ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
Last Updated: 01 Mar 06

Community Hosting, Inc. ("The Company") agrees to furnish services to the Subscriber, subject to the following TOS (Terms of Service).

Use of Community Hosting Service constitutes acceptance and agreement to Community Hosting's AUP as well as Community Hosting's TOS (Terms of Service).

All provisions of this contract are subject to the TOS (Terms of Service) of Community Hosting, Inc. and AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). The AUP may be changed from time to time at the discretion of the Company. Subscriber understands that change to the AUP by the Company shall not be grounds for early contract termination or non-payment.

1. Disclosure to Law Enforcement: The AUP specifically prohibits the use of our service for illegal activities. Therefore, Subscriber agrees that the Company may disclose any and all subscriber information including assigned IP numbers, account history, account use, etc. to any law enforcement agent who makes a written request without further consent or notification to the Subscriber. In addition Community Hosting shall have the right to terminate all service set forth in this Agreement.
2. Service Rates: Subscriber acknowledges that the nature of the service furnished and the initial rates and charges have been communicated to Subscriber. Subscriber is aware that the Company may prospectively change the specified rates and charges from time to time. The promotional offer is contingent upon Company achieving and maintaining its cost of service goals including but not limited to rates charged to company by its suppliers.
3. Payment: Establishment of this service is dependent upon receipt by the Company of payment of stated charges.
4. Payments and Fees: Credit cards that are declined for any reason are subject to a $1.00 declination fee. Service will be interrupted on accounts that reach 25 days past due. Service interrupted for nonpayment is subject to a $20 reconnect charge. Accounts not paid by due date are subject to a $5.00 late fee. Domain change for your hosting accounts attracts one time fee of $5.00. Accounts that are not collectable by Community Hosting may be turned over to an outside collection agency for collection. If your account is turned over for collection, you agree to pay the company a "Processing and Collection" Fee of not less than $50 nor more than $150. If you desire to cancel your account, please follow the proper procedure to do this as outlined in this TOS.
5. Payment Policies,Refund and Disputes: Full payment is required before any hosting service is rendered. All payment-due notices will be sent by electronic mail. No bills or invoices will be sent by postal mail or fax.
   If you are dissatisfied with our service for any reason, you will receive a full refund if you cancel your account within 14 days of the activation of your account
6. Failure to Pay: The Company may temporarily deny service or terminate this Agreement upon the failure of Subscriber to pay charges when due. Such termination or denial will not relieve Subscriber of responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges, plus reasonable interest and any collection fees.
7. Account Cancellation: We are sorry to see you go. If there is anything we can to do to keep you as a customer, please let us know. To cancel your account, please send an email to sales@communityhosting.net and provide us with the following information below. We need to verify your account information and the reason for your cancellation so we can improve our services.
   Your domain name:
   Username:
   Password:
   Reason of cancellation:
   
8. Subscriber acknowledges that the service provided is of such a nature that service can be interrupted for many reasons other than the negligence of the company and that damages resulting from any interruption of service are difficult to ascertain. Therefore, subscriber agrees that the company shall not be liable for any damages arising from such causes beyond the direct and exclusive control of the company. Subscriber further acknowledges that the company's liability for its own negligence may not in any event exceed an amount equivalent to charges payable by subscriber for services during the period damages occurred. In no event shall the company be liable for any special or consequential damages, loss or injury.
9. Transfer of Domains: New webhosting accounts which involve the transfer of a domain from another provider to Community Hosting, Inc. will require a minimum of seven (7) days to be set up and entered into our DNS servers. In some cases, such transfers may take up to sixty (60) days. Due to the unpredictable nature of the transfer process, no guarantees are made regarding the amount of time a specific transfer may take. If the transfer of the domain is done by Community Hosting, Inc. on behalf of the account holder a handling fee will be incurred. If the customer cancels service during the transfer period for any reason, all charges are considered earned.
10. Support Boundaries: Community Hosting provides 24 x 7 technical support to our subscribers (except for a few holidays and short company meetings when we close our center.) We limit our technical support to our area of expertise. The following is our guidelines when providing support: Community Hosting provides support related to your server or virtual site physical functioning. Community Hosting does not offer tech support for application specific issues such as CGI programming, HTML or any other such issue. Community Hosting does not provide technical support for YOUR customers. If you can email, we encourage you to email support@communityhosting.net for assistance. Lastly, the Help files in the program you are using may have the answer to your question so please do investigate these resources before calling tech support.
11. Uptime Guarantee: We do not guarantee uptime. However, what we can give you is our uptime over the past 12 months: We have had a total downtime of less than 15 minutes making our uptime 99.95%. Although this is not an uptime guarantee, it gives an idea of how meticulously we manage our servers.
12. SPAM and Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE): Community Hosting takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or SPAM over our network. Very simply this means that customers of Community Hosting may not use or permit others to use our network to transact in UCE. Customers of Community Hosting may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including termination of service.
    1. Violation of Community Hosting's SPAM policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, Community Hosting will initiate an immediate investigation (within 48 hours of notification). During the investigation, Community Hosting may restrict customer access to the network to prevent further violations. If a customer is found to be in violation of our SPAM policy, Community Hosting may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate customer's account. Further, Community Hosting reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. Community Hosting will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offense.
    2. First violations of this policy will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $100 and your account will be reviewed for possible immediate termination. A second violation will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $300 and immediate termination of your account. Users who violate this policy agree that in addition to these "Administrative" penalties, they will pay "Research Fees" not to exceed $150 per hour that Community Hosting personnel must spend to investigate the matter. PLEASE, DO NOT SPAM from your account.
    3. As our Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the Community Hosting network, it is advisable that Customers develop a similar, or stricter, policy for their clients.
13. Network
    1. IP Address Ownership: If Community Hosting assigns Customer an Internet Protocol address for Customer's use, the right to use that Internet Protocol address shall belong only to Community Hosting, and Customer shall have no right to use that Internet Protocol address except as permitted by Community Hosting in its sole discretion in connection with the Services, during the term of this Agreement. Community Hosting shall maintain and control ownership of all Internet Protocol numbers and addresses that may be assigned to Customer by Community Hosting, and Community Hosting reserves the right to change or remove any and all such Internet Protocol numbers and addresses, in its sole and absolute discretion. Our allocation of IP addresses is limited by ARIN's new policies. These new policies state that use of IP addresses for IP based virtual hosts will not be accepted as justification for new IP addresses. What this means to you is that you MUST use name-based hosting where possible. We will periodically review IP address usage, and if we find that clients are using IP addresses where name-based hosting could be used, we will revoke authorization to use those IP addresses that could be used with name-based hosting.
    2. Bandwidth and Disk Usage: Customer agrees that bandwidth and disk usage shall not exceed the number of megabytes per month for the Services ordered by Customer on the Order Form (the "Agreed Usage"). Community Hosting will monitor Customer's bandwidth and disk usage. Community Hosting shall have the right to take corrective action if Customer's bandwidth or disk usage exceeds the Agreed Usage. Such corrective action may include the assessment of additional charges, disconnection or discontinuance of any and all Services, or termination of this Agreement, which actions may be taken is in Community Hosting's sole and absolute discretion. If Community Hosting takes any corrective action under this section, Customer shall not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid in advance prior to such action.
    3. System and Network Security: Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Community Hosting Network. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. Community Hosting will investigate occurrences, which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Users who are involved in such violations. These violations include, without limitation:
       1. Accessing data not intended for such User or logging into a server or account, which such User is not authorized to access.
       2. Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization.
       3. Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding", "mail bombing" or "crashing".
       4. Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting.
       5. Taking any action in order to obtain services to which such User is not entitled.
14. Notification of Violation:
    1. Community Hosting is under no duty to look at each customer's or user's activities to determine if a violation of the AUP has occurred, nor do we assume any responsibility through our AUP to monitor or police Internet-related activities.
    2. First violation: Any User, which Community Hosting determines to have violated any element of this Acceptable Use Policy, shall receive an email, warning them of the violation. The service may be subject at Community Hosting's discretion to a temporary suspension pending a User's agreement in writing, to refrain from any further violations.
    3. Second Violation: Users that Community Hosting determines to have committed a second violation of any element of this Acceptable Use Policy shall be subject to immediate suspension or termination of service without further notice.
    4. We reserve the right to drop the section of IP space involved in Spam or Denial-of-Service complaints if it is clear that the offending activity is causing great harm to parties on the Internet. In particular, if open relays are on your network or a customer's network, or if denial of service attacks are originating from your network. In certain rare cases, we may have to do this before attempting to contact you. If we do this, we will contact you as soon as is feasible.
15. Suspension of Service or Cancellation: Community Hosting reserves the right to suspend network access to any customer if in the judgment of the Community Hosting network administrators the customer's server is the source or target of the violation of any of the other terms of the AUP or for any other reason which Community Hosting chooses. If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of the Customer in question will be deactivated until an investigation is complete. Prior notification to the Customer is not assured. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. The customer will not be credited for the time the customer's machines were suspended.
16. Community Hosting reserves the right to amend its policies at any time. All Sub-Networks, resellers and managed servers of Community Hosting must adhere to the above policies. Failure to follow any term or condition will be grounds for immediate Cancellation. You will be held responsible for the actions of your clients in the matter described on these Terms and conditions. Therefore, it is in your best interest to implement a similar or stricter Terms and conditions or otherwise called Acceptable Terms of use policy.
17. Indemnification: Community Hosting wishes to emphasize that in agreeing to the Community Hosting Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and Terms of Service (ToS), customer indemnifies Community Hosting for any violation of the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and Terms of Service (ToS) that results in loss to Community Hosting or the bringing of any claim against Community Hosting by any third-party. This means that if Community Hosting is sued because of a customer's or a customer of a customer's activity, the customer will pay any damages awarded against Community Hosting, plus all costs and attorney's fees.
18. Miscellaneous Provisions: You must provide us with, and keep current, good contact information for you. E-mail, fax, and telephone contacts are used, in that order of preference.
    1. A waiver by the Company of any breach of any provision of this Agreement by Subscriber shall not operate as or be construed as a continuing or subsequent waiver thereof or as a waiver of any breach of any other provision thereof.
    2. Subscriber shall not transfer or assign this Agreement without the prior written consent of the Company. Company may assign Agreement at anytime without consent from or notice to Subscriber. Company reserves right to cancel customers rights under this contract at anytime without further obligation.
    3. Community Hosting takes no responsibility for any material input by others and not posted to the Community Hosting Network by Community Hosting. Community Hosting is not responsible for the content of any other websites linked to the Community Hosting Network; links are provided as Internet navigation tools only. Community Hosting disclaims any responsibility for any such inappropriate use and any liability to any person or party for any other person or party's violation of this policy.
    4. Community Hosting is not responsible for any damages your business may suffer. Community Hosting does not make implied or written warranties for any of our services. Community Hosting denies any warranty or merchantability for a specific purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by Community Hosting.
19. IRC Servers: Community Hosting subscribers are not permitted to run IRC servers on the dedicated servers.
20. Adult Content: - Adult Content are is allowed only with prior written concent of Community Hosting, and after a thorough review of content type to be hosted.

Acceptable Use Policy

Community Hosting's Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") is provided to give our customers and users a clear understanding of what Community Hosting expects of them while using the service. All users of Community Hosting's Internet services: those who access some of our Services but do not have accounts, as well as those who pay a service fee to subscribe to the Services, must comply with this AUP and our TOS (Terms of Service).

Use of Community Hosting Service constitutes acceptance and agreement to Community Hosting's AUP as well as Community Hosting's TOS (Terms of Service)

We support the uncensored flow of information and ideas over the Internet and do not actively monitor subscriber activity under normal circumstances. Similarly, we do not exercise editorial control over the content of any web site, e-mail transmission, newsgroups, or other material created or accessible over or through the services, except for certain proprietary Web sites. However, in accordance with our TOS (Terms of Service), we may remove any materials that, in our sole discretion, may be illegal, may subject us to liability, or which may violate this AUP. Community Hosting may cooperate with legal authorities and/or third parties in the investigation of any suspected or alleged crime or civil wrongdoing. Your violation of this AUP may result in the suspension or immediate termination of either your Community Hosting account or other actions as detailed in Section 3 WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE.

This document is intended to provide a basic understand of Community Hosting's Acceptable Use Policy. The following are guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of Community Hosting's AUP:

Ensure reliable service to our customers
Ensure security and privacy of our systems and network, as well as the networks and systems of others
Comply with existing laws
Maintain our reputation as a responsible service provider
Encourage responsible use of the Internet and discourage activities which reduce the usability and value of Internet services
Preserve the value of Internet resources as a conduit for free expression and exchange of information
Preserve the privacy and security of individual users
The Community Hosting intends to provide its customers access to everything the Internet has to offer. While the Community Hosting is firmly committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities that may be damaging to the resources of both the Community Hosting and the Internet and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of the Community Hosting and the Internet are limited, and abuse of these resources by one user has a negative impact on the entire community.

We do not routinely monitor the activity of accounts except for measurements of system utilization and the preparation of billing records. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, we will respond appropriately if we become aware of inappropriate use of our service.

You may not use your virtual site to publish material, which Community Hosting determines, at its sole discretion, to be unlawful, indecent or objectionable. For purposes of this policy, "material" refers to all forms of communications including narrative descriptions, graphics (including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs, video recordings, and audio recordings.

If a Community Hosting account is used to violate the Acceptable Use Policy or our TOS, we reserve the right to terminate your service without notice. We prefer to advise customers of inappropriate behavior and any necessary corrective action, however, flagrant violations of the Acceptable Use Policy will result in immediate termination of service. 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.

As a member of our network community, you must use your Internet access responsibly. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact us at abuse@communityhosting.net

VIOLATIONS OF Community Hosting ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
The following constitute violations of this AUP:

Illegal use: Community Hosting's services may not be used for illegal purposes, or in support of illegal activities. Community Hosting reserves the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.
Harm to minors: Use of the Community Hosting service to harm, or attempt to harm, minors in any way, including, but not limited to child pornography.
Threats: Use of the Community Hosting service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that threatens or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property.
Harassment: Use of the Community Hosting service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that harasses another.
Fraudulent activity: Use of Community Hosting service to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items, or services, or to advance any type of financial scam such as "pyramid schemes," "ponzi schemes," and "chain letters."
Forgery or impersonation: Adding, removing or modifying identifying network header information in an effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited. Attempting to impersonate any person by using forged headers or other identifying infrmation is prohibited. The use of anonymous remailers or nicknames does not constitute impersonation.
Unsolicited commercial e-mail / Unsolicited bulk e-mail (SPAM) Use of the Community Hosting service to transmit any unsolicited commercial or unsolicited bulk e-mail is expressly prohibited. Violations of this type will result in the immediate termination of the offending Community Hosting account.
E-mail / News Bombing: Malicious intent to impede another person's use of electronic mail services or news will result in the immediate termination of the offending Community Hosting account.
E-mail / Message Forging: Forging any message header, in part or whole, of any electronic transmission, originating or passing through the Community Hosting service is in violation of this AUP.
Usenet SPAMing: Community Hosting has a zero tolerance policy for the use of its network for the posting of messages or commercial advertisements, which violate the rules, regulations, FAQ or charter of any newsgroups or mailing list. Commercial messages that are appropriate under the rules of a newsgroup or mailing list or that are solicited by the recipients are permitted.
Unauthorized access: Use of the Community Hosting service to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others, or to penetrate, or attempt to penetrate, security measures of Community Hosting's or another entity's computer software or hardware, electronic communications system, or telecommunications system, whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption or loss of data, is expressly prohibited and the offending Community Hosting account is subject to immediate termination.
Copyright or trademark infringement: Use of the Community Hosting service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other proprietary rights of any third party, including, but not limited to, the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, the digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, and the unauthorized transmittal of copyrighted software.
Collection of personal data: Use of the Community Hosting service to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent.
Network disruptions and unfriendly activity: Use of the Community Hosting service for any activity which affects the ability of other people or systems to use Community Hosting Services or the Internet. This includes "denial of service" (DOS) attacks against another network host or individual user. Interference with or disruption of other network users, services or equipment is prohibited. It is the Member's responsibility to ensure that their network is configured in a secure manner. A Subscriber may not, through action or inaction, allow others to use their network for illegal or inappropriate actions. A Subscriber may not permit their network, through action or inaction, to be configured in such a way that gives a third party the capability to use their network in an illegal or inappropriate manner. Unauthorized entry and/or use of another company and/or individual's computer system will result in immediate account termination. Community Hosting will not tolerate any subscriber attempting to access the accounts of others, or penetrate security measures of other systems, whether or not the intrusion results in corruption or loss of data.
Fraud: Involves a knowing misrepresentation or misleading statement, writing or activity made with the intent that the person receiving it will act upon it.
Infringement of Copyright, Patent, Trademark, Trade Secret, or Intellectual Property Right: Distribution and/or posting of copyrighted or the aforementioned infringements will not be tolerated.
Distribution of Viruses: Intentional distributions of software that attempts to and/or causes damage, harassment, or annoyance to persons, data, and/or computer systems are prohibited. Such an offense will result in the immediate termination of the offending account.
Inappropriate Use of Software: Use of software or any device that would facilitate a continued connection, i.e. pinging, while using Community Hosting services could result in suspension service. Also message boards having routinely having 100+ simultaneous users may be required to upgrade thier account or purchase dedicated or semi-dedicated server(s) to support the high CPU load some message forums generate. Each such forum will be handled on a case by case basis, and the presence of 100+ simultaneous users does not necessarily require an upgraded hosting package. Community Hosting takes pride in our ability to accomodate users that other hosts deny and we will make every effort to provide you with the maximum amount of service at the lowest cost.
Third Party Accountability: Community Hosting subscribers will be held responsible and accountable for any activity by third parties, using their account, that violates guidelines created within the Acceptable Use Policy.

Security

You are responsible for any misuse of your account, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a friend, family member, guest or employee. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access to your account. In addition, you may not use your account to breach security of another account or attempt to gain unauthorized access to another network or server.

Your password provides access to your account. It is your responsibility to keep your password secure.
Sharing your password and account access with unauthorized users is prohibited. You should take care to prevent others from using your account since you will be held responsible for such use.
Attempting to obtain another user's account password is strictly prohibited, and may result in termination of service.

You must adopt adequate security measures to prevent or minimize unauthorized use of your account.

You may not attempt to circumvent 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, or probing the security of other networks. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security is prohibited. Examples of these tools include, but are not limited to, password guessing programs, cracking tools or network probing tools.

You may not attempt to interfere with service to any user, host or network ("denial of service attacks"). This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service, and attempts to "crash" a host.

Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. Community Hosting will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations.

Network Performance

Community Hosting accounts operate on shared resources. Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer may have a negative impact on all other customers. Misuse of network resources in a manner which impairs network performance is prohibited by this policy and may result in termination of your account.

You are prohibited from excessive consumption of resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space and session time. You may not use resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other customers or the performances of Community Hosting systems or networks. Community Hosting reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities.

REPORTING VIOLATIONS OF Community Hosting AUP

Community Hosting requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of this AUP direct the information to the Abuse Department at abuse@communityhosting.net

If available, please provide the following information:

The IP address used to commit the alleged violation
The date and time of the alleged violation, including the time zone or offset from GMT

Evidence of the alleged violation
E-mail with full header information provides all of the above, as do system log files. Other situations will require different methods of providing the above information. Community Hosting may take any one or more of the following actions in response to complaints:

Issue written or verbal warnings
Suspend the Member's newsgroup posting privileges

Suspend the Member's account

Terminate the Member's account

Bill the Member for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges

Bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect damages, if any, cause by violations

REVISIONS TO THIS ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Community Hosting reserves the right to revise, amend, or modify this AUP, our TOS (Terms of Service) and our other policies and agreements at any time and in any manner. Notice of any revision, amendment, or modification will be posted in accordance with our TOS (Terms of Service).