Last updated: Wednesday, December 13, 2006
The Internet is intended for use by mature adults (and by minors when supervised by mature adults). Our customers are expected to use the Internet with respect, courtesy, and responsibility, giving due regard to the rights of other Internet users. The customer is expected to have a basic knowledge of how the Internet functions, the types of use which are generally acceptable, and the types of use which are to be avoided.
Neotrope® Hosting will only offer hosting services to companies and adult individuals who reside within the United States or its environs. (This does not mean we won't host foreign-based domain extensions, such as ".tv" but rather that we won't provide hosting for companies whose sole place of business is outside the US.)
Common sense is the best guide as to what is considered acceptable use. However, certain unacceptable practices will constitute a violation of our AUP.
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 U.S. export restrictions, harassment, fraud, trafficking in obscene material, adult, pornographic, drug dealing, and other illegal activities.
Net abuse, including but not limited to activities such as using a non-existent e-mail return address on a commercial solicitation, spamming (sending unsolicited advertising to numerous e-mail addresses or newsgroups and/or generating a significantly higher volume of outgoing e-mail than a normal user), trolling (posting outrageous messages to generate numerous responses), mailbombing (sending multiple messages without significant new content to the same user), subscribing someone else to a mailing list without that person's permission, cross-posting articles to an excessive number of newsgroups, or attempting without authorization to enter into a secured computer system. Neotrope® Hosting reserves the right to determine what constitutes net abuse.
Tortious conduct, including but not limited to posting of defamatory, scandalous, or private information about a person without their consent, intentionally inflicting emotional distress, or violating trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights.
Misuse of system resources, including but not limited to employing posts or programs which consume excessive CPU time or storage space; permitting use of mail services, mail forwarding capabilities, POP accounts, or autoresponders other than for the customer's own account; or resale of access to CGI scripts installed on our servers.
Neotrope does not allow install of chat room software on our server, "free web page" communities, forwarding of URLs in the "come.to" style, free search engine submission or spidering services, nor the Gossamer-Threads Search script (or other Yahoo-style search engine systems), due to very high use of system resources.
All hosting plans include a specific amount of transfer bandwidth. Consumed data transfer in excess of allotted bandwidth will be charged at $12 per GB, or the prevaling rate at time of overage.
E-mail Limitations:
Mailing lists with recipients in excess of 1,000 customers must be distributed outside of normal business hours so as to minimize delays in receiving e-mail for other domains on the server.
You may not use attachments (e.g., PDF, MS Word, .exe, etc.) when sending bulk "opt-in" customer e-mail via your SMTP server — or your ISP — as this can be rejected as a possible virus and set-up a cascading problem between multiple mail-servers (ours, and your varied recipients) due to a high number of "rejected" (undeliverable) returns. Per industry practice, the accepted method of including information with a bulk e-mailing is in text (.txt) or HTML (.htm) format only.
You may not send more than 10,000 customer e-mails per month via your SMTP mail server. If you use your ISP, there are no restrictions on number of outgoing e-mails as that is subject to your agreement(s) with your respective Internet Service Provider.
If you send/receive an excessive amount of e-mail we may downgrade your mail server setting from "high" priority, to "very low" so as to not impact other accounts on the same server.
(External "portal" service providers, such as Everyone.net's free e-mail are not subject to this provision since all e-mail is hosted on their server once initiated.)
Sending bulk e-mail, whether solicited or un-solicited, through a third-party and using your account e-mail for responses will likely result in numerous complaints, and possibly blocking of your mail server from many ISPs and domains (including AOL, etc.). Be very careful if you choose to market via e-mail using a company offering such services, and make sure they use only true "opt-in" lists, and follow all state and Federal anti-spam laws.
Internet etiquette and certain laws now in effect state you must include a real option in any and all customer e-mail for the receiving party to be removed from future mailings, whether they have purchased from you in the past or not. Bulk e-mail is considered more akin to faxing than to direct mail due to the cost of a person's time and connection fees in order to receive and discard e-mail.
General Policies
Server Security, is the responsibility of all Neotrope® Hosting clients who choose to host their domain(s) with us. You must ensure reasonable practices to keep your admin username(s) and passwords secure from unauthorized use. You should only give access to your domain to active employees whom you trust implicity with your content, and who you trust to adhere to your security practices. If you are found to be negligent with your access to our server and this causes a severe breach of security causing malicious failure of services or other damage, you will be fully liable for all costs associated with repairing or recovering from such a breach.
Parked domains are to be used for the purpose of having more than one way to find the same site, not for the purposes of sharing an account among multiple sites. A parked domain may not be set up to reference a subdirectory within an existing Web hosting account served by Neotrope® Hosting or any other provider. Parked domains are not to be used as a substitute for purchasing separate accounts.
NEOTROPE WILL "SUSPEND" A HOSTING ACCOUNT FOR BREACH OF THIS POLICY AND/OR FOR EXCESSIVE PAST-DUE PAYMENT FOR AMOUNTS DUE FOR HOSTING CONTRACTS. UPON INVESTIGATION, IF A VIOLATION HAS OCCURED, THE ACCOUNT MAY BE "TERMINATED."
NEOTROPE MAKES NO IMPLIED MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS OF PURPOSE OF ANY KIND IN THE USE OF OUR SERVICES. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL NEOTROPE BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY SERVICE OUTAGE, INABILITY TO REACH CONTENT OR ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS, BEYOND THE AMOUNT PAID BY CLIENT FOR SUCH SERVICE. WHILE NEOTROPE HAS MADE REASONABLE PROVISION TO PROVIDE FOR UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF 100% AVAILABILITY OF SERVICES, DUE TO HARDWARE FAILURE, ACTS OF GOD, OR OTHER EVENTS OUTSIDE OF NEOTROPE'S CONTROL. NEOTROPE MAKES NO CLAIMS ABOUT SERVICE OPTIONS BEYOND WHAT IS EXPRESSLY NOTED IN OUR HOSTING PLAN DESCRIPTIONS.
Agreement to this policy
By applying for a virtual Web hosting account with Neotrope, customer agrees to abide by this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and all terms and conditions contained herein.
Abuse
Complaints about violators of our policies should be referred to abuse@Neotropehosting.com. Each complaint will be investigated.
