Legal Information

ServerFreak Acceptable Use Policy "AUP"

Updated December 14, 2006

ServerFreak's Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") is provided to give our customers and users a clear understanding of what ServerFreak expects of them while using the service. All users of ServerFreak's Internet services: those who access some of our Services but do not have accounts, as well as those who pay a service fee to subscribe to the Services, must comply with this AUP and our TOS (Terms of Service).

Use of ServerFreak Service constitutes acceptance and agreement to ServerFreak's AUP.

We support the uncensored flow of information and ideas over the Internet and do not actively monitor subscriber activity under normal circumstances. Similarly, we do not exercise editorial control over the content of any web site, e-mail transmission, newsgroups, or other material created or accessible over or through the services, except for certain proprietary Web sites. However, in accordance with this AUP, we may remove any materials that, in our sole discretion, may be illegal, may subject us to liability, or which may violate this AUP. ServerFreak may cooperate with legal authorities and/or third parties in the investigation of any suspected or alleged crime or civil wrongdoing. Your violation of this AUP may result in the suspension or immediate termination of either your ServerFreak account or other actions WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE.

This document is intended to provide a basic understand of ServerFreak's Acceptable Use Policy. The following are guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of ServerFreak's AUP:

  • Ensure reliable service to our customers
  • Ensure security and privacy of our systems and network, as well as the networks and systems of others
  • Comply with existing laws
  • Maintain our reputation as a responsible service provider
  • Encourage responsible use of the Internet and discourage activities which reduce the usability and value of Internet services
  • Preserve the value of Internet resources as a conduit for free expression and exchange of information
  • Preserve the privacy and security of individual users

ServerFreak intends to provide its customers access to everything the Internet has to offer. While the ServerFreak is firmly committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities that may be damaging to the resources of both the ServerFreak and the Internet and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of the ServerFreak and the Internet are limited, and abuse of these resources by one user has a negative impact on the entire community.

 We do not routinely monitor the activity of accounts except for measurements of system CPU utilization and the preparation of billing records. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, we will respond appropriately if we become aware of inappropriate use of our service.

 You may not use your virtual site to publish material, which ServerFreak determines, at its sole discretion, to be unlawful, indecent or objectionable. For purposes of this policy, "material" refers to all forms of communications including narrative descriptions, graphics (including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs, video recordings, and audio recordings.

 If a ServerFreak account is used to violate the Acceptable Use Policy, we reserve the right to terminate your service without notice. We prefer to advise customers of inappropriate behavior and any necessary corrective action, however, flagrant violations of the Acceptable Use Policy will result in immediate termination of service. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.

 As a member of our network community, you must use your Internet access responsibly. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact us at abuse @ serverfreak.biz .

VIOLATIONS OF the ServerFreak ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
The following constitute violations of this AUP:

Illegal use: ServerFreak's services may not be used for illegal purposes, or in support of illegal activities. ServerFreak reserves the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.

Harm to minors: Use of the ServerFreak service to harm, or attempt to harm, minors in any way, including, but not limited to child pornography.
Threats: Use of the ServerFreak service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that threatens or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property.

Harassment: Use of the ServerFreak service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that harasses another.
Fraudulent activity: Use of ServerFreak service 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 infrmation is prohibited. The use of anonymous remailers or nicknames does not constitute impersonation.

Unsolicited commercial e-mail / Unsolicited bulk e-mail (SPAM) Use of the ServerFreak service to transmit any unsolicited commercial or unsolicited bulk e-mail is expressly prohibited. Violations of this type will result in the immediate termination of the offending ServerFreak account.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

BEGINNING IMMEDIATELY, anyone hosting websites or services on our server that support spammers or cause any of our IP space to be listed in any of the various Spam Databases will have their server immediately removed from our network. The server will not be reconnected until such time that you agree to remove ANY and ALL traces of the offending material immediately upon reconnection and agree to allow us access to the server to confirm that all material has been COMPLETELY removed. Severe violations may result in immediate and permanent removal of the server from our network without notice to the customer. Any server guilty of a second violation WILL be immediately and permanently removed from our network without notice.

E-mail / News Bombing: Malicious intent to impede another person's use of electronic mail services or news will result in the immediate termination of the offending ServerFreak account.

E-mail / Message Forging: Forging any message header, in part or whole, of any electronic transmission, originating or passing through the ServerFreak service is in violation of this AUP.

Usenet SPAMing: ServerFreak has a zero tolerance policy for the use of its network for the posting of messages or commercial advertisements, which violate the rules, regulations, FAQ or charter of any newsgroups or mailing list. Commercial messages that are appropriate under the rules of a newsgroup or mailing list or that are solicited by the recipients are permitted.

ServerFreak reserves the right to charge the holder of the account used to send any unsolicited e-mail a clean up fee. This cost of the clean up fee is entirely at the discretion of HostGator.

Unauthorized access: Use of the ServerFreak service to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others, or to penetrate, or attempt to penetrate, security measures of ServerFreak'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 expressly prohibited and the offending ServerFreak account is subject to immediate termination.

Copyright or trademark infringement: Use of the ServerFreak service to transmit any material (by e-mail, 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.

Collection of personal data: Use of the ServerFreak service to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent.

Network disruptions and unfriendly activity: Use of the ServerFreak service for any activity which affects the ability of other people or systems to use ServerFreak 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, services or equipment is prohibited. It is the Member's responsibility to ensure that their network is configured in a secure manner. A Subscriber may not, through action or inaction, allow others to use their network for illegal or inappropriate actions. A Subscriber 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. Unauthorized entry and/or use of another company and/or individual's computer system will result in immediate account termination. ServerFreak will not tolerate any subscriber attempting to access the accounts of others, or penetrate security measures of other systems, whether or not the intrusion results in corruption or loss of data.

Fraud: Involves a knowing misrepresentation or misleading statement, writing or activity made with the intent that the person receiving it will act upon it.

Infringement of Copyright, Patent, Trademark, Trade Secret, or Intellectual Property Right: Distribution and/or posting of copyrighted or the aforementioned infringements will not be tolerated.

Distribution of Viruses: Intentional distributions of software that attempts to and/or causes damage, harassment, or annoyance to persons, data, and/or computer systems are prohibited. Such an offense will result in the immediate termination of the offending account.

Inappropriate Use of Software: Use of software or any device that would facilitate a continued connection, i.e. pinging, while using ServerFreak services could result in suspension service.

Downloads: In order to maximize uptime on our servers, downloads of any kind (media, backups, warez, etc.) that utilize more than 10% CPU resources are forbidden.

Third Party Accountability: ServerFreak subscribers will be held responsible and accountable for any activity by third parties, using their account, that violates guidelines created within the Acceptable Use Policy.

Violation Of ServerFreak Virtual Accounts: It is absolutely forbidden to host illegal pornographic content whereas the subjects are under the age of majority, or IRC servers on Virtual Server Accounts. Virtual Server Accounts found hosting this material will be subject to immediate cancellation without refund.

IRC networks: It is absolutely forbidden to host an IRC server that is part of or connected to another IRC network or server. Servers found to be connecting to or part of these networks will be immediately removed from our network without notice. The server will not be reconnected to the network until such time that you agree to completely remove any and all traces of the irc server, and agree to let us have access to your server to confirm that the content has been completely removed. Any server guilty of a second violation will result in immediate account termination.

Backup: All hosting accounts at ServerFreak Hosting include a nightly backup service, however these backups are for administrative purposes only, and are in NO WAY GUARANTEED! Customer is responsible for maintaining their own backups on their own personal computers. ServerFreak Hosting does not provide any sort of compensation for lost or incomplete data in the event that backups do not function properly (even if the malfunction was due to negligence from our part). We will do our best to ensure complete and accurate backups, but assume no responsibility for this duty. Always back your site up to your personal computer! We make no guarantees about the availability of backups.

Security

You are responsible for any misuse of your account, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a client, friend, family member, guest or employee. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access to your account. In addition, you may not use your account to breach security of another account or attempt to gain unauthorized access to another network or server.

  • Your password provides access to your account. It is your responsibility to keep your password secure.
  • Sharing your password and account access with unauthorized users is prohibited. You should take care to prevent others from using your account since you will be held responsible for such use.
  • Attempting to obtain another user's account password is strictly prohibited, and may result in termination of service.
  • You must adopt adequate security measures to prevent or minimize unauthorized use of your account.
  • You may not 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 you, logging into or making use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other networks. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security is prohibited. Examples of these tools include, but are not limited to, password guessing programs, cracking tools or network probing tools.
  • You 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.
  • Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. ServerFreak 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.

Network Performance

ServerFreak virtual site and reseller accounts operate on shared resources. Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer (eg. in excess of 10% CPU usage) may have a negative impact on all other customers. Misuse of network resources in a manner which impairs network performance is prohibited by this policy and may result in termination of your account.

You are prohibited from excessive consumption of resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space and session time. You may not use resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other customers or the performances of ServerFreak systems or networks. ServerFreak reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Money back Guarantee / Refund
Refunds will be given at the discretion of the company's management. On dedicated servers no full refund will be honored -- the 30 day money back guarantee does not apply. We reserve the right to refund a prorated amount or no refund at all.

Each of ServerFreak's managed shared and reseller servers carry a 30 day unconditional money back guarantee on them. If you are not completely satisfied with our services within the first 30 days of your service, you will be given a full refund of the contract amount. Remember, this is only for monthly shared or reseller packages and does not apply to dedicated servers, administrative fees, install fees for custom software, or domain name purchases.

Only first-time accounts are eligible for a refund. For example, if you've had an account with us before, cancelled and signed up again, you will not be eligible for a refund or if you have opened a second account with us.

Dedicated Servers
ServerFreak reserves the right to reset the password on a dedicated server if the password on file is not current so that we may do security audits as required by our datacenter. It is the responsibility of the client to ensure that there is a valid email address and current root password on file for their dedicated server on file to prevent downtime from forced password resets. ServerFreak reserves the right to audit servers as needed and to perform administrative actions at the request of our datacenter. Dedicated servers are NOT backed up by us and it is the responsibility of the client to maintain backups or have a solution for this. You may purchase an additional hard drive and maintain backups to it as the most simple solution. Please contact sales [AT] serverfreak.biz if you wish to obtain a secondary hard drive. It is your responsibility to maintain backups.

Disclaimer
ServerFreak shall not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. ServerFreak makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for services we provide. ServerFreak disclaims any warranty or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, no deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions.

Disclosure to law enforcement
ServerFreak may disclose any subscriber information to law enforcement agencies without further consent or notification to the subscriber upon lawful request from such agencies.
We will cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies.

REPORTING VIOLATIONS OF ServerFreak AUP

ServerFreak requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of this AUP direct the information to the Abuse Department at abuse [AT] web-hosting.net.my .

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 system log files. Other situations will require different methods of providing the above information. ServerFreak may take any one or more of the following actions in response to complaints:

  • Issue written or verbal warnings
  • 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, cause by violations
REVISIONS TO THIS ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

ServerFreak reserves the right to revise, amend, or modify this AUP, and our other policies and agreements at any time and in any manner.