CTC Acceptable Use Policy
1. Introduction
Consolidated Telephone Company's Acceptable
Use Policy (“AUP”)
is intended to help enhance the use of the Internet by preventing
unacceptable use. All users of Consolidated Telephone Company's Internet
services (the “Services”) — those who access some
of our Services but do not have accounts (“Visitors”)
as well as those who pay a monthly service fee to subscribe to the
Services (“Members”) — must comply with this AUP.
We support the free flow of information and ideas over the Internet
and do not actively monitor use of the Services under normal circumstances.
Similarly, we do not exercise editorial control over the content
of any Web site, electronic mail transmission, news group, or other
material created or accessible over or through the Services, except
for certain proprietary Web sites. However, in accordance with our
Internet Service Agreement, we may remove any materials that, in
our sole discretion, may be illegal, may subject us to liability,
or which may violate this AUP. Consolidated Telephone Company may
cooperate with legal authorities and/or third parties in the investigation
of any suspected or alleged crime or civil wrong. Your violation
of this AUP may result in the suspension or termination of either
your access to the Services and/or your Consolidated Telephone Company
account or other actions as detailed in Section 3. This AUP should
be read in conjunction with our Internet Service Agreement and other
policies.
2. Violations of Consolidated Telephone Company's Acceptable Use
Policy
The following constitute violations of Consolidated Telephone Company's
Policy:
a. Illegal use. Using the Services
to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise)
that,
intentionally
or unintentionally, violates any applicable local, state, national
or international law, or any rules or regulations promulgated
thereunder is prohibited.
b. Harm to minors. Using the Services
to harm, or attempt to harm, minors in any way is prohibited.
c. Threats. Using the Services to
transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise)
that threatens or encourages
bodily harm or destruction of property is prohibited.
d. Harassment. Using the Services
to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise)
that harasses another
is prohibited.
e. Fraudulent activity. Using
the Services to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products,
items,
or services or to advance
any type
of financial scam such as "pyramid schemes", "ponzi
schemes", and "chain letters" is prohibited.
f. Forgery or impersonation. Adding,
removing or modifying identifying network header information in
an effort to deceive or mislead
is prohibited. Attempting to impersonate any person by using
forged
headers or other identifying information is prohibited. The use
of anonymous remailers or nicknames does not constitute impersonation.
Using deliberately misleading headers ("munging" headers)
in news postings in order to avoid spam e-mail address collectors
is allowed.
g. Unsolicited commercial email/ Unsolicited bulk email. Using
the Services to transmit any unsolicited commercial email or
unsolicited bulk email is prohibited. Activities that have the
effect of facilitating
unsolicited commercial email or unsolicited bulk email, whether
or not that email is commercial in nature, are prohibited.
h. Unauthorized access. Using the
Services to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others,
or to penetrate, or attempt
to penetrate, security measures of Consolidated Telephone Company's
or another entity's computer software or hardware, electronic
communications system, or telecommunications system, whether
or not the intrusion
results in the corruption or loss of data is prohibited.
i. Copyright or trademark infringement. Using
the Services to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting,
or otherwise)
that
infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or
other proprietary rights of any third party, including, but not
limited
to, the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, the digitization
and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other
copyrighted sources, and the unauthorized transmittal of copyrighted
software is prohibited. Consolidated Telephone Company is registered
under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998.
j. Collection of personal data. Using
the Services to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information
about third parties
without their knowledge or consent is prohibited.
k. Reselling the services. Reselling
the Services without Consolidated Telephone Company's authorization
is prohibited.
l. Network disruptions and unfriendly activity.
Using the Services for any activity which adversely affects the
ability of other
people or systems to use Consolidated Telephone Company Services
or the
Internet is prohibited. This includes "denial of service" (DoS)
attacks against another network host or individual user. Interference
with or disruption of other network users, network services or
network equipment is prohibited. It is the Member's responsibility
to ensure that their network is configured in a secure manner.
A Member may not, through action or inaction, allow others to
use their network for illegal or inappropriate actions. A Member
may
not permit their network, through action or inaction, to be configured
in such a way that gives a third party the capability to use
their network in an illegal or inappropriate manner. CTC customers
may
be billed for charges CTC incurs due to the customer causing
any type of service outage or disruption. This includes outages
or
disruptions due to bandwidth violations, DoS violations, SPAM
email violations and any other outage or disruption. This includes
charges
CTC incurs from any third party that may be required to resolve
any outage or disruption caused by any CTC customer.
m. News. Consolidated
Telephone Company Members should use their best judgment when
posting to
any newsgroup. Many groups have
charters, published guidelines, FAQs, or "community standards" describing
what is and is not considered appropriate. Usenet can be a valuable
resource if used properly. The continued posting of off-topic
articles is prohibited. Commercial advertisements are off-topic
in most
newsgroups, especially regional groups not specifically named
for such. The presence of such articles in a group is not indicative
of the group's "intended" use. Please familiarize yourself
with basic USENET netiquette before posting to a newsgroup. Consolidated
Telephone Company considers "multi-posting" to
10 or more groups within a two-week sliding window to be excessive.
Consolidated Telephone Company servers currently limit the number
of allowable "cross-posts" to 9.
Consolidated Telephone Company Members may not cancel messages other
than their own messages. A Member may cancel posts forged in that
Member's name. We may cancel any postings which violate this AUP.
3. Reporting Violations of Consolidated Telephone Company's AUP
Consolidated Telephone Company requests that anyone who believes
that there is a violation of this AUP direct the information to
the Director of the Abuse Department, at: abuse@brainerd.net
If available, please provide the following information:
- The IP address used to commit the alleged violation
- The date and time of the alleged violation, including the time
zone or offset from GMT
- Evidence of the alleged violation
E-mail with full header information provides all
of the above, as do syslog files. Other situations will require different
methods
of providing the above information. Consolidated Telephone Company may take any one or more of the following
actions in response to complaints:
- issue warnings: written or verbal
- suspend the Member's newsgroup posting privileges
- suspend the Member's account
- terminate the Member's account
- bill the Member for administrative costs and/or reactivation
charges
- bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect
damages, if any, caused by violations.
4. Revisions to this Acceptable Use Policy
Consolidated Telephone Company reserves the right to revise, amend,
or modify this AUP, our Internet Service Agreement and our other
policies at any time and in any manner. Any revision, amendment,
or modification will be effective thirty (30) days after Consolidated
Telephone Company posts notice to Members in accordance with Section
10 of the Internet Service Agreement.
|
