Acceptable Use Policy
This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP")
specifies the actions prohibited to users of the network and
systems ("infrastructure") of Ion Access, and is
intended to enhance the use of the Internet by preventing unacceptable
use. Users are required to adhere to all the policies specified
in this AUP without exception.
LAWS AND REGULATIONS
ION ACCESS' infrastructure may be used only for lawful purposes.
Users may not violate any applicable laws or regulations of
South Africa within the territory of South Africa. Should the
user reside outside of South Africa, the laws of the country
in which the user resides shall apply.
Transmission, distribution or storage of any material on or
through the infrastructure in violation of any applicable law
or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation,
material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or
other intellectual property right used without proper authorisation,
and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal
threat, or violates export control laws.
THE NETWORK
The user acknowledges that Ion Access is unable to exercise
control over the content of the information passing over the
infrastructure and the Internet, including any websites, electronic
mail transmissions, news groups or other material created or
accessible over its infrastructure. Therefore, Ion Access is
not responsible for the content of any messages or other information
transmitted over its infrastructure.
Ion Access's infrastructure may be used to link into other
networks worldwide and the user agrees to conform to the acceptable
use policies of these networks.
The user may obtain and download any materials marked as available
for download off the Internet but is not permitted to use its
Internet access to distribute any copyrighted materials unless
the owner of the materials grants permission for such distribution
to the user. The user is prohibited from obtaining and/or disseminating
on-line any unlawful materials, including but not limited to
stolen intellectual property, child pornography, and/or any
unlawful hate-speech materials.
SYSTEM AND NETWORK SECURITY
All references to systems and networks under this section
includes the Internet (and all those systems and/or networks
to which user is granted access through Ion Access) and includes
but is not limited to the infrastructure of Ion Access itself.
The user may not circumvent user authentication or security
of any host, network, or account (referred to as "cracking" or "hacking"),
nor interfere with service to any user, host, or network (referred
to as "denial of service attacks"). Violations of
system or network security by the user are prohibited, and
may result in civil or criminal liability. Ion Access will
investigate incidents involving such violations and will involve
and will co-operate with law enforcement officials if a criminal
violation is suspected. Examples of system or network security
violations include, without limitation, the following:
Unauthorised access to or use of data, systems or networks,
including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability
of any system or network or to breach security or authentication
measures without the express authorisation of Ion Access.
Unauthorised monitoring of data or traffic on the network
or systems without express authorisation of Ion Access.
Interference with service to any user, host or network including,
without limitation, mailbombing, flooding, deliberate attempts
to overload a system and broadcast attacks.
Forging of any TCP-IP packet header (spoofing) or any part
of the header information in an email or a newsgroup posting.
E-MAIL USE
It is explicitly prohibited to send unsolicited bulk mail
messages ("junk mail" or "spam") of any
kind (commercial advertising, political tracts, announcements,
etc). This is strongly objected to by most Internet users and
the repercussions against the offending party and Ion Access
can often result in disruption of service to other users connected
to Ion Access.
Maintaining of mailing lists by users of Ion Access is accepted
only with the permission and approval of the list members,
and at the members' sole discretion. Should mailing lists contain
invalid or undeliverable addresses or addresses of unwilling
recipients those addresses must be promptly removed.
Users may not forward or propagate chain letters nor malicious
e-mail.
Public relay occurs when a mail server is accessed by a third
party from another domain and utilised to deliver mails, without
the authority or consent of the owner of the mail-server. Users'
mail servers must be secure against public relay as a protection
to both themselves and the Internet at large. Mail servers
that are unsecured against public relay often become abused
by unscrupulous operators for spam delivery and upon detection
such delivery must be disallowed.
Ion Access reserves the right to examine users' mail servers
to confirm that no mails are being sent from the mail server
through public relay and the results of such checks can be
made available to the user. Ion Access also reserves the right
to examine the mail servers of any users using Ion Access mail
servers for "smarthosting" (when the user relays
its mail off an Ion Access mail server to a mail server of
its own) or similar services at any time to ensure that the
servers are properly secured against public relay. All relay
checks will be done in strict accordance with Ion Access' policy
of preserving customer privacy.
COMPLAINTS
Upon receipt of a complaint, or having become aware of an
incident, Ion Access reserves the right to:
Inform the user's network administrator of the incident and
require the network administrator or network owner to deal
with the incident according to this AUP.
In the case of individual users suspend the user's account
and withdraw the user's network access privileges completely.
Charge the offending parties for administrative costs as well
as for machine and human time lost due to the incident.
In severe cases suspend access of the user's entire network
until abuse can be prevented by appropriate means.
Share information concerning the incident with other Internet
access providers, or publish the information, and/or make available
the users' details to law enforcement agencies.
Any one or more of the steps listed above, insofar as they
are deemed necessary by Ion Access in its absolute and sole
discretion, may be taken by Ion Access against the offending
party.
All cases of violation of the above Acceptable Use Policy
should be reported to abuse@ion.co.za.
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