Hosting Acceptable Usage Policy

1. ILLEGAL USE

The Essential Systems Network and Services may be used for lawful purposes only and in compliance with all current and future statutes in force from time to time. The Customer agrees not to use the Service to send or receive materials or data which is in violation of any law or regulation or which is defamatory, offensive, abusive, indecent, obscene or in breach of confidence, privacy, trade secrets or in breach of any third party Intellectual Property rights (including copyright) or in breach of any other rights.

You are prohibited from storing, distributing or transmitting any unlawful material through our services/network. Examples of unlawful material include: direct threats of physical harm; hardcore and child pornography; and copyrighted, trademarked and other proprietary material used without proper authorisation. You may not post, upload or otherwise distribute copyrighted material on our servers without the consent of the copyright holder. The storage, distribution, or transmission of unlawful materials could lead to UK authorities alleging criminal liability, in addition to the actions we may take outlined in Clause 6 below.

1b. RESTRICTIONS ON USE

Essential Systems, in addition to clauses 1-5, does not allow the following services to be run on our network without our specific written consent:

• 'Spam' bots.
• IRC servers, 'bots', 'bouncers' or any other service related to IRC.
• Torrent networks or trackers.

2. VIOLATIONS OF SYSTEM OR NETWORK SECURITY

Any violations of systems or network security are prohibited, and may result in the User facing criminal and civil liability. Essential Systems will investigate incidents involving such violations and will inform and co-operate with the relevant law enforcement organisations if a criminal violation is suspected. Violations may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Unauthorised access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network;
• Unauthorised monitoring of data or traffic on any network or system without express authorisation of the owner of the system or network; or Interfering with any user, host or network including mailbombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks; or
• Any web site, services (such as vhosts, IRC bots, game servers, etc) or material that is transmitted over our network which results in, or encourages, any form of attack on the Essential Systems network or servers (including but not limited to DoS attacks) may result in the immediate suspension or termination of your account as detailed in clause 6 below.
• You may not store or distribute certain other types of prohibited material on our servers. Examples of prohibited material include, but are not limited to, programs containing viruses or Trojan horses and tools to compromise the security of other sites.

3. EMAIL USE

We will investigate complaints regarding e-mail and may take action based on the rules set out below. If an e-mail message is found to violate one of the policies below, or to contain unlawful material, as described in Clause 1 above, action may be taken, as outlined in Clause 6 below.

You may not send e-mail to any user who does not wish to receive it, either at Essential Systems or elsewhere. We recognise that e-mail is an informal medium, however, users must refrain from sending further e-mail to a user after receiving a request to stop.

Unsolicited advertising mailings, whether commercial or informational, are strictly prohibited. You may send advertising material only to addresses that have specifically requested it. We will not forward mail of accounts terminated for bulk mailing or unsolicited advertising. Chain letters are unsolicited by definition and may not be propagated using our services.

You may not send, distribute, or reply to mailbombs. Mailbombing is defined as either e-mailing copies of a single message to many users, or sending large or multiple files or messages to a single user with malicious intent.

You may not use false email headers or alter the headers of e-mail messages to conceal their e-mail address or to prevent Internet users from responding to messages. You must not use any email address that you are not authorised to use.

Violations of the AUP outlined in this document can sometimes result in massive numbers of e-mail responses. If our users receive so much e-mail that our resources are affected, we may shut down a user's account.

Essential Systems adhere to the ISPA guidelines for bulk unsolicited mail.

4. USENET NEWS USAGE

Our services include access to many Usenet discussion groups including web based news groups and MSN communities (newsgroups). You acknowledge that some newsgroups contain language, pictures, or discussion of subjects intended for adult audiences. We do not monitor access to Usenet newsgroups or the content of posts by our users or users at other sites. Accordingly, we are not responsible for the content of any posting made to Usenet.

We reserve the right to discontinue access to any Usenet newsgroup at any time and for any reason.

We will investigate complaints regarding posts of inappropriate material to Usenet by our users and may, at our sole discretion, take action based on the rules set out below. Criteria for determining whether a post is inappropriate include: the written charter/FAQ of the newsgroup(s) in question; the established Usenet conventions outlined below; the system resources consumed by the posting; and applicable laws.

If a post is found to violate one of the policies below, or to contain unlawful material, as described in Clause 1 above, we may require that the post be moved to a more appropriate forum (if any), or take action as outlined in Clause 6 below.

Usenet news articles posted using our services must comply with the written charter/FAQ of the newsgroup to which they are posted. If a newsgroup does not have a charter or FAQ, its title may be considered sufficient to determine the general topic of the newsgroup. You are responsible for determining the rules of a newsgroup before posting to it.

Established Usenet conventions ("Netiquette") prohibit advertising in most Usenet newsgroups. You may post advertisements only in those newsgroups that specifically permit them in the charter or FAQ. Some newsgroups may permit "classified ads" for single transactions between private individuals, but not commercial advertisements. You are responsible for determining whether or not a newsgroup permits advertisements before posting.

Netiquette prohibits certain types of posts in most Usenet newsgroups. Types of prohibited posts include chain letters, pyramid schemes, encoded binary files, job offers or listings, and personal ads. You may post these types of message only in newsgroups that specifically permit them in the charter or FAQ (if any). You are responsible for determining whether or not a newsgroup permits a type of message before posting.

You may not alter the headers of posts to Usenet to conceal their e-mail address or to prevent Internet users from responding to posts, except by adding a clause or character to the email address or domain name to foil programs that gather email addresses from Usenet posts.

Only the poster of a Usenet article or us has the right to cancel the article. You may not use our resources to cancel articles that you did not post. The sole exception to this rule is for moderators of formally moderated newsgroups where the moderator of a newsgroup may not post any articles in a newsgroup he or she is moderating.

You may not attempt to "flood" or disrupt Usenet newsgroups. Disruption is defined as posting a large number of messages that contain no substantive content to a newsgroup to the extent that normal discussion in the group is significantly hindered. Examples of disruptive activities include posting multiple messages with no text in the body, or posting many follow-ups to messages with no new text.

You may not excessively post the same or similar article to multiple unrelated newsgroups.

5. WORLD WIDE WEB USAGE

You are solely responsible for the content of Web pages owned and/or operated by you.

We reserve the right to remove any Web page on our servers at any time and for any reason.

We will investigate complaints regarding inappropriate material on Web pages within our domain and may, in our sole discretion, require that the material be removed or take action as outlined in Clause 6 below.

You may not use World Wide Web pages within or outside our domain to violate any part of the AUP, or to attempt to disrupt the pages or Internet experiences of other users.

6. PRIVACY POLICY

We are committed to protecting your privacy. The information that we collect from you will be used lawfully; in accordance with the Data Protection Act of 1998. We collect information about you for only two (2) reasons: first, to process your order and second, to provide you with the best possible service. We promise not sell or submit your details to anyone unless in the course of legal proceedings. The only information we collect about you are the following: your name, address, telephone number, email address, and the IP address you signup from. The information we hold should be kept accurate and up to date. You may check the information that we hold about you by emailing us. If you find any inaccuracies we will delete or correct it promptly. The personal information which we hold will always be held securely in accordance with our internal security policy and the law.

SLA

We will provide users with 99.8% uptime excluding planned maintance. We count uptime to be when the server your website is hosted on is accesible via IP address. This SLA does not cover downtime due to mistakes on the clients behalf, due to account suspension or due to hardware failure. Should this SLA be breached Essential Systems will refund upto 50% of the monthly fees at a rate of 10% of the monthly fee for every .1% we are below this.

Should you wish to make a claim it must be received within 2 days of the downtime and sent via email to accounts@essentialsystems.co.uk

7. FORCE MAJEURE

An event of force majeure. means, in relation to either party, an event or circumstance beyond the reasonable control of that party including (without limitation) any act of God, inclement weather, failure or shortage of power supplies, flood, drought, lightning or fire, strike, lock-out or trade dispute or labour disturbance, the act or omission of government, highway authorities or any telecommunications carrier, operator or administration or other competent authority, the act or omission of any Internet service provider, war, military operations, act of terrorism or riot, delay or failure in manufacture, production or supply by third parties of equipment or services. The party suffering the event of force majeure shall not be deemed to be in breach of this agreement or otherwise liable to the other party for any delay in performance or any non-performance of any obligations under this agreement (and the time for performance shall be extended accordingly) if and to the extent that the delay or non-performance is due to an event of force majeure. If the event of force majeure in question prevails for a continuous period in excess of 1 month after the date on which it began, the other party may give notice to the party suffering the event of force majeure terminating this agreement. The notice to terminate must specify the termination date, which must be not less than 7 clear days after the date on which the notice to terminate is given. Once a notice to terminate has been validly given, this agreement will terminate on the termination date set out in the notice.

8. NOTICE

You agree that Linode.com may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms of Service, by email, regular mail, or postings on Linode.com services.

9. INVESTIGATION

We have in place a procedure for handling your complaints about material stored and/or accessed via our service. If you wish to make such a complaint, please ensure that you make your complaint by email to complaints@essentialsystems.co.uk. If you do not use this facility we cannot guarantee that your complaint will be dealt with promptly.

Essential Systems reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of the AUP. When we become aware of possible violations, we may initiate an investigation, which may include gathering information from the user involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on our servers. Much of the AUP reflect acts that may constitute breaches of United Kingdom legislation or regulations and may in some cases carry criminal liability.

During an investigation, we may suspend the account involved and/or remove the material involved from our servers. Such action may include temporary or permanent removal of material from our servers, the cancellation of newsgroup postings, warnings to the user responsible, and the suspension or termination of the account responsible. We will determine what action will be taken in response to a violation on a case-by-case basis.

The customer acknowledges that Essential Systems may be required by current or future law or regulation, including but not limited to the Regulatory of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, to access, monitor, store, take copies of, or otherwise deal with the Customer's data stored on or transmitted by the Service. Without limitation, you expressly authorise us to use your personal data and other account information in connection with any such investigation, including by disclosing it to any third party authority that we consider has a legitimate interest in any such investigation or its outcome.

Essential Systems reserves the right to terminate the Service with immediate effect and without further obligation or liability to the Customers as required by any law enforcement organisation, or for breaching this AUP in any way.

10. JURISDICTION

Essential Systems is a Limited company registered in the United Kingdom and as such this document and all services are governed by the laws of the United Kingdom.

10a. REGULATION OF INVESTIGATORY POWERS (RIP) ACT

Essential Systems will take action to comply with the provisions contained in the RIP Act and any regulations enacted under it and shall fully co-operate with the UK authorities empowered under the Act.