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Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy (this "AUP") is an integral part of the Master Services Agreement (the "Agreement") between SmartSource Solutions, LLC ("SmartSource") and Customer, and is specifically incorporated into the Agreement by this reference. For purposes of this AUP, the term "Customer" includes, in addition to the entity named as a party to the Agreement, any person having access to or using the Services by or through such entity's systems, whether or not authorized (a "User"). Capitalized terms used in this AUP without being defined have the respective meanings given to them in the Agreement. SmartSource has formulated this AUP in order to encourage the responsible use of the Services by Customer and by SmartSource's other users, and to enable SmartSource to provide all its customers and users with secure, reliable, and productive services.

Suspension; Termination

If SmartSource determines Customer has violated any element of this AUP, in its sole discretion, SmartSource: (a) will provide written notice of such violation to Customer; and (b) may temporarily suspend the Services pending Customer's agreement in writing to refrain from any further violations; provided, however, that if SmartSource deems it necessary, it may immediately suspend or terminate the Services without issuing such a warning. If SmartSource determines Customer has committed a second violation of any element of this AUP, SmartSource may immediately suspend or terminate the Services without further notice to Customer.

General Conduct

The SmartSource network, including any product or service provided by any third-party in connection with the Services, and including the websites hosted by SmartSource (collectively, the "SmartSource Network"), may be used only for lawful purposes. Customer may not use the SmartSource Network or any equipment to publish, transmit, distribute, or store any content or links to any content that:

  • Violates any applicable law;
  • In any manner, will infringe the copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights of others;
  • Is defamatory or violates the privacy, publicity, or other personal rights of others;
  • Is threatening, abusive, hateful, or excessively violent, incites violence, threatens violence or contains harassing content or hate speech including advocating terrorism or killing any individual or group;
  • Constitutes, depicts, fosters, promotes, or relates in any manner to obscenity, child pornography, bestiality, or non-consensual sex acts;
  • Is unfair or deceptive under the consumer protection laws of any jurisdiction, including chain letters and pyramid schemes;
  • Creates a risk to a person's safety or health, creates a risk to public safety or health, compromises national security or interferes with an investigation by law enforcement;
  • Improperly exposes trade secrets or other confidential or proprietary information of another person;
  • Is intended to assist others in defeating technical copyright protections;
  • Promotes illegal drugs, violates export control laws, relates to illegal gambling or illegal arms trafficking;
  • Is otherwise illegal or solicits conduct that is illegal under laws applicable to Customer or to SmartSource; or
  • Is otherwise malicious, fraudulent or may result in retaliation against SmartSource by offended viewers.

Child Pornography and Children's Online Privacy

SmartSource will cooperate fully with any criminal investigation into Customer's violation of any federal or state law or regulation concerning child pornography. Customer is ultimately responsible for the actions of its Users over the SmartSource Network, and will be liable for illegal material posted by its Users. Under federal law, child pornography includes photographs, films, video, or any other type of visual presentation that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of 18 years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of 18 years, including any written material or visual representation that advocates or counsels sexual activity with a person under the age of 18 years. No credits will be issued for any interruption in service resulting from policy violations.

Customer may not use the SmartSource Network or any equipment publish, transmit, distribute, or store any content or links to any content that in any manner violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act in 1998, or the rules and regulations of the Federal Trade Commission thereunder.

System and Network Security

Customer is prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the SmartSource Network, including, without limitation:

  • Using an Internet account or computer that Customer is not authorized to use, accessing data not intended for Customer, or logging into a server or account that Customer is not authorized to access;
  • Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization;
  • Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of deliberate attempts to overload a system, flooding, mail bombing, broadcast attacks, or crashing;
  • Using any forged, false, misleading, or deceptive TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting;
  • Taking any action in order to obtain services to which such User is not entitled. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability.

SmartSource will investigate occurrences that may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting any persons, including Customer, who are involved in such violations.

System Abuse

Customer may not use the SmartSource Network or the Services to engage in, foster, or promote abusive or irresponsible behavior, including, without limitation:

  • Collecting or using email addresses, screen names or other identifiers without the consent of the person identified (including, without limitation, phishing, Internet scamming, password robbery, spidering, and harvesting);
  • Collecting or using information without the consent of the owner of the information;
  • Distributing software that covertly gathers information about a user or covertly transmits information about the user;
  • Use of the Services for distribution of advertisement delivery software unless: (a) the user affirmatively consents to the download and installation of such software based on a clear and conspicuous notice of the nature of the software; and (b) the software is easily removable by use of standard tools for such purpose included on major operating systems (e.g., Microsoft's "add/remove" tool);
  • Any conduct that is likely to result in retaliation against the SmartSource Network, any SmartSource hosted or maintained website or server, or SmartSource's employees, officers or other agents, including engaging in behavior that results in any server being the target of a denial of service attack; or
  • Monitoring data or traffic on any network or system without the express authorization of the owner of such system or network.

Excessive Use of System Resources

Customer may not use any shared system provided by SmartSource in a way that unnecessarily interferes with the normal operation of the shared system, or that consumes a disproportionate share of the resources of the system. For example, SmartSource may prohibit the automated or scripted use of the Services if such use has a negative impact on the mail system, or SmartSource may require Customer to repair coding abnormalities in Customer cloud-hosted code if such abnormalities unduly conflict with other cloud customers' use of the cloud. Customer agrees that SmartSource may quarantine or delete any data stored on a shared system if the data are infected with a virus, or are otherwise corrupted, and have the potential to infect or corrupt the system or other customers' data stored on the same system.

Operating System End Of Life

Customer agrees that it will not use an operating system platform that has been declared by its manufacturer or creator, or determined by SmartSource, to be End of Life ("EOL"). An EOL operating system platform typically means that no further changes to the platform will be made, no new releases or patches created, no further support for the platform, no testing performed after the EOL date, and no technical support provided. Because the use of an EOL operating system exposes Customer and other users of the SmartSource Network to unknown and unpreventable vulnerabilities, Customer's use of any EOL operating system will be permitted only to the extent Customer executes, and complies with the terms and conditions of the then-current form of SmartSource's EOL Operating System Waiver.

E-Mail Requirements

Customer may not send unsolicited email messages, including, without limitation, bulk commercial advertising or informational announcements ("spam") in a way that could be reasonably expected to adversely impact the SmartSource Network, including, without limitation, using an email account on the SmartSource's Network to send spam or bulk email, or using the service of another provider to send spam or to promote a site hosted on or connected to the SmartSource Network. In addition, Customer must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and other laws and regulations applicable to bulk or commercial email. Customer's bulk and commercial email must meet the following requirements:

  • Customer's intended recipients have given their consent to receive email via some affirmative means, such as an opt-in procedure;
  • Customer's procedures for soliciting consent include reasonable means to ensure that the person giving consent is the owner of the email address for which the consent is given;
  • Customer retains evidence of the recipient's consent in a form that may be promptly produced on request, and Customer honors the recipient's and SmartSource's requests to produce consent evidence within 72 hours of receipt of the request;
  • Customer has procedures in place that allow a recipient to revoke consent (e.g., a link in the body of the email, or instructions to reply with the word "Remove" in the subject line);
  • Customer honors revocations of consent within 48 hours, and Customer notify recipients that the revocation of consent will be implemented within 48 hours;
  • Customer must: (a) post an email address for complaints (e.g., abuse@Customerrdomain.com) in a conspicuous place on any website associated with Customer; (b) register that address at abuse.net; and (c) promptly respond to messages sent to that address;
  • Customer must have a privacy policy posted for each domain associated with the mailing;
  • Customer have the means to track anonymous complaints;
  • Customer must not obscure the source of Customer's email in any manner;
  • Customer's email must include the recipient's email address in the body of the message or in the "TO" line of the email; and
  • Customer must not attempt to send any message to an email address if 3 consecutive delivery rejections have occurred and the time between the third rejection and the first rejection is longer than 15 days.

Customer may not use the SmartSource Network to: (a) send email messages that are excessive or intended to harass or annoy others; (b) send or receive email messages in a manner that violates the use policies of any other internet service provider, or (c) use an email box as a storage space for data; or (e) offering for sale or solicit email distribution lists for the purposes of bulk email.

The foregoing requirements apply to messages sent using the Services, as well as to messages sent from any network by Customer or any person on Customer's behalf that directly or indirectly refers the recipient to a website hosted via the Services. In addition, Customer may not use a third party email service that does not practice similar procedures for all its customers. These requirements apply to any email distribution list created by any third party to the same extent as if Customer created such email distribution list. SmartSource does not sell, rent or otherwise disclose its mailing lists to third parties.

SmartSource may test and otherwise monitor Customer's compliance with these requirements, including requesting opt-in information from a random sample of Customer's list at any time. In addition, SmartSource may block the transmission of email that violates these requirements. SmartSource may, at its discretion, require Customer to seek advance approval for bulk and commercial email, which approval will not be granted unless Customer can demonstrate that all of these requirements will be met.

Usenet

If Customer posts messages to Usenet newsgroups, Customer is solely responsible for becoming familiar with any written charter or FAQ governing the use of such newsgroups and complying therewith. Regardless of such policies, Customer may not uses the SmartSource Network or the Services to: (a) post the same message, or a series of similar messages, to one or more newsgroups (excessive cross-posting or multiple-posting, also known as "Usenet spam"); (b) cancel or supersede posts not originally posted by Customer, unless Customer does so in the course of its duties as an official newsgroup moderator; (c) post any message with  forged, false, misleading, or deceptive packet header information; or (d) post messages that are excessive or intended to harass or annoy others, including, without limitation, chain letters.

Vulnerability Testing

Customer may not attempt to probe, scan, penetrate, or test the vulnerability of any portion of the SmartSource Network, or any related system or equipment, or to breach the SmartSource security or authentication measures, whether by passive or intrusive techniques, without SmartSource's express written consent.

With SmartSource's express written consent, Customer may use third party penetration testing with the following limitations:

  • Test must be pre-authorized by SmartSource
  • Test must be conducted between the hours of 2:00am ET and conclude by 5:00am ET
  • Test results must be shared with SmartSource
  • Absolutely no DDoS of any kind including slow-post DDoS is permitted

Customer will be held financially liable for failure to comply with the foregoing limitations and the restoration of systems.

Newsgroup, Chat Forums, Other Networks

Customer must comply with the rules and conventions for postings to any bulletin board, chat group or other forum in which Customer participates, such as IRC and USENET groups including their rules for content and commercial postings. These groups usually prohibit the posting of off-topic commercial messages, or mass postings to multiple forums. Customer must comply with the rules of any other network Customer accesses or participates in using the Services.

Live Events

Customer may not use the SmartSource Network or the Services to stream live sex acts of any kind, even if the content would otherwise comply with this AUP. SmartSource may prohibit Customer from streaming other live events where there is a unacceptable risk, in SmartSource's sole discretion, that the event may violate any portion of this AUP.

Copyrighted Materials

Customer may not use SmartSource's Network or the Services to download, publish, distribute, or otherwise copy or use in any manner any text, music, software, art, image, or other work protected by copyright law unless: (a) Customer has been expressly authorized by the owner of the copyright for the work to copy the work in that manner; or (b) Customer is otherwise permitted by established copyright law to copy the work in that manner.

Web Content Accessibility

In providing Services, SmartSource has used commercially reasonable efforts to implement the recommendations of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (the most current version of which is referred to as "WCAG 2.0 Level AA") as published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. Nonetheless, SmartSource does not guarantee that any of Customer's websites or webpages will comply with WCAG 2.0 Level AA or any other industry standard or government regulation prescribing content accessibility guidelines or requirements or otherwise will be accessible by persons with disabilities. Customer is solely responsible for the accessibility of its websites and webpages by persons with disabilities and will indemnify and hold SmartSource, and its employees, officers, and other agents, harmless from all claims, losses, or liability arising out of or in connection with any alleged failure to provide such accessibility.

Domain Name Registration; IP Address Registration; Etc.

Customer must have valid and current information on file with Customer's domain name registrar for any domain hosted on the SmartSource Network.

Customer may only use IP addresses assigned to Customer by SmartSource in connection with the Services. Customer agrees that if SmartSource IP numbers assigned to Customer account are listed on an abuse database (e.g., Spamhaus), Customer will be in violation of this AUP, and SmartSource may take reasonable action to protect its IP addresses, including suspension or termination of the Services, regardless of whether or not the IP addresses were so listed as a result of Customer's actions.

Customer agrees that, if Customer registers a DNS record or zone on SmartSource managed or operated DNS servers or services for a domain of which Customer is not the registrant or administrative contact according to the registrar's WHOIS system, upon request from the registrant or administrative contact according to the registrar's WHOIS system, SmartSource may modify, transfer, or delete such records or zones.

Customer may not register to use any Services under a false name, or use an invalid or unauthorized credit card in connection with any Services.

Responsibility

SmartSource takes no responsibility for any material input by others and not posted to the SmartSource Network by SmartSource. SmartSource is not responsible for the content of any other websites linked to the SmartSource Network; links are provided as Internet navigation tools only.

The responsibility for avoiding the harmful activities described in this AUP rests with Customer. SmartSource will not, as an ordinary practice, monitor Customer's communications to ensure that they comply with SmartSource policies and requirements or with applicable law. When SmartSource becomes aware of harmful activities, however, it may take any action to stop the harmful activity, including but not limited to, removing information, shutting down a website, implementing screening software designed to block offending transmissions, denying access to the Internet, or taking any other action it deems appropriate.

Modifications and Updates of this AUP

SmartSource may modify this AUP at any time in its sole and absolute discretion by posting an updated version on its website and providing reasonable notice thereof to Customer. Customer's use of the Services after any such updated version of this AUP has been posted on SmartSource's website, or otherwise communicated to Customer, will constitute Customer's acceptance of any such updated AUP.