Acceptable Usage Policy
Important note: SybaWeb may revise this Acceptable Usage Policy from time to time without notice. Accordingly, Users, defined as customers and users of SybaWeb’s services should consult this document regularly to ensure that their activities conform to the most recent version. Questions regarding this policy can be directed to abuse@sybaweb.com.
Introduction
SybaWeb provides a variety of business ISP and related services to companies and natural persons (the ‘Services’).
This AUP sets out the guidelines for acceptable usage of these shared Services and the World Wide Web (the ‘Internet’) by SybaWeb’s Users. Each User benefits through being able to share resources and communicate almost effortlessly with other members of the User community, however, as with any community, the benefits and privileges available from the Services, and the Internet in general, must be balanced with duties and responsibilities so that other users can also have a productive experience.
Use of the Services is subject to the following rules and guidelines. Each User of SybaWeb Internet or any user or affiliate who obtains use of the Service through that User is responsible for ensuring that the use of all Services provided to such User complies with this Acceptable Usage Policy (the ‘AUP’).
ANY USER WHO DOES NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS SHOULD IMMEDIATELY STOP USE OF THE SERVICES AND NOTIFY SYBAWEB ON accounts@sybaweb.com SO THAT THEIR ACCOUNT MAY BE CLOSED.
Illegal Activity
The use of the Services for any activity that violates any provincial, national, or international law, order or regulation is a violation of this AUP. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:
Posting or disseminating material which is unlawful (such as child pornography or obscene material). Disseminating material or using the Service in a manner which violates the copyright or other intellectual property rights of others. User assumes all risks regarding the determination of whether material is in the public domain. Pyramid or other illegal soliciting schemes. Any fraudulent activities, including impersonating any person or entity or forging anyone else’s digital or manual signature.
Security
The User is responsible for any misuse of the Services that it has contracted for, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a friend, family member, minor, guest, employee or User with access to its account. Users must take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorised access to the Services, such as, but not limited to, protecting access to passwords.
The Services may not be used to breach the security of another user or to attempt to gain access to any other person’s computer, software or data, without the knowledge and consent of such person. They also may not be used in any attempt to circumvent the user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the User, logging into or making use of a server or account that the User is not expressly authorised to access, or probing the security of other networks. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, cracking tools, packet sniffers or network probing tools, are prohibited.
The User may not disrupt the Service(s). The Services may also not be used to interfere with computer networking or telecommunications services to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, denial of service attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service, improper seizing and abuse of operator privileges and attempts to ‘crash’ a host. The transmission or dissemination of any information or software which contains a virus or other harmful feature also is prohibited.
The User is solely responsible for the security of any device that it chooses to connect to the Services, including any data stored on that device. In particular, SybaWeb recommends against enabling file or printer sharing of any sort. SybaWeb recommends that any files or services chosen by the User for remote access should be protected with a strong password or as otherwise appropriate.
Inappropriate Content
There may be content on the Internet or otherwise available through the Services which may be offensive to some individuals, or which may not be in compliance with all local laws, regulations and other rules. For example, it is possible to obtain access to content which is pornographic or offensive, particularly for children. Neither SybaWeb nor any of its resellers can assume any responsibility for the content contained on the Internet or otherwise available through the Services. The User must assume the risk of accessing content through the Service, and neither SybaWeb nor any of its resellers shall have any liability for any claims, losses, actions, damages, suits or proceedings arising out of or otherwise relating to access to such content. Parents may want to use a program capable of restricting access to sexually explicit material on the Internet. SybaWeb recommends various filtering programs for minors on the website www.sybaweb.co.za or alternatively content questions or complaints should be addressed to the content provider.
The User is solely responsible for any information which it publishes on the Internet. It must ensure that the recipient of the content is appropriate. For example, the User must take appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving inappropriate content. SybaWeb reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be offensive, indecent, or otherwise inappropriate regardless of whether such material or its dissemination is unlawful.
SybaWeb has no obligation to monitor transmissions made on the Service but does has the right to do so in accordance with the terms contract.
By using the Services to publish, transmit or distribute content, the User is warranting that the content complies with this AUP and authorises SybaWeb to reproduce, publish, distribute, and display such content worldwide.
Electronic Mail
The Services may not be used to send unsolicited bulk or commercial messages. This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, charity requests, petitions for signatures and political or religious messages. Such messages may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it.
The Services may not be used to collect responses from unsolicited email sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or email services which violates this AUP or the acceptable use policy of any other Internet service provider. Moreover, unsolicited email may not direct the recipient to any web site or other resource which uses the Services.
Forging, altering or removing electronic mail headers is prohibited. However, you may insert additional characters into your from: and reply-to: addresses in order to prevent your true address from being automatically added to the mailing lists used by bulk emailers. In this case, your true address must remain obvious to any human viewer. For example, you may substitute ‘nospam.john.smith’ for ‘john.smith’.
Users may not reference SybaWeb (e.g. by including ‘Organization: SybaWeb ‘ in the header or by listing an IP address that belongs to the SybaWeb) in any unsolicited email even if that email is not sent through the SybaWeb.
‘Mail bombing’ is prohibited. That is, the User may not send numerous copies of the same or substantially similar messages, nor may it send very large messages or files to a recipient with the intent to disrupt a server or account. The propagation of chain letters is similarly prohibited, whether or not the recipient wishes to receive such mailings.
In particular, but not limited to, the User agrees that it will not use the Service so as to interfere with or disrupt the network users, Services or equipment. Disruptions include, but are not limited to disruption of unsolicited advertising, propagation of computer worms and viruses, transmitting of excessive traffic ( such as ping floods), using the network to make unauthorized entry to any other machine accessible via the Service, sending harassing or threatening electronic mail and forgery ( or attempted forgery) of electronic mail messages and news postings.
Newsgroups
Messages posted to newsgroups must comply with the written charters or FAQs for those newsgroups. Advertisements, solicitations, or other commercial messages should be posted only in those newsgroups whose charters or FAQs explicitly permit them. You are responsible for determining the policies of a given newsgroup before posting to it.
Posting or cross-posting the same or substantially similar messages to more than 9 newsgroups is prohibited. SybaWeb’s news software will automatically cancel any messages posted to nine or more newsgroups.
Binary files may not be posted to newsgroups not specifically named for that purpose.
Forging, altering or removing header information is prohibited. This includes attempting to circumvent the approval process for posting to a moderated newsgroup.
SybaWeb reserves the right to discontinue access to any Usenet newsgroup at any time for any reason.
You may not attempt to ‘flood’ or disrupt Usenet newsgroups. Disruption is defined as posting a large number of messages to a newsgroup which contain no substantive content, to the extent that normal discussion in the group is significantly hindered. Examples of disruptive activities include, but are not limited to, posting multiple messages with no text in the body, or posting many follow-ups to messages with no new text.
Messages may not be cancelled, except by the author or by official newsgroup moderators performing their duties.
The Usenet news service included with a SybaWeb account is provided for interactive use by the subscriber, using a commonly-available NNTP client such as Microsoft’ News. Non-interactive clients which download Usenet articles in bulk are prohibited.
Internet Relay Chat
The Services may be used to participate in ‘chat’ discussions. These discussions may be hosted by SybaWeb servers, by third party servers, or may not involve any servers at all. In all cases, SybaWeb does not normally monitor the contents of the discussion and is not liable for the contents of any communications made via Internet chat.
The Services may not be used to perform chat ‘flooding.’ Flooding is defined as deliberately repeating actions in quick succession in order to fill the screens of other Internet users with text.
Any computer or other device connected through the services may not maintain more than 2 simultaneous chat connections. This includes the use of automated programs, such as ‘bots’ or ‘clones’. Automated programs may not be used when the accountholder is not physically present at the device.
The Services may not be used to send messages which disrupt another Internet user’s equipment, including software, hardware, and user display.
The Services may not be used to access any chat server in violation of the acceptable use policy of that server. The services may not be used to manipulate any chat server in order to harass or disconnect other Internet users, or to gain privileges which have not been authorised.
Users may not use the services to connect to chat servers or channels from which they have been previously banned.
The Services may not be used to continue to send chat messages to an Internet user who has indicated their desire to not receive such messages.
Forging, altering, or obscuring your identity while participating in chat sessions is forbidden. You, may, however, use a nickname as long as all chat participants are able to discover your real name via normal Internet conventions, such as the ‘whois’ command.
Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitations
Users must comply with the then current bandwidth, data storage and other limitations on the Services. They must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict or inhibit any other user’s normal use of the Services.
Users may not resell, share, or otherwise distribute the Service or any portion thereof to any third party without the written consent of SybaWeb. For example, a User cannot provide Internet access to others through a dial up connection, host shell accounts over the Internet, provide email or news service, or send a news feed. Simultaneous logins on a single dial up account are not permitted.
Violation of Acceptance Use Policy
SybaWeb does not routinely monitor the activity of accounts for violation of this Policy. However, in its efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, we will respond appropriately if we become aware of inappropriate use of its Services.
SybaWeb prefers to advise Users of inappropriate behaviour and any necessary corrective action. However, if the Services are used in a way which SybaWeb in its sole discretion believes violates this AUP, SybaWeb may take any responsive actions it deems appropriate. Such actions include, but are not limited to temporary or permanent removal of content, cancellation of newsgroup posts, filtering of Internet transmissions, and the immediate suspension or termination of all or any portion of the Services. SybaWeb will have no liability for any such responsive actions. The above described actions are not SybaWeb’s exclusive remedies and SybaWeb may take any other legal or technical action it deems appropriate.
SybaWeb reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of this AUP, including the gathering of information from the user or users involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on SybaWeb’s servers and network. During an investigation, SybaWeb may suspend the account or accounts involved and/or remove material which potentially violates this AUP.
The User hereby authorises SybaWeb to cooperate with (i) law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations, and (ii) and system administrators at other Internet Service Providers or other network or computing facilities in order to enforce this AUP. Such cooperation may include SybaWeb providing the username, IP address, or other identifying information about a User.
Upon termination of an account, SybaWeb is authorised to delete any files, programs, data and email messages associated with such account.
Any failure of SybaWeb to enforce this AUP, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of any right to do so at any time. If any portion of this AUP is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion will be construed consistent with applicable law as nearly as possible, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. This AUP shall be exclusively governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Republic of South Africa.