Gate West
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
Document last modified: November 19, 2001
Important Note: Gate West (herein
"GW") may revise this Acceptable Use Policy without notice
by posting a revised version on our Web Site at www.gatewest.net/aup.
Accordingly, GW customers should consult this document regularly
to ensure that their usage conforms to the most recent version.
In the event of conflict between any customer agreement and this
Policy, the terms of this Policy will govern. Complaints of violations
of this Policy by GW users can be directed to:
abuse@gatewest.net
1. Introduction
GW provides a variety of Internet Services to residences and businesses
(the Services). The GW Service allows residential customers to connect
to the GW network, and the Internet. iNet, Professional, and Business
services allow businesses to connect to the GW high-speed backbone
network, and the Internet for the purposes of transacting business.
All of the Services provided by GW are subject to this Acceptable
Use Policy.
The Services use resources that are shared with many customers.
Moreover, the Services provide access to the Internet which is used
by millions of others. Each user benefits by being able to share
resources and communicate almost effortlessly with other members
of the user community. However, as with any community, the benefits
and privileges available from the Service, and the Internet in general,
must be balanced with duties and responsibilities designed to guarantee
uniform access to all customers of the Service.
Use of the Services is subject to the following rules and guidelines.
Each customer of GW is responsible for ensuring that the use of
all Services provided to such customer comply with this Acceptable
Use Policy (the Policy). ANY USER WHO DOES
NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS MUST IMMEDIATELY CANCEL THE SERVICE AND
NOTIFY GW'S CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT THAT THE ACCOUNT IS TO BE
TERMINATED.
2. Illegal Activity
Use of the Services for any activity that violates Local, Provincial,
Federal or International law, order or regulation, is a violation
of this Policy.
Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:
· Posting or disseminating unlawful material (child pornography
or obscene material)
· Disseminating material which violates copyright or intellectual
property rights. The customer assumes all risk regarding whether
material is in the public domain
· Pyramid or other illegal soliciting schemes
· Fraudulent activities; including but not limited to: impersonating
any person or entity, or forging anyone's digital or manual signature
3. Security
The customer is responsible for any misuse of the Services that
originate from their account, even activities committed by any friend,
family, co-worker, employee, guest or anyone with access to the
account. Customers must ensure that others not gain unauthorized
access to the Services.
The Services may not be used to breach the security of another user,
or to attempt access to anyone's computer, software or data, without
the knowledge and consent of that person. The Services may not be
used in any attempt to circumvent the 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,
probing the security of other networks. Use or distribution of tools
designed for compromising security, such as password guessing programs,
cracking tools, packet sniffers or network probing tools, is prohibited.
You may not disrupt the Services. The Services also may not be used
to interfere with computer networking or telecommunications services
to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, denial
of service (DoS) attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service,
improper seizing and abuse of operator privileges and attempts to
crash a host. The transmission or dissemination of any information
or software that contains a virus or other harmful feature is also
prohibited.
The customer is responsible for the security of any device connected
to the Services by the customer, including data stored on that device.
In particular, GW recommends against enabling file or printer sharing
of any kind. GW recommends that any files or services you make available
for remote access be password protected.
4. Inappropriate Content
Certain Internet content available through the Services may be
offensive to individuals (particularly for children), or may not
be in compliance with local laws or regulations; i.e. pornographic
content or hate literature. GW assumes NO responsibility for Internet
content available through the Services. The customer assumes all
risk when accessing content through the Services, and GW shall not
be liable for any and all claims, losses, actions, damages, suits
or proceedings arising out of or otherwise relating to, access of
such content. Parents are responsible for restricting access to
sexually explicit material on the Internet, by purchasing the appropriate
filtering software, or by monitoring Internet use. Content questions
or complaints should be addressed to the content provider, not GW.
The customer is responsible for information published to the Web
or other Internet services, through their account. GW reserves the
right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials,
in whole or in part, that it, at its sole discretion, deems to be
offensive, indecent, or otherwise inappropriate regardless of whether
such material or its dissemination is unlawful.
GW has no obligation to monitor transmissions made on the Services.
However, GW has the right to monitor such transmissions and to disclose
the same in accordance with your Service agreement. By using the
Services to publish, transmit or distribute content, a user is warranting
that the content complies with this Policy and authorizes GW to
reproduce, publish, distribute and display such content worldwide.
5. Electronic Mail
The Services may not be used to send unsolicited bulk (spamming)
or commercial messages. This includes, but is not limited to, bulk
mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements,
charity requests, petitions for signatures and political or religious
messages. Such messages may be sent only to those who have explicitly
requested them.
The Services may not be used to collect responses from unsolicited
email sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or email services
which violates this Policy or the acceptable use policy of any other
Internet service provider. Moreover, unsolicited email may not direct
the recipient to any web site or other resource that uses the Services.
Forging, altering or removing electronic mail headers is prohibited.
However, you may insert additional characters into your from: and
reply-to: addresses in order to prevent your true address from being
automatically added to the mailing lists used by bulk emailers.
In this case, your true address must remain obvious to any human
viewer. For example, you may substitute nospam.john.smith for john.smith.
You may not reference GW (e.g. including Organization: Gate West
in the header, or by listing an IP address that belongs to GW) in
any unsolicited email, even if that email is not sent through GW.
Mail Bombing is prohibited; you may not send numerous copies of
the same or substantially similar messages, nor may you send very
large messages or files to a recipient with the intent to disrupt
a server or account. The propagation of chain letters is prohibited,
whether or not the recipient wishes to receive such mailings.
GW is not responsible for the forwarding of email sent to any account
that has been suspended or terminated. Such email will either be
returned to sender, ignored, deleted, or stored temporarily, at
GW's sole discretion.
6. Newsgroups
Messages posted to newsgroups must comply with the written charters
or FAQ's for those newsgroups. Advertisements, solicitations, or
other commercial messages should be posted only in those newsgroups
whose charters or FAQ's explicitly permit them. The customer is
responsible for determining the policies of a given newsgroup before
posting to it.
Posting or cross-posting the same or substantially similar messages
to any amount of newgroups deemed unacceptable by GW is prohibited.
Binary files may not be posted to newsgroups not specifically named
for that purpose.
Forging, altering or removing header information is prohibited.
This includes attempting to circumvent the approval process for
posting to a moderated newsgroup.
GW reserves the right to discontinue access to any Usenet newsgroup
at any time and for any reason.
You may not flood or disrupt Usenet newsgroups. Disruption is defined
as posting a large number of messages to a newsgroup that contains
no substantive content, to the extent that normal discussion in
the group is significantly hindered. Examples of disruptive activities
include, but are not limited to: posting multiple messages with
no text in the body, posting many follow-ups to messages with no
new text.
Messages may not be cancelled, except by the author or by official
newsgroup moderators performing their duties.
The Usenet news service included with a GW account is provided for
interactive use by the customer, using a commonly available NNTP
client such as Netscape Communicator. Non-interactive clients that
download Usenet articles in bulk are prohibited.
7. Internet Relay Chat
The Services may be used to participate in Chat discussions hosted
by GW servers, third party servers, or may not involve servers at
all. In all cases, GW does not monitor the contents of the discussion
and is not liable for the content of any communications made via
Internet Chat.
The Services may not be used for Chat flooding. Flooding is defined
as deliberately repeating actions in quick succession in order to
fill the screens of other Internet users with text.
Any computer or other device connected through the Services may
not maintain more than 2 simultaneous chat connections. This includes
the use of automated programs, such as bots or clones. Automated
programs may not be used when the account holder is not physically
present at the device.
The Services may not be used to send messages that disrupt another
Internet user's equipment, including software, hardware and user
display.
The Services may not be used to access any chat server in violation
of the acceptable use policy of that server. The Services may not
be used to manipulate any chat server in order to harass or disconnect
other Internet users, or to gain privileges that have not been authorized.
A customer may not use the Services to connect to chat servers or
channels from which they have been previously banned.
The Services may not be used to continue to send chat messages to
an Internet user who has indicated their desire to not receive messages.
Forging, altering, or obscuring your identity while participating
in chat sessions is forbidden. You may, however, use a nickname
as long as all chat participants are able to discover your real
name via normal Internet conventions, such as the whois command.
8. Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitation
You must comply with the current bandwidth, data storage and other
limitations on the Services.
Users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict,
inhibit or degrade any other customer's use of the Services, nor
represent (in the sole judgement of GW) an unusually large burden
on the network itself. In addition, users must ensure that their
activity does not improperly restrict, disrupt, inhibit, degrade
or impede GW's ability to deliver the Services and monitor the Services,
backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.
Customers may not resell, share, or otherwise distribute the Services
or any portion thereof to any third party without the written consent
of GW. For example, you cannot provide Internet access to others
through a dial up connection, host shell accounts over the Internet,
provide email or news service, or send a news feed unless express
permission is granted by the customer agreement.
You may not use GW Service for commercial purposes. You may not
run a server in connection with the GW Service nor may you provide
network services to others via the GW Service. Examples of prohibited
servers and services include, but are not limited to, mail, http,
ftp, irc, and dhcp servers, and multi-user interactive forums. Some
Business services may be exempt from these limitations.
9. Violation of Acceptable Use Policy
GW does not routinely monitor the activity of accounts for violation
of this Policy. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship
within the Internet community, we will respond appropriately if
we become aware of inappropriate use of the Services. Although GW
has no obligation to monitor the Services and/or the network, GW
reserves the right to monitor bandwidth, usage and content from
time to time, to identify violations of this Policy; and/or to protect
the network and GW users.
GW prefers to advise customers of inappropriate behaviour and any
necessary corrective action. However, if the Services are used in
a way that GW, in its sole discretion, believes are in violation
of this Policy, GW may take any responsive actions deemed appropriate.
Such actions include, but are not limited to, temporary or permanent
removal of content, cancellation of newsgroup posts, filtering of
Internet transmissions, and the immediate suspension or termination
of all or any portion of the Services. GW will not have any liability
for any such responsive actions. The above-described actions are
not GW's exclusive remedies and GW may take any other legal or technical
action it deems appropriate.
GW reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of this
Policy, including the gathering of information from the user or
users involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination
of material on GW's servers and network. During an investigation,
GW may suspend the account or accounts involved and/or remove material
that potentially violates this Policy.
You hereby authorize GW to cooperate with (i) law enforcement authorities
in the investigation of suspected criminal violations, and/or (ii)
system administrators at other Internet service providers or other
network or computing facilities in order to enforce this Policy.
Such cooperation may include GW providing the username, IP address,
or other identifying information about a subscriber.
Upon termination of an account, GW is authorized to delete any files,
programs, data and email messages associated with such account.
The failure of GW to enforce this Policy, for whatever reason, shall
not be construed as a waiver of any right to do so at any time.
You agree that, if any portion of this Policy is held invalid or
unenforceable, that portion will be construed consistent with applicable
law as nearly as possible, and the remaining portions will remain
in full force and effect.
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