Acceptable Use Policy

Middle Path Online's Acceptable Use Policy

By using our web hosting services, you agree to comply with this Policy. You are expected to use the Internet with respect, courtesy, and responsibility, giving due regard to the rights of other Internet users. We expect you to have a basic knowledge of how the Internet functions, the types of uses, which are generally acceptable, and the types of uses, which are to be avoided. Common sense is the best guide as to what is considered acceptable use. The following are unacceptable uses:

Illegality in any form, including but not limited to activities such as unauthorized distribution or copying of copyrighted software, violation of Australia's export restrictions, harassment, fraud, trafficking in obscene material, drug dealing, and other illegal activities.

Interpretation

The provisions of this Policy are intended as guidelines and are not meant to be exhaustive. Generally, conduct that violates law, regulation, or the accepted norms of the Internet community, whether or not expressly mentioned in this Policy, is prohibited. Middle Path Online reserves the right at all times to prohibit activities that damage its commercial reputation and goodwill.

Compliance with Law

Customer shall not post, transmit, re-transmit or store material on or through any of Services or Products which, in the sole judgment of the Company (i) is in violation of any local, state, federal or international law or regulation, (ii) threatening, obscene, indecent, defamatory or that otherwise could adversely affect any individual, group or entity (collectively, "Persons") or (iii) violates the rights of any person, including rights protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property or similar laws or regulations including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by Customer. Customer shall be responsible for determining what laws or regulations are applicable to its use of the Services and Products.

Middle Path Online will be the sole arbiters as to what constitutes a violation of this provision, provided that all such determinations shall be made reasonably in good faith based on applicable law, regulation and the accepted norms of the Internet community.

Customer Security Obligation

Each Customer must use reasonable care in keeping each script, application, server or network devices attached to or hosted by Middle Path Online's infrastructure up-to-date and patched with the latest security updates. Failure to use reasonable care to protect your applications and/or server may result in a security compromise by outside sources. Middle Path Online is not responsible for Customer application/server level security unless a security administration package, firewall security administration package or fully managed operating system package is contracted for. A compromised application or server creating network interference will result in immediate Customer notification and will be suspended/disconnected from the network immediately so as to not directly affect other Customers. No service credits will be issued for outages resulting from disconnection due directly to breached security. The Customer is solely responsible for any breaches of security affecting the applications or servers under Customer control. If a Customer intentionally creates a security breach, the cost to resolve any damage to Customer's application or server or other servers will be charged directly to the Customer. The labor used to resolve such damage is categorized as emergency security breach recovery and is currently charged at $600 AUD per hour.

System and Network Security

Violations of system or network security are strictly prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability. Middle Path Online investigates all incidents involving such violations and will cooperate with law enforcement if a criminal violation is suspected.

Examples of system or network security violations include, without limitation, the following:

1. Introduction of malicious programs into the network or server (example: viruses, worms, Trojan Horses and other executables intended to inflict harm).
2. Effecting security breaches or disruptions of Internet communication and/or connectivity. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which the Customer is not an intended recipient or logging into a server or account that the Customer is not expressly authorized to access. For purposes of this section, "disruption" includes, but is not limited to port scans, flood pings, email-bombing, packet spoofing, IP spoofing and forged routing information.
3. Executing any form of network activity that will intercept data not intended for the Customer.
4. Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account.
5. Interfering with or denying service to any user other than the Customer's host (example: denial of service attack or distributed denial of service attack).
6. Using any program script/command, or sending messages of any kind, designed to interfere with or to disable, a user's terminal session, via any means, locally or via the Internet.
7. Network interference by any Customers that may cause or is currently causing network interference with another Customer will be suspended/disconnected immediately. No service credits will be issued to Customers suspended/disconnected for network violations.
   

Misuse of System Resources on Shared Hosting Service

It is a violation for anyone to post information or to include programs on the shared hosting service provided through the Middle Path Online services which consume excessive bandwidth or CPU time. Background processes, including, but not limited to: ircbot, bnc, proxy, email sender, daemons, are strictly prohibited.

Internet Etiquette

Each Customer is expected execute reasonable Internet etiquette (Netiquette). The Customer will comply with the rules appropriate to any network to which Middle Path Online may provide access. The Customer should not post, transmit, or permit Internet access to information the Customer desires to keep confidential. The Customer is not permitted to post any material that is illegal, libelous, and tortuous, indecently depicts children or is likely to result in retaliation against Middle Path Online by offended users. Middle Path Online reserves the right to refuse or terminate service at any time for violation of this section. This includes advertising services or sites via IRC or USENET in clear violation of the policies of the IRC channel or USENET group.

Email Policy

Mass Mailings. Middle Path Online has a zero stance policy on SPAM, Junk E-mail or UCE. Spam, Junk-mail and UCE are defined as: the sending of the same, or substantially similar, unsolicited electronic mail messages, whether commercial or not, to more than one recipient. A message is considered unsolicited if it is posted in violation of a newsgroup charter or if it is sent to a recipient who has not requested or invited the message. UCE also includes e-mail with forged headers, compromised mail server relays, and false contact information. This prohibition extends to the sending of unsolicited mass mailings from another service, which in any way implicates the use of Middle Path Online's services whether or not the message actually originated from our network.

Mailing Lists: Middle Path Online's mass mailing rules also apply to mailing lists, list servs, or mailing services you may contract with. The policy is stated as follows: An acceptable mailing list will be focused at a targeted audience that has voluntarily signed up for your e-mail information or that has made their e-mail address available for distribution of information from you. The list must also allow for automatic removal by all end Customers with non-distribution in the future.

If your actions have caused Middle Path Online's mail servers or Middle Path Online's IP address ranges to be placed on blackhole lists and other mail filtering software systems used by companies on the internet, you will be assessed a $1000 charge to your account and $600 per hour for administrative charges incurred to remove and protect mail servers and IP ranges.

Use of Email Accounts. Middle Path Online provides an "unlimited" number of email accounts to its shared hosting customers. This facility should only be used for customer's direct staff and/or families. Middle Path Online specifically prohibits the use of our shared hosting's email facility to provide email service, whether it is free or fee based to the general public. For example, you cannot provide free email service such as hotmail based on our shared hosting email facility.

Child Pornography

Middle Path Online will cooperate fully with any criminal investigation into a Customer's violation of the USA's Child Protection Act of 1984 concerning child pornography. Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over Middle Path Online's servers, and will be liable for illegal material posted by their clients.

According to the Child Protection Act, child pornography includes photographs, films, video or any other type of visual presentation that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years or any written material or visual representation that advocates or counsels sexual activity with a person under the age of eighteen years.

Copyright Infringement

Middle Path Online's infrastructure including network, leased hardware, co-location services, and other hardware located in the facility may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution, or storage of any information, data or material in violation of Australian, United States, International or state regulation or law, or by the common law, is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights.

Creative, utilizing, or distributing unauthorized copies of software are a violation of federal and state law. If you copy, distribute or install the software in ways that the license does not allow, you are violating federal copyright law. Middle Path Online will cooperate with all law enforcement agencies in relation to alleged copyright infringement housed in our datacenters / servers.

Consequences of Violation

When Middle Path Online becomes aware of an alleged violation of its Acceptable Use Policy, Middle Path Online will initiate an investigation. During the investigation Middle Path Online may restrict Customer's access in order to prevent further possible unauthorized activity. Depending on the severity of the violation, Middle Path Online may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend, or terminate Customer's account and/or pursue other civil remedies. If such violation is a criminal offense, Middle Path Online will notify the appropriate law enforcement department of such violation.

Middle Path Online does not issue service credits for any outages incurred through service disablement resulting from Policy violations.

Reporting Abuse

Any party seeking to report any violations of Middle Path Online's policy may contact us via our online form.

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