Terms Of Use: What You Agree To When Using This Site
1. Introduction
This document (the “Agreement”) sets forth the principles, guidelines and requirements of the Terms of Service of Tekquest, Ltd., a Maryland incorporated company (the "Company"), governing the use by the customer ("Customer") of Company's services and products ("Services and Products"). These Terms of Service have been created to promote the integrity, security, reliability and privacy of Company's facilities, network, and Customer data contained within. The Company believes it provides the best services in the industry, and provides the following policies in the best interests of the Company and the Company's clients. The Company retains the right to modify these Terms of Service at any time and from time to time and any such modification shall be automatically effective as to all customers when adopted by Company. Company shall be the sole and final arbiter as the interpretation of the following. By utilizing the Company's services and products, the Customer agrees to be bound by the terms herein outlined.
2. Compliance with the Law
Customer shall not post, transmit, re-transmit or store material on or through any of Services or Products which, in the sole judgment of the Company (i) is in violation of any local, state, federal or non-United States law or regulation, (ii) threatening, obscene, indecent, defamatory or that otherwise could adversely affect any individual, group or entity (collectively, "Persons") or (iii) violates the rights of any person, including rights protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property or similar laws or regulations including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by Customer. Customer shall be responsible for determining what laws or regulations are applicable to its use of the Services and Products.
3. Prohibited Uses of Services and Products
In addition to the other requirements of these Terms of Service, Customer may only use the Services and Products in a manner that, in the Company's sole judgment, is consistent with the purposes of such Services and Products. If Customer is unsure of whether any contemplated use or action is permitted, please contact the Company as provided above. By way of example, and not limitation, uses described below of the Services and Products are expressly prohibited.
3.1 General
3.1.1. Pornography and pornographic related merchandising are prohibited under all the Company's services. This includes sites that include links to pornographic content elsewhere. Further examples of unacceptable content or links include pirated software, "hacker" programs, archives of "Warez Sites", game rooms or MUDs, IRC Bots, Egg Drop programs, any kind of illegal software or shareware. In addition, sites offering online gambling, casino functionality, sportsbook betting (including offshore), and internet lotteries are prohibited.
3.1.2. Violations of the rights of any Person protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property or similar laws or regulations, including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by Customer.
3.1.3. Actions that restrict or inhibit any Person, whether a customer of Company or otherwise, in its use or enjoyment of any of the Company's Services or Products.
3.2 Systems and Network
3.2.1. Introduction of malicious programs into the Company's network or server (e.g., viruses and worms).
3.2.2. Effecting security breaches or disruptions of Internet communication. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which Customer is not an intended recipient or logging into a server or account that Customer is not expressly authorized to access. For purposes of this Section 3.2.2., "disruption" includes, but is not limited to, port scans, flood pings, packet spoofing and forged routing information.
3.2.3. Executing any form of network monitoring which will intercept data not intended for the Customer's server.
3.2.4. Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account.
3.2.5. Interfering with or denying service to any user other than Customer's host (for example, denial of service attack).
3.2.6. Using any program/script/command, or sending messages of any kind, designed to interfere with, or to disable, a user's terminal session, via any means, locally or via the Internet.
3.2.7. Creating an "active" full time connection on a Company-provided account by using artificial means involving software, programming or any other method.
3.2.8. Any attempt to circumvent or alter monitoring, bandwidth tracking or utilization reporting, or other actions which have the effect of complicating the normal operational procedures of the Company, including but not limited to altering, removing or in any way modifying or tampering with Company created log files.
3.2.9. Any action which the Company determines, in its own judgment, will reflect poorly on the Company or negatively impact its operations.
3.2.10. Any action which the Company deems to be an unacceptable use of resources, business practice or otherwise unacceptable to the Company.
3.3 Billing
3.3.1. Furnishing false or incorrect data on the order form, contract or online application, including fraudulent use of credit card numbers.
3.3.2. Attempting to circumvent or alter the processes any billing procedures or procedures to measure time, bandwidth utilization, or other methods to document "use" of the Company's Services and Products.
3.4 Mail
3.4.1. Sending unsolicited commercial email messages (UCE), including the sending of "junk mail" or other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material, who were not previous customers of Customer or with whom Customer does not have an existing business relationship ("email spam").
3.4.2. Sending UCE referencing an email address for any domain hosted by the Company;
3.4.3. Sending UCE referencing a domain hosted by the Company;
3.4.4. Sending UCE referencing an IP address hosted by the Company;
3.4.5. Posting advertisements on IRC, ICQ, or any other public chat system containing an email address hosted by the Company, a domain hosted by the Company, an IP address belonging to the Company;
3.4.6. The Company will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of these provisions.
3.4.7. Harassment, whether through language, frequency or size of messages.
3.4.8. Unauthorized use, or forging, of mail header information.
3.4.9. Solicitations of mail for any other E-mail address other than that of the poster's account or service with the intent to harass or to collect replies.
3.4.10. Creating or forwarding "chain letters" or other "pyramid schemes" of any type.
3.4.11. Use of unsolicited email originating from within the Company's network or networks of other Internet Service Providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by the Company, or connected via the Company's network.
3.4.12. Activities deemed to be unsolicited marketing efforts or otherwise harassing in any way.
3.4.13. Customer will be charged a minimum $300.00 service charge for each instance of a verifiable UCE that is reported to the Company and faces immediate account suspension and/or termination, as well as further penalties.
4. Content Restrictions
4.1. Customer's site must use and store only the information and data that relates to the Website, at the IP address provided by the Company.
4.2. Customer may not resell or give away Web space under a domain name, nor may Customer build Websites that house "sub domain" Websites on behalf of other companies, groups or individuals. Customers who wish to resell the Company's Web space should utilize the Company's Reseller Program.
4.3. Customer may not use Customer's Website to store Web pages, files or data for other IP addresses or domain names, nor may Customer use its Website as a repository for file, data or "Warez group" download transfers. The Company reserves the right to make this determination, in its sole and absolute discretion.
4.4. The storage and distribution of MP3 format files via the Company network is prohibited.
4.5. The Company does not permit sites where 20% or more of the monthly traffic is from file downloads, or sites that use more than 10% of system resources, or sites which in the Company's view are detrimental to the enjoyment of the Company services by the Company's other clients, or are in the sole and final judgment of the Company, detrimental to network or business operations.
5. Security
5.1. Customer agrees to take all reasonable steps to protect Customer's account login ID and password information.
5.2. Customer agrees not to attempt to undermine or cause harm to any server, software, system or customer of the Company.
6. Software
6.1. Customer agrees to maintain Customers' computing equipment responsibly, including running anti-virus software.
6.2. Customer acknowledges that the Company cannot provide technical support for any software and/or script that the Customer installs, other than variable name changes. Customer also acknowledges that the Company does not supply technical support for Microsoft FrontPage, other than initial configuration. The Company supplies technical support for Web hosting issues only. The Company shall be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a "Web host" issue.
7. Enforcement
Company may immediately suspend and/or terminate the Customer’s service for violation of any provision of the Terms of Service Policy upon verbal or written notice, which notice may be provided by voicemail or E-mail. However, the Company attempts to work with the Customer to cure violations of the Terms of Service Policy and to ensure that there is no re-occurrence of violations prior to suspension and/or termination.
8. Disclaimer
8.1. USE OF THE COMPANY’S SERVICES AND PRODUCTS ARE AT CUSTOMER’S SOLE RISK. NEITHER THE COMPANY NOR ITS EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, RESELLERS THIRD PARTY INFORMATION PROVIDERS, MERCHANTS LICENSERS OR THE LIKE, MAKE ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, THAT THE COMPANY’S SERVICES AND PRODUCTS WILL NOT BE INTERRUPTED OR BE ERROR FREE; NOR DO THEY MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO THE RESULTS THAT MIGHT BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE COMPANY’S SERVICES AND PRODUCTS OR AS TO THE ACCURACY, OR RELIABILITY OF ANY INFORMATION SERVICE OR MERCHANDISE CONTAINED OR PROVIDED THROUGH THE COMPANY’S SERVICE, UNLESS OTHERWISE EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT. THIS INCLUDES LOSS OF DATA, WHETHER RESULTING FROM DELAYS, ON DELIVERIES, WRONG DELIVERY, AND ANY AND ALL SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY THE COMPANY AND ITS EMPLOYEES OR OTHER CAUSES.
8.2. THE SOLE CUMULATIVE LIABILITY OF THE COMPANY FOR ALL CLAIMS MADE BY THE CUSTOMER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY, REGARDLESS OF FORM, INCLUDING ANY CAUSE OF ACTION BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT OR STRICT LIABILITY, SHALL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF ALL FEES AND CHARGES PAID TO THE COMPANY BY THE CUSTOMER.
8.3. The Company reserves the right to revise or change these Terms of Service at any time.
8.4. This Agreement shall be governed in all respects under the laws of the State of Maryland applicable to contracts made, accepted and performed wholly in Maryland, without application to principles of conflict of laws, and the Customer and the Company agree that the sole venue and jurisdiction for any disputes arising from this Agreement shall be the appropriate federal or state court located in the State of Maryland.