ACCEPTABLE USE/NET ABUSE POLICY

Goals
Acme Information Services' goals are to protect network resources, preserve the privacy and security of Acme and our customers' accounts, and maximize the utility of Acme and the Internet, while recognizing Acme's position in the Internet community as a whole.

Interpretation
The provisions of this Policy are intended as guidelines and are not meant to be exhaustive.

Generally, conduct that violates law, regulation, or the accepted norms of the Internet community, whether or not expressly mentioned in this Policy, is prohibited. Acme reserves the right at all times to prohibit activities that damage its commercial reputation and goodwill.

Security
Any "denial of service" attacks, any attempt to breach authentication or security measures, or any unauthorized attempt to gain access to any other account, host or network is prohibited, and will result in immediate service termination, which may be without notice.

E-mail and Usenet News
Using any Acme account or server to send duplicative, unsolicited e-mail messages (commercial or otherwise), or to collect the responses from unsolicited e-mail, is prohibited.

Similarly, using any Acme account or server to post advertisements or messages that violate the charter of any newsgroup or mailing list is prohibited.

Acme reserves the right to make the determination whether a given message violates the newsgroup or mailing list charter. In most cases Acme will defer to the judgment of the newsgroup or mailing list moderator or administrator.

Commercial messages that are appropriate under the charter of a newsgroup or mailing list, or that are expressly solicited by the recipients, are permitted.

Conduct in connection with e-mail or Usenet news that is an obvious nuisance (such as "mail bombing") or that would be unlawful in other contexts (for example, threats, harassment, defamation, obscenity, or software piracy) is prohibited.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
Using programs that interfere with others' use, or running an IRC robot, on any IRC server is prohibited. When logged into any IRC server, users are expected to comply with the rules and policies established by the server's administrator.

Misuse of System Resources
Including but not limited to employing posts or programs which consume excessive CPU time or storage space; permitting use of mail services, mail forwarding capabilities, POP accounts, or auto-responders other than for the customer's own account; or resale of access to CGI scripts installed on our servers.

Domain pointers are to be used for the purpose of having more than one way to find the same site, not for the purposes of sharing an account among multiple sites. A domain pointer may not be set up to reference a subdirectory within an existing Web hosting account served by Acme or any other provider. Domain pointers are not to be used as a substitute for purchasing separate accounts.

Forgery of Identity
Falsifying addressing information or otherwise modifying headers to conceal the sender's or recipient's identity, for the purpose of circumventing this Policy, is prohibited. This provision is not intended to disallow the use of aliases or anonymous remailers for any legitimate purpose.

Copyright, Privacy, and Intellectual Property
Using an Acme resource or server to commit, aid or abet any violation of copyright or intellectual property law is prohibited.

This prohibition includes publishing a private e-mail message to third parties, by any means, without the express prior consent of the author.

The e-mail addresses of Acme subscribers are not for sale or commercial distribution to third parties without the express prior consent of the subscriber.

Cooperation with Other Providers
Using Acme's facilities to engage in activities that violate the Terms of Service of any other network access provider is prohibited. For example, sending unsolicited commercial e-mail through Acme's facilities to the subscribers of any Internet or online service provider that disallows unsolicited commercial e-mail is prohibited.

Consequences of Violation
Violation of this Policy by an Acme customer may result in temporary suspension or permanent termination of service, at Acme's sole discretion.

Acme does not issue service credits for any outages incurred through service disablement resulting from Policy violations.

Modification
Acme reserves the right to add, delete, or modify any provision of this Policy at any time without notice.

Please send reports of any activity in violation of this Policy to: abuse@acmeinternet.com.