Terms Of Use Agreement

QPSystems Acceptable Use Policy

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES AND THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR QPSYSTEMS SERVICES CAREFULLY BEFORE OPENING AN ACCOUNT WITH QPSYSTEMS OR CONTINUING TO USE QPSYSTEMS SERVICES. BY USING QPSYSTEMS, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY BOTH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND THESE GUIDELINES (COLLECTIVELY "THIS AGREEMENT" OR "THE AGREEMENT"). QPSYSTEMS MAY TERMINATE ITS SERVICES TO YOU IF IT FEELS THAT YOU HAVE FAILED TO COMPLY WITH EITHER THESE GUIDELINES OR THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE AGREEMENT, YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY END YOUR USE OF QPSYSTEMS AND QPSYSTEMS SOFTWARE AND NOTIFY THE QPSYSTEMS CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT TO CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT. YOU SHOULD RETURN OR DESTROY ALL COPIES OF SOFTWARE PROVIDED BY QPSYSTEMS INCLUDING THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTED BY QPSYSTEMS, INC.

QPSYSTEMS MAY CHANGE THESE GUIDELINES AND/OR THE TERMS OF SERVICE AT ANY TIME. SUCH CHANGES AND THEIR EFFECTIVE DATE WILL BE POSTED ON THE QPSYSTEMS WEB SITE OR BROUGHT TO YOUR ATTENTION BY APPROPRIATE MEANS. YOU AGREE TO REVIEW THESE GUIDELINES AND THE TERMS OF SERVICE PERIODICALLY, AND IF ANY CHANGE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO YOU, YOU AGREE TO TERMINATE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION OR AUTHORIZED USE BY NOTIFYING THE QPSYSTEMS CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF QPSYSTEMS AFTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF ANY SUCH CHANGE CONSTITUTES ACCEPTANCE OF ALL THE CHANGES. "SERVICES" REFERS TO ALL SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT PROVIDED BY OR THROUGH QPSYSTEMS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION INTERNET ACCESS AND THE LICENSING OF QPSYSTEMS OR THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE.

I. OVERVIEW

A. The Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") was designed with several factors, principles and objectives in mind:

  1. To promote the responsible use of the Internet;
  2. To ensure the privacy and security of individuals, customer entities and QPSystems's networks;
  3. To maintain a reputation of being a responsible provider of Internet resources.

B. The AUP also keeps several factors in mind:

  1. QPSystems will protect individuals' ability to freely express themselves.
  2. QPSystems encourages the responsible use of Internet resources.
  3. In order for QPSystems to comply with applicable laws, including without limitation the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2701 et seq., to comply with appropriate government requests, to operate QPSystems's systems properly, or to protect QPSystems or its customers, QPSystems may access and disclose any information, including without limitation the user names of account-holders, the contents of any personal electronic communications passing through its network, and any other information it considers necessary or appropriate. QPSystems will cooperate with law enforcement authorities in investigating suspected lawbreakers. QPSystems reserves the right to report to law enforcement any suspected illegal activity of which it becomes aware.

C. QPSystems provides to business and consumer users several information technology related services including such service as Internet access, various electronic mail (e-mail) packages and services, World Wide Web web-site hosting arrangements, and other online and Internet-related services and equipment. It is contrary to QPSystems policy for any user of any of these services to participate in any of the following activities through a QPSystems provided service.

D. Nothing contained in this policy shall be constructed to limit QPSystems's actions or remedies in any way with respect to any of the foregoing activities. QPSystems reserves the right to take any and all additional actions it may deem appropriate with respect to such activities, including but not limited to taking action to recover the costs and expenses of identifying offenders and removing them from the QPSystems service, and levying cancellation charges to cover QPSystems's costs in the event of disconnection of dedicated access for the causes outlined below. In addition, QPSystems reserves at all times all rights and remedies available to it with respect to such activities as law or in equity.

E. All users will be bound to this AUP, and any changes made from time to time.

II. ENFORCEMENT

A. If QPSystems receives a complaint or otherwise becomes aware of any possible violation of these Guidelines or the Terms and Conditions, QPSystems may, in its sole discretion, initiate an investigation. This investigation may include gathering information from and about account holders and examining the content of personal electronic communications, Web host pages or QPSystems Personal Pages on QPSystems's servers. During any investigation QPSystems may suspend services to any customer being investigated and/or remove the material from its servers. You agree to cooperate with any such investigation.

B. If QPSystems determines, in its sole discretion, that a violation of these Guidelines or the Terms and Conditions has occurred, QPSystems may, but will not be obligated to take any or all of the following actions: temporarily or permanently remove material from QPSystems servers, discontinue access to Usenet newsgroups, cancel newsgroup postings, move posts to a more appropriate forum (if any), warn the account holder(s) involved, remove e-mail sent by you, suspend or terminate account(s), remove or deny access to your Web host page(s) or QPSystems Personal Web page(s) on QPSystems's servers, and take other responsive action at any time and for any reason. Violations of these Guidelines could also subject you to criminal or civil liability including monetary damages.

C. Upon the first verifiable violation of one of these policies (one or more formal complaints), QPSystems will issue a warning via e-mail and will contact Customer and outline the sections in violation verbally.

D. Upon the second verifiable violation, QPSystems will issue a second warning via email and will contact the Customer and outline the sections violation verbally. Customer must submit in writing an agreement to cease and desist activities which are in violation of the AUP. Customer must notify QPSystems in writing of intended action to remedy the situation no later than:

  • 5:00PM EDT of the same business day if notice was sent before noon of that same day.
  • 12:00PM EDT of the next business day if notice was sent after 12:00PM EDT on day of notice.

Failure to submit notice will result in suspension of Customer's service until agreement has been made.

E. Upon the third violation, QPSystems will terminate Customer's service.

III. MISCELLANEOUS

Non-enforcement of any section in this AUP does not constitute consent, and QPSystems reserves the right to enforce this AUP at its own discretion.

A. NETWORK SECURITY

  1. Users are prohibited from entering, attempting to enter or otherwise circumventing systems without authorization. This includes but is not limited to techniques such as port scanning, packet sniffing, vulnerability testing and password cracking.
  2. Users may not, under any circumstances, attempt to interfere with the normal operation of another network. Such actions could result in a "Denial of Service" attack, which carry civil as well as criminal liabilities. This includes techniques such as ping-flooding, crash "packet sequences", "smurfing", and other means of compromising a host or network.

B. E-MAIL

  1. Harassment, whether through language, frequency or size of messages, is prohibited.
  2. Users may not send e-mail to any person or entity who does not wish to receive it. If a recipient asks to stop receiving e-mail, the user must stop sending that person or entity any more e-mail.

  3. Users are EXPLICITLY PROHIBITED from sending unsolicited "bulk" messages ("junk mail" or "spam"). This includes bulk-mailing of commercial advertising, informational and political announcements. Such material may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it.

  4. Users may not forward or otherwise propagate chain letters.

  5. Malicious e-mail, including "mail bombing", is prohibited.

  6. Falsification of user information provided to QPSystems, its agents, or to other users of the service, in connection with use of a QPSystems service is prohibited.

  7. QPSystems accounts and services may not be used to collect replies to messages sent from another service provider, where the messages violate this AUP or the AUP of the other provider.

  8. Posting ten (10) or more messages similar in content to mailing lists or persons is prohibited.

  9. Users may not send unsolicited e-mailings to more than twenty-five (25) e-mail users, if such unsolicited e-mailings could reasonably be expected to provoke complains.

  10. To engage in any of the foregoing activities using the service of another provider, but channeling such activities through a QPSystems account, a.k.a. re-mailing, or otherwise through a QPSystems service or using a QPSystems account as a mail-drop for responses or otherwise using the services of another provider for the purpose of facilitating the foregoing activities if such use of another party's service could reasonably be expected to adversely affect a QPSystems service.

  11. Mailbox sizes are limited to ten (10) mega-bytes; if the user exceeds ten megabytes then they will be billed $.50 per mega-byte after their initial 10, unless prior arrangements have been made.

C. USENET

  1. QPSystems provides an "uncensored" news feed. QPSystems does not control the content of the newsgroups available to customers, via NNTP (news "feed" service) or NNRP (news "read" service). QPSystems is not responsible for the content of any USENET posting, even if the post was made by a QPSystems customer.

  2. Postings to USENET groups must comply with the written charters or FAQs for newsgroups. Advertisements should only be posted in groups whose charters/FAQs to explicitly grant them permission.

  3. Users are prohibited from posting the same or similar message to large numbers of newsgroups (excessive cross-posting or multiple-posting, also known as "USENET spam").

  4. Users are prohibited from posting chain letters of any type.

  5. Users are prohibited from posting binary files to newsgroups not specifically named for that purpose.

  6. Users are prohibited from canceling or superseding posts other than their own, with the exception of official newsgroup moderators performing their duties.

  7. Users are prohibited from forging header information. This includes attempting to circumvent the approval process for posting to a moderated newsgroup.

  8. A customer may not solicit mail for any other address other than that of the customer's account or service, with the intent to harass or collect replies after their service has been terminated.

D. IRC

  1. QPSystems is not liable for the content of any communications made on IRC. The QPSystems IRC service is a free, value-added service for QPSystems customers, and the terms of its operation are subject to change. QPSystems reserves the right to ban from its IRC server any user whose conduct is (in QPSystems's sole judgment) disruptive.

  2. IRC robots ("bots" or "clones") may not be operated from QPSystems shell accounts or on the QPSystems IRC server.

  3. Users may not attempt to impersonate others or may they use IRC anonymously by disguising their hostname or username.

  4. Users are prohibited from using IRC scripts or programs that interfere with or deny service to other users on any server or host. Users are also prohibited from engaging in activities which harass other users. This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" (rapidly entering text with the intent to fill the screens of others), "flashing" (disrupting terminal emulation), "takeovers" (forcibly seizing operator privileges), attempting to send private messages to those who do not wish to see them (via "ignore"), attempting to return to a channel after being banned from it, and other disruptive behaviors.

E. DIALUP

QPSystems provides end users and resellers ("User") with dialup analog and ISDN access. The following are the terms and conditions associated with such access.

  1. Access is provided on an "as is, as available" basis.

  2. The use of QPSystems's servers may be revoked at any time for abusive conduct. QPSystems will be the sole arbiter in determining what is abusive conduct.

  3. QPSystems does not warrant that the functions of the system will meet any specific requirements you may have, or that it will be error free or uninterrupted.

  4. QPSystems will not be liable for any direct or indirect, incidental or consequential damages sustained or incurred in connection with the use, operation, or inability to use the system.

  5. e. Users will be permitted to dial in with any single-channel protocol supported. 2 channel accounts are provided for an extra fee.

  6. f. Users will not share there passwords, or any account information, multiple logins from the same accounts will be billed as 2 separate accounts.

F. ACCOUNT SECURITY

  1. The user is responsible for all of their own account(s) and confidentiality of password(s). QPSystems will suspend access to account(s) if QPSystems believes the security of the account(s) is compromised.

G. LOGIN PROCEDURE

  1. QPSystems reserves the right to change, without notice, QPSystems's service, including but not limited to, access or dial-in procedures, commands, documentation, vendors and/or services offered.

  2. Due to conditions beyond our control, users may not always connect at full bandwidth (28.8, 33.6, etc.). All facilities come into QPSystems at a digital level: there is no problem or loss at our end. If a User consistently connects at unacceptable speeds, it is the User's responsibility to contact their telephone company.

  3. User is responsible for all telephone charges associated with connecting.

H. Bill Payment

  1. All payments should be postmarked by the 15th of each month; if not postmarked by the 15th, a 3% late charge for the month be added to your bill.

  2. If client does not pay all fees for products or services from QPSystems, client agrees to pay a collection fee of $35. QPSystems reserves the right to refer unpaid balances on clients accounts to a collection agency.

REFERENCES

  1. The AUP may be found at http://www.qpsystems.com/tou.asp

  2. A list of ways to contact QPSystems is available at http://www.qpsystems.com/contact.asp

  3. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act can be found at http://law2.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t17t20+1017+40++comm