The WEBMASTERS.COM Service Usage Policy has been developed with the following objectives:

• Ensure security, reliability and privacy of our systems and network, and the networks and systems of others.
• Preserve the value of Internet resources as a conduit for free expression.
• Encourage the responsible use of net resources and discourage practices which degrade the usability of network resources and thus the value of Internet services.
• Avoid situations that may cause WEBMASTERS.COM to incur civil liability.
• Preserve the privacy and security of individual user.

We expect our Customers to use the Internet with courtesy and responsibility and to be familiar with and to practice good Internet etiquette. By adhering to the following policies, our Customers are protecting the rights and privileges of all Internet users.

VIOLATION OF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING POLICIES IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OF THE OFFENDING ACCOUNT AND MAY INCUR FINANCIAL PENALTIES TO THE VIOLATOR.


GENERAL CONDUCT

1. Customers are prohibited from transmitting on or through any of WEBMASTERS.COM's facilities any material that is, in WEBMASTERS.COM's sole discretion, unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law, statute or regulation.

2. WEBMASTERS.COM's facilities may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution, or storage of any information, data or material in violation of United States or state regulation or law, or by the common law, is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent or any other statute. WEBMASTERS.COM reserves the sole right to determine which material is in violation of this provision, and to permanently remove such illegal material from its servers without notice. Said removal may also include permanent closure of the offending customer's account.

3. Customers may not engage in tortuous conduct including, but not limited to, posting of defamatory, scandalous, or private information about a person without their consent, intentionally inflicting emotional distress, or making physical threats against another person via email, news, or any other electronic media/service we provide.

4. Customers may not use abusive, unprofessional, or threatening language towards any member of our staff. Definition of any such behavior is to be solely at our discretion.

5. Customers must provide or update WEBMASTERS.COM with accurate and up-to-date contact and billing information. Furnishing false data on the signup form, contract, or online application, including fraudulent use of credit card numbers, is grounds for immediate termination, and may subject the offender to civil or criminal liability.


SYSTEM AND NETWORK USAGE AND SECURITY

1. Customers may not attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account ("cracking"). This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the Customer, password sniffing, security hole scanning, IP spoofing, logging into a server or account the Customer is not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other networks.

2. Customers may not attempt to interfere with service to any user, host, or network ("denial of service attacks"). This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service, and attempts to "crash" a host.

3. Customers may not use any kind of program/script/command, or send messages of any kind, designed to interfere with a user's terminal session, via any means, locally or by the Internet.

4. Customers must safeguard their account passwords to prevent unauthorized access to their account.

5. Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. WEBMASTERS.COM 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.

6. Customers with shared hosting accounts shall not continuously use more than 33% of the CPU resources of their server during any 24 hour period.

7. Customers with shared hosting accounts shall not use their account for the purpose of storing large files, and all large files must be regularly accessed through the customer's website.


SUPPORT

Support will be provided free of charge with no time or call frequency limit for issues related to our products, servers, email, and customers' connectivity thereto. Support for hardware, software, and issues not involving our equipment and service directly will be provided at our standard hourly web development rates, with a 30 minute minimum charge per incident. Customers will be notified if their support call is not free prior to incurring any expenses.

IDENTITY VERIFICATION

To help protect our customers from fraud, we have adopted an Identity Verification Policy for providing telephone support. When someone contacts us via telephone to request any kind of account updates, or requesting information on an account, we will first ask for the the master password associated with that account. If the password is not known or an incorrect password is presented, we will send a password reminder notice to the e-mail address we have on record for that account. If the contacting party is unable to receive e-mail at that address, we will require a signed, notarized statement from the original account holder authorizing us to perform the requested action.


PROHIBITED USE

Although we do not have content restrictions, all content must be obtained legally and used in a legal manner. Below are examples of what we consider to be illegal content, and therefore prohibited use of service:

1. Utilize the service in connection with any illegal activity. Without limiting the general application of this rule, Users may not:
   
    
   1. Utilize the service to copy material from third parties (including text, graphics, music, videos or other copyrightable material) without proper authorization;
      
       
   2. Utilize the service to misappropriate or infringe the patents, copyrights, trademarks or other intellectual property rights of any third party;
      
       
   3. Utilize the service to traffic in illegal drugs, illegal gambling, obscene materials or other any products or services that are prohibited under applicable law; or
      
       
   4. Utilize the service in any manner that violates applicable law.
      
       
2. Utilize the service in connection with any tortuous or actionable activity. Without limiting the general application of this rule, Users may not:
   
    
   1. Utilize the service to publish or disseminate information that (A) constitutes slander, libel or defamation, (B) publicizes the personal information or likeness of a person without that person's consent or (C) otherwise violates the privacy rights of any person.
      
       
   2. Utilize the service to threaten persons with bodily harm, to make harassing or abusive statements or messages, or to solicit the performance of acts or services that are illegal under applicable law.
      
       
3. Utilize the service in connection with any other disruptive or abusive activity. Without limiting the general application of this rule, Users may not:
   
    
   1. Utilize the service to cause denial of service attacks against WEBMASTERS.COM or other network hosts or Internet users or to otherwise degrade or impair the operation of WEBMASTERS.COM's servers and facilities or the servers and facilities of other network hosts or Internet users.
      
       
   2. Utilize the Services to subvert, or assist others in subverting, the security or integrity of any WEBMASTERS.COM systems, facilities or equipment.
      
       
   3. Utilize the Services to gain unauthorized access to the computer networks of WEBMASTERS.COM or any other person.
      
       
   4. Utilize the Services to provide passwords or access codes to persons not authorized to receive such materials by the operator of the system requiring the password or access code.
      
       
   5. Utilize the service to (A) forge the signature or other identifying mark or code of any other person, (B) impersonate or assume the identity or any other person, or (C) engage in any other activity (including "spoofing") to attempt to deceive or mislead other persons regarding the true identity of the User (excluding the use of anonymous remailers or Internet nicknames).
      
       
   6. Utilize the service to distribute or post any virus, worm, Trojan horse, or computer code intended to disrupt services, destroy data, destroy or damage equipment, or disrupt the operation of the Services.
      
       
   7. Utilize the service to conduct port scans or other invasive procedures against any server (except any server for which the User is an authorized system administrator).
      
       
   8. Utilize the service to distribute, advertise or promote software or services that have the primary purpose of encouraging or facilitating unsolicited commercial e-mail or Spam.
      
       
   9. Utilize the service in any manner that might subject WEBMASTERS.COM to unfavorable regulatory action, subject WEBMASTERS.COM to any liability for any reason, or adversely affect WEBMASTERS.COM's public image, reputation or goodwill, including, without limitation, sending or distributing illegal, hateful, vulgar, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable materials as determined by WEBMASTERS.COM in its sole discretion.
      
       
   10. Utilize the service in any other manner to interrupt or interfere with the Internet usage of other persons.

EMAIL

1. Harassment, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages, is prohibited.

2. Customers may not send email to any person who does not wish to receive it. If a recipient asks to stop receiving email, the Customer must not send that person any further email.

3. Customers are bound by the WEBMASTERS.COM Spam Policy.

4. Customers may not forward or otherwise propagate chain letters, whether or not the recipient wishes to receive such mailings.

5. Malicious email, including but not limited to "mailbombing" (flooding a user or site with very large or numerous pieces of email) and "trolling" (posting outrageous messages to generate numerous responses) is prohibited.

6. Forging of header or any other information is not permitted.

7. Subscribing someone else to a mail list or removing someone else from a mail list without that person's permission is prohibited.

8. WEBMASTERS.COM accounts or services may not be used to collect replies to messages sent from another Internet Service Provider, where those messages violate this Usage Policy or the usage policy of that other provider.


USENET (NEWSGROUPS)

1. WEBMASTERS.COM is not responsible for the content of any USENET posting, whether or not the posting was made by a WEBMASTERS.COM Customer.

2. Postings to USENET newsgroups must comply with the written charters or FAQs for those newsgroups. Advertisements should only be posted in those newsgroups whose charters/FAQs explicitly permit them. The poster is responsible for determining the etiquette of a given newsgroup, prior to posting to it.

3. Customers are prohibited from posting the same or similar message to large numbers of newsgroups (excessive cross-posting or multiple-posting, also known as "USENET spam").

4. Customers are prohibited from posting binary files to newsgroups not specifically named for that purpose.

5. Customers are prohibited from canceling or superseding posts other than their own, with the exception of official newsgroup moderators performing their duties.

6. Customers are prohibited from forging header information. This includes attempting to circumvent the approval process for posting to a moderated newsgroup.

7. A customer may not solicit mail for any other address, other than that of the Customer's WEBMASTERS.COM account or service, with the intent to harass or collect replies after WEBMASTERS.COM's service has been terminated.


IRC (INTERNET RELAY CHAT)

1. WEBMASTERS.COM is not liable for the content of any communications made on IRC. 2. IRC robots ("bots" or "clones") or IRC sessions may not be run from WEBMASTERS.COM's shared server accounts.

3. Customers may not attempt to impersonate others or use IRC anonymously by disguising their hostname or username.

4. Customers are prohibited from using IRC scripts or programs that interfere with or deny service to other users on any server or host. Customers are also prohibited from engaging in activities which harass other users. This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" (rapidly entering text with the intent to fill the screens of others), "flashing" (disrupting terminal emulation), "takeovers" (forcibly seizing operator privileges), attempting to send private messages to those who do not wish to see them (via "ignore"), attempting to return to a channel after being banned from it, and other disruptive behaviors.

STRICT NO SPAM POLICY

As a provider of Internet network services and management, WEBMASTERS.COM considers it an obligation to put an end to Spam. We respect your need for efficient, cost-effective and interruption-free services, and we pride ourselves on offering you one of the most scalable, reliable and redundant networks available today. To protect this service, we have the following Spam policy:

Any WEBMASTERS.COM customer willfully responsible for Chain Letters, Sourced Spam or for Caused Spam will have their account terminated without notice and no refund of pre-paid hosting fees will be issued for the offending account. No new accounts will be permitted for anycustomer previously found to be in violation of our Spam policy.

For purposes of this policy, the following definitions apply:

• Excessive Volume: More than 1000 email messages sent in a one hour period, unless the software used to send such messages was WEBMASTERS.COM's Mailing List Manager (Q-Mailer) in which case no more than 5,000 messages can be sent in a one hour period with a daily limit of 20,000 messages.
• "Chain" letters: Commercial solicitations where no prior commercial relationship exists and where the recipient has not previously initiated communication Religious, philosophical, or charitable solicitations or fliers where the recipient has not previously initiated communication.
• Sourced Spam: Each and every Unsolicited Email Message that is sent through a single WEBMASTERS.COM supplied email account whenever that single email account originates an Excessive Volume.
• Caused Spam: Each and every Unsolicited Email Message, sent in an Excessive Volume by any party over any network to any party, which advertises or mentions a site hosted by a WEBMASTERS.COM customer on the WEBMASTERS.COM network, whenever directly caused by the actions of a WEBMASTERS.COM customer.
• Spamware: Promotion via the Internet, telephone, and all other media of any type of bulk email software, hosting services, spam tools, or mailing lists without the express authorization of distribution from its subscribers shall constitute a violation of our No Spam policy.
• Blacklists: Having a customer's domain name, primary contact, or organization listed in any of the widely used anti-spam blacklists such as spamcop.net, spamhaus.org, spews.org, and others for past or present spam violations shall also constitute a violation of our No Spam policy.

MATERIAL AND PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS

1. Customers must ensure that all material and data placed on WEBMASTERS.COM's equipment is in a condition that is "server-ready," which is in a form requiring no additional manipulation on WEBMASTERS.COM's part. We shall make no effort to validate this information for content, correctness or usability.

2. Use of WEBMASTERS.COM's facilities requires a certain level of knowledge in the use of Internet languages, protocols, and software. This level of knowledge varies depending on the anticipated use of the facilities. Customers are responsible for having this level of expertise. It is not the responsibility of WEBMASTERS.COM to provide this knowledge or customer support outside of the service defined in the Service Agreement.

3. Customers will use only legal and properly licensed software on any equipment located on WEBMASTERS.COM's premises.

GENERAL

THE USAGE POLICY DEFINES THE ACTIONS WHICH WEBMASTERS.COM CONSIDERS TO BE ABUSIVE, AND THUS, STRICTLY PROHIBITED. THE EXAMPLES SET FORTH IN THIS POLICY ARE NON-EXCLUSIVE, AND ARE PROVIDED SOLELY FOR GUIDANCE TO WEBMASTERS.COM'S CUSTOMERS.

If you are unsure whether any contemplated use or activity is prohibited, please contact us at info@webmasters.com and we will assist you. Please note that the activities set forth above are also not permitted from other Internet Service Providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by WEBMASTERS.COM, or connected via our network. Furthermore, such services may not be advertised via deceptive marketing policies, as defined by the Federal Trade Commission Deception Policy Statement.

WEBMASTERS.COM must further limit any exceptions made to the Service Usage Policy as secondary in regards to server and network security, performance and integrity. Any user, regardless of exception status, may have his or her service disabled if it is interfering with our servers or network.

Please report any known violations of our policy to .