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These
are the Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) of Knowledge Forest
LLC. All clients of Knowledge Forest LLC must abide
by these policies. Knowledge Forest reserves the right
to change and update these policies as it sees necessary.
Introduction
The
primary purpose of Knowledge Forest LLC is to facilitate
communication with the numerous computer networks commonly
referred to collectively as "the Internet."
It is Knowledge Forest's intention to allow Knowledge
Forest users complete access to everything the Internet
has to offer, with minimal or no interference from Knowledge
Forest.
However,
many of the individual networks or portions of the Internet
have specific guidelines for use. As the Internet expands,
it is increasingly common for an Internet Service Provider,
such as Knowledge Forest, to be blocked from use of
another organization's systems due to violations of
that system's guidelines. Because Knowledge Forest runs
multi-user systems, actions of one Knowledge Forest
customer can have a severe impact on other customers'
ability to use the system(s). This is unfair to all
Knowledge Forest users.
To
this end, Knowledge Forest has developed these Acceptable
Use Policies. They are intended to inform Knowledge
Forest's Customers of what Knowledge Forest considers
to be acceptable conduct in relation to the Internet,
and to inform Customers what actions Knowledge Forest
may take, with or without notice, in the event that
Knowledge Forest becomes aware of inappropriate use
of Knowledge Forest's service. This AUP will be used
to help Knowledge Forest system administrators deal
with complaints from users of Knowledge Forest or other
Internet-connected systems, and to determine when action
should be taken.It is expected that all Knowledge Forest
Customers will follow the policies set forth herein.
These policies are drawn from applicable law and generally
accepted standards of Internet conduct, and are intended
to ensure protection of Knowledge Forest's technical
resources, ability to continue to provide high quality
service to its customers, and the protection of Knowledge
Forest's reputation as a service provider.
ACCESS
TO KNOWLEDGE FOREST'S INTERNET SERVICE IS PROVIDED SUBJECT
TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
1.
Warranties/Disclaimers
Knowledge
Forest Internet service is provided on an "as is,
as available" basis. No warranties, express or
implied, including, but not limited to, those of merchantability
or fitness for a particular purpose, are made with respect
to Knowledge Forest or any information or software therein.
You release Knowledge Forest from and Knowledge Forest
shall have no liability or responsibility for any direct,
indirect, incidental or consequential damages suffered
by you in connection with your use of or inability to
use the Knowledge Forest services including, but not
limited to, damages from loss of data resulting from
delays, non-deliveries, mis-deliveries, or service interruptions,
or due to inadvertent release or disclosure of information
sent by you even if the same is caused by Knowledge
Forest's own negligence. Without limiting the generality
of the foregoing, Knowledge Forest disclaims to the
full extent permitted by applicable law any responsibility
for (and under no circumstances shall be liable for)
any conduct, content, goods and services available on
or through the Internet or the Knowledge Forest services.
In no event shall Knowledge Forest's aggregate liability
exceed the amount paid by you to Knowledge Forest for
the Knowledge Forest services. Use of any information
obtained via Knowledge Forest's Internet service is
at the user's own risk. Knowledge Forest specifically
disclaims any responsibility for the accuracy or quality
of information obtained through its services.
1.
1
UNDER
NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL KNOWLEDGE FOREST BE LIABLE FOR
ANY INCIDENTAL, UNCONSEQUENTIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL
OR INDIRECT DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS
AGREEMENT, EVEN IF KNOWLEDGE FOREST WAS INFORMED OF
OR OTHERWISE AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY THEREOF. In no
event shall Knowledge Forest's liability for direct
damages incurred for any reason and upon any cause of
action arising from or relating to this Agreement or
the subject matter hereof exceed the fees paid to Knowledge
Forest by Customer hereunder in said term in which the
damages are incurred.
1.
2
Knowledge
Forest warrants that the services it performs in maintaining
its Internet services will be rendered in a competent,
professional manner. Knowledge Forest does not warrant
and specifically disclaims any representations that
its Internet service will meet Customer's requirements
or that their use will be uninterrupted or error-free.
EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH IN THIS PARAGRAPH, KNOWLEDGE
FOREST DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER EXPRESSED WARRANTIES AND
ALL WARRANTIES, DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS IMPLIED IN LAW,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Knowledge Forest's limited warranty set forth herein
is in lieu of all liabilities or obligations of Knowledge
Forest for damages arising out of or in connection with
its Internet services.
1.
3
Knowledge
Forest is not obligated to verify the accuracy of any
information contained on Customer's page or verify that
the information is any other way proper and acceptable,
provided, however, that Knowledge Forest reserves the
right to:
•
A.) Modify or delete any information or graphics supplied
by Customer in order to comply with current and future
technical limitations and business requirements of the
Internet service.
•
B.) Modify, delete or suspend dissemination or display
of any information or graphics supplied by Customer
if Knowledge Forest receives any complaints about Customer's
information or advertising:
-
(i) being false, deceptive, unfair or inaccurate;
- (ii) violating another's intellectual property right;
or
- (iii) containing language which defames or libels
another or another's works.
•
C.)
Suspend dissemination and display of the Customer's
Internet page, if Customer has not made a payment as
required by this Agreement, or if Knowledge Forest determines
that the information on the Customer's Internet page
will damage the reputation of Knowledge Forest.
2.
Security
The
Customer is responsible for all use of the Customer's
account(s) and confidentiality of password(s), including
choosing safe passwords and ensuring file protections
are set correctly. Knowledge Forest will suspend access
or change access to Customer's account(s) immediately
upon notification by Customer that Customer's password
has been lost, stolen or otherwise compromised. Knowledge
Forest is not liable for any usage and or charges prior
to Knowledge Forest making the necessary account alteration.
Electronic mail on this system is as private as we can
make it. Knowledge Forest's Customers are reminded that
no computer network can ever be considered completely
safe from intrusion. E-Mail may pass through many computer
systems, and should not be considered a secure means
of communication unless encrypted and even encrypted
information is only as secure as the encryption method
utilized.
3.
Personal Files
Knowledge
Forest is not responsible for any Customer's personal
files residing on Knowledge Forest. The Customer is
responsible for independent backup of the Customer's
data that is stored on Knowledge Forest. Knowledge Forest
reserves the right to delete any Customer 's personal
files after one or both parties terminates the service
agreement between Knowledge Forest and the Customer.
4.
Non-Transferability of Account
The
right to use Knowledge Forest's Internet service is
not transferable. Use of Knowledge Forest accounts is
expressly limited to the individual or business whose
name appears on the account and dependents of the account
holder living at the same address. A Customer may use
no more than one log-in session per account at any time.
If a Customer has multiple accounts, the Customer is
limited to one log-in session per account at any time.
5.
Network Address Ownership
Any
network address assignments issued by Knowledge Forest
(i.e., IP addresses and Class C address space) are the
property of Knowledge Forest and are considered to be
loaned to its customers. In the event service with Knowledge
Forest is discontinued for any reason, such addresses
will revert to Knowledge Forest. If a Customer of Knowledge
Forest participates in a service of Knowledge Forest
which provides for a unique Domain Name System (DNS)
entry, the Customer will retain ownership of the assigned
Domain Name, but not the IP address to which it was
assigned by Knowledge Forest.
6.
Compliance with all Laws
Customer
agrees to use the service in a manner consistent with
any and all applicable laws and regulations of the United
States of America, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and
the Customer's locality. Reproduction or transmission
of any material in violation of any local, state, U.S.,
or international law or regulation is prohibited. The
Customer agrees that any material to be reproduced or
transmitted on Knowledge Forest's service through Customer
's account(s) does not violate or infringe any copyright,
trademark, patent, statutory, common law or proprietary
rights of others, or contain anything obscene, libelous
or threatening. Software intended to facilitate any
such violations or infringements may not be stored on
Knowledge Forest. The Customer shall defend, indemnify
and hold harmless Knowledge Forest from and against
any claims, liabilities and expenses, including attorney
fees, resulting from any Customer's use of the Knowledge
Forest service or a Customer's account in an unlawful
manner or otherwise in violation of or contrary to the
Customer's Agreement with Knowledge Forest or Knowledge
Forest's Acceptable Use Policies. At Knowledge Forest's
discretion, Knowledge Forest may revoke any Customer's
access to Knowledge Forest services or accounts for
inappropriate usage.
6.1
Customer
represents and warrants to Knowledge Forest that Customer
owns or otherwise has the right to display and disseminate
the information and content provided on the Customer's
Internet page, and that such information and content
does not infringe on the intellectual property rights
of any third party. Customer represents and warrants
that it has obtained, and currently has, any and all
grants of rights from third parties which may be required
to display text, graphics or other materials in the
information contained on Customer's Internet page.
7.
Unacceptable Conduct
The
following types of conduct are grounds for immediate
suspension of service pending investigation by Knowledge
Forest and may result in termination of the account(s)
the investigation determines to have originated or transmitted
these types of traffic. In addition, Knowledge Forest
reserves the right, where feasible, to implement technical
mechanisms which block multiple postings by a Knowledge
Forest Customer as described in (a) and (b) below before
such postings are forwarded:
(a)
Posting a single article or substantially similar articles
to an excessive number of newsgroups (i.e., more than
20) or continued posting of articles which are off-topic,
according to the newsgroup charter, or which provoke
complaints from the regular readers of the newsgroup
for being inappropriate, including articles used for
marketing or promoting a site which resides on the Knowledge
Forest network (Inappropriate Postings).
(b)
Sending Unsolicited Business Emails (Spam) from Knowledge
Forest's Network. Spam is defined as 20 or more unsolicited
messages sent simultaneously.
(c)
Engaging in either Inappropriate Postings (a) or Spam
(b) from a provider other than Knowledge Forest for
the express purpose of marketing a site which resides
on the Knowledge Forest network, or promoting a site
on Knowledge Forest's network through Spam from a non-related
network. These tactics are defined as Spamvertisement.
(d)
Continued harassment of other individuals on the Internet
after being asked to stop by those individuals and/or
by Knowledge Forest.
(e)
Mail bombing, i.e., sending large volumes of unsolicited
E-Mail to individuals or to individual business accounts.
(f)
Impersonating another user or otherwise falsifying one's
user name in E-Mail, Usenet postings, on Internet Relay
Chat (IRC), or with any other Internet service. (This
does not preclude the use of nicknames in IRC or the
use of anonymous remailer services.)
(g)
Privacy violations: Attempts, whether successful or
not, to gain access to any other system or users' private
data without express consent of the user.
(h)
Use of IRC bots or clonebots on Knowledge Forest, whether
on IRC servers controlled by Knowledge Forest or by
other parties. An IRC bot is a program which runs and
is connected to an IRC server 24 hours a day, automatically
performing certain actions.
(i)
Network unfriendly activity: Attempts to interfere with
the regular workings of Knowledge Forest's systems or
network connections or which adversely affect the ability
of other people or systems to use Knowledge Forest services
or the Internet, including, but not limited to:
1.
any unauthorized attempts by a user to gain root access
or access to any account not belonging to that user
on this or any other Knowledge Forest system;
2.
any use of this or any other Knowledge Forest system
as a staging ground to disable other systems.
(j)
Any activity which violates the laws or statutes of
the United States or the Commonwealth of Virginia.
8.
Excess Utilization of System or Network Resources
Knowledge
Forest account descriptions in some cases may specify
limits on bandwidth, CPU and disk utilization for certain
types of Customers, and use up to these limits is included
in the price for that type of Customer. In the event
Knowledge Forest determines that a Customer is exceeding
the bandwidth, CPU and/or disk utilization limits, the
Customer will be notified by E-Mail. If the excess use
continues for more than 48 hours after such notification,
the Customer may be requested to upgrade to a web hosting
service agreement or to modify the activity creating
the excess use. If excessive bandwidth, CPU or disk
space utilization is determined by Knowledge Forest
to adversely affect Knowledge Forest's ability to provide
service for all customers, immediate action may be taken
to alleviate the problem. In such event, the Customer
will be notified by E-mail as soon as practicable.
9.
Compliance with Rules of Other Networks
Any
access to other networks connected to Knowledge Forest's
Internet service must comply with the rules for that
other network as well as with Knowledge Forest's rules.
10.
Monitoring/Privacy
Knowledge
Forest reserves the right to monitor any and all communications
through or with Knowledge Forest facilities. Customer
agrees that Knowledge Forest is not considered a secure
communications medium for the purposes of the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act, and that no expectation
of privacy is afforded. It may become necessary for
Knowledge Forest employees to examine system accounting
logs and other records to determine if privacy violations
or other network unfriendly activities have occurred.
Knowledge Forest also reserves the right to access a
Customer's mailbox or other files stored on Knowledge
Forest systems to resolve system problems or mail system
errors.
11.
Cooperation with Authorities
Knowledge
Forest reserves the right to cooperate with law enforcement
and other authorities in investigating claims of illegal
activity including, but not limited to, illegal transfer
or availability of copyrighted material, postings or
e-mail containing threats of violence or other illegal
activity.
12.
Confidentiality of Personal Subscriber Information
Knowledge
Forest will not release a Customer's personal subscriber
information, nor a Customer's billing information, to
any third party except upon presentation of a valid
court order of a government or entity within our jurisdiction.
Customer agrees that Knowledge Forest's judgment as
to the validity of any court order of subpoena shall
be considered proper and final.
13.
Knowledge Forest's Right to Suspend or Cancel Account
Knowledge
Forest reserves the right to suspend or cancel service
to a Customer at any time and without notice, for any
reason, including, but not limited to, refusal or failure
to pay for services provided or by sole judgment of
Knowledge Forest that the Customer may be performing
activities harmful to Knowledge Forest or its Customers,
employees, vendors, business relationships or any other
users of the Internet.
14.
Right to Damages
Knowledge
Forest reserves the right to collect damages (software,
hardware and man hours) if any harm is done to Knowledge
Forest which requires repair or reconfiguration of any
kind.
15.
Other Remedies/Non-Waiver
Nothing
contained in these policies shall be construed to limit
action Knowledge Forest may take or remedies available
to Knowledge Forest in any way with respect to any of
the described conduct. Knowledge Forest reserves the
right to take any additional actions Knowledge Forest
may consider appropriate with respect to such conduct,
including without limitation taking action to recover
the costs and expenses of identifying offenders and
removing them from the Knowledge Forest service, and
levying cancellation charges to cover Knowledge Forest's
costs in the event of disconnection of dedicated access
for the causes outlined above. In addition, Knowledge
Forest reserves at all times all rights and remedies
available to Knowledge Forest with respect to such conduct
at law or in equity. Non-enforcement of any policy or
rule herein does not constitute consent or waiver, and
Knowledge Forest reserves the right to enforce such
policy or rule at its sole discretion.
16.
Knowledge Forest's Right to Change Service
Knowledge
Forest reserves to right to change without notice the
Knowledge Forest service, including, but not limited
to, access procedures, hours of operation, menu structures,
commands, documentation, vendors and services offered.
17.
Knowledge Forest's Right to Modify its Acceptable Use
Policies
Knowledge
Forest may modify its Acceptable Use Policies upon notice
published online via Knowledge Forest. Customer's use
of Knowledge Forest services after such notice shall
constitute Customer's acceptance of the modifications
to these policies.
18.
Indemnifications
Customer
agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Knowledge
Forest and its owners, officers, shareholders, directors,
employees, affiliates and subsidiaries from and against
any and all claims, demands, liabilities, proceedings,
damages, injuries, losses, costs and expenses (including,
without limitation, reasonable attorneys' fees) arising
out of or relating to:
•
A.) Any acts or omissions by Customer undertaken in
connection with the Internet page, including, without
limitation, those arising out of or related to any branch
of:
-
(i) any Customer warranties, representations, or covenants
hereunder;
- (ii) inaccuracy of any information, including false
advertising claims and unfair competition claims;
- (iii) claims and investigations made by any Federal
or State agency arising out of information contained
on the Customer's Internet page.
•
B.) Violations of any third-party intellectual property
rights, or any claim of infringement, misappropriation
or violation of a right of a third party (including,
without limitation, a trade secret claim, a defamation
or libel claim, or an obscenity claim).
19.
Miscellaneous Provisions
19.1
- Prevention of Performance
The
parties shall not be liable for any delay or failure
of performance of this Agreement if such failure is
caused by acts of God, war, governmental decree, power
failure, judgment or order, strike, communications failure,
equipment of software malfunction, or other circumstances,
whether or not similar to the foregoing, which are beyond
the reasonable control of such party.
19.2
- Entire Agreement
This
instrument embodies the whole agreement between the
contracting parties. There are no promises, representations,
conditions, or terms other than those contained herein.
19.3
- Severability
The
provisions of this Agreement are severable. If any provision
is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction or
a governmental regulatory entity to be invalid or unenforceable,
in whole or in part, that provision shall be construed
or limited in such a way as to make it enforceable,
consistent with the manifest intentions of the parties.
If such a construction or limitation is not possible,
the unenforceable provision will be stricken, and the
remaining provisions of this Agreement will remain valid
and enforceable.
19.4
- Amendments
No
modification, change, or alteration of this Agreement
shall be effective unless in writing and signed by the
parties hereto.
19.5
- Waiver
Failure
by either party to insist upon the strictest performance
or observance of any provision of this Agreement or
to exercise any right or remedy arising out of this
Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver of any
right or remedy with respect to any existing or subsequent
breach or default.
19.6
- Notices
Any
and all written notices, communications, or payments
shall be made to the respective parties at their addresses
indicated in the first paragraph of this Agreement or
at such other address as a party may indicate in a written
notice to the other party to this Agreement.
19.7
- Governing Law
This
Agreement shall be governed by the internal laws of
the Commonwealth of Virginia and the parties hereto
agree that the courts in the Commonwealth of Virginia
shall have exclusive jurisdiction for any claims or
disputes which may arise hereunder.
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