Aarvark Acceptable Use Policy

For Dialup and Hosting Plans

• View the ADSL AUP

Please read the following carefully

Introduction (covers Aardvark Dial-Up and hosting. For Aardvark ADSL, please refer to Aardvark ADSL web pages).

Aardvark Internet's Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") is intended to help enhance the use of the Internet by preventing unacceptable use. All users of Aardvark Internet services (the "Services")-those who access some of our Services but do not have accounts ("Visitors"), as well as those who pay a service fee to subscribe to the Services ("Customers")-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 websites. 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.

Aardvark Internet 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 Aardvark Internet account.

Definitions

Aardvark or Aardvark Internet means Aardvark Internet Pty Ltd (ABN 47 105 873 078) trading as Aardvark Internet Australia.

Additional Payments means the fees and charges for the Internet Access over and above the standard Regular Payment as defined on the Aardvark Web Site or Application Form.

Application Form means the contact and payment details and specific details of the Internet Access as provided.

Denial-of-service attacks mean behaviour of the Customer that results in disruption of the ISP's service, disruption of other peoples Internet Access or their enjoyment of that Access, which includes but is not limited to computer viruses, IRC harassment, email bombardment, damage to Internet-connected resources and channel flooding.

Disconnection or Termination is the process of the ISP ceasing to provide the Internet Access and upon an event permitting or requiring the ISP to do so: (a) The account may be suspended until reinstated and in any event for not less than 14 days, during which time all incoming mail will be held pending reinstatement of the Users account. (b) If not reinstated within 14 days or such further period as the ISP may permit, the account will be closed, and the ISP will have no responsibility for email or other data sent to or previously held on a closed account.

Downtime means periods of unavailability or limited availability of the Internet Access.

Internet Access means connection to the global network of networks known as The Internet using software protocols supported by the ISP to connect the Customer's computer equipment to the ISP's network. This includes access to email and the World Wide Web, but not necessarily other services or access otherwise than from a dialup connection. In the event that the ISP limits the Internet Access to access via a dialup connection to email and the World Wide Web, the appropriate Account Limitations must be endorsed on the Special Conditions.

ISP means the Internet Service Provider referred to in the Application Form or Website, its successors and assigns.

Megabyte (MB) means one million bytes.
Gigabyte (GB) means one thousand megabytes.

Notice by e-mail shall be sufficient written notice, but at the discretion of either the Customer or the ISP, notice may also be sent by their choice of post, hand delivery or facsimile transmission. The ISP shall confirm receipt of email from the Customer where needed with prejudice. It is a condition of service that the Customer read their Aardvark Internet email account regularly, as this is the typical means of communication between Aardvark Internet and the Customer. All email correspondence from the Customer to Aardvark Internet should be addressed to info@aardvark.net.au.

Regular Payment is the periodic charge due to the ISP from the Customer for the Customer Internet Access, excluding telephone charges payable to the telecommunications carrier. Telephone charges payable to the telecommunications carrier (such as Telstra, Optus, AAPT) are strictly the responsibility of the Customer. It is the responsibility of the Customer to verify with their Telephone Service Providor (Carrier) that they will only incur local phone call charges while using Aardvark's Dial-up service.

Special Conditions means terms and conditions endorsed on the Application Form or Aardvark Web Site which impose fees, charges, limitations and conditions on the provision of the Internet Access and include the Account Limitations and Special Terms.

Spamming means unsolicited bulk electronic messages sent by the Customer which in the reasonable opinion of the ISP constitutes a breach of acceptable use of the ISPs email, Usenet news or similar facilities.

Customer means the customer named in the Application Form, either completed online at the Aardvark Web Site or on paper-based application form, or name given during manual telephone or email signup arrangements.

Usenet News means the hierarchy of newsgroups providing public messages on a variety of topics.

Web Hit means a request for any file from a Customer's web pages directory, including but not limited to any text, graphics, sound, animation or video file on any individual web page.

Aardvark Web Site means the publically viewable content and pages stored electronically which reside at the URL: "http://www.aardvark.net.au/" but not limited to the private "My Account" section therein, viewable only to individual customers of Aardvark Internet.

Attended Access is defined as interactive use of an established Internet connection by the Customer. Interactive use requires the physical presence of the Customer; in other words, attended access.


No Warranty; Limitation of Liability

Use of Aardvark Internet services and system and the Internet in general is at subscriber's sole risk. Aardvark Internet does not warrant that its services and system will be uninterrupted, error free, free from unauthorised intrusion, or that Aardvark Internet's services or system will meet any particular criteria of performance or quality; nor does Aardvark Internet make any warranty as to the results or information obtained from use of its service or system or the Internet in general. Aardvark Internet's services and system are provided on an "as is", "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, compatibility, security or accuracy, all of which warranties are hereby expressly disclaimed except to the extent any warranty cannot be disclaimed under applicable law. Under no circumstances shall Aardvark Internet be liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, including, without limitation, loss of profits. Without limiting the foregoing, Aardvark will not be liable for damages resulting from the use or inability to use all or any part of Aardvark Internet's system or services, reliance by any person on information obtained through Aardvark Internet's service or the Internet, deletion or loss of files or e-mail, viruses, any delay or failure of performance, or unauthorised access to records or files.

Indemnity

The customer agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Aardvark Internet, its directors, officers, shareholders, agents, employees and its other subscribers from any and all claims, liabilities, damages, or expenses, including but not limited to attorney fees, arising out of or resulting from any and all use of subscriber's account or the subscriber's Web Site whether or not authorised.

Security

The customer agrees to maintain a secure password to the account. Secure passwords are those that are between 6 and 15 characters long, contain upper and lower case letters and numbers or other characters, and cannot be found in direct or reverse order in a dictionary, without regard to the language of the dictionary.

Any program, utility, or file that can be used to allow unauthorised access or gain unauthorised information about a computer, network, or file is prohibited. Storage of these archived programs, software, utilities, or files in an archived format and only for personal use or personal download is acceptable. Removing such files from their archived or compressed state, attempts to run and/or attempting to compile or use such software is prohibited.

The customer is aware that Aardvark Internet may receive the customer's Calling Line Identification, or CLI, regardless of whether the customer has or has not blocked Calling Number Display, or CND. Any CLI details received by Aardvark may be utilised in compliance to "Australian Communications Industry Forum C522: February 2003" ("The CND Code").

As information transmitted through the Internet is generally not confidential, Aardvark Internet does not guarantee the protection of Customer's privacy. Customer will take all necessary measures (including changing Customer's password from time to time) to protect the secrecy of Customer's User Identification ("UserID") and/or password. Change of password over the phone will only be permitted and given to the authorised account holder. Verification of the identity of the account holder will be conducted as required by Aardvark Internet. Aardvark Internet is not liable for any loss suffered by Customer or any third party due to any wrongful or fraudulent use of Customer's account by Customer or any other person.

Where a UserID is necessary to access the Service, Customer will use only their own Customer UserID.

Customer does not acquire rights to any mailbox number, mailbox name, the UserID, IP address, circuit reference and any codes assigned to Customer by Aardvark Internet and Aardvark Internet reserves the right to change or re-assign the same to Customer at its sole discretion without being liable to Customer for any loss suffered by Customer.

Aardvark Internet will not perform system backups on information stored within its system. Aardvark Internet is not responsible or obligated to provide historical data or to assist Customer in downloading, faxing or reading to Customer any of Customer's electronic mails.


If at any time Aardvark Internet requests the Customer to reset Customer's password, Customer must immediately reset that password to a new password.

Customer must immediately notify Aardvark Internet of any unauthorised use of Customer's account or any other breach of security known to Customer. Liability of the Customer only ceases at the time of notice of an unauthorised or illegal account use.

Aardvark Internet is not responsible for Customer's personal files residing on Aardvark Internet. Customer is responsible for independent backup of his or her data stored on Aardvark Internet. Aardvark Internet reserves the right to delete Customer's personal files after one or both parties terminates agreement.

Email-virus scanner or email-unsolicited-notice(spam) scanner.

Aardvark Internet provides a email-virus scanner or email-unsolicited-notice(spam) scanner, free of charge as standard on all email accounts.

Aardvark Internet will not guarantee the performance, or lack thereof, for either email-virus scanner or email-unsolicited-notice(spam) scanner. These services are provided on a "best effort" basis and are not to be utilised as a replacement to conventional virus scanning methods. These services can be disabled on a per email-user basis, for inbound mail, by notifying the administrator. For outbound mail more spefic infomration will be required.

Changes

Aardvark Internet reserves the right to modify this AUP document periodically, with or without written or other notice. It is the Customer's responsibility to activley check this AUP document periodically.

Notices

It is the Customer's responsibility to activley and periodically check their personal email account(s) and the Aardvark Internet website (http://www.aardvark.net.au) for changes, updates and new news items of which may be of importance to the customer and their provided service(s).

Termination

This agreement shall remain in place until it is terminated by either Aardvark or the Customer by giving to the other party one month's written notice. Aardvark reserves the right to terminate the Service without notice if the Customer misuses or abuses the service. What ditermines misuse or abuse is ditermined by Aardvark, including, but not limited to, violations of this AUP listed herein.



The following constitute violations of this AUP



Any use of Aardvark Internet system resources that disrupts the normal use of the system for other Aardvark Internet customers is considered to be abuse of system resources and is grounds for administrative intervention. Some examples of system abuse include spawning dozens of processes, consuming excessive amounts of memory or CPU for long periods of time.

Long Connections and Multiple (concurrent) Logins

Using a personal account for high connection or volume or commercial use is prohibited. The Services are intended for periodic, active use of email, newsgroups, file transfers, Internet chat, games, and browsing the World Wide Web. Customers may stay connected so long as they are actively using that connection for the above purposes. Customers may not use the Services on a standby or inactive basis in order to maintain a connection. Artificial generation of traffic for means of evading "idle timeouts", during but not limited to unattended access, such as pinging, bots, or automatic email checking, are expressly prohibited.

Accordingly, Aardvark Internet maintains the right to terminate any Customer's connection following any extended period of inactivity as determined by Aardvark Internet.

The Customer agrees to use the services provided by Aardvark Internet as permitted by applicable local, state, and federal laws. The Customers agrees, therefore, not to use these services to conduct any business or activity or solicit the performance of any activity that is prohibited by law, including but not limited to activities prohibited under tha Australian Commonwealth Government Tellecommunication Act 1989. This AUP, Aardvark Internet's Terms and Conditions and all other applicable material will be enforced under all laws and acts of Victoria, Australia for all purposes.

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.

Harm to minors

Using the Services to harm, or attempt to harm, minors in any way.

Threats

Using the Services to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that threatens or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property.

Harassment

Using the Services to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that harasses another.

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."

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 email address collectors is allowed.

Unsolicited commercial email/Unsolicited bulk email (A.K.A. spam)

Using the Services to transmit any unsolicited commercial email or unsolicited bulk email. 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.

Unauthorised 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 Aardvark Internet'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.

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 unauthorised copying of copyrighted material, the digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, and the unauthorised transmittal of copyrighted software.

Collection of personal data

Using the Services to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent.

Reselling the services

Reselling the Services without Aardvark Internet's authorisation.

Network disruptions and unfriendly activity

Using the Services for any activity which adversely affects the ability of other people or systems to use Aardvark Internet Services or the Internet. 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 Customer's responsibility to ensure that their network is configured in a secure manner. A Customer may not, through action or inaction, allow others to use their network for illegal or inappropriate actions. A Customer 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.
News

Aardvark Internet Customers 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 familiarise yourself with basic Usenet netiquette before posting to a newsgroup.

Aardvark Internet considers "crossposting" to 10 or more groups within a two day sliding window to be excessive.

Aardvark Internet Customers may not cancel messages other than their own messages. A Customer may cancel posts forged in that Customer's name. We may cancel any postings which violate this AUP.

Account Payment and Termination

Customers whose accounts are terminated for any of the above infractions are also responsible for the cost of labour to cleanup and respond to complaints incurred by Aardvark Internet. This includes any charges that external servers may have for relaying the material posted by the customer.

Charges must be paid on a timely basis to maintain Customer's membership privileges. Payments not made by the due date will result in the Customer's access being automatically suspended and a reconnection fee may apply.

Failure to use this account(s) does not relieve the Customer of payment obligations, except as specifically provided in this contract.. In the event the Customer defaults on this contract, Aardvark Internet may suspend or revoke the Customer's membership privileges and the Customer may have to reapply for membership at the current Aardvark Internet new member rate.

Non-enforcement of any section of this Agreement does not constitute consent and Aardvark Internet reserves the right to enforce this Agreement at its sole discretion

When paying by cheque, if the payment is dishonored, Customer will forward Aardvark Internet payment plus an additional $25 accounting fee immediately in order to keep their membership.

The Customer agrees to pay Aardvark Internet's reasonable attorney's fees and court costs, where permitted, in collecting the amount outstanding in the Customer's contract as stated by invoice.

Aardvark Internet reserves the right to collect damages (software, hardware & man hours) if any harm is done to Aardvark Internet which requires repair or reconfiguration of any kind.