SOHO Prospecting Hosting Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy
Acceptable Use Policy
This SOHO Prospecting Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") describes the proper kinds of conduct and prohibited uses of SOHO Prospecting's hosting services (the "Services"). This AUP is not exhaustive and SOHO Prospecting reserves the right to modify this TOS/AUP at any time, effective upon posting of the modified TOS/AUP at www.sohoprospecting.com. By registering for and using the Services, and thereby accepting the terms and conditions of this TOS/AUP, you agree to abide by these conditions as modified from time to time. Any violation of the TOS/AUP may result in the suspension or termination of your account or such other action as SOHO Prospecting deems appropriate.
Server Abuse
Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server, or customer, of SOHO Prospecting is strictly prohibited.
Unauthorized use of other people's accounts or computers SOHO Prospecting will strongly react to any use or attempted use of an Internet account or computer without the owner's authorization. Such attempts include "Internet scamming" (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password robbery, security hole scanning etc.
Any unauthorized use of accounts or computers by a SOHO Prospecting customer, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to SOHO Prospecting, will result in action against the attacker. Possible actions include warnings, account suspension or cancellation, and civil or criminal legal action, depending on the seriousness of the attack.
IMPORTANT NOTE - SOHO Prospecting has the right to discontinue service, or deny access to anyone who violates our Policies or the terms and conditions shown below WITHOUT WARNING OR PRIOR NOTICE. No refunds of fees paid will be made if account termination is due to violation of the terms outlined below. No files located on the offending account will be retrievable
Customers may not run IRC, bots or clients on shared servers. Unacceptable uses also include, but are NOT limited to: Bulk emailing, unsolicited emailing's, newsgroup spamming, illegal content, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, warez, cracks, software serial numbers, and/or anything else determined by SOHO Prospecting to be unacceptable use of SOHO Prospecting's services including abuse of server resources.
All hosting accounts may be terminated that include the following content or which have links to the following content:
- Providing material that is grossly offensive to the Web community including blatant expressions of bigotry, racism or hatred.
- Promoting or providing instructional information about illegal activities, or promoting physical harm or injury against any group or individual.
- Displaying material that exploits children less than 18 years of age.
- Acts of copyright infringement including offering pirated computer programs or links to such programs, information used to circumvent manufacturer-installed copy-protect devices, including serial or registration numbers for software programs, or any type of cracker utilities.
Bandwidth Traffic
Each plan with SOHO Prospecting comes with a pre determined bandwidth usage amount. In the event that your account exceeds the bandwidth limitations included with your account you will be billed at the amount specified in the account details.
You will receive a notice from our system once you utilize 90% of your bandwidth allocation. You can either choose to upgrade your account to the next highest plan, pay $2/GB of overage or remain where you are if you are near the end of your billing cycle and do not expect to go over.
All overages will be billed automatically to your account.
Shared Hosting Server Resource Utilization
SOHO Prospecting has designed our plans so that users can typically utilize all of the resources they have purchased without hitting any server resource limitations. This is especially true with utilization towards any of the scripts advertised on our site (including phpBB, Zen Cart, VB, Joomla, WordPress, etc). Having said this, there may be occasions where a clients script is simply poorly written (and this can include custom coding or 3rd party modules) where a user is utilizing far too many server resources for the tasks they are performing. Although there are no fixed numbers with respect to what is too much, we do go by a reasonable use model. We do not assign hard limits as we like to allow our clients the ability to burst and utilize more than "their fair share" for periods of time. However, poor coding will result in unnecessary dramatic spikes in server resource utilization. If this were to occur, we will take every possible action required to minimize the negative impact on our environment. In most cases, the client will be contacted and informed of the issue and given the opportunity to correct their coding. There will however be some instances where the coding is so poor, that we will be required to suspend the offensive domain until such time that the client is able to correct the issue. This sort of drastic action will only be taken when absolutely necessary so as to maintain the stability of our environment.
HAL Hosting Server Resource Utilization
SOHO Prospecting has designed our plans so that users can typically utilize all of the resources they have purchased without hitting any server resource limitations. This is especially true with utilization towards any of the scripts advertised on our site (including phpBB, Zen Cart, VB, Joomla, WordPress, etc). Having said this, there may be occasions where a clients script is simply poorly written (and this can include custom coding or 3rd party modules) where a user is utilizing far too many server resources for the tasks they are performing. Although there are no fixed numbers with respect to what is too much, we do go by a reasonable use model. We do not assign hard limits as we like to allow our clients the ability to burst and utilize more than "their fair share" for periods of time. However, poor coding will result in unnecessary dramatic spikes in server resource utilization. If this were to occur, we will take every possible action required to minimize the negative impact on our environment. In most cases, the client will be contacted and informed of the issue and given the opportunity to correct their coding. There will however be some instances where the coding is so poor, that we will be required to suspend the offensive domain until such time that the client is able to correct the issue. This sort of drastic action will only be taken when absolutely necessary so as to maintain the stability of our environment.
Shared Hosting Uptime SLA
SOHO Prospecting offers a 99% uptime guarantee. A service will be generally available to the internet - Isolated ISP or transit outages are out of our control and not covered by this SLA. This SLA covers unscheduled maintenance windows within our networks and data center. SOHO Prospecting will credit 50% of your fee if we are responsible for an outage resulting in an uptime less than 99% for a calendar month. SOHO Prospecting will credit 100% of your fee if we are responsible for an outage resulting in an uptime less than 97% for a calendar month. Please note - Scheduled Maintenance Windows and Control Panel Service is exempt from any uptime SLA's as our control panel service is isolated from our other services and typically we will take the control panel offline while performing major system upgrades (however, other core services will not be affected)
Network Uptime SLA for Shared, HAL, Dedicated, VPS and Collocation Customers
SOHO Prospecting offers 100% Network uptime SLA for all customers. Unscheduled network outages of any nature will make customers eligible for a service credit valued at 1 days of service for every 5 minutes of unscheduled network outage accrued during a calendar month.
Chat Rooms
We do not allow clients to install their own chat rooms within a shared hosting account, without approving it with the SOHO Prospecting Support Team. Most chat rooms tend to be large system hogs and we cannot allow it as an account option. However, we do provide a choice of Java chat rooms for a small extra charge that will more than fill your needs and run without hindering the performance of the machine for others. Note: Parachat chat rooms do not apply to this rule. They are perfectly fine to install.
Abuse of SMTP Mail Server
We do not allow clients to send more than 2000 pieces of e-mail per day from a shared hosting account. If you do send more than 2000 pieces of e-mail per day, your account will be placed on hold for Network Abuse. If you are sending legitimate e-mails and they total more than 2000 per day Please contact
Background Running Programs
We may allow programs to run continually in the background. These are considered on a one-to-one basis and an extra charge will be incurred based on system resources used and operational maintenance needed. (This section does not apply to managed dedicated servers)
IRC
We currently do not allow IRC, IRC clients, or IRC bots to be operated on any of our servers. In addition, IRC servers are not permitted on our network. Anyone found to be in violation of this policy risks immediate account termination.
Data Provision
Except in the case of an account cancellation, as noted below, we charge a reasonable fee, subject to change from time to time, for the provision of website data from our servers. Depending on the characteristics of the account, this fee may be a flat fee, or based on time spent for the service.
Excessive Use/Overages
You will not exceed the bandwidth, storage and E-mail usage limits outlined by your particular web hosting package. If you use any bandwidth or storage space in excess of the agreed upon number of megabytes per month SOHO Prospecting may will assess you with additional charges based on pre-set plan overage fees. If SOHO Prospecting elects to take any corrective action, SOHO Prospecting will not refund any unused pre-paid fees. Your use of your account and access to it is your responsibility. You are responsible for any unauthorized access to your account resulting in bandwidth, storage and/or E-mail usage exceeding the limits outlined in your particular web hosting package specifications and resultant charges. Bandwidth overages are currently billed at $2/GB/month. Disk space overages are currently billed at $.10/MB/month disk space.
Intellectual Property Rights
Material accessible to you through SOHO Prospecting's services may be subject to protection under the United States, United States, or other copyright laws, or laws protecting trademarks, trade secrets or proprietary information. Except when expressly permitted by the owner of such rights, you must not use SOHO Prospecting or its servers and network in a manner that would infringe, violate, dilute or misappropriate any such rights, with respect to any material, which you access or receive through the SOHO Prospecting network. If you use a domain name in connection with SOHO Prospecting or similar service, you must not use that domain name in violation of any trademark, service mark, or similar rights of any third party.
Network Security
Customers may not use the SOHO Prospecting network with an attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the customer, logging into a server or account the customer is not expressly authorized to access, password cracking, probing the security of other networks in search of weakness, or violation of any other organization's security policy. Customers may not attempt to interfere or deny service to any user, host, or network. This includes, but is not limited to, flooding, mail bombing, or other deliberate attempts to overload or crash a host or network. SOHO Prospecting will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations. Users who violate system or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. You are solely responsible for any security breaches affecting servers or accounts under your control. If your server or website is responsible for or involved in an attack on or unauthorized access into another server or system, SOHO Prospecting will shut it down immediately. You will pay any charges resulting from the cost to correct security breaches affecting SOHO Prospecting or any of its other customers.
Content Management Systems
Customers with Content Management Systems (CMS), such as Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, etc., are required to maintain them to the most current version of the software. An out-of-date CMS represents a security risk to our Services and is not an acceptable use.
Electronic Commerce
You will be solely responsible for the development, operation and maintenance of your online store and products and all contents and materials appearing online or on your products, including without limitation (a) the accuracy and appropriateness of content and materials appearing within the store or related to your products, (b) ensuring that the content and materials appearing within the store or related to your products do not violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, and (c) ensuring that the content and materials appearing within the store or related to your products are not libelous or otherwise illegal. You will be solely responsible for the final calculation and application of shipping and sales tax. You will also be solely responsible for accepting, processing, and filling any customer orders, and for handling any customer inquiries or complaints arising there from.
You are also responsible for the security of any customer credit card numbers and related customer information you may access as a result of conducting electronic commerce transactions through your Web Site. You will keep all such information confidential and will use the same degree of care and security as you use with your confidential information.
Static / Dynamic Content Caching
You expressly (i) grant to SOHO Prospecting a license to cache the entirety of your Web Site, including content supplied by third parties, hosted by SOHO Prospecting under this Agreement and (ii) agree that such caching is not an infringement of any of your intellectual property rights or any third party's intellectual property rights.
IP Address Ownership and Usage
SOHO Prospecting shall maintain and control ownership of all IP numbers and addresses that may be assigned to you by SOHO Prospecting and SOHO Prospecting reserves, in its sole discretion, the right to change or remove any and all such IP numbers and addresses.
IP Address usage must be justifiable, as per ARIN guidelines. Justifiable uses are listed below
SSL Encryption - Service Domain - Virtual FTP server - Anonymous FTP server.
Shared, HAL, Dedicated, VPS and VDC Data Back Up Policy
SOHO Prospecting offers backups of all data including web files, data bases and emails. These back ups are available as a courtesy to our clients. It is always recommended that clients maintain their own backups of any and all data. SOHO Prospecting is not responsible for any data loss or potential revenue or financial losses accrued from loss of data. Back Up data may become corrupted or otherwise unusable. We do not guarantee that data can be recovered if lost, and in case of data loss, we will recover data from the latest back up snapshot available.
Dedicated Backup Server Policy
SOHO Prospecting offers a managed dedicated backup solution as part of our offerings. This service is designed for customers to backup off network (off network to SOHO Prospecting) appliances for day to day file and data base backup/recovery as well as an offsite disaster recovery solution. SOHO Prospecting will provide the dedicated server hardware along with the software required to perform these tasks. However, SOHO Prospecting is not responsible for supporting the end user appliances being backed up. Furthermore, SOHO Prospecting cannot guarantee the integrity of the backups on the servers. The dedicated backup server offering is a single dedicated server with redundant hard drives in a RAID1 array. This sort of hardware can fail. SOHO Prospecting will maintain the hardware and software versions running on the dedicated backup server. We will replace any hardware which fails. If a recoverable backup is not available for a customer when required from their backup server, SOHO Prospecting will refund the current month’s service payment for the backup service. No other warranty or guarantee is implied or offered with the Dedicated Backup Server offering by SOHO Prospecting.
Subscription
SOHO Prospecting offers a subscription based hosting services. Customers may select between monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and yearly subscription model. Accepted payment methods include all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, and Amex), PayPal and EFT withdrawals (United States Only). It is understood that monthly fees will be withdrawn on the due date and that clients are responsible for keeping their billing profile up to date in order to maintain their subscription to SOHO Prospecting's Hosting and Related services.
Cancellation Policy
Upon receiving a cancellation request, all data will be immediately removed from our servers and your account will be cancelled. This data will be provided to the Customer, in electronic form, one time at no additional charge. If the cancellation occurs within the first 30 days of service, a full money back request can be requested and will be issued. Any Dedicated server Dedicated Cluster, VPS or VDC is not eligible for the 30 day money back guarantee (exceptions to this may be made, however, a special request must be made in writing and will be determined on a case by case basis). After the 30 day money back guarantee period, SOHO Prospecting does not provide partial monthly credits.
Shared and VPS accounts can be cancelled at any time and without notice. Cancellations will be processed immediately upon receipt of the cancellation request.
Delinquent Accounts
Accounts in arrears will be suspended after 10 days and all data will be removed from our servers 30 days after their suspension. Once data has been removed, it will not be retrievable.
Once an account has been suspended, a fee is charged for restoring it. This fee must be paid, as well as any delinquent amounts, prior to service restoration.
Copyright Infringement
DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT
Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement
Pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c) (2), all notifications of claimed copyright infringement on the Interactive-Hosting system or Web site should be sent ONLY to our Designated Agent.
NOTE: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PROVIDED SOLELY FOR NOTIFYING SOHO Prospecting THAT YOUR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL MAY HAVE BEEN INFRINGED.
WE CAUTION YOU THAT UNDER FEDERAL LAW, IF YOU KNOWINGLY MISREPRESENT THAT ONLINE MATERIAL IS INFRINGING, YOU MAY BE SUBJECT TO HEAVY CIVIL PENALTIES. THESE INCLUDE MONETARY DAMAGES, COURT COSTS, AND ATTORNEYS FEES INCURRED BY US, BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER, OR BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER'S LICENSEE THAT IS INJURED AS A RESULT OF OUR RELYING UPON YOUR MISREPRESENTATION. YOU MAY ALSO BE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR PERJURY.
DO NOT SEND ANY INQUIRIES UNRELATED TO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT (e.g. REQUESTS FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE OR CUSTOMER SERVICE, REPORTS OF E-MAIL ABUSE, etc.) TO THE CONTACT LISTED BELOW. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE IF SENT TO THAT CONTACT.
Written notification must be submitted to the following Designated Agent:
SOHO Prospecting
cc: Copyright
2390C Las Posas Road, #G462
Camarillo, California 93010
USA
Under Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c) (3) (A), the Notification of Claimed Infringement must include the following:
1. Physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed or a representative list if multiple works are involved.
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing that should be removed or access to disabled and information reasonably sufficient to enable the online service provider to locate the material (usually a URL to the relevant page).
4. Information reasonably sufficient to allow the online service provider to contact the complaining party (address, phone number, e-mail address).
5. Statement that the complaining party has "a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law."
6. Statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
Lawful Purpose
SOHO Prospecting reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. Customers may only use SOHO Prospecting servers for lawful purpose. Transmission of any material in violation of any Federal, State, Provincial or Local regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to copyrighted material, material legally judged to be threatening or obscene, and material protected by trade secrets. The designation of any materials as such described above is left entirely to the discretion of SOHO Prospecting management. Regardless of the place of signing this agreement, the client agrees that for purposes of venue and jurisdiction this contract was entered into and performed in Camarillo, California, and any dispute will be litigated or arbitrated in Camarillo, California. Customer further waives all objections to venue or jurisdiction and acknowledges that venue and jurisdiction in any such litigation will be held in Camarillo, California, United States courts. IN NO EVENT SHALL SOHO PROSPECTING 's MAXIMUM LIABILITY EXCEED FIVE HUNDRED ($500.00) DOLLARS.
Indemnification
CUSTOMER AGREES THAT IT SHALL DEFEND, INDEMNIFY AND HOLD SOHO PROSPECTING HARMLESS FROM ANY AND ALL DEMANDS, LIABILITIES, LOSSES, COSTS AND CLAIMS, INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEY'S FEES ASSERTED AGAINST SOHO PROSPECTING, ITS AGENTS, ITS CUSTOMERS, OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES, THAT MAY ARISE OR RESULT FROM ANY SERVICE PROVIDED OR PERFORMED OR AGREED TO BE PERFORMED OR ANY PRODUCT SOLD BY CUSTOMER, IT'S AGENTS, EMPLOYEES OR ASSIGNS. FURTHER CUSTOMER AGREES TO DEFEND, INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS SOHO Prospecting AGAINST LIABILITIES ARISING OUT OF; (1) ANY INJURY TO PERSON OR PROPERTY CAUSED BY ANY PRODUCTS SOLD OR OTHERWISE DISTRIBUTED IN CONNECTION WITH SOHO PROSPECTING’S SERVER; (2) ANY MATERIAL SUPPLIED BY CUSTOMER INFRINGING OR ALLEGEDLY INFRINGING ON THE PROPRIETARY RIGHTS OF A THIRD PARTY; ( 3) COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND (4) ANY DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS SOLD TO CUSTOMER FROM SOHO PROSPECTING’S SERVER.
Disclaimer
SOHO PROSPECTING WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES YOUR BUSINESS MAY SUFFER. SOHO Prospecting MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED FOR SERVICES WE PROVIDE. SOHO Prospecting DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY OR MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THIS INCLUDES LOSS OF DATA RESULTING FROM DELAYS, NON-DELIVERIES, WRONG DELIVERY, AND ANY AND ALL SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY SOHO PROSPECTING AND ITS EMPLOYEES. SOHO PROSPECTING RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REVISE ITS POLICIES AT ANY TIME.
FAILURE TO FOLLOW ANY TERM OR CONDITION WILL BE GROUNDS FOR IMMEDIATE ACCOUNT DEACTIVATION.
THREATS/ABUSE AGAINST THE NAME, SERVERS, AND ALL THEREIN, OF SOHO PROSPECTING SHALL BE DEALT WITH TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW, THIS INCLUDES PACKAGE CLONING, NAME CLONING, WRONGFUL SUGGESTED AFFILIATION, MISLEADING MENTION OF AFFILIATION, IMAGE CLONING/STEALING, HTML CODE CLONING/STEALING.
