Updated: 4/12/04
- Important Note:
DCANet may revise this Acceptable Use Policy from time to time without notice by posting a new version of this document on the DCANet Web site at: http://www.dca.net (or any successor URL(s)). All revised copies of the Policy are effective immediately upon posting. Please be sure to regularly visit our web site and review this Policy. In the event of a conflict between any subscriber or customer agreement and this Policy, the terms of this Policy will govern. Questions regarding this Policy and complaints of violations of it by DCANet customers and users can be directed to: abuse@dca.net.
- General
- Any illegal activity involving a DCANet account may result in immediate termination of the account. DCANet reserves the right to discontinue service or deny access without warning or prior notice to any subscriber or user who is not in compliance with DCANet's terms and conditions and acceptable-use policy.
DCANet does not guarantee that its system or network will meet any specific requirements, or that it will be free of errors and interruptions. DCANet is not responsible for any indirect, incidental or consequential damages associated with an outage or sustained during the use of its system or network.
Subscribers will be held responsible for the actions of any third party agent that acts on behalf of, or for the benefit of, any end user, and such end users shall be held directly accountable for any violations of this AUP by third party agents.
Subscribers and users of DCANet services agree to DCANet's terms and conditions, including any future revisions, by contracting or applying for or using a service
- Payment
- Subscribers or users agree to pay all charges associated with a service in advance by check or credit card. Subscribers paying by check will be invoiced, and payment will be due upon receipt. DCANet reserves the right to disable or discontinue service due to nonpayment without warning or prior notice.
- Responsible Use of Network
- Subscribers or users may not attempt to bypass authentication or security of any host, network or account on a host. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing information not intended for the subscriber or user, accessing accounts not belonging to the subscriber without permission of the account's owner and using network probes or snooping devices.
Subscribers or users may not attempt to interfere with service to any user, host or network ("denial-of-service attacks"). This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service and attempts to "crash" a host.
Subscribers or users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. DCANet will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations.
- Responsible Use of E-Mail
- Harassment, whether through language, frequency or size of messages, is prohibited. New e-mail that remains unread for 6 months may result in the account being placed in an inactive state.
Subscribers are prohibited from engaging in improper use or distribution of e-mail. DCANet reserves the right to disable the ability to send mail for violations on its network without prior notification. Subscribers are strictly prohibited from engaging in any of the following activities:
Subscribers or users are explicitly prohibited from sending unsolicited bulk-mail messages ("junk mail" or "spam"). This includes, but is not limited to, bulk-mailing of commercial advertising and political tracts. Such material may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it.
- Sending unsolicited mass or commercial e-mail ("spamming") for any purpose whatsoever. If a recipient asks a subscriber or user to stop sending e-mail, the subscriber or user must stop sending that person e-mail immediately. DCANet reserves the right to take all legal and technical steps available to prevent unsolicited bulk e-mail or other unauthorized e-mail from entering, utilizing or remaining within the DCANet Network. DCANet is not liable for any errors or omissions in e-mail content or delivery or for any form of loss or damage (including any consequential, indirect, incidental, special or exemplary damages, even if known to DCANet) that may result from use.
- Having third parties send out commercial emails on any user's behalf. Using DCANet facilities to receive replies from unsolicited emails (commonly referred to as "drop-box" accounts).
- Configuring any email server in such a way that it will accept third party emails for forwarding (an "open relay").
- Subscribers or users may not advertise a DCANet-hosted website or domain in unsolicited bulk-mail messages, even if such messages are not originated from DCANet's network.
- Malicious e-mail, including but not limited to, Denial of Service (DOS) attacks, is prohibited. Forging of message header information is prohibited.
- Mass or commercial email may be sent only to recipients who have expressly requested receipt of such e-mails, by the sending of an email request to the person performing the mass or commercial mailings. This exchanging of requests, acknowledgements, and final confirmations (commonly referred to as a "double opt-in" process) must be adhered to in their entirety for any mass or commercial email to be considered "solicited."
Users that send mass or commercial e-mail are required to maintain complete and accurate records of all e-mail subscription requests, specifically including the email and associated headers sent by every subscriber, and to immediately provide DCANet with such records upon request of DCANet. Subscriptions that do not have a specific recipient generated email request associated with them are invalid, and are strictly prohibited.
In the absence of positive, verifiable proof to the contrary, DCANet considers complaints by recipients of e-mails to be de-facto proof that the recipient did not subscribe or otherwise request the e-mail(s) about which a complaint was generated.
Customers using DCANet email accounts with their own domain names must have a "drop box" where mail for unknown addresses can be directed. This "drop box" can be configured to bounce the mail as unknown user.
Unauthenticated SMTP relay
services are available to all hosts which are assigned DCANet allocated IP addresses. This service is intended for a
reasonable volume of outbound mail delivery. This service is not intended to be used for delivery of bulk mailing
lists, large message distribution or other nonstandard SMTP services. DCANet may selectively deny or otherwise limit
access to SMTP relay services should the amount of mail from a particular host impact the performance of the
service.
Nothing in this policy is intended to grant any right to transmit or send e-mail to, or through, the DCANet Network. DCANet's failure to enforce this policy in every instance in which it might have application does not amount to a waiver of DCANet's rights.
- Responsible Use of USENET Newsgroups
- DCANet provides an uncensored newsfeed. As such, DCANet does not control the content of the newsgroups available to its subscribers or users. DCANet is not responsible for the content of any USENET posting.
- Postings to USENET newsgroups must comply with the written charters or FAQs for those newsgroups. Advertisements should only be posted to those newsgroups whose charters/FAQs explicitly permit them. The person posting is responsible for determining the etiquette of a given newsgroup prior to posting to it.
- Subscribers or users are prohibited from posting the same or similar message to large numbers of newsgroups (excessive cross-posting or multiple-posting, also known as "USENET spam").
- Subscribers or users are prohibited from posting binary files to newsgroups not specifically named for that purpose.
- Subscribers or users are prohibited from canceling or superseding posts other than their own, with the exception of official newsgroup moderators performing their duties.
- Subscribers or users are prohibited from forging header information. This includes attempting to circumvent the approval process for posting to a moderated newsgroup.
- Subscribers or users may not solicit e-mail for any other address other than their own. Additionally, subscribers or users may not solicit or collect e-mail addresses with the intent to harass or collect replies after service rendered by DCANet has been terminated.
- The legitimacy of a given post or cancellation is generally determined by the official newsgroup or mailing-list moderator. DCANet usually defers to their judgment on these issues. However, DCANet retains the exclusive right to make these determinations.
- Scheduled Maintenance
- DCANet conducts routine scheduled maintenance of its Internet Data Centers and Internet Data Services. In the event a mission critical maintenance situation arises, DCANet may be required to perform emergency maintenance at any time. During these scheduled and emergency maintenance periods, services may be unavailable. Subscribers agree to cooperate with DCANet during scheduled and emergency maintenance periods.
- Cancellation
- Cancellation requests can be made by telephone, fax or e-mail. A cancellation is effective on the first day of the next month after a cancellation request has been submitted. If no usage has been recorded, however, a PPP or POP e-mail account can be cancelled as of the first of the current month at any time during the first two weeks of the month.
DCANet reserves the right to terminate any account at any time for violations of applicable laws or for violations of this acceptable use policy.
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