Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
Surfside Web’s Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) is provided to give our customers and users a clear understanding of what Surfside Web expects of them while using the service. All users of Surfside Web web hosting services: those who access some of our Services but do not have accounts, as well as those who pay a service fee to subscribe to the Services, must comply with this AUP and our TOS (Terms of Service).
Use of Surfside Web Services constitutes acceptance and agreement to our AUP as well as our TOS (Terms of Service).
We support the uncensored flow of information and ideas over the Internet and do not actively monitor subscriber activity under normal circumstances. Similarly, we do not exercise editorial control over the content of any web site, e-mail transmission or other material created or accessible over or through the services, except for certain proprietary Web sites. However, in accordance with our TOS (Terms of Service), we may remove any materials that, in our sole discretion, may be illegal, may subject us to liability, or which may violate this AUP. Surfside Web may cooperate with legal authorities and/or third parties in the investigation of any suspected or alleged crime or civil wrongdoing. Your violation of this AUP may result in the suspension or immediate termination of either your Surfside Web web hosting account or other actions as detailed in Section 3 WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE.
This document is intended to provide a basic understanding of the Surfside Web Acceptable Use Policy. The following are guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of Surfside Web’s AUP:
- Ensure reliable service to our customers
- Ensure security and privacy of our systems and network, as well as the networks and systems of others
- Comply with existing local and federal laws
- Maintain our reputation as a responsible service provider
- Encourage responsible use of the Internet and discourage activities which reduce the usability and value of Internet services
- Preserve the value of Internet resources as a conduit for free expression and exchange of information
- Preserve the privacy and security of individual users within our network
- While Surfside Web is firmly committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities that may be damaging to the resources of both Surfside Web and the Internet and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of Surfside Web and the Internet are limited, and abuse of these resources by one user has a negative impact on the entire community.
We do not routinely monitor the activity of accounts except for measurements of system utilization and the preparation of billing records. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, we will respond appropriately if we become aware of inappropriate use of our service.
You may not use your web hosting account to publish material, which Surfside Web determines, at its sole discretion, to be unlawful, indecent or objectionable. For purposes of this policy, “material” refers to all forms of communications including narrative descriptions, graphics (including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs, video recordings, and audio recordings.
If a Surfside Web account is used to violate the Acceptable Use Policy or our TOS, we reserve the right to terminate your service without notice. We prefer to advise customers of inappropriate behavior and any necessary corrective action, however, flagrant violations of the Acceptable Use Policy will result in immediate termination of service. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.
As a member of our network community, you must use your hosted web site responsibly. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact us at abuse@surfsideweb.com.
Violations of the Acceptable Use Policy
The following constitute violations of this AUP:
Illegal use: Surfside Web’s services may not be used for illegal purposes, or in support of illegal activities. Surfside Web reserves the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.
Illegal content: You may not host and/or store illegal content on Surfside Web’s servers. Such content includes (but is not limited to) Media files such as MP3, MPEG or AVI files that you do not hold a copyright to and any type of ‘Warez’. Keeping these types of files on the server can result in the immediate termination of your account without refund.
Harm to minors: Use of Surfside Web’s services to harm, or attempt to harm, minors in any way, including, but not limited to child pornography.
Threats: Use of Surfside Web’s services to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading or otherwise) that threatens or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property.
Harassment: Use of Surfside Web’s services to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading or otherwise) that harasses another.
Fraudulent activity: Use of Surfside Web’s services to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items, or services, or to advance any type of financial scam such as “pyramid schemes,” “ponzi schemes,” and “chain letters.”
Forgery or impersonation: Adding, removing or modifying identifying network header information in an effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited. Attempting to impersonate any person by using forged headers or other identifying information is prohibited. The use of anonymous remailers or nicknames does not constitute impersonation.
Unsolicited commercial e-mail / Unsolicited bulk e-mail (SPAM): Use of Surfside Web’s services to transmit any unsolicited commercial or unsolicited bulk e-mail is expressly prohibited. Violations of this type will result in the immediate termination of the offending Surfside Web account. Also, damages in the amount of no less than $250 per occurrence will be charged to your Credit Card. Surfside Web blocks emails in excess of 10 recipients in order to prevent unsolicited bulk email and spammer exploits of web services.
E-mail / News Bombing: Malicious intent to impede another person’s use of electronic mail services or news will result in the immediate termination of the offending Surfside Web account.
E-mail / Message Forging: Forging any message header, in part or whole, of any electronic transmission, originating or passing through Surfside Web’s service is in violation of this AUP.
Unauthorized access: Use of Surfside Web’s services to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others, or to penetrate, or attempt to penetrate, security measures of Surfside Web’s or another entity’s computer software or hardware, electronic communications system, or telecommunications system, whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption or loss of data, is expressly prohibited and the offending Surfside Web account is subject to immediate termination.
Copyright or trademark infringement: Use of Surfside Web’s services to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading or otherwise) that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other proprietary rights of any third party, including, but not limited to, the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, the digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, and the unauthorized transmittal of copyrighted software.
Collection of personal data: Use of Surfside Web’s services to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent.
Network disruptions and unfriendly activity: Use of Surfside Web’s services for any activity which affects the ability of other people or systems to use Surfside Web’s Services or the Internet. This includes “denial of service” (DOS) attacks against another network host or individual user. Interference with or disruption of other network users, services or equipment is prohibited. It is the Member’s responsibility to ensure that their network is configured in a secure manner. A Subscriber may not, through action or inaction, allow others to use their network for illegal or inappropriate actions. A Subscriber may not permit their network, through action or inaction, to be configured in such a way that gives a third party the capability to use their network in an illegal or inappropriate manner. Unauthorized entry and/or use of another company and/or individual’s computer system will result in immediate account termination. Surfside Web will not tolerate any subscriber attempting to access the accounts of others, or penetrate security measures of other systems, whether or not the intrusion results in corruption or loss of data.
Fraud: Involves a knowing misrepresentation or misleading statement, writing or activity made with the intent that the person receiving it will act upon it.
Infringement of Copyright, Patent, Trademark, Trade Secret, or Intellectual Property Right: Distribution and/or posting of copyrighted or the aforementioned infringements will not be tolerated.
Distribution of Viruses: Intentional distributions of software that attempts to and/or causes damage, harassment, or annoyance to persons, data, and/or computer systems are prohibited. Such an offense will result in the immediate termination of the offending account.
Third Party Accountability: Surfside Web’s subscribers will be held responsible and accountable for any activity by third parties, using their account, that violates guidelines created within the Acceptable Use Policy.
Network Flooding: We do not allow any outside client or service which will cause flooding to our network. This includes automated mirroring softwares, NewsLetters using SMTP, and POP email accounts set to automatically check boxes more frequently than 15 minutes. These special setups can only be used with our expressed permission.
IRC Services: We do not allow IRC Servers or IRC bots on the network, as they are attractors and often distributors of DoS attacks.
Shell (SSH) Accounts: We offer shell accounts to our customers on an as-needed/as-requested basis. They are there to allow our customers with more in-depth knowledge of linux to work in a command line environment. A photo copy of the users valid drivers license is required for an SSH account. Any abuse of these privileges will result in termination of SSH abilities. Abuse includes (but is not limited to) keeping a constant connection open that uses too many server resources. That being said, we do not normally monitor what goes on in each account, but instead monitor the server as a whole. But may at our own discretion eavesdrop on a suspected shell account. Any discrepancies in normal server operations will be noted and investigated.
Direct Development on Servers: We do not specifically disallow development on the servers, but as with other SSH type activities, if the development causes undue stress on the server (due to compiling, etc), your SSH access can be disabled. However ample notice will be given.
Violation Of Web Hosting Accounts: It is absolutely forbidden to host pornographic content on Web Hosting Accounts. Web Hosting Accounts found hosting this material will be subject to immediate cancellation without refund.
Responsibility to Security:
You are responsible for any misuse of your account, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a friend, family member, guest or employee. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access to your account. In addition, you may not use your account to breach security of another account or attempt to gain unauthorized access to another network or server.
Your password provides access to your account. It is your responsibility to keep your password secure.
Sharing your password and account access with unauthorized users is prohibited. You should take care to prevent others from using your account since you will be held responsible for such use.
Attempting to obtain another user’s account password is strictly prohibited, and may result in termination of service. You must adopt adequate security measures to prevent or minimize unauthorized use of your account.
You may not attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or making use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other networks. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security is prohibited. Examples of these tools include, but are not limited to, password guessing programs, cracking tools or network probing tools.
You 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.
Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. Surfside Web 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.
Network Performance
Many Surfside Web accounts operate on shared resources, unless otherwise stated in a contract. Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer may have a negative impact on all other customers. Misuse of network resources in a manner which impairs network performance is prohibited by this policy and may result in termination of your account.
You are prohibited from excessive consumption of resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space and session time. You may not use resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other customers or the performances of Surfside Web’s systems or networks. Surfside Web reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities.
SPAM and Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE):
Surfside Web takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or SPAM over our network. Very simply this means that customers of Surfside Web may not use or permit others to use our network to transact any UCE. Customers of Surfside Web may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including termination of service without refund.
Violation of the Surfside Web SPAM policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, Surfside Web will initiate an immediate investigation (within 48 hours of notification). During the investigation, Surfside Web may restrict customer access to the network to prevent further violations. If a customer is found to be in violation of our SPAM policy, Surfside Web may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate customer’s account. Further, Surfside Web reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. Surfside Web will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offense.
First violations of this policy will result in an “Administrative Fee” of $250 and your account will be reviewed for possible immediate termination. A second violation will result in an “Administrative Fee” of $500 and immediate termination of your account. Users who violate this policy agree that in addition to these “Administrative” penalties, they will pay “Research Fees” not to exceed $175 per hour that Surfside Web personnel must spend to investigate the matter. PLEASE, DO NOT SPAM from your account.
As our Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the Surfside Web network (for reseller accounts), it is advisable that Customers develop a similar, or stricter, policy for their clients.
Reporting Violations of the AUP
Surfside Web requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of this AUP direct the information to the Abuse Department at abuse@surfsideweb.com.
If available, please provide the following information:
1. The IP address used to commit the alleged violation
2. The date and time of the alleged violation, including the time zone or offset from GMT
3. Evidence illustrating the violation must be provided.
4. with full header information provides all of the above, as do system log files. Other situations will require different methods of providing the above information. Surfside Web may take any one or more of the following actions in response to complaints:
4a. Issue written or verbal warnings
4b. Suspend the Member’s account
4c. Terminate the Member’s account
4d. Bill the Member for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges
4e. Bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect damages, if any, cause by violations
Revisions to the Acceptable Use Policy
Surfside Web reserves the right to revise, amend, or modify this AUP, our TOS (Terms of Service) and our other policies and agreements at any time and in any manner. Notice of any revision, amendment, or modification will be posted in accordance with our TOS (Terms of Service).