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Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
As a provider of web site hosting, and other Internet-related services,
Digitalis offers its clients, and their customers and users, the
means to disseminate a wealth of public, private, commercial, and
non-commercial information.
Digitalis respects that the Internet provides a forum for free and
open discussion and dissemination of information, however, when
there are competing interests at issue, Digitalis reserves the right
to take certain preventative or corrective actions. In order to
protect these competing interests, Digitalis 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
Digitalis’s services.
This AUP will be revised from time to time. A customer's use of
Digitalis after changes to the AUP are posted on Digitalis’s
web site, www.Digitalis.com.au,
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 Digitalis 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 Digitalis’s
network and may reach a large number of people, including both clients
and non-clients of Digitalis, clients' postings to the Internet
may affect other clients and may harm Digitalis’s goodwill,
business reputation, and operations. For these reasons, clients
violate Digitalis policy and the service agreement when they, their
customers, affiliates, or subsidiaries engage in the following prohibited
activities:
CGI Abuse
Digitalis allows CGI to be used on all Virtual Servers. CGI can
be resource intensive however, and because a Virtual Server must
be shared with other users, we must limit how much of the CPU can
be used by any one account on a shared server. There are several
reasons why Digitalis has created its CGI Abuse policy for its virtual
server users.
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What does Digitalis consider "CGI
ABUSE"?
Any site whose CGI programs are using excessive amounts of
system resources. Excessive amounts is defined as any amount
that results in substantial degradation of server performance.
Digitalis is the sole determinant of what consititues degraded
server performance.
Due to their use of flat files instead of databases, Digitalis
does not allow the use of UBB or YABB bulletin boards (flat
files versions). Use of these boards for large or very active
forums, results in system performance degradation, and cannot
be allowed in our shared server environment. Digitalis suggests
using VBulletin or phpBB as a more efficient, database-driven
alternative to these bulletin boards.
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Why does Digitalis have this policy?
Server Speed and Fairness to others A Virtual
Server is shared. As such, there are many accounts per machine.
In all fairness, Digitalis cannot allow one or two clients to
use all of the System resources on a shared machine and have
all other clients on the machine suffer because of it. Excessive
CPU usage by one or more clients causes extreme slowness in
all areas: FTP, Telnet, Web Sites and more. If the CPU usage
gets too far out of hand, all sites hosted on the machine will
return Errors and not be accessible in any way. |
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What happens if I violate this policy?
All accounts that are found to using excessive amounts
of system resources will receive an email warning from Digitalis.
This warning will inform you that there is too much CGI running
and it will provide options for reducing the usage or upgrading
your server. If you do not reduce the usage within 24 hours
of the email being sent, your CGI scripts will be disabled.
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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 Digitalis, but
also because it can overload Digitalis's network and disrupt service
to Digitalis clients. Also, maintaining an open SMTP relay is prohibited.
When a complaint is received, Digitalis 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 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.
Digitalis is required by law to remove or block access to customer
content upon receipt of a proper notice of copyright infringement.
It is also Digitalis’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 Digitalis has been forced to
create its no adult sites policy for its virtual server users.
What does Digitalis 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.
Why does Digitalis 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.
Digitalis 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 Digitalis’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 Digitalis servers,
including, but not limited to, IRC bots, eggdrop, BitchX, XiRCON,
warez sites and any other program that interferes with normal server
operation.
Digitalis will be the sole arbitor of what consitutes 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, 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
Digitalis 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 Digitalis
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. Digitalis
will not, as an ordinary practice, monitor the communications of
its client to ensure that they comply with Digitalis policy or applicable
law. When Digitalis 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.
Digitalis 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, Digitalis
urges its clients to assume that all of their on-line communications
are insecure. Digitalis cannot take any responsibility for the security
of information transmitted over Digitalis’ facilities.
Digitalis 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.
Digitalis may, however, monitor its service electronically to determine
that its facilities are operating satisfactorily. Also, Digitalis
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. Digitalis 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, Digitalis may disclose
client information or information transmitted over its network where
necessary to protect Digitalis and others 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 Digitalis and its clients, as responsible members
of the Internet. Any complaints about a client's violation of this
AUP should be sent to abuse@digitalis.com.au |
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