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As a provider
of web site hosting, and other Internet-related services,
ClassWorld.com offers its clients, and their customers and
users, the means to disseminate a wealth of public, private,
commercial, and non-commercial information. ClassWorld.com
respects that the Internet provides a forum for free and open
discussion and dissemination of information, however, when
there are competing interests at issue, ClassWorld.com reserves
the right to take certain preventative or corrective actions.
In order to protect these competing interests, ClassWorld.com
has developed an Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP"),
which supplements and explains certain terms of each customer's
respective service agreement and is intended as a guide to
the customer's rights and obligations when utilizing ClassWorld.com's
services. This AUP will be revised from time to time. A customer's
use of ClassWorld.com’s after changes to the AUP are posted
on ClassWorld.com’s web site, www.ClassWorld.com, will constitute
the customer's acceptance of any new or additional terms of
the AUP that result from those changes.
One important
aspect of the Internet is that no one party owns or controls
it. This fact accounts for much of the Internet's openness
and value, but it also places a high premium on the judgment
and responsibility of those who use the Internet to disseminate
information to others.
When information
is disseminated through the Internet, they also must keep
in mind that ClassWorld.com does not review, edit, censor,
or take responsibility for any information its clients may
create. When users place information on the Internet, they
have the same liability as other authors for copyright infringement,
defamation, and other harmful speech. Also, because the information
they create is carried over ClassWorld.com’s network and may
reach a large number of people, including both clients and
non-clients of ClassWorld.com, clients' postings to the Internet
may affect other clients and may harm ClassWorld.com’s goodwill,
business reputation, and operations. For these reasons, clients
violate ClassWorld.com policy and the service agreement when
they, their customers, affiliates, or subsidiaries engage
in the following prohibited activities:
Spamming
Sending unsolicited
bulk and/or commercial messages over the Internet (known as
"spamming"). It is not only harmful because of its
negative impact on consumer attitudes toward ClassWorld.com,
but also because it can overload ClassWorld.com's network
and disrupt service to ClassWorld.com clients. Also, maintaining
an open SMTP relay is prohibited. When a complaint is received,
ClassWorld.com has the discretion to determine from all of
the evidence whether the e-mail recipients were from an "opt-in"
e-mail list.
Intellectual Property
Violations
Engaging in
any activity that infringes or misappropriates the intellectual
property rights of others, including copyrights, trademarks,
service marks, trade secrets, software piracy, and patents
held by individuals, corporations, or other entities. Also,
engaging in activity that violates privacy, publicity, or
other personal rights of others. ClassWorld.com is required
by law to remove or block access to customer content upon
receipt of a proper notice of copyright infringement. It is
also ClassWorld.com’s policy to terminate the privileges of
customers who commit repeat violations of copyright laws.
Adult Material
Because the
Internet is a global communication tool, and we have clients
from nearly every country in the world it is difficult to
dictate what is considered "adult material." However,
there are several reasons why ClassWorld.com has been forced
to create its no adult sites policy for its virtual server
users.
What does ClassWorld.com
consider "Adult Material?"
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Any
site whose revenue is gained in part or whole from its
adult content.
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Photos
or videos showing frontal nudity on either men or women
for non-scientific or non-artistic purposes.
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Revenue-generating
hyperlinks to sites who violate policy #1.
Why does ClassWorld.com have
this policy?
Bandwidth
and Resources
A virtual server
is a shared environment where many servers reside on each
particular machine. This being said, consider that an average
"adult site" gets more hits than 100 standard websites.
Some of the smaller adult sites get around 5 GB of transfer
per day. With these types of resources being utilized, our
servers would be severely slowed if we allowed these high
traffic sites to also reside on our servers. On top of that,
we would be forced to raise our prices to pay for the additional
bandwidth. We strive to keep our servers fast and inexpensive,
and our bandwidth clear; therefore, adult sites are not an
option.
ClassWorld.com
reserves the right to decide what it considers "adult
content", "adult material", "sexually
explicit", or "sexually related". Let us know
if you are unsure of the approval of your site before placing
an order.
Defamatory or Abusive
Language
Using ClassWorld.com’s
network as a means to transmit or post defamatory, harassing,
abusive, or threatening language.
Forging of Headers
Forging or
misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part,
to mask the originator of the message.
Illegal or Unauthorized
Access to Other Computers or Networks
Accessing
illegally or without authorization computers, accounts, or
networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate
security measures of another individual's system (often known
as "hacking"). Also, any activity that might be
used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (i.e.
port scan, stealth scan, or other information gathering activity).
Background Running Programs
Background
Daemons in general are prohibited on ClassWorld.com servers,
including, but not limited to, IRC bots, eggdrop, BitchX,
XiRCON, warez sites and any other program that interferes
with normal server operation.
ClassWorld.com
will be the sole arbitor of what consitutes a violation of
the above policy.
Distribution
of Internet Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, or Other Destructive
Activities
Distributing
information regarding the creation of and sending Internet
viruses, worms, Trojan horses, pinging, flooding, mailbombing,
or denial of service attacks. Also, activities that disrupt
the use of or interfere with the ability of others to effectively
use the network or any connected network, system, service,
or equipment.
Facilitating a Violation
of this AUP
Advertising,
transmitting, or otherwise making available any software,
program, product, or service that is designed to violate this
AUP, which includes the facilitation of the means to spam,
initiation of pinging, flooding, mailbombing, denial of service
attacks, and piracy of software.
Export Control Violations
Exporting
encryption software over the Internet or otherwise, to points
outside the United States.
Usenet Groups
ClassWorld.com
reserves the right not to accept postings from newsgroups
where we have actual knowledge that the content of the newsgroup
violates the AUP.
Other Illegal Activities
Engaging in
activities that are determined to be illegal, including advertising,
transmitting, or otherwise making available ponzi schemes,
pyramid schemes, fraudulently charging credit cards, and pirating
software.
Other Activities
Engaging in
activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that ClassWorld.com
determines to be harmful to its clients, operations, reputation,
goodwill, or customer relations.
As we have
pointed out, the responsibility for avoiding the harmful activities
just described rests primarily with the client. ClassWorld.com
will not, as an ordinary practice, monitor the communications
of its client to ensure that they comply with ClassWorld.com
policy or applicable law. When ClassWorld.com becomes aware
of harmful activities, however, it may take any action to
stop the harmful activity, including but not limited to, removing
information, shutting down a web site, implementing screening
software designed to block offending transmissions, denying
access to the Internet, or take any other action it deems
appropriate.
ClassWorld.com
also is concerned with the privacy of on-line communications
and web sites. In general, the Internet is neither more nor
less secure than other means of communication, including mail,
facsimile, and voice telephone service, all of which can be
intercepted and otherwise compromised. As a matter of prudence,
however, ClassWorld.com urges its clients to assume that all
of their on-line communications are insecure. ClassWorld.com
cannot take any responsibility for the security of information
transmitted over ClassWorld.com’s facilities.
ClassWorld.com
will not intentionally monitor private electronic mail messages
sent or received by its clients unless required to do so by
law, governmental authority, or when public safety is at stake.
ClassWorld.com may, however, monitor its service electronically
to determine that its facilities are operating satisfactorily.
Also, ClassWorld.com may disclose information, including but
not limited to, information concerning a client, a transmission
made using our network, or a web site, in order to comply
with a court order, subpoena, summons, discovery request,
warrant, statute, regulation, or governmental request. ClassWorld.com
assumes no obligation to inform the client that client information
has been provided and in some cases may be prohibited by law
from giving such notice. Finally, ClassWorld.com may disclose
client information or information transmitted over its network
where necessary to protect ClassWorld.com and others from
harm, or where such disclosure is necessary to the proper
operation of the system.
We hope this
AUP is helpful in clarifying the obligations of Internet users,
including ClassWorld.com and its clients, as responsible members
of the Internet. Any complaints about a client's violation
of this AUP should be sent to abuse@ClassWorld.com.
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