Acceptable Usage Policy

The Internet Service Provider (Linux Information Technology) agrees to supply the Customer (You) with services as prescribed on its web site located at (http://www.linuxit.com.au/) and associated sites, for a mutually agreed upon pricing structure and term. The Customer agrees to all technical and billing requirements as set forth on this Terms and Conditions contract.
The Customer covenants and agrees to abide by the Terms and Conditions, as specified herein, and within all relevant pertaining Terms and Conditions pertaining to those services provided as set out fully here, in addition to all future revisions, changes in pricing policies, that are publicly posted on the Linux Information Technology web site. Due to the ever-changing nature of the WWW, the Customer fully understands the responsibility of keeping themselves abreast of changes in the Terms and Conditions.

Acceptable Use Policy
The Internet is a powerful information and entertainment tool, we would expect our customers to use the Internet with respect, courtesy, and responsibility, giving due regard to the rights of other Internet users.
Our acceptable use policy is actively and strictly enforced. Offending content or users are removed from our network, usually as soon as they are discovered, although we will always inform you when and why any action has been taken.
Linux Information Technology reserves the right to change this Policy any time, so please, check this page at least once a month or when in doubt. Linux Information Technology strives to provide the best possible service to all our customers, but we will not tolerate any unlawful activity or abuse on our servers. We respect freedom of speech and expression unless it is harmful to others. These brief guidelines are imposed to protect you, other Linux Information Technology customers and us against such harm.
Common sense is the best guide as to what is considered acceptable use, however the following are to be used as a guide to what Linux Information Technology deems to be Un-acceptable Use include, but are not limited to the following:

Payment Policies, Fees, Refunds and Terms of Agreement
Full payment is required before any hosting service is rendered, which includes renewals. All payment-due notices will be sent by electronic mail, unless requested upon signup or via notification to us at the Linux Information Technology Support Help Desk. Prepayment is due each anniversary (one month, quarter, half year or one year) following the date the account was established. Billing will continue until you cancel your hosting account. You may cancel at anytime. As a policy, we do not offer credits or refunds for hosting time already expended.
We do give refunds for full months unused, should you want to cancel prepaid service. If you decide to cancel after prepayment, you will not receive a refund for the current month in use (We do not give partial months refunds). If you have prepaid and received a multi-month discount, upon cancellation we will figure the refund retroactively withdrawing the discount back to the start date of the contract. This will result in paying full undiscounted price for the months used and refunding the balance. This only applies to cancellation by the client.
If cancellation is done by Linux Information Technology due to restrictions violation, there will be no refund. Linux Information Technology will only allow for the discount if cancellation is not the fault of the client, as determined by Linux Information Technology. All monetary transactions are calculated in $Australian dollars (AUD). Additional currencies displayed on the Linux Information Technology website from time to time, are for convenience only and are calculated on international monetary exchange rates at the time, and are subject to change without notice. Additional features can be added at any time. Monthly feature prices are not prorated. Linux Information Technology reserves the right to change prices at any time.

Account Cancellation
You may cancel at anytime. Phone requests will not constitute acceptance of any cancellation. To cancel your account, please contact us at the Linux Information Technology Support Help Desk. Notification of cancellation must be received at least five business days prior to your cycle date, with the cycle date being the day of the month you sign up, in order to avoid charges in full for the next cycle. It is the Clients Responsibility to secure email confirmation from Linux Information Technology that account has been cancelled. If the client has not yet received email confirmation of account cancellation, then the account remains active, and you will continue to be invoiced.
If Client has a balance due at the time of cancellation, this balance must be paid in full. Cancellation does not absolve Client of any outstanding financial obligations.

Indemnification Policy
You agree to use all Linux Information Technology services and facilities at your own risk. Linux Information Technology specifically disclaims all warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Linux Information Technology be liable for any loss, or loss of data, or other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold Linux Information Technology harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorney’s fees asserted against Linux Information Technology, its agents, its customers, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by customer, it’s agents, employees or assigns. Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Linux Information Technology against liabilities arising out of:
(1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with Linux Information Technology's server;
(2) any material supplied by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party;
(3) copyright infringement and
(4) any defective products sold to customer from Linux Information Technology's server.
Linux Information Technology shall be the sole judge of what violates this Policy.

SPAM Policy
Linux Information Technology is committed to a zero-tolerance, anti-Spamming policy. Under this policy, we prohibit Spam, or any unsolicited commercial email, from being sent either: Over the Linux Information Technology network, by customers or any other users of the Linux Information Technology network (including customers' customers); AND/OR over ANY network if the message sent advertises or mentions a site hosted on the Linux Information Technology server.
We react quickly and seriously to violations, and we further reserve the right to terminate the services, without prior notice, of any customer disregarding this policy. Sending unsolicited commercial email (a.k.a. "Spam"), cross-posting messages to a large number of Usenet groups, posting obscene or threatening messages while using or referring to an Linux Information Technology email address or web site URL is prohibited. The use of Linux Information Technology servers as a mail drop for responses to activities described above is also prohibited. Accounts cancelled due to Spam will be billed a "clean up" fee of AUD$1000.
If you have any complaints or comments regarding Spam on our network, please contact us ASAP at the Linux Information Technology Support Help Desk.

Content Policy
All services provided by Linux Information Technology may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any Australian or United States Federal, State or City law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, trademark, intellectual property, material we judge to be threatening or obscene, or material protected by trade secret and other statute without proper authorization. The subscriber agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Linux Information Technology from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the subscriber or any other party.
Pornography and sex-related merchandising is prohibited on all Linux Information Technology servers. This includes sites that may infer sexual content, or links to adult content elsewhere. Linux Information Technology will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision.
Also prohibited are sites that promote any illegal activity or present content that may be damaging to Linux Information Technology servers or any other server on the internet. Links to such materials are also prohibited.
Examples of unacceptable content or links:
Pirated software or files
Hackers programs, files or archives
Warez Sites
Irc Bots
Web Proxy’s
Streaming Media
MP3 files without prior permission
Linux Information Technology does not host sites of its competitors or web pages actively promoting sites of its competitors, other than those competitors that are genuine Linux Information Technology resellers or owners of dedicated servers purchased from Linux Information Technology or its partner websites.
Any illegal activity, including adult content, links to adult content web sites, spamming or hacking will result in your site being shut down and all your files deleted without warning.
Linux Information Technology will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.
Banned Scripts
Certain types of scripts are not allowed on our network.
Banned scripts include:
- UltimateBBS (all versions)
- Ikonboard (all versions)
- YABB + YABB se (all versions)
- Greymatter (all versions)
- IRC Egg Drops & IRC related programs. (chat software)
- Proxy Servers
- nph-proxy
- The Anonymizer
- formmail.pl
- lstmrge.cgi
- Shell, SSH, Telnet Scripts and Shell, SSH, Telnet Alternatives
- Any script that uses & processes a massive number of flat files or large flat file databases.
If we find banned scripts active in your account, we will disable or remove the offending script and send you an email notifying you of our actions. We reserve the right to determine what constitutes acceptable use.

Undesirable Content
Certain types of content are not allowed on our network. We do not host adult content of any description. Content relating to Hacking, Cracking, Warez and IRC is not allowed.
Software downloads may only be hosted if you are the writer and copyright owner of the software, all other software including freeware, shareware and trial software is forbidden. Audio and video downloads may only be hosted if you are the creator and copyright owner of the work.
Adult content is not permitted on our servers. If there is any doubt about what constitutes Adult Content in the view of the Linux Information Technology, please contact us at the Linux Information Technology Help Desk for clarification
If you are unsure about content you intend to place on our network, please check with us before you do. We reserve the right to determine what constitutes acceptable use.

Email Policy
Linux Information Technology may not be the source, intermediary, or destination address involved in the transmission of any unsolicited email, email bombs, hate email, or any mass email. Your email account may not be referenced as originator, intermediary, or reply-to address of such email. We consider mass email any email message sent to more than 25 email addresses or more than 10 news groups.

CGI Scripts Policy
Each account comes with its own cgi-bin. You are free to use any CGI scripts you wish, however we reserve the right to disable any CGI script that effects normal server operation or service to other Linux Information Technology customers. You will be notified in 24 hours about offending cgi script. No chat room or similar scripts allowed.

Chat Policy
Linux Information Technology does not allow chat rooms, other than the chat room script that is provided via the Linux Information Technology Control Panel. You can however link your site to a chat provider.

Traffic Policy
Linux Information Technology allows for very generous traffic, and most sites never exceed 500MB per month, unless they offer shareware, sound, video, image and multimedia archives, are mirror sites or any site whose primary purpose is file distribution. Linux Information Technology customers are discouraged from storing any files that cause excessive traffic on Linux Information Technology servers. Please contact us at the Linux Information Technology Support Help Desk for more information. Again, 99% of the sites do not fall into this category and never reach our traffic limits.
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason not prohibited by law. Also we reserve the right to terminate service to any customer for any reason not prohibited by law.
Any deliberate attempt to cause damage to Linux Information Technology or any other Internet servers will result in immediate account deactivation without prior notice. No refund is given in this case.
All account plans come with a predetermined amount of traffic allowance. We monitor all accounts and bill $00.10 AUD for each MB of traffic exceeded. You will NOT be charged for transfer that you use beyond our generous data transfer limits without prior notification. You can monitor your transfer at anytime in your Control Panel.

Network Uptime
Network Uptime is the total time in a calendar month that Linux Information Technology network is available through the Internet, provided that Client has established connectivity. Linux Information Technology takes responsibility for Network availability within their network, however, we cannot be held liable for upstream problems, outside of our network. Our guarantee is that our Network will be available to clients free of Network Outages, that render 100% packet loss, 99% of each calendar month.

Network Outages
Network Outages or Unscheduled Downtime is any unplanned or unscheduled interruption in Service availability during which Client is unable to access the services as described in the section titled “Network Uptime” above. A Network Outage is defined as a period in which 100% packet loss to our network is experienced, which is determined to have been caused by a problem in Linux Information Technology’s Network as confirmed by Linux Information Technology. Downtime or outages are measured as the total length of time of the unplanned interruption in service availability in a calendar month.

Scheduled Downtime
Scheduled Downtime is any Linux Information Technology scheduled interruption of Services, for the purpose of network upgrades, or replacement of any equipment in order to provide for you better service. Scheduled downtime occurs during notified downtime periods, with as much advance warning as possible via e-mail with a minimum of 24 hours notice.

Server Security
Unauthorized Access of the servers is strictly prohibited. The Customer agrees not to engage in such activity or to attempt to breach the Servers for the purpose of altering or manipulating the hardware and software, compromising the Servers, or for any other unauthorized use commonly known as "hacking". The Customer agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Linux Information Technology, its staff and agents for any liability arising from the use of their service.
You are responsible for your username and password. Please secure them carefully. Do not give them out to anyone that you do not trust or do not know. Any damage to the server will be your responsibility.

Network Disruptions
Use of the Linux Information Technology service for any activity which affects the ability of other people or systems to use Linux Information Technology Services or the Internet. This includes "denial of service" (DOS) attacks against another network host or individual user. Interference with or disruption of other network users, services or equipment is prohibited. Linux Information Technology will not tolerate any subscriber attempting to access the accounts of others, or penetrate security measures of other systems, whether or not the intrusion results in corruption or loss of data. Linux Information Technology, does not allow the hosting of IRC, IRC Bots, or eggdrops on our network. Servers found hosting this material will be subject to immediate cancellation without refund. Use of the Linux Information Technology service to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others, or to penetrate, or attempt to penetrate, security measures of Linux Information Technology's or another entity's computer software or hardware, electronic communications system, or telecommunications system, whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption or loss of data, is expressly prohibited and the offending Linux Information Technology account is subject to immediate termination.

Backups
Full backups are made weekly, and backups of new/changed data made nightly. No guarantees are made of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the integrity of these backups. Backups are made for server restoration purposes only. It is the clients' responsibility to maintain local copies of their web content any information. The "Backup Manager" is included in each hosting plan and client can use this tool to back up their files. If loss of data occurs due to an error of Linux Information Technology, we will attempt to recover the date for no charge to the client. If data loss occurs due to negligence of client in securing their account or by an action of the client, Linux Information Technology will attempt to recover the data from the most recent archive for a AUD$100.00fee.

Customers Responsibility
The Customer agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Linux Information Technology, its staff and agents from any claims and expenses, including attorneys fees, related to their violation of the Terms and Conditions contract, applicable laws or unauthorised use of any software or other content.
The Customer understands that Linux Information Technology will take drastic measures to protect itself from any legal or civil litigation including, but not limited to, removing Customers web sites from its servers for any reason deemed appropriate by Linux Information Technology.
The Customer agrees to pay all charges incurred by the due date of each billing period following execution of this contract, together with any additional charges, costs or assessments made by Linux Information Technology under the terms hereof.
Linux Information Technology bills on a monthly or yearly cycle, depending on what option and plan has been selected. There will be a AUD$30.00 Re-Activation fee of customer's site for suspension or termination. If payment is not posted to the Customers account within 7 days of the due date the Customers service is subject to suspension or termination without notice. The Customer also agrees that any unpaid balance due hereunder shall bear interest at the rate of 18% per annum, and that costs of collection, including Court costs and reasonable legal fees shall be added as principal amounts to such balance.
For credit card customers, you will be charged the appropriate amount at the beginning of your account's billing period. For cheque/money order customers, Linux Information Technology must receive your cheque/money order by the beginning of your billing period, or our Authorised Account must have cleared funds via your cheque account. NOTE: Linux Information Technology charges a AUD$30.00 fee for returned checks.
For international customers, if you are sending a check/money order the amount must be drawn in Australian dollars. If you have to update your billing information or wish to change your payment method please contact us at the Linux Information Technology Support Help Desk.
Any request for cancellation must be received in writing via e-mail, regular mail or fax. Cancellations over the telephone are not accepted. For customers who have purchased a yearly plan for hosting and wish to cancel their account before the end of their plan, Linux Information Technology will refund half of the remaining balance (this does not include any set-up fees, data charges and additional item charges) of your account. No refund will be payable for less than 1 month of unused hosting.

Linux Information Technology's Responsibility
Linux Information Technology will take all necessary precautions to protect against failure of our equipment and software. The Customer acknowledges and agrees that temporary interruptions in service may occur, and that Linux Information Technology, its staff or agents, shall have no liability for any claim, cost, charge, loss or expense arising from or relating to use of the web servers.
The Customer acknowledges and agrees that data may be lost or corrupted in connection with use of the service. Linux Information Technology may perform regular back-ups of all data stored on behalf of the Customer, but shall have no liability to Customer in the event all data is lost or destroyed. The Customer acknowledges and agrees that in the event restoration of data from backup is necessary, it may take several days to complete such restoration of data and resume operation of the service.
In the event that the Customer has not complied with the any part of the Terms and Conditions contract or breaches the contract via non-payment of specified charges, Linux Information Technology reserves the right to hold any and all Customer equipment, alter access to the service, or to terminate the service, without notice to, or authority from the Customer. Linux Information Technology may subsequently charge the customer and may refuse any refund due to the Customer.

REPORTING VIOLATIONS OF Linux Information Technology AUP
Linux Information Technology requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of this AUP direct the information to the Abuse Department at info@linuxit.com.au if possible, please provide the IP address used to commit the violation, date and time of the violation, and evidence of the violation.