Gearworx Acceptable Usage Policy

Acceptable Usage Policy - Modified 13-Sep-2008

Gearworx is dedicated to providing an all-round top quality service. The terms and conditions which follow are necessary to ensure that we may continue to provide the best possible service to all of our customers whilst at the same time satisfying our legal and ethical responsibilities. Failure to follow any term or condition will be grounds for immediate account deactivation without notice. Gearworx will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of any of these provisions. Activity which results in the suspension or deactivation of an account will result in a forfeiture of all fees paid. Complaints made regarding abuses of an account will be investigated and if found guilty will be grounds for immediate suspension. To report suspected abuses or any violations of these policies, please email legal@gearworx.com

Illegal Usage

Gearworx servers may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or distribution of any information, data or material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: Copyrighted material, Trademark infringements, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws. Examples of non-acceptable content or links: Pirated software, Hackers programs or archives, Warez sites and Illegal MP3, and IRC bots. Gearworx service subscribes agree to indemnify and hold harmless Gearworx from any claims resulting from the use of the service that damages the subscriber or any other party.

Security

Violations of system or network security are prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: Unauthorized access, use, probe, or scan of a systems security or authentication measures, data or traffic. Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks. Forging of any TCP-IP packet header or any part of the header information in an email or a newsgroup posting.

Backup Policy

Gearworx takes extreme steps to maintain system integrity. However, Gearworx shall not be held responsible for loss of data due to any cause. To ensure the highest level of data protection, Gearworx recommends that ALL information be backed up on your own computer. As with any data that you hold a high importance to, it should be in more than one location at all times. All Gearworx Hosting data backups are designed against hardware failure, not customer user error.

Background Running Daemons

Gearworx does not allow background daemons such as IRC bots; eggdrop; BitchX; XiRCON; and any other program that interferes with normal server operation.

Client Responsibility

Clients are responsible for all activity originating from their accounts unless proven to be a victim of outside hacking or address forgery. All clients are responsible for securing their username and passwords. Clients assume responsibility for all material on their site that may be put on by a third party (such as the usage of Free For All links pages). Use of our services require a certain level of knowledge in the use of Internet languages, protocols, and software. This level of knowledge varies depending on the anticipated use and desired content of the web space by clients. The following examples are offered:

Web Publishing: requires knowledge of HTML, properly locating and linking documents, use of FTP to upload web contents, graphics, text, sound, image mapping, etc.
Web Scripts: requires a knowledge of the UNIX environment, PHP, Python, TAR & GUNZIP commands, Perl, C-Shell scripts, permissions, etc.
Mail: The use of applications to receive and send mail, etc. Clients agree that they posses the necessary knowledge to create and maintain their web space. Clients agree that Gearworx is not responsible to provide this knowledge or support outside matter specific to Gearworx servers.

UCE (Unsolicited Commerce Email) - SPAM

Spamming, or the sending of mass unsolicited email, from or through a Gearworx server or using an email address that is maintained on one of our servers is STRICTLY prohibited. Gearworx will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision. If you engage in any of the foregoing activities using the service of another ISP or IPP, but channeling activities through a Gearworx server as a maildrop for responses, you are in violation. Violators will be assessed a minimum of $200.00 fine and will face an immediate suspension.

Server abuse

Any attempts to undermine or cause harm to a Gearworx server or customer of Gearworx is strictly prohibited. Any sub-network of Gearworx and dedicated servers must adhere to the policies above and below. The failure to meet or follow any of the above guidelines are grounds for account deactivation. We reserve the right to remove any account without prior notice.

Multimedia Files

Multimedia files are defined as any graphics, audio, and video files. Gearworx Web Hosting accounts are not to be used for the purposes of distributing and storing unusual amount of multimedia files. Any Website whose disk space usage for storing the multimedia files exceed 70% of its total usage, either in terms of total size or number of files, will be deemed to be using unusual amount of multimedia files.

Actions Taken by Gearworx

The failure by a customer to meet or follow any of the above policies/terms is grounds for account deactivation. Gearworx reserves the right to remove any account without prior notice. When we have been made aware of an alleged violation of the AUP, we will initiate an investigation. During the investigation, we may restrict a customer's access in order to prevent further potentially unauthorized activity. Depending on the severity of the violation, we may, at our sole discretion, restrict, suspend, or terminate a client's web hosting account and/or pursue other civil remedies. If such violation is a criminal offense, we will notify the appropriate law enforcement authorities of such violation. We do not issue credits for outages incurred through service disablement resulting from AUP violations.

Gearworx clients agree to indemnify and hold harmless Gearworx from any claims resulting from the use of our services that damages them or any other party. The Gearworx service is provided on an as is, as available basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Gearworx expressly disclaims any representation or warranty that the Gearworx service will be error-free, secure or uninterrupted. No oral advice or written information given by Gearworx, its employees, licensors or the like, will create a warranty; nor may you rely on any such information or advice. Gearworx and its partners and suppliers will not be liable for any cost or damage arising either directly or indirectly from any transaction or use of the service. Gearworx reserves the right to add, delete, or modify any provision of this Policy at any time without notice.

Refusal Of Service

We reserve the right to refuse, cancel, or suspend service at our sole discretion.