Acceptable Usage Policy

Security and Acceptable Use of our Resources

Introduction

ATU Internet's Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") is designed to protect ATU Internet's network, customers ("Customers") and third parties, further compliance with all relevant laws and regulations, and promote the security and availability of ATU Internet's network and physical infrastructure. This AUP applies to each user and the Customer's use of the services provided to it by ATU Internet ("Services") and every server or network device that is under each Customer's control and attached to ATU Internet infrastructure as a part of the Services ("Server").

This AUP is incorporated by this reference into each Customer's service agreement. ATU Internet reserves the right to amend this AUP from time to time, and a Customer's use of the Services after changes to the AUP are posted on ATU Internet's web site www.atu.net.au will constitute the Customer's acceptance of any such amendments.

Customers are responsible for complying with this AUP and for violations attributable to their customers and users, whether authorized or not by Customer. Customers must take all reasonable steps to ensure that their customers and users will comply with this AUP.

This AUP does not:
(a) obligate ATU Internet to monitor, review, or police the data and content residing on its network.
(b) create any obligation of ATU Internet to any party that is not a Customer. ATU Internet expressly disclaims any liability for the data and content residing on its network and for the actions of its Customers.

Any questions or comments regarding this AUP should be directed to abuse@atu.net.au.

Prohibited Content

Customers shall not allow the posting, transmission, or storage of data and content on or through the Services which, in ATU Internet's sole determination, constitutes a violation of any relevant law, regulation, ordinance, or court order. Customers shall be responsible for determining what laws or regulations are applicable to their use of the Services.

A Customer shall not knowingly host on its Servers, or transmit over ATU Internet's network, any material believed by ATU Internet to constitute child pornography. In addition to the any other actions it may take under this AUP, ATU Internet reserves the right to cooperate fully with any criminal investigation of content located on a Server that constitutes alleged child pornography.

Customer Security Obligation

Customers must use reasonable care to ensure the security of each Server and their network. A Customer is solely responsible for any intrusions into, or security breaches of, any of its Servers, except to the extent expressly provided for in, and covered by, a designated security administration or firewall security service package ordered by the Customer. ATU Internet reserves the right to disconnect without provision of service credit any Servers which disrupt ATU Internet's network or any hardware objects on the network as a result of a security compromise.

Network Abuse

Customers are prohibited from engaging in any activities that ATU Internet determines in its sole discretion to constitute network abuse, including but not limited to the following:

  • Introducing or executing malicious programs into any network or server, including viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, and key loggers.
  • Causing or initiating security breaches or disruptions of network communication and/or connectivity, including port scans, flood pings, email-bombing, packet spoofing, IP spoofing, and forged routing information.
  • Executing any form of network activity that will intercept data not intended for the Customer's server.
  • Evading or circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account, including cracking, brute-force, or dictionary attacks.
  • Interfering with or denying service to any user, host, or network other than the Customer's host, including denial of service attack or distributed denial of service attack.
  • Conduct designed to avoid restrictions or access limits to specific services, hosts, or networks, including the forging of packet headers or other identification information.
  • Using any program, or sending messages of any kind, designed to interfere with or disable a user's terminal session.

Intellectual Property Infringement Policy

Customers may not transmit, distribute, download, copy, cache, host, or otherwise store on a Server any information, data, material, or work that infringes the intellectual property rights of others. ATU Internet has the right to disable access to, or remove, infringing content to the extent required under any law or regulation, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

ATU Internet reserves the right to suspend permanently or terminate the Services of any Customer that repeatedly violates ATU Internet's Intellectual Property Infringement Policy or any copyright law.

E-mail & Network Services Policy

Customer may not send unsolicited bulk messages over the Internet (i.e., "spamming") and must comply with all relevant legislation and regulations on bulk and commercial e-mail, including the SPAM Act of 2003.

Mass Mailings – Customers may not sending mass unsolicited e-mail, which is email that is sent to recipients who have not double-opted in to mailings from the Customer. Customers who send mass mailings must maintain complete and accurate records of all consents and opt-ins, including the actual e-mail and its headers, and provide such records to ATU Internet upon its request. If a Customer cannot provide positive and verifiable proof of such consents and opt-ins, ATU Internet will consider the mass mailing to be unsolicited.

Mailing Lists – Customers are prohibited from operating mailing lists, listservs, or mailing services that do not target an audience that has voluntarily signed up for e-mail information using a double opt-in process or that has made their e-mail addresses available to Customer for distribution of information. Customers who operate mailing lists must maintain complete and accurate records of all consents and opt-ins (including the actual e-mails and their headers) and provide such records to ATU Internet upon its request. If a Customer cannot provide positive and verifiable proof of such consents and opt-ins, ATU Internet will consider the list mailing to be unsolicited. Any Customer-maintained mailing list must also allow any party on the list to remove itself automatically and permanently.

URL Slamming and Mass Posting - Customers are prohibitied from operating software or the conduct of mass posting and/or slamming web forms for automated submission of content.

DNS Abuse and Poisioning - Customers and users of the network are prohibted from maintaining Domain Name Servers (DNS) for Domain Names that are not under their direct management. Customers and users are also prohibted from sending fake or forged DNS queries to any servers.

Other prohibited activities include but not limited to the following:

  • Use of ATU Internet's network for the receipt of replies to unsolicited mass e-mail
  • Forgery of e-mail and any Network Service headers ("spoofing")
  • Spamming via third-party proxy, aggregation of proxy lists, or installation of proxy mailing software
  • Configuration of a mail server to accept and process third-party messages for sending without user identification and authentication
  • Hosting web pages advertised within "spam e-mail" sent from another network ("spamvertising")
  • Block Removal – If, as a result of a Customer's actions, ATU Internet's mail servers or IP address ranges are placed on black hole lists and other mail filtering software systems, ATU Internet shall charge Customer $110 upfront and $110 per hour thereafter for any necessary remedial actions.

IP Allocation, Usage & Access

A Customer shall not use IP addresses that were not assigned to it by ATU Internet or not authorised for routing on this network. ATU Internet reserves the right to suspend the network access of any server or service utilizing IP addresses outside of the assigned range or without prior consent for routing.

Some Internet Networks may not be accessible from time to time. Null Routing of various networks does occur and is used to mitigate SPAM, network abuse and known malicious users.

IRC Policy

Customers may not operate and maintain IRC servers which connect to global IRC networks such as Undernet, EFnet, DALnet without prior consent. Use of IRC plug-ins, scripts, add-ons, clones or other software designed to disrupt or deny service to other users is prohibited. Harassing or abusive IRC activity is expressly prohibited under the AUP, including:

(i) disruption or denial of service or

(ii) the use or joining of "botnets" or the use of IRC BNC's or other proxy and re-direction software. If a Customer's IRC servers are frequently compromised or attract denial of service or distributed denial of service attacks that disrupt or denies service to other Customers, users or servers, ATU Internet may null-route, filter, suspend, or terminate that service.

Usenet Policy

Usenet posts and content must conform to standards established by the Internet community and the applicable newsgroup charter. ATU Internet reserves the right to determine whether such posts violate the AUP.

Customers will cooperate and comply with any civil or criminal investigation regarding content located on its Servers, including, without limitation, the following: discovery orders, subpoenas, freeze orders, search warrants, information requests, wire taps, electronic intercepts and surveillance, preservation requests, and any other order from a court or government entity (each an "Investigation").

ATU Internet reserves the right to comply with any Investigation without notice to a Customer. Customers shall not be entitled to service credits, and ATU Internet shall not be in default under any agreement for Services, if its compliance with any Investigation causes a Customer to incur downtime or requires the sequestering of all or a portion of the Servers.

Violations of AUP & Network Management

ATU Internet may enforce this AUP with or without notice to a Customer or Network Service by any actions it deems necessary in its sole discretion, including the following:

  • Disabling access to a Customer's content
  • Removal or Nulling of DNS records on Servers
  • Blocking mail or any other network service
  • IP address null routing
  • Suspending or terminating of a Customer's service
  • Taking direct action against a Customer's users and customers.

The aforementioned list of actions shall not be construed in any way to limit the actions or remedies that ATU Internet may take to enforce and ensure compliance with this AUP or the efficient maintenance of the network. ATU Internet reserves the right to recover any and all expenses, and apply any reasonable charges, in connection with a Customer's violation of this AUP. No service credits will be issued for any interruption in service resulting from violations of this AUP.

ATU Internet reserves the right at all times to investigate any actual, suspected, or alleged violations of this AUP, with such investigation to include accessing of data and records on, or associated with, any Server.

ATU Internet does not endorse any content, User Submission or any opinion, actions, recommendation, or advice expressed therein, and ATU Internet expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with it's User's and/or content hosted on it's network.

ATU Internet does not permit copyright infringing activities and infringement of intellectual property rights on its network and ATU Internet will remove all Content if properly notified that such Content infringes on another's intellectual property rights. ATU Internet reserves the right to remove Content without prior notice. ATU Internet will also terminate a User's access, if they are determined to be a repeat infringer. A repeat infringer is a User who has been notified of infringing activity more than twice and/or has had content removed more than twice. ATU Internet also reserves the right to decide whether Content is appropriate and complies with this Acceptable Use Policy - AUP. Terms of Service for violations other than copyright infringement and violations of intellectual property law, such as, but not limited to, pornography, obscene or defamatory material, or excessive length. ATU Internet may remove such content and/or terminate a User's access for uploading such material in violation of this policy at any time, without prior notice and at its sole discretion.

In particular, if you are a copyright owner and/or an agent thereof and believe that any User Submission or other content infringes upon your copyrights, you may submit a notification pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") by providing our Copyright Agent with the below information in writing.

To file a copyright infringement notice with us, you will be required to send communication that includes substantially the following:

  1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
  2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
  3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material. Providing URLs in the body of an email is the best way to help us locate content quickly.
  4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
  5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
  6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements your DMCA notice may not be valid. Such written notice should be sent to our designated agent as follows:

ATU Internet Pty Limited
PO Box 614
Alexandria NSW 1435
Australia

Phone: +61 2 8332 3003
Fax: +61 2 96993844
Email: abuse@atu.net.au

Please note that any person who knowingly materially misrepresents the copyrighted material or the activity that is infringing upon may be subject to liability.

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