Terms of
Hosting Service
(under revision)
Rev. Jan 1 2010
1. Introduction
This document (the “Agreement”) sets forth the principles, guidelines and
requirements of the Terms of Service of Elite Computers, a Phoenix Arizona 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 one of 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 and published at
http://vales.com/elite/s_terms.asp. 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.
Questions or comments regarding this document should be forwarded to the Company
via the Contact Form.
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) is 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. The Customer agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Company
from any claims resulting from the use of the services which damages the
Customer or any other party. 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. This also
includes nudity of any kind (complete or partial), sites depicting nude
images, incest, bestiality, sexual fetishes, and sensual art. 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, content that promotes
violence, witchcraft, satanic activity or paganism. In addition sites
offering online gambling, casino functionality, sportsbook betting
(including offshore), online banking services, Internet lotteries and online
pharmacies or sites that directly sell prescription or non prescription
drugs and pharmaceuticals are prohibited. We are Christian businesspersons
and as such, will not allow our servers to be used to promote these types of
activities.
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. System and Network
3.2.1. Introduction of malicious programs
into the Company's network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, malicious code).
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 other user on 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 ftp
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 and Customer contact information.
3.3.2. Attempting to circumvent or alter
the processes any billing procedures or procedures to measure web space,
time, bandwidth utilization, or other methods to document "use" of the
Company's Services and Products.
3.4. Email
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"). Violation of this or any
section of this Agreement will result in immediate account suspension and/or
termination, as well as further penalties and refund ineligibility.
3.4.2. Sending UCE referencing an email
address for any domain hosted by the Company;
3.4.3. Sending UCE referencing a domain or
web site hosted by the Company regardless of the source of the email sender
(otherwise known as spamvertising a web site);
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.
3.5. Customer Support
3.5.1. The Company promotes a
mutually-professional relationship with its customers. Abusive, threatening,
obscene or otherwise harassing communications with agents of the Company,
via telephone, email, online chat or other means will result in immediate
account termination not withstanding any other terms of this agreement.
Violation of this or any section of this Agreement will result in refund
ineligibility.
4. Bandwidth & Utilization
In addition to the other terms of this agreement, which apply to all plans,
bandwidth and utilization, by its nature, is subject to a number of differing
and/or additional terms.
4.1 The Company provides a generous amount of
data transfer per account to our Customers so that they may create their
Websites and have a significant amount of site visitors without having to
worry about additional charges for traffic. While most Customers will not
exceed their monthly data transfer limit we recognize that others may
occasionally or consistently need more.
4.1.1. The Company reserves the right to
review and limit bandwidth on any hosting account package or domain
exceeding usage over and above the specified maximum package limits in
accordance with the current price list published on the web site. Customers
exceeding their monthly data transfer allotment as monitored by Company will
be given the opportunity to pay for excess usage at a rate specified with
hosting package purchased. If Customer does not purchase additional
bandwidth resources in order to come into compliance then Company reserves
the right to either throttle the site's bandwidth usage or suspend the site
at it's sole discretion.
4.1.2. Customer agrees to purchase
additional monthly data transfer when their web site accounts exceed the
monthly allotment during any month. A list of available data transfer
packages available for purchase is maintained on Company web site.
4.1.3. 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
transfer such as auction image hosting. Customer may not use Customer's
Website for "Warez group" download transfers. The Company reserves the right
to make this determination, in its sole and absolute discretion.
4.1.4. The storage and distribution of MP3
format files via the Company network is prohibited if the Customer does not
own the full copywrite of such files. Distribution of MP3 files even if the
Customer has the copywrite must be done solely via the Customer's web site
and not through third party external web sites linking direct to the files
for download. Customer must prevent the direct linking to such files from
external sites through anti-leaching scripts or other means available on the
Internet.
4.1.5. The Company does not permit sites on
the shared virtual servers 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. If at
any time the Customer’s website generates enough data transfer to affect the
performance of the other customer sites on the server, the Company reserves
the full right to offer Customer the option of upgrading to a hosting plan
that would be more suitable such as dedicated server plans or if serious
enough to suspend or terminate the Customer’s web site.
The Company may take whatever steps necessary
to provide its services, and to provide for the enjoyment of such services by
all of the Company clients, and to ensure that certain clients do not utilize
services to the detriment of other clients. Customers with Websites that do not
comply with these simple rules, or who seek to take advantage of the Company
data transfer traffic plan in any detrimental way will at the discretion of the
Company, have their sites canceled and/or removed from the servers and have
service charges assessed.
The Company will be the sole and final arbiter
as to Websites or usages of resources that constitute violation or intent to
violate our policies. Websites which the Company must suspend or cancel due to
violation of these rules are not eligible to receive a refund for unused
service, and are subject to charges for bandwidth and usage of resources as is
posted on Company web site. Acceptance of these Terms of Services, and/or use of
Company's services constitutes an acceptance of any fines, penalties or service
charges which might arise out of violation of these policies.
5. Terms and Termination
For the purposes of Section 5 of this
agreement, the term "Forty Five Day Guarantee Period" shall be defined as the
period extending from the date a Customer signs up his or her domain hosting
account with the Company through the forty-fifth (45) day following the
initial signup of the Customer's account.
5.1. Customer must notify the Company of a
cancellation request a minimum of seven (7) days prior to the billing renewal
date. Customer must use the Contact Form to request cancellation of services. For security
reasons, cancellations will not be accepted via e-mail or phone. If the
Customer notifies the Company less than seven (7) days before the billing
renewal date, a refund will not be issued unless the Customer's cancellation
request is submitted during the Forty Five Day Guarantee Period.
5.1.1. All refunds requested within the
initial Forty Five Day Guarantee Period shall receive a full refund of only
the web hosting fees paid to Company. Setup fees, domain registration fees
and/or any optional add-on-service fees, are always non-refundable.
5.1.2. Customers who cancel their accounts
after the Forty Five Day Guarantee Period will receive a prorated refund for
the time unused on their hosting account upon request by the Customer. Setup
fees, domain registration fees and/or any optional add-on-service fees, are
always non-refundable.
5.1.3 Refunds if any are due will be issued
within 14 days of receipt of the secure online cancellation form and can
only be refunded to the same person who initially made the payment and only
via the same means. Company cannot refund a credit card other than the same
credit card that was initially used to make payment.
5.2. Customer will not receive a refund for
account suspension or termination for violation of policies.
5.3. By submitting a credit card or ACH
information on the order form, Customer agrees to authorize all charges to the
account and any other balances incurred due to overages of limits, additions
of extras to the account, service charges and/or any other fees, and to be
bound to the terms of this Agreement.
5.4. Customer will not receive a refund for
any setup fees, additional feature or resource fees or any fees other than the
unused portion of the annual hosting fees.
5.5. Customer will be charged a $15 account
reactivation fee for each site suspended due to a billing-related issue.
Accounts are suspended the day after their annual renewal date if payment is
not received by the renewal date. It is the customers responsibility to
maintain a valid and working email address listed with the company billing
department at all times while service is being provided. Renewal notices are
sent via email to the contact email listed on customers account prior to
annual renewal date. Failure to receive a renewal notice does not constitute
grounds for non payment of renewal.
5.6. Customer shall pay the fees and other
charges for Products and Services ordered from Company as published on this
site at the time of order. Company reserves the right to change rates without
notice; any changes in price will take effect upon renewal of the existing
hosting account and immediately for new purchases.
5.6.1. Customer agrees that the Company
reserves the right to change its fees, features, and discount offerings and
the Customer agrees to be bound by any changes of fee, feature, and/or
discounts for future purchases if so made. Customer will not pay more than
what is listed on company site at the time that customer ordered a specific
service for the period of service agreed to.
5.7. The Company reserves the right to
terminate this agreement, and to delete the Website from its hardware,
immediately upon the occurrence of any of the following events:
5.7.1. Non payment of any charges due from
Customer;
5.7.2. Breach of any term or condition of
this agreement by Customer;
5.7.3. Commencement of any lawsuit or
proceeding against Customer arising from or relating to its use of the
Website, whether or not such suit names the Company as a party or seeks any
recovery from the Company.
5.7.4. Payment for any charges are due at
the time of signup and renewal respectively. All payments must be in U.S.
Dollars. Accounts which have balances outstanding shall be deemed to be in
default and subject to termination of service. Customer shall be responsible
for all costs of collection, including reasonable attorney's fees and court
costs, in event of a default for nonpayment of any amounts due the Company.
5.8 It is the customer's responsibility to
maintain an active email address and notify company of any changes to the
account administrative contact. Customers needing to update their information
must do so through their online secure account Control Panel. Failure to
maintain accurate contact information and a working email address will prevent
the Customer from receiving important account notices and information and
therefore is a serious matter.
6. Indemnification of Provider/Relationship of
Parties
6.1. Customer agrees to indemnify and hold
the Company harmless from any lawsuit, claim, charge, or expense, including
reasonable attorney fees and costs of defense, for any matter arising from or
relating to Customer's Website provided hereunder.
6.2. Nothing contained herein shall be deemed
to create a relationship between the Company and Customer in the nature of a
partnership, joint venture, editor/publisher or otherwise. Both parties
acknowledge and agree that the Company has no interaction with the data or
substance of Customer's Website, except as necessary to maintain the Website
on the web server.
7. Security/Software
7.1. Customer agrees to take all steps
reasonable, necessary, and prudent to protect Customer's login ID and password
and is responsible for maintaining login security.
7.2. Customer agrees not to attempt to
undermine or cause harm to any server, software, system or customer of the
Company.
7.3. Customer agrees to maintain Customers'
computing equipment responsibly, including running virus software.
7.4. Uploading a virus or worm or any harmful
code or program of any kind to a Company server will result in account
termination, service charges and/or prosecution.
7.5. 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.
8. Violation
Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to the Company server or another
customer's Web presence is strictly prohibited. Any violation of the above Terms
of Service will result in grounds for account termination, with no refunds
given; the Company reserves the right to remove any account without prior
notice. Violation of these Terms of Service may result in legal action, service
charges or a combination thereof.
9. Confidentiality
Customer acknowledges that by reason of their relationship, both the Customer
and the Company may have access to certain products, information and materials
relating to the other part’s business, which may include business plans,
customers, software technology, and marketing plans that are confidential and of
substantial value to either party, respectively, and which value would be
impaired if such information were disclosed to third parties. Consequently, both
the Company and the Customer agree that it will not use in any way for its own
account or for the account of any third part, nor disclose to any third part,
any such information revealed to it by either part, as the case may be.
The Customer and the Company further agrees
that each will take every appropriate precaution to protect the confidentiality
of such information. In the event of termination of this agreement, there shall
be no use or disclosure by either party of any such confidential information in
its possession, and all confidential documents shall be returned to the rightful
owner, or destroyed. The provisions of this section shall survive the
termination of the agreement for any reason. Upon any breach or threatened
breach of this section, either party shall be entitled to injunctive relief,
which relief will not be contested by the Customer or the Company.
10. Refusal of Service
10.1. The Company reserves the right to
refuse service to anyone it so deems as a potential risk of violation of these
Terms of Service.
10.2. If any of these Terms of Service are
failed to be followed it will result in grounds for immediate account
deactivation, termination or suspension and the Customer's web site files and
emails permanently deleted from Company servers.
11. Disclaimer
11.1. USE OF THE COMPANY’S SERVICES AND
PRODUCTS IS 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.
11.2. 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.
11.3 We also are
concerned with the privacy of on-line communications. In general, the Internet
is neither more nor less secure than other common communications media,
including mail, facsimile and voice telephone service, all of which can be
intercepted and otherwise compromised. As a matter of prudence, however, we
urge our customers to assume that all of their on-line communications are
insecure.
We cannot take any
responsibility for the security of communications transmitted over our
facilities. We will comply fully, however, with all applicable laws concerning
the privacy of our customers' on-line communications. In particular, we will
not intentionally monitor or disclose any private electronic mail messages
sent or received by our customers unless required to do so by law. We may,
however, monitor our service electronically to determine that our facilities
are operating satisfactorily. Also, we may be required to disclose
information transmitted through our facilities in order to comply with court
orders, statutes, regulations or governmental requests. Finally, we may
disclose information transmitted over our facilities where necessary to
protect us and our customers from harm, or where such disclosure is necessary
to the proper operation of the system.
We are not responsible
for loss of customer content due to server or hardware failure. We do backup
our systems daily, but cannot guarantee the content is up-to-date or can be
recovered in the event of system or hardware failure. It is always the
customer's own responsibility to have a full backup of their site at all
times.
We expect that our
customers who provide web hosting services to others will comply fully with
all applicable laws concerning the privacy of on-line communications. A
customer's failure to comply with those laws will violate our policy. Finally,
we wish to emphasize that in signing up for services and therefore agreeing to
the Terms of Service, customers indemnify us for any violation of the customer
of the Terms of Service, or of law or corporate policies, that results in loss
to us or the bringing of any claim against us. This means that if we are sued
because of activities of the customer that violate any law, the Terms of
Service, the customer will pay any damages awarded against us, plus costs and
reasonable attorneys' fees.
We hope this Policy
Statement is helpful in clarifying the obligations of Internet users,
including us and our customers, as responsible members of the Internet.
11.4. The Company reserves the right to
revise or change these Terms of Service at any time.
11.5. This Agreement shall be governed in all
respects under the laws of the State of New Jersey applicable to contracts
made, accepted and performed wholly in New Jersey, 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 New
Jersey.
12. Domain Registration Agreement
For domain name registrations obtained by the
Customer through the Company, in addition to this Agreement and notwithstanding
any other term of this Agreement, you agree to be bound by the terms and
conditions of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Policy")
which has been adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers ("ICANN"), and is incorporated by reference into your Registration
Agreement, and sets forth the terms and conditions in connection with a dispute
between you and any party over the registration and use of an Internet domain
name registered by you. You may read the Policy at www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm
12.1. Customer acknowledges that all fees
billed for domain registration will be billed according to the
domain services from Elite Computers.
12.2. By registering a domain name through
the Company, the Customer is establishing a relationship with the registrar
http://GoDaddy.com separate from the Company and this Agreement.
12.3. The Company is not in the domain name
hosting business. All customer accounts are setup with the understanding that
the Customer will transfer authoritative DNS control of the domain hosted to
the Company, i.e., the Company requires the Customer to update the domain name
registration of any domain hosted by the Company to list the Company's domain
name servers as the hosting entity. The Company does not provide extended
access to its network through non-authoritative DNS means for any purpose
other than initial account setup.
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