasons. We may, from time to time, assist subscribers in researching and repairing the problem. This is done as a courtesy and does not imply that We will take responsibility for fixing the problem. We may, at Our discretion, remove access to impacted services until the subscriber resolves the problem. We reserve the right to remove access to any service or feature that it feels is being abused, knowingly or unknowingly, by the subscriber.
Summary
The responsibility for avoiding the harmful activities just described rests primarily with Our subscribers. We will not, as an ordinary practice, monitor the communications of Our subscribers to ensure that they comply with Our policy or applicable law. When We become aware of harmful activities. However, We may take any action to stop the harmful activity, including 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 We consider appropriate.
We are also aware that many of Our subscribers are, themselves, providers of Internet services, and that information reaching Our facilities from those subscribers may have originated from a customer of the subscriber or from another third-party. We do not require those subscribers who offer Internet services to monitor or censor transmissions or web sites created by their customers. We have the right to directly take action against a customer of a subscriber. Also, We may take action against Our subscriber because of activities of their customer, even though the action may effect other customers of the subscriber. Similarly, that Our subscribers who offer Internet services must cooperate with Us in any corrective or preventive action that We deem necessary. Failure to cooperate with such corrective or preventive measures is a violation of Our policy.
We are also concerned with the privacy of on-line communications and web sites. In general, the Internet is no more 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, We urge Our subscribers to assume that all of their on-line communications are insecure. We cannot take any responsibility for the security of information transmitted over Our facilities.
We will not intentionally monitor private electronic mail messages sent or received by subscribers unless We are required to do so by law or by governmental authority, or when safety is at stake. We may, however, monitor Our service electronically to determine that Our facilities are operating satisfactorily. Also, We may disclose information, including, 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, governmental request or other binding requirement. We assume no obligation to inform a subscriber that subscriber information has been provided and in some cases We may be prohibited by law from giving such a notice. We may also disclose subscriber information or information transmitted over Our network where necessary to protect Us and others from harm, or where such disclosure is necessary to the proper operation of Our systems.
We require that Our 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 Our policy.
Indemnity
In signing the service agreement, subscribers indemnify Us for any violation of the service agreement, any law, or Our policy, that results in loss to Us or the bringing of any claim or proceeding against Us.
We hope this Policy is helpful in clarifying the obligations of Internet users, including Our subscribers, as responsible members of the Internet.
This Policy will be revised from time to time. A subscriber's use of Our services after changes to the Policy are posted on Our web site https://www.flint.com.au/, will constitute the subscriber's acceptance of any new or additional terms of the Policy that result from those changes.
