Acceptable Usage Policy

Revision date: July 3, 2008

As a provider of web site hosting and other Internet-related services, ServMap Hosting offers its customer (also known as "Subscribers") and their customers and users the means to acquire and disseminate a wealth of public, private, commercial and non-commercial information. ServMap Hosting respects that the Internet provides a forum for free and open discussion and dissemination of information. However, when there are competing interests at issue, ServMap Hosting reserves the right to take certain preventive or corrective actions. In order to protect these competing interests, ServMap Hosting has developed an Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP"), which supplements and explains certain terms of each customer's respective service agreement, and is intended as a guide to the customer's rights and obligations when using ServMap Hosting' services. This AUP will be revised from time to time.

One important aspect of the Internet is that no one party owns or controls it. This fact accounts for much of the Internet's openness and value, but it also places a high premium on the judgment and responsibility of those who use it, both in the information they acquire and in the information they disseminate to others. When subscribers obtain information through the Internet, they must keep in mind that ServMap Hosting cannot monitor, verify, warrant or vouch for the accuracy and quality of the information they acquire. For this reason, the subscriber must exercise his or her best judgment in relying on information obtained from the Internet, and also should be aware that some material posted to the Internet may be sexually explicit or otherwise offensive. Because ServMap Hosting cannot monitor or censor the Internet, and will not attempt to do so, ServMap Hosting cannot accept any responsibility for injury to its subscribers resulting from inaccurate, unsuitable, offensive or illegal Internet communications.

When subscribers disseminate information from the Internet, they must keep in mind that ServMap Hosting does not review, edit, censor or take responsibility for any information its subscribers may create. When users place information on the Internet, they have the same liability as other authors for copyright infringement, defamation and other harmful speech. Also, because the information created is carried over ServMap Hosting' network and may reach a large number of people, including both subscribers and non-subscribers of ServMap Hosting, subscribers' postings to the Internet may affect other subscribers and may affect ServMap Hosting' goodwill, business, reputation or operations. For these reasons, subscribers violate ServMap Hosting policy and the Service Agreement when they, their customers, affiliates or subsidiaries engage in the following prohibited activities:

Messaging Policy

Limits

There is a 200 hourly email limit per domain this limit is also applied towards mailman. If you send over this amount in any hour most of the e-mails will bounce back with a undeliverable error.

Many of our servers have a 60 pop checks per hour limit per domain. If you go over this you're likely to get a wrong password error message saying login incorrect. Just wait an hour and it will automatically unlock you. to prevent this from happening again make sure to disable auto checking or at least set it to something higher such as 10 minutes.

Any mailing list larger than 5,000 will require a semi dedicated or dedicated hosting solution from us. Note: dividing one large list into smaller lists to get below this limit is not allowed.

Mailing Lists Rules

  1. Anytime you're sending a message no matter how large your e-mail list is you must throttle it. We recommend you throttle it to at the very least sending 1 email every 6 seconds. If the mailing list software you're using does not allow you to throttle you must switch to something else. We recommend phplist. If you do not throttle and you try sending let's say 500 emails the server will try sending all 500 in 1 second which is not possible. This will cause the server load to go very high and for the entire server to be sluggish until this process is completed. It is our job to keep the server up and running without being sluggish. Anyone who causes the servers load to go high will be suspended and the process will be terminated. If you choose not to throttle you will most likely be suspended for crashing the server.
  2. Any mailing list over 900 emails is only allowed to be sent to during off-peak times to prevent high server loads. Off peak times qualify as all day Saturday and Sunday, and 1am - 8 am eastern time M-F.
  3. You are not allowed to mail to a mailing list you were given or purchased. This is spamming because they never agreed to you personally sending them mail. We do not care how you justify it. This is spam and will result in termination of the offending account.
  4. Any unsolicited e-mail being sent will result in termination of the offending account. We take a zero tolerance stance against sending of unsolicited e-mail.
  5. Any malling list MUST comply with all guidelines set forth by the United States. These can be found at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm.
  6. No Direct SMTP mailers are allowed. An example of this is DarkMailer. Any mail should be relayed through the local MTA (localhost:25) for further delivery by the server and not done directly by scripts.

Spamming

Sending unsolicited bulk and/or commercial information over the Internet. It is not only harmful because of its negative impact on consumer attitudes toward ServMap Hosting, but also because it can overload ServMap Hosting' network and disrupt service to ServMap Hosting's subscribers. Also, maintaining an open SMTP relay is prohibited. When a complaint is received, ServMap Hosting will investigate and shutdown the account that is SPAMing. A $250 charge for violating this policy will be charged to the person initiating the SPAM. Furthermore ServMap Hosting reserves the right to prosecute for this violation. A $1.00 charge will be assessed PER EMAIL sent should ServMap Hosting choose to pursue and prosecute.

Forging of Headers

Forging or misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the originator of the message.

Contents & Activities

Adult-Oriented Content

ServMap Hosting does allow legal adult content, however the models displayed on such websites must be at least 18 years old and cannot violate copyright of other party.

IRC and Proxy

We currently do not allow IRC, IRC bots or proxy service to be operated on our servers.

Reselling

Any shared hosting account holders are prohibited to resell any service using our server (emails, FTP, ssh, web space). You are free to resell the service as long as you are not using our server resources, or otherwise you can subscribe to our reseller hosting plans. Reseller hosting account holders are prohibited to provide free service to clients using our server, including but not limited to free hosting, free email hosting, etc.

Obscene Speech or Materials

Using ServMap Hosting' network to advertise, transmit, store, post, display, or otherwise make available child pornography or obscene speech or material is prohibited. ServMap Hosting is required by law to notify law enforcement agencies when it becomes aware of the presence of child pornography on or being transmitted through its network.

Defamatory or Abusive Language

Using ServMap Hosting' network as a means to transmit or post negative, defamatory, harassing, abusive or threatening language.

Illegal or Unauthorized Access to Other Computers or Networks

Accessing, illegally or without authorization, computers, accounts or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another individual's system (often known as "hacking"). Also, any activity that may be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (i.e., port scan, stealth scan or other information-gathering activity).

Distribution of Internet Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses or Other Destructive Activities

Distributing information regarding the creation of and sending Internet viruses, worms, Trojan horses, pinging, flooding, mail bombing or denial of service attacks. Also, activities that disrupt the use of or interfere with the ability of others to effectively use the network or any connected network, system, service or equipment.

Facilitation a Violation of this AUP

Advertising, transmitting or otherwise making available any software, program, product or service that is designed to violate this AUP, which includes the facilitation of the means to spam, initiation of pinging, flooding, mail bombing, denial of service attacks and piracy of software.

Usenet Groups

ServMap Hosting reserves the right not to accept postings from newsgroups where we have actual knowledge that the content of the newsgroup violates the AUP.

Other Illegal Activities

Engaging in activities that are determined to be illegal, including, but not limited to, advertising, transmitting or otherwise making available ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, fraudulently charging credit cards and pirating software.

Other Activities

Engaging in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that ServMap Hosting determines to be harmful to its subscribers, operations, reputation, goodwill or customer relations.

As we have pointed out, the responsibility for avoiding harmful activities just described rests primarily with the subscriber. ServMap Hosting will not, as an ordinary practice, monitor the communications of its subscribers to ensure that the comply with ServMap Hosting' policy or applicable law. However, when ServMap Hosting becomes aware of harmful activities, it may take any action to stop the harmful activity, including, but not limited to, removal of information, shutting down a web site, implementing screening software designed to block offending transmissions, denying access to the Internet, or any other action deemed appropriate by ServMap Hosting.

ServMap Hosting is also aware that many of its subscribers are themselves providers of Internet services, and that information reaching ServMap Hosting' facilities from those subscribers may have originated from a customer of the subscriber or from another third party. ServMap Hosting does not require its subscribers who offer Internet services to monitor or censor transmissions or web sites created by customers of its subscribers. ServMap Hosting reserves the right to directly take action against a customer of its subscribers. Also, ServMap Hosting may take action against the ServMap Hosting' subscriber because of activities of a customer of the subscriber, even though the action may affect other customers of the subscriber. Similarly, ServMap Hosting anticipates that subscribers who offer Internet services will cooperate with ServMap Hosting in any corrective or preventive action that ServMap Hosting deems necessary. Failure to cooperate with such corrective or preventive measures is a violation of ServMap Hosting policy.

ServMap Hosting expects that its subscribers who provide Internet services to others will comply fully with all applicable laws concerning the privacy of online communications. A subscriber's failure to comply with those laws will violate ServMap Hosting policy. Finally, ServMap Hosting wishes to emphasize that, in signing the Service Agreement, subscribers indemnify ServMap Hosting for any violation of the Service Agreement, law or ServMap Hosting policy resulting in loss to ServMap Hosting or the bringing of any claim against ServMap Hosting by any third party. This means that, if ServMap Hosting is sued because of a subscriber's or customer of a subscriber's activity, the subscriber will be responsible for payment of any damages awarded against ServMap Hosting, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees. We hope this AUP is helpful in clarifying the obligations of Internet users, including ServMap Hosting and its subscribers, as responsible members of the Internet. Any complaints about a subscriber's violation of this AUP should be sent to abuse at servmap.com.