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EPI's Acceptable Use Policy is described in full here. The following is extracted from that policy statement and does not replace it.

Acceptable Use Policy

EPI Internet Direct's Acceptable Use Policy is provided to give our customers and their users a clear understanding of what EPI expects of them while using the various services provisioned by EPI Internet Direct. All users of EPI's Internet services, including those who directly or indirectly access one or more of our services, must comply with this Acceptable Use Policy and our Terms of Service.

The direct or indirect use of EPI services constitutes acceptance and agreement to EPI's Acceptable Use Policy as well as EPI's Terms of Service

As a general practice EPI does not monitor the content of web sites, email transmissions, newsgroups, discussion groups or other materials accessible through our services except for measurements of system utilization, the preparation of billing records and the verification of service availability. However, in accordance with EPI's Terms of Service, EPI may identify and remove any materials that, in our sole discretion, may be illegal, may subject EPI to liability or which may violate this Acceptable Use Policy. EPI 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 Acceptable Use Policy may result in the suspension or immediate termination of either your EPI account and/or other actions WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE.

In the event that your service is terminated due to violations of this Acceptable Use Policy or of other EPI Terms Of Use, refunds will not be provided for the suspended service. You agree that if you are in violation of these terms you will reimburse EPI at EPI's then current hourly or billable rate for any time, materials, legal and/or other costs incurred by EPI in the investigation of your violation. You further agree that you will reimburse EPI for any lost revenue, "excess use" service charges, repair or recovery costs, damages to EPI facilities or other direct or indirect costs incurred by EPI that result from your violation of these terms, including, but not limited to, the direct or indirect cost of EPI staff, contractor fees or other expenses incurred by EPI in its investigation.

The following are guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of EPI's Acceptable Use Policy the purpose of which is to:

  • 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 EPI's reputation as a responsible service provider
  • Encourage responsible use of the Internet
  • Discourage activities which reduces the usability and value of Internet services
  • Preserve the privacy and security of individual users

While EPI is firmly committed to the free distribution of information and ideas throughout the Internet, certain activities that may be damaging to the resources of both the EPI and the Internet are not permitted. Specifically, you may not use your shared, dedicated, co-hosted or other EPI provisioned server or service to publish material which EPI 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 an EPI account is used to violate the Acceptable Use Policy or other Terms of Use, 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.

If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact us at abuse@epidirect.com.

VIOLATIONS OF EPI ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

The following constitute violations of EPI's Acceptable Use Policy:

  • Illegal Activities
    EPI's services may not be used for illegal purposes, or to directly or indirectly to support illegal activities. EPI reserves the right to cooperate with law enforcement or other authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.
     

  • Threats or Harassment
    Use of the EPI services to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting, instant message, voice, video or otherwise) that threatens, encourages bodily harm, destruction of property or the harassment of another.
     

  • Profanity, Bigotry or Racism
    Transmitting material that is offensive to the general public including but not limited to profanity, bigotry, prejudice, racism, hatred, etc. as well as providing materials that promote physical harm or injury against any group or individual, promotes any act of cruelty to animals or which defames any person or group is strictly forbidden.
     

  • Child Pornography
    Use of any EPI hosted service, dedicated server, shared server, virtual server or co-hosted server which hosts, transmits or in any way links to child pornography or to materials that solicit, describe or otherwise depicts sexual contact or harm to minors under 18 years of age is strictly prohibited and will result in the immediate removal from our network of the service, server, host of other connected device without notice until such time as all offending materials or links are removed. Upon a second violation the service will result in immediate service termination. All violations will be reported to appropriate law enforcement agencies.

    Displaying material containing nudity or pornographic material of any kind is forbidden.
     

  • Fraudulent Activity
    Use of EPI service to make fraudulent offers of any sort, including but not limited to fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items or services, or to advance any type of financial scam including but not limited to pyramid schemes, bubble scams, ponzi schemes, chain letters, etc. is strictly prohibited. All violations will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
     

  • 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. Forging any email or other message header, in part or whole, of any electronic transmission, originating or passing through the EPI service is in violation of this Acceptable Use Policy and is strictly prohibited.
     

  • Unsolicited E-Mail (SPAM)
    As documented by EPI's Anti-SPAM Policy, use of the EPI service to transmit unsolicited e-mail, fax or voice messages of any type is expressly prohibited.
     

  • Usenet or Message Board SPAM
    Use of EPI's network for the posting of messages or commercial advertisements which violate the rules, regulations, FAQ or charter of any newsgroups, mailing lists or Message Boards is strictly forbidden. Commercial messages that are appropriate under the rules of a newsgroup, mailing list or Message Board that are solicited by the recipients are permitted.

    Posting ten (10) or more messages similar in content to Usenet or to other newsgroups, forums, message boards or email mailing lists or to other similar groups or lists is treated by EPI as a form of SPAM and may result in EPI Anti-SPAM penalties.
     

  • Unauthorized Access
    Use of the EPI service to access, or to attempt to access the accounts of others, or to penetrate or attempt to penetrate, security measures of EPI 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 Customer account is subject to immediate termination.
     

  • Copyright or Trademark Infringement
    Use of EPI services to directly or indirectly transmit any material 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 EPI service to collect or attempt to collect personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent.
     

  • Interference or Disruptive Activity
    Interfering with or disrupting of other network users, services or equipment is prohibited. You many not use of the EPI services for any activity which directly or indirectly affects the ability of other people or systems to use EPI Services or the Internet. This includes "denial of service" (DOS) attacks against another network host, service provider or individual user. It is your responsibility to ensure that your service or server is configured in a secure manner. You may not, through action or inaction, allow others to use your service, server or Internet network connections for illegal or inappropriate actions. You may not permit your service, server or Internet network connection, through action or inaction, to be configured in such a way that gives a third party the capability to use your service, server or Internet network connection 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. EPI will not tolerate any attempt to access the accounts of others or any attempt to penetrate security measures of other systems, whether or not the intrusion results in corruption or loss of data. You agree to reimburse EPI for any service fees invoiced to you as the result of the investigation and recovery of programs, data files or other materials which result from your violation of this clause.
     

  • Attempts to Violate Account Security
    Attempting to obtain another user's account information or password is strictly prohibited, and may result in termination of service. You may not attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host computer, network, customer or end-user 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.

    Customers or end-users who violate or attempt to violate computer system or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. EPI 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. 
     

  • Distribution of Viruses
    Intentional distributions of software that attempts to and/or causes damage, harassment, or annoyance to persons, data, and/or computer systems is strictly prohibited. Such an offense will result in the immediate termination of the offending account and you agree to reimburse EPI for any service fees invoiced to you as the result of the investigation and recovery of programs, data files or other materials which result from your violation of this clause.
     

  • IRC Networks
    It is absolutely forbidden to host an IRC server or service that is part of or connected to another IRC network or server. Services or 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 allow EPI 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.
     

  • Domains Chargeback Resolution
    If the charge for a domain or set of domains is for any reason charged back to EPI then EPI has the right to take control of the domain or set of domains that was paid for by the disputed charge. EPI will change the domain account information as needed to take control of the domain or set of domains. The customer is not guaranteed to be contacted in the event that a chargeback is received.
     

  • P2P (Peer to Peer) Software
    The use of Peer to Peer or file sharing software to permit the sharing, copying or distribution of unauthorized copyrighted material on the EPI service is prohibited.  Use of such software could result in suspension of service.

Third Party Accountability
EPI customers agree to be held responsible and accountable for any activity by third parties, using their account that violates guidelines created within the Acceptable Use Policy.

Security

You are responsible for any misuse of your account, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by an employee, ex-employee, customer, prospect, friend, family member or guest. You must take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access to your account or to the accounts provided to you for use by employees, ex-employees, customers, prospects, friends, family members or guests. 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.

Sharing user accounts is strictly prohibited. If your service is invoiced to you based on Subscriber Access Licenses ('SALS'), 'known user accounts', or other 'per user' service fees you may be invoiced by EPI for any additional service fees due as a result.

You are responsible for preventing others from using your account. Your password provides access to your account. It is your responsibility to keep your password secret and secure. If you have been assigned user accounts for use by employees or others, you are responsible for ensuring that these individuals protect their user account information and do not share this information with others.

In the event that an employee leaves your business, you are responsible for ensuring that their user account is removed or deactivated. If this requires co-ordination or actions on the part of EPI, you are responsible for notifying EPI of the change in the account status. EPI cannot guarantee that staff will be available to remove or disable an account at your immediate request, and we recommend that you provide EPI with a minimum of 24 hours notice of your intent to have EPI staff remove or disable an active account.

Network Performance

EPI accounts operate on shared resources. Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer 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 EPI systems or networks. EPI reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities.

REPORTING VIOLATIONS OF EPI'S POLICIES

EPI requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of EPI Terms of Use, Acceptable Use Policy or Anti-SPAM Policy direct the information to EPI at abuse@epidirect.com.

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. EPI may take any one or more of the following actions in response to complaints:

  • Issue written or verbal warnings

  • Suspend the Customer's account

  • Terminate the Customer's account

  • Invoice the Customer for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges

  • Bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect damages, if any, cause by violations

Nothing contained in this policy shall be construed to limit EPI's actions or remedies in any way with respect to any of the foregoing activities and EPI reserves the right to take any and all additional actions it may deem appropriate with respect to such activities, including without limitation taking action to recover the costs and expenses of identifying offenders and removing them from EPI services, and levying cancellation charges to cover EPI's costs in the event of disconnection of shared or dedicated services for the causes outlined above. In addition, EPI reserves at all times all rights and remedies available to it with respect to such activities at law or in equity.

REVISIONS TO THIS ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

EPI reserves the right to revise, amend, or modify this Acceptable Use Policy, our Terms of Service, our Anti-SPAM policies and other policies and agreements at any time and in any manner. Notice of any revision, amendment, or modification will be posted as an update to the affected policy web pages. It is your responsibility to periodically review these web pages and to ensure that you are not in violation of these terms.

Article ID: 15, Created On: 2/15/2011, Modified: 2/15/2011