Acceptable Use Policy
As a provider of web site hosting,
and other Internet-related services, KustomSites offers
its clients, and their customers and users, the means
to disseminate a wealth of public, private, commercial,
and non-commercial information. KustomSites respects
that the Internet provides a forum for free and open
discussion and dissemination of information, however,
when there are competing interests at issue, KustomSites
reserves the right to take certain preventative or corrective
actions. In order to protect these competing interests,
KustomSites 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 KustomSites’s services. This AUP
will be revised from time to time. A customer's use
of KustomSites, after changes to the AUP are posted
on KustomSites’s web site, www.KustomSites, 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
KustomSites 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 KustomSites’s
network and may reach a large number of people, including
both clients and non-clients of KustomSites, clients'
postings to the Internet may affect other clients and
may harm KustomSites’s goodwill, business reputation,
and operations. For these reasons, clients violate KustomSites
policy and the service agreement when they, their customers,
affiliates, or subsidiaries engage in the following
prohibited activities:
- Spamming
- Intellectual Property Violations
- Adult Material
- Defamatory or Abusive Language
- Forging of Headers
- Illegal or Unauthorized Access
to Other Computers or Networks
- Background Running Programs
- Distribution of Internet Viruses,
Worms, Trojan Horses, or Other Destructive Activities
- Facilitating a Violation of
this AUP
- Export Control Violations
- Usenet Groups
- Other Illegal Activities
- Other 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 KustomSites, but also because
it can overload KustomSites's network and disrupt service
to KustomSites clients. Also, maintaining an open SMTP
relay is prohibited. When a complaint is received, KustomSites
has the discretion to determine from all of the evidence
whether the Email recipients were from an "opt-in"
Email list. Refer to our UCE/SPAM Policy for more information.
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. KustomSites is required
by law to remove or block access to customer content
upon receipt of a proper notice of copyright infringement.
It is also KustomSites’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 KustomSites has been forced to create its no adult
sites policy for its virtual server users.
What does KustomSites 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, women or children for non-scientific
or non-artistic purposes.
- Any site of pornagraphic nature.
- Revenue-generating hyperlinks
to sites who violate policy #1.
Why does KustomSites
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 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.KustomSites
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 KustomSites’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 KustomSites servers, including,
but not limited to, IRC bots, egg drop, BitchX, XiRCON,
warez sites and any other program that interferes with
normal server operation.KustomSites will be the sole
arbiter of what constitutes a violation of the above
policy.
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, mail bombing,
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, mail bombing,
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 GroupsKustomSites 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 KustomSites 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. KustomSites will not, as
an ordinary practice, monitor the communications of
its client to ensure that they comply with KustomSites
policy or applicable law. When KustomSites 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.
KustomSites 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, KustomSites urges its clients to assume that
all of their on-line communications are insecure. KustomSites
cannot take any responsibility for the security of information
transmitted over KustomSites’s facilities.
KustomSites 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. KustomSites
may, however, monitor its service electronically to
determine that its facilities are operating satisfactorily.
Also, KustomSites 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. KustomSites 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, KustomSites may disclose
client information or information transmitted over its
network where necessary to protect KustomSites and others
from harm, or where such disclosure is necessary to
the proper operation of the system.
NOTE: We reserve the right to
remove any trial user from our servers if they abuse
the site builder in any way.
We hope this AUP is helpful in
clarifying the obligations of Internet users, including
KustomSites and its clients, as responsible members
of the Internet. Any complaints about a client's violation
of this AUP should be sent to info@KustomSites.com .
Questions?
Call
us Toll Free at 1-800-966-1617 - In Houston, Texas call
281-477-8672
or email us at
info@kustomsites.com |
