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Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

As a provider of web site hosting, and other Internet-related services, Surf7.net offers its clients, and their customers and users, the means to disseminate a wealth of public, private, commercial, and non-commercial information. Surf7.net respects that the Internet provides a forum for free and open discussion and dissemination of information, however, when there are competing interests at issue, Surf7.net reserves the right to take certain preventative or corrective actions. In order to protect these competing interests, Surf7.net 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 Surf7.net services. This AUP will be revised from time to time. A customer’s use of Surf7.net after changes to the AUP are posted on Surf7.net web site, www.Surf7.net, 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 Surf7.net 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 Surf7.net network and may reach a large number of people, including both clients and non-clients of Surf7.net, clients’ postings to the Internet may affect other clients and may harm Surf7.net goodwill, business reputation, and operations. For these reasons, clients violate Surf7.net policy and the service agreement when they, their customers, affiliates, or subsidiaries engage in the following prohibited activities:

UCE / SPAM

The abuse and misuse of e-mail is a serious problem, and Surf7.net cannot and will not tolerate it. This policy covers all servers and domains on our network, including but not limited to Virtual Shared, Bulk Reseller, VPS, Dedicated and Colocation.

Definition of UCE (Unsolicited Commercial E-mail), or spam:

  • The bulk UCE, promotional material, or other forms of solicitation sent via e-mail that advertise any IP address belonging to Surf7.net or any URL (domain) that is hosted by Surf7.net.
  • Unsolicited postings to newsgroups advertising any IP or URL hosted by Surf7.net.
  • The use of web pages set up on ISPs that allow spamming (also known as “ghost sites”) that directly or indirectly reference customers to domains or IP addresses hosted by Surf7.net.
  • Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to facilitate a means to spam.
  • Forging or misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the true origin of the message.

For further information on mail abuse, please visit the Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) web site.Spam, mailing lists and other email restrictions:

Due to the increased problems and risk to our network, Surf7.net also prohibits the use of 3rd party mailing lists and FFA’s. See our mailing list management principals for managing your own lists. Examples that we do not allow include but are not limited to:

  • Safe list
  • Purchased / Sold mailing lists
  • FFA’s

Repercussions of spam:

Across the Web, it is generally accepted that spam is an inconsiderate and improper business practice.

Impacts to Surf7.net:

Spam is not only harmful because of its negative impact on consumer attitudes toward Surf7.net, but also because it can overload Surf7.net network and resources.

There are many groups that report and block the networks that spam is sent from. In the event spam is generated off of ours or our customers servers, our network can be blocked and this impacts other users putting our network at risk.

Our Providers:

Since it is unsolicited, users who receive spam often become angry and send complaints to our upstream providers. This upsets our providers who abhor spam for the same reasons that Surf7.net does – it causes negative consumer attitudes and drains resources. We strive to maintain favorable business relationships in the Web community and obviously will not allow any practice that threatens these relationships.

Consequences/ Penalties for Spamming:

Surf7.net reserves the right to terminate, without warning, any account that violates this policy. Usage of Surf7.net services constitutes acceptance and understanding of this policy.

Surf7.net may, at its option, charge $25.00 per spam complaint we receive for any domain on our network and will be charged to the owner of the domain or the owner of the server the domain resides on or the reseller of the domain. Resellers, dedicated server owners and colocation clients may choose to pass this charge down to their client, when/if appropriate. These are non-refundable charges and will be invoiced at the time of complaint notification.

It is the responsibility of dedicated server owners, resellers and colocation clients to manage the email from their server/accounts and to keep in compliance of our policies.

Surf7.net reserves the right to decide what it considers “spam”, “UCE”, “mail bombing”, or “bulk e-mail”, and to determine from all of the evidence whether or not the e-mail recipients were from an “opt-in” e-mail list.

Should you choose to e-mail from Surf7.net servers, especially if you use mailing lists, you must read and adhere to the following guidelines, which are offered as a statement of Internet standards and best current practices for proper mailing list management and preventing e-mail abuse.

Basic Mailing List Management Principles for Preventing Abuse

Mailing lists are a vehicle for distributing focused, targeted information to an interested, receptive audience. Consequently, mailing lists have been used successfully as a highly effective direct marketing tool.

Unfortunately, some marketers misuse mailing lists through a lack of understanding of Internet customs and rules of the forum pertaining to e-mail. Others fail to take adequate precautions to prevent the lists they manage from being used in an abusive manner.

  1. The e-mail addresses of new subscribers must be confirmed or verified before mailings commence. This is usually accomplished by means of an e-mail message sent to the subscriber to which s/he must reply, or containing a URL which s/he must visit, in order to complete the subscription. However it is implemented, a fundamental requirement of all lists is the verification of all new subscriptions.
  2. Mailing list administrators must provide a simple method for subscribers to terminate their subscriptions, and administrators should provide clear and effective instructions for unsubscribing from a mailing list. Mailings from a list must cease promptly once a subscription is terminated.
  3. Mailing list administrators should make an “out of band” procedure (e.g., a means of contact by which messages may be sent for further correspondence via e-mail or telephone) available for those who wish to terminate their mailing list subscriptions but are unable or unwilling to follow standard automated procedures.
  4. Mailing list administrators must ensure that the impact of their mailings on the networks and hosts of others is minimized by proper list management procedures such as pruning of invalid or undeliverable addresses, or taking steps to ensure that mailings do not overwhelm less robust hosts or networks.
  5. Mailing list administrators must take adequate steps to ensure that their lists are not used for abusive purposes. For example, administrators can maintain a “suppression list” of e-mail addresses from which all subscription requests are rejected. Addresses would be added to the suppression list upon request by the parties entitled to use the addresses at issue. The purpose of the suppression list would be to prevent subscription of addresses appearing on the suppression list by unauthorized third parties. Such suppression lists should also give properly authorized domain administrators the option to suppress all mailings to the domains for which they are responsible.
  6. Mailing list administrators must make adequate disclosures about how subscriber addresses will be used, including whether or not addresses are subject to sale or trade with other parties. Once a mailing list is traded or sold, it may no longer be an opt-in mailing list. Therefore, those who are acquiring “opt-in” lists from others must examine the terms and conditions under which the addresses were originally compiled and determine that all recipients have in fact opted-in specifically to the mailing lists to which they are being traded or sold.
  7. Mailing list administrators should make adequate disclosures about the nature of their mailing lists, including the subject matter of the lists and anticipated frequency of messages. A substantive change in either the subject matter or frequency of messages may constitute a new and separate mailing list requiring a separate subscription. List administrators should create a new mailing list when there is a substantive change in either the subject matter or frequency of messages. A notification about the new mailing list may be appropriate on the existing mailing list, but existing subscribers should never be subscribed automatically to the new list. For example, if Company A acquires Company B, and Company B has compiled opt-in mailing lists, Company A should not summarily incorporate Company B’s mailing lists into its own.

* This spam (UCE) Accepted Use Policy and all other Surf7.net policies are subject to change by Surf7.net without notice. Continued usage of the services after a change to this policy is implemented and posted on the Surf7.net site constitutes your acceptance of such change or policy. We encourage you to regularly check the Surf7.net site for any changes or additions. Visit our Terms of Service (TOS) for further information regarding our policies.

ADULT CONTENTS

Virtual Shared Servers

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, it is not our function to discriminate against those who choose to utilize adult content or adult related material. This being said, there are still several reasons why Surf7.net has been forced to create its no adult sites policy for its virtual and bulk reseller server users, including but not limited to direct customers, resellers and resold accounts.

What does Surf7.net consider “Adult Material”?

  • Any site whose revenue is gained in part or whole from its adult content.
  • Photos or videos showing frontal nudity on either men or women for non-scientific or non-artistic purposes.
  • Hyperlinks to adult sites, including but not limited to sites who violate these policies.
  • Sites that have discussion boards and share information that is ‘adult’ in nature.
  • Sites that sell or promote ‘adult’ material, including but not limited to adult toys.

Surf7.net 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. Please email sales@surf7.net for review of your content and/or site.

Why does Surf7.net 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 web sites. 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.

Banned IPs
Adult sites tend to get blocked. Since many of our shared accounts also share IP addresses and/or the range of IPs are blocked, all other users on that server or network range are impacted.

Association
Many people do not want to be associated with adult content, based on personal opinions and beliefs. IPs are assigned to a server in ranges and IP address are in many cases shared IPs. Consequently, we want our shared servers to be ‘adult content’ free.

Virtual Private (VPS), Dedicated and Colocation servers

Because we can swip the IPs and assign them to the owners of these accounts, we do allow our dedicated and colocation customers to have adult content on their servers. All of our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use policies do apply, including, but not limited to:

  • UCE / Spam: Adult sites tend to use UCE/spam as a source of marketing. Before considering using our services for Adult material, please review our spam policy. We have zero tolerance for spam.
  • Illegal Content: We do not allow any illegal activities on our network, including, but not limited exploitation of minors.

SHARED SERVER RESOURCE ABUSE

Surf7.net allows CGI, PHP, Perl and many other normal processes used for hosting to be used on all Virtual Servers. These processes can be resource intensive however, and because a Virtual Server must be shared with other users, we must limit how much of the CPU, memory, disk I/O, disk space and database use can be used by any one account on a shared server. Therefore any program (application, script, etc.) or usage that consumes too many resources that impacts other customers in either performance or reliability is considered resource abuse. Shared servers are ‘shared’ and we all need to play fair. In the event a user requires more resources than is acceptable on a shared server environment, a dedicated solution, such as our VPS, dedicated or colocation services are recommended.

What does Surf7.net consider “System Resource ABUSE”?

Any site whose traffic, programs and/or processes are using excessive amounts of system resources. Excessive amounts is defined as any amount that results in substantial degradation of server performance. Surf7.net is the sole determinant of what constitutes degraded server performance.

Although our Bulk Reseller plans have larger disk space and bandwidth availability, these accounts are intended for small to medium sized web sites and traffic loads. The BR Accounts are not intended for large, busy , resource intensive web sites and they will be suspended if found impacting server performance. Large busy sites, especially those using databases, usually require a dedicated solution due to resource usage. Our VPS and Dedicated Servers options are better suited for these type of sites since they do not impact other users.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

  • Flat File Database Driven Forums

    Due to their use of flat files instead of databases, Surf7.net does not allow the use of UBB or YABB bulletin boards. Use of these boards for large or very active forums, results in system performance degradation, and cannot be allowed in our shared server environment. Surf7.net suggests using VBulletin or phpBB as a more efficient, database-driven alternative to these bulletin boards. Busy sites with large forums and data bases are not suited to a shared server environment.

  • Background Running Processes

    Background Daemons in general are prohibited on Surf7.net servers, including, but not limited to, IRC bots, eggdrop, BitchX, XiRCON, warez sites and any other program that interferes with normal server operation.

  • Cron Jobs

    We allow customers to set up cron jobs to perform routine functions automatically. Due to the impact on the server, running some automated processes can take up considerable server resources and in those cases, our technicians may disable the cron job.

  • Mailing Lists

    We have a strict policy regarding use/spam on our network, but we do allow use of mailing lists within the constraints of our spam policy. However, sending thousands of e-mails off of a given server can impact the performance of the server. Therefore we limit the amount of e-mail allowed on our Shared Virtual Servers (including the Bulk Reseller servers) to no more than 1000 e-mails per day and 30 emails in 10 seconds.

  • Exploitable Scripts

    Unfortunately, many commonly used scripts can be exploited to allow unauthorized users into our systems. Consequently we may on occasion need to ban and consequently disable these scripts. You can view the most current exploits on our banned-scripts page.

  • Other

    Other resource intensive scripts (depending on traffic) include but not limited to:

    • adcycle

    Other applications that are prohibited on our virtual servers include but are not limited to:

    • offsite search engines

Why does Surf7.net have this policy?

Server Speed and Fairness to others. A Virtual Server is shared. As such, there are many accounts per machine. In all fairness, Surf7.net cannot allow one or two clients to use all of the System resources on a shared machine and have all other clients on the machine suffer because of it. Excessive usage by one or more clients causes extreme slowness in all areas: FTP, SSH, Web Sites and more. If the CPU, disk I/O and/or memory usage gets too far out of hand, all sites hosted on the machine will return Errors and not be accessible in any way.

What happens if I violate this policy?

All accounts that are found to be using excessive amounts of system resources will receive an e-mail warning from Surf7.net. This warning will inform you that the site is using excessive system resources. Surf7.net will provide options for reducing the usage and/or upgrading your account. If the situation is severe, we may suspend the account or process immediately to bring performance of the server back to an acceptable level. 24 hours notice will be given if at all possible.

ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES

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. Surf7.net is required by law to remove or block access to customer content upon receipt of a proper notice of copyright infringement. It is also Surf7.net policy to terminate the privileges of customers who commit repeat violations of copyright laws. Reference our copyright infringement policy for more information.

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).

Forging of Headers
Forging or misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the originator of the message.

Export Control Violations
Exporting encryption software over the Internet or otherwise, to points outside the United States.

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.

BANNED SCRIPTS

Target Audience: Dedicated, VPS, Colocation, Bulk Resellers and Shared Hosting customers.

Unfortunately, many good things are turned on us to be used for nefarious activities. Commonly used scripts are frequently exploited to allow unauthorized access to the systems they are running on. Others just require more resources than is allocated on a shared server environment.

Consequently, in order to keep Surf7.net network and servers safe, we may need to take actions that inconvenience our good customers. Any time we find scripts or other commonly used tools that can become easily compromised or impact other users by using too many server resources, we may need to disable scripts or other tools installed and used by our customers.

Whenever possible, we will notify our customers in advance. We will also attempt to keep this page updated with current scripts which will require removal from our shared servers and/or our network.

This list includes script/program names, reason for ban, who/what servers they are banned on (e.g. our Shared or Network wide) and provide alternative options for our customers whenever possible.

Banned scripts and alternatives:

Script / Program

Version/Type

Not Allowed On

Reason

Alternate Options

Matt Wright’s formmail

1.91 and previous

Network wide

Exploitable to send UCE/spam

nms-cgi formmail replacement

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. Surf7.net is required by law to remove or block access to customer content upon receipt of a proper notice of copyright infringement. It is also Surf7.net policy to terminate the privileges of customers who commit repeat violations of copyright laws.

MISCELLANEOUS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES

Other specific activities that are against our Acceptable Use Policy include the following:

Defamatory or Abusive Language

Using Surf7.net network as a means to transmit or post defamatory, harassing, abusive, or threatening language.

Any content that is discriminatory based on gender, race, age and/or promotes hate or violence is prohibited.

Usenet Group postings that violates our TOS

Surf7.net reserves the right not to accept postings from newsgroups where we have actual knowledge that the content of the newsgroup violates the AUP.

Facilitating a Violation of our TOS

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, mail bombing, denial of service attacks, and piracy of software.

Other activities Surf7.net determines to be harmful

Engaging in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that Surf7.net 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. Surf7.net will not, as an ordinary practice, monitor the communications of its client to ensure that they comply with Surf7.net policy or applicable law. When Surf7.net 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.

Surf7.net 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, Surf7.net urges its clients to assume that all of their on-line communications are insecure. Surf7.net cannot take any responsibility for the security of information transmitted over Surf7.net facilities.

Surf7.net 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. Surf7.net may, however, monitor its service electronically to determine that its facilities are operating satisfactorily. Also, Surf7.net 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. Surf7.net 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, Surf7.net may disclose client information or information transmitted over its network where necessary to protect Surf7.net 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 Surf7.net and its clients, as responsible members of the Internet. Any complaints about a client’s violation of this AUP should be sent to mailto:abuse@surf7.net.