Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and Service Agreement
Welcome to ATP Multimedia Consulting and Smallpond Internet Services. When first going into business our main focus was on design and content and giving advice. In constantly searching for appropriate places for our clients to use for dial-in and web hosting services we kept finding high prices, poor customer service and the pushing of packages that were far beyond the customers needs. The best way to provide the best service to our clients was to begin providing such services ourselves. This is not true in all cases and sometimes a client’s needs may exceed our connectivity or bandwidth limitations, and in this case we still shop around to find our client a reasonably priced solution to meet their needs.
Because our goal is to provide you with personalized services with reasonable pricing we take our Acceptable Use Policy very seriously. We operate these services on a very small margin, and in exchange for that we expect our users to adhere to both the letter and the spirit of our policies. This way we do not need to waste time dealing with problems and can instead use our time to the benefit of all our clients.
When all the fine print is said and done, what it comes down to is be smart, responsible and respectful. If you find yourself wondering "I wonder if I could...?" you probably should not be doing it. However, if you have a question, feel free to ask.
General:
All accounts are for the use of one person only (unless written permission for a multiple user account is given) and is the sole responsibility of the person who signed up for services. Passwords are not to be shared and it is the responsibility of the user to maintain password security. A user is fully responsible for any actions by any person using the user’s account with or without their permission. Account packages which include multiple email accounts may have a different individual access each email account, but all activities are the responsibility of the person who signed up for the main account.
The use of your email, web site, or any disk space for any illegal purpose is prohibited. This encompasses using any of our services to take part actively in illegal activities and any illegal material being stored on or passing through our system. United States Federal laws apply, as well as state and local laws at our location in California, and laws and standards in your community. This includes information or materials to help anyone take part in illegal activities or access illegal materials. This includes distribution without permission of any content or program to which you do not hold the copyright.
Attempts to "hack" or gain access to or harm any area on our servers to which you do not have specific permission to access, whether successful or not are prohibited.
Using our services or system to attempt to gain access to or harm any other system or data without proper authorization from the owners is prohibited.
Using any means at all of misrepresenting your identity is prohibited. This includes any changes to network header information, whether to hide your identity or to impersonate the identity of anyone else. Protecting your own privacy through the use of anonymizer services are allowed, as long as there are no illegal activities or materials involved.
No threatening or harassing activity is acceptable, including threats to people, animals, property or data. Do not use any of our services in connection with this sort of activity. Do not post or distribute information about anyone (email, address, phone number, workplace) to encourage contact or harassment by other people.
The resale of any of our services without proper signed, written authorization is prohibited.
Email:
Sending large volumes of unsolicited email "spamming" from any email account provided through us, no matter what the domain name, is prohibited.
Using email, web or ftp accounts provided through us, no matter what the domain name, to collect responses from spamming or any unsolicited commercial email is prohibited. This means do not use some other service to send bulk email advertising (whether or not that service complies to unsolicited email laws) with a reference to your accounts with us.
Using any services or account provided through us, to facilitate spamming, bulk email or unsolicited commercial email is prohibited.
Sending unsolicited commercial email of any kind is prohibited.
Do not use email for any illegal activities. Do not harass people by email.
Content:
Once again, no illegal content of any kind is to be provided from, sent through or stored on our system.
Any questionable content (which might be found offensive or obscene) must have clear warnings. Any content which the law prohibits certain parties from accessing must be clearly marked with sufficient warnings. We do not encourage the provision of such material and all responsibility for determining the legality and protecting it from viewing by restricted parties is accepted by the account holder. Certain materials tend to draw excessive hits when advertised (purposefully or through the appearance on search engines). We may ask you to remove material or pay additional fees if something you provide causes an excessive load on our servers or network.
Domain Name Registering and Hosting:
We will not help you to register or host any domain name which is an attempt to falsely identify you with a company or product which you are not officially associated with. This includes names you intend to actually use hoping to draw hits by confusion, and names that you hope to sell at a profit to the companies officially associated with such names. We are unable to maintain an awareness of all products and companies, but you know if that is what you are doing. Companies are suing and winning in cases like these.
We cannot guarantee the availability of any domain name. The fact it comes up as available when we begin the registration process means that it was not taken at the time of the last update (which happens once daily). Another person could have begun the registration process since the last update and before our registration request goes through. We do our best to act quickly on your requests, but cannot be held responsible for the speed of the process which is completely dependant upon the registry company. All fees charged by registry companies are the responsibility of the client requesting the registration.
Furthermore, you must agree with and abide by our Registration Agreement, which can be found on our registry website:
http://rs.atpmm.com/registration-agreement.html for .COM, .NET, and .ORG domains
or: http://rs.atpmm.com/tv-registration-agreement.html for .TV domains
or: http://rs.atpmm.com/info-registration-agreement.html for .INFO domains
or: http://rs.atpmm.com/biz-ip-claim-service.html and/or http://rs.atpmm.com/biz-registration-agreement.html for .BIZ domains.
Dial-In:
Dial-up accounts are for single, non-networked users.
Idle connections will be terminated, and the use of artificial means to simulate activity is prohibited (artificial meaning anything that isn’t you). If you are not actively using your connection, please free up resources for other users. If you are actively using it, but have no idea whether it is day or night, or when the last time you ate or spoke to a person face to face is; logout. We are not responsible for the loss of your health, significant other, friends, jobs, mind or anything else.
Interference with or disruptions of other users network services or network equipment is prohibited.
It is the customer's responsibility to ensure that their network is configured in a secure manner. A customer may not, through action or inaction, allow others to use their network for illegal (or questionable) activities. A customer 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.
Indemnification:
ATP and Smallpond make an honest effort to keep the information or services available on our systems accurate and available. Account holder acknowledges that we make no warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, regarding the availability, quality, accuracy, or validity for the data or services. Use of information and services is at the risk of the account holder. Extended total downtime (exceeding 12 hours) of servers or dial-up (counted from the time it is first reported) that are determined to be within our control will only be compensated in the addition of a like amount of time onto your service term as a courtesy. There is no compensation of money or further services for downtimes or lost opportunity. We are not responsible for service interruptions due to electrical, telephone, lines or cables, backbone failures, the problems of sites you are trying to reach or anything else that is dependent on services provided by companies other than ours.
The account holder also acknowledges that the information available from other interconnecting networks through our service is not our responsibility or under our control. We are not responsible for sites that you visit or material that you view through our services whether you come across it intentionally or unintentionally. We make no warranty of items or services you order or access from other companies while using your account. Any links, which we provide to other companies or sites we do on an information only basis providing you with some possibly interesting content to view. It does not indicate an endorsement of the site or company as being 100% accurate, trustworthy or inoffensive. Each account holder must make all such determinations on an individual basis. Use of such information is at the risk of the account holder.
We are in no way responsible for preventing or monitoring content accessed by minors through our service, or items ordered while using our service. We do not edit or filter the content that is available to our account holders. The parents or guardians must do all monitoring at home. No accounts will be issued to minors except through their parent or guardian as the primary account holder.
It is the responsibility of each account holder to keep their own backup copies of any data that they are storing on our servers in any form (unless altered in the specific contracts of those we provide content for). If you have a problem or accidentally delete something feel free to contact us for help. We may have a back-up that can help you, but it is very possible that we will not have one that is timed properly for the specific loss you are dealing with.
The account holder agrees to indemnify and hold ATP Multimedia Consulting and Smallpond harmless from any claims, including attorney's fees, resulting from the account holder receiving our services, which cause direct or indirect damage to another party.
Repercussions:
The violation of these policies may result in one or more of the following, solely at our discretion:
Acceptance of Agreement:
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU HAVE INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATED THE DESIRABILITY OF THE SERVICE AND ARE NOT RELYING ON ANY REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT, GUARANTEE OR STATEMENT OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT.