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Terms of Service (AUP) draft

The Spacing Guild, Incorporated Hosting Services

Terms of Service

 

23 September 2009

 

1 Introduction

 

This document replaces the Acceptable Use Policy, dated 18 October 2003.  Please note that this document may be updated at any time. Although The Spacing Guild, Incorporated (referred to below as TSG) will make an effort to notify its members of any changes, it is not required to do so. Thus it is the member’s responsibility to keep up to date with TSG’s policies regarding acceptable use of its services.

 

The following goals guide the establishment and enforcement of TSG’s usage policies:

 

TSG is a non-profit corporation that was formed to provide a low-cost hosting service to its members. Abuse of TSG resources by one member has a negative impact on all of its members. Therefore if a TSG member account is used to violate this policy, we reserve the right to terminate or suspend the account without notice.  Members agree to indemnify TSG against any claims brought by third parties as a result of their violation of this policy and/or as a result of the content hosted by their account. 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.

 

Members must take steps to ensure that others do not gain access to their account, as the member is responsible for any misuse of their account. This also includes misuse caused by security “holes” created through negligence on the part of the member. Members must not give out their password to anyone, and will never be asked for their password by any member of the TSG staff.

 

Members of TSG are also fully responsible for the actions of any “guest” users under their account. Any violations by these “guest” users may also result in the suspension or termination of the “host” member account, as well as the “guest” account.

 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy, or would like to report actions in violation of this policy, please email us at the following address: abuse@spacing-guild.net

 

2 General Information

 

In general, you may not use your TSG member account to:

 

To ensure sufficient storage space for all members of TSG and for system purposes, each member is limited to 3 Gigabytes of storage space. Any files stored by the system under the member’s account for any purpose (including, but not limited to, email and web sites), count towards this quota. Storage required by the files of a member’s “guest” accounts also count toward this quota. This quota may or may not be enforced by the system software, and as such, it is the responsibility of the member to ensure that he or she does not exceed this limit.  It is also the responsibility of the member to back up his or her data.  TSG provides services on a best-effort basis and provides no guarantee of data integrity or level-of-service.

Resale of TSG services is prohibited.  Transmission, distribution, or storage of any information, data, or material in violation of United States or state law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, or any other statute.  TSG reserves the right to remove any such illegal material from its servers and/or to terminate the account responsible without notice.

TSG reserves sole discretion to determine whether any use of its services is a violation of this policy. Guidelines on specific aspects of TSG services follow. These are only guidelines, and are not meant to be all-inclusive.

 

3 Electronic Mail

 

TSG provides a number of email-related services to its members. These may include SMTP, IMAP, POP, web-based mail gateways, and others.

 

No services provided by TSG may be used to send or facilitate the sending of bulk email, especially of unsolicited commercial content (“spam”). Members may not use any of these services to harass or abuse others.

 

Members may have five (5) “guest” email accounts in addition to their system account. This limit is for email accounts only. Other services, such as web hosting, are handled separately with regards to “guest” accounts. Members may have an unlimited number of email aliases. Email mailboxes are only subject to the per-member disk quota; no special size limits are placed on them.

 

Members may be provided with mechanisms to administer their guest email accounts and their email aliases, and as such, must act responsibly. Members must abide by the limits in this policy, as they may not be enforced by the software. Any violation of these limits is grounds for immediate termination of the account.

 

4 Web Sites

 

TSG provides customized web site hosting capabilities for its members. For each member account, an unlimited number of domains is allowed, subject only to quota limitations. The content of these domains must be the work of the member. Websites whose content is generated (either directly or indirectly) by 3rd parties fall under the rules for “guest” web accounts.

 

Member accounts are allowed two (2) “guest” web hosting accounts. These accounts do not have shell access and are limited to FTP. Each “guest” web hosting account is limited to one domain. TSG will not provide customized services for “guest” accounts.

 

Members are solely responsible for any content on their web sites and the web sites of their “guests.” Unlawful content is strictly prohibited. Content which is found objectionable by an official action of the members of TSG is also prohibited. TSG will not routinely monitor the contents of its members’ web sites, but finding prohibited material is grounds for suspension and/or termination of a member’s account.

Commercial or for-profit web sites shall not mention TSG.  All earnings from such web sites are considered the member's individual earnings, not TSG's earnings.  As such, all tax responsibilities belong to the member.  All policies in this document apply equally to for-profit web sites, including those regarding the lack of a level-of-service guarantee.

 

As TSG provides a large degree of freedom with respect to scripting capabilities, it is the responsibility of the member to do their best to ensure that any dynamic content generation systems hosted on their domain(s) are secure. This includes, but is not limited to: keeping up-to-date with patches for 3rd party systems, auditing any custom-made systems, removing any “default” accounts on such systems, and choosing secure passwords. Members are responsible for making sure these steps are taken for their “guest” web accounts.

 

5 Privacy Statement

 

It is TSG’s policy to respect and protect the privacy of its members and their information that is stored on TSG servers. TSG will only use this information and disclose this information as necessary to comply with applicable laws, provide the advertised services to its members, or to protect itself or its members.