Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) is designed to ensure the best possible service levels from EVOWEB, whilst ensuring that EVOWEB and all its Customers comply with and adhere to all South African and, where applicable, international, legislation and regulations.

By using any of EVOWEB’s services, Customers agree to comply with this AUP and to remain responsible for their users, where applicable.

EVOWEB reserves the right to change or modify the terms of the AUP at any time, by posting an updated version on its website at www.evoweb.host, and notice of which will be forwarded by e-mail to all EVOWEB’s Customers.

The Customer’s use of EVOWEB’s services after changes to the AUP are posted constitutes an acceptance of any changed or additional terms.

Scope of the AUP

The AUP applies to EVOWEB services that provide (and/or include) internet services, including but not limited to hosting services (data/content hosting, server hosting, web hosting, e-mail services, etc)

Prohibited Activities

1. General Prohibitions

1.1        EVOWEB prohibits the use of the Hosting services in any way that is:

1. i) unlawful, incitement to commit criminal acts, harmful to or interferes with use of EVOWEB’s network or systems, or the network of any other provider;
2. ii) interferes with the use or enjoyment of services received by others;

iii) infringes intellectual property rights;

1. iv) results in the publication of threatening or offensive material which is harmful, obscene, discriminatory, defamatory, constitutes hate speech;
2. v) constitutes abuse, a security risk or a violation of privacy.

1.2        Failure to adhere to the rules, guidelines or agreements applicable to search engines, subscription Web services, chat areas, bulletin boards, Web pages, applications, or other services that are accessed via a link from a EVOWEB-branded website or from a website that contains EVOWEB-branded content is a violation of this AUP.

2. Unlawful Activities

Hosting services shall not be used in connection with any criminal, civil or administrative violation of any applicable local, provincial, national or international law, treaty, court orders, ordinance, regulation or administrative rules.

3. Violation of Intellectual Property Rights:

Our hosting services shall not be used to publish, submit/receive upload/download, post, use, copy or otherwise reproduce, transmit, re-transmit, distribute or store any content/material or to engage in any activity that infringes, misappropriates or otherwise violates the intellectual property rights or privacy or publicity rights of EVOWEB or any individual, group or entity, including but not limited to any rights protected by any copyright, patent, trademark laws, trade secret, trade dress, right of privacy, right of publicity, moral rights or other intellectual property right now known or later recognized by statute, judicial decision or regulation.

4. Threatening Material or Offensive Content

Hosting services shall not be used to host, post, transmit, or re-transmit any content or material (or to create a domain name or operate from a domain name), that harasses, or threatens the health or safety of others, or is considered to be offensive, including but not limited to, pornography, sexually explicit content, promotion of violence, illegal gambling or gaming, pirated software, defamatory content and criminal activities. In addition, for those Hosting services that utilize EVOWEB provided web or content hosting, EVOWEB reserves the right to decline to provide such services if the content is determined by EVOWEB to be obscene, indecent, hateful, malicious, racist, defamatory, fraudulent, libelous, treasonous, excessively violent or promoting the use of violence or otherwise harmful to others.

Inappropriate Interaction with Minors

Hosting services should not be used for the purpose of commission an offence against a child or in way that would constitute or promote unlawful interaction with children.

Child Pornography

Hosting services shall not be used to publish, submit/receive, upload/download, post, use, copy or otherwise produce, transmit, distribute or store any pornography of any kind. Suspected violations of this prohibition may be reported to EVOWEB at the following e-mail address: [email protected]. EVOWEB will report any discovered violation of this prohibition to the South African Police services and take steps to remove child pornography (or otherwise block access to the content determined to contain child pornography) from its servers.

Spam/E-mail Abuse:

Spam/E-mail abuse is prohibited using Hosting services. Spam/E-mail abuse shall include, but are not limited to, the following activities:

• sending multiple unsolicited electronic mail messages or “mail-bombing” to one or more recipient;
• sending unsolicited commercial e-mail, or unsolicited electronic messages directed primarily at the advertising or promotion of products or services;
• sending unsolicited electronic messages with petitions for signatures or requests for charitable donations, or sending any chain mail related materials;
• sending bulk electronic messages without identifying, within the message, a reasonable means of opting out from receiving additional messages from the sender;
• sending electronic messages, files or other transmissions that exceed contracted for capacity or that create the potential for disruption of the EVOWEB network or of the networks with which EVOWEB interconnects, by virtue of quantity, size or otherwise;
• using another site’s mail server to relay mail without the express permission of that site;
• using another computer, without authorization, to send multiple e-mail messages or to retransmit e-mail messages for the purpose of misleading recipients as to the origin or to conduct any of the activities prohibited by this AUP;
• using IP addresses that the Customer does not have a right to use;
• collecting the responses from unsolicited electronic messages;
• maintaining a site that is advertised via unsolicited electronic messages, regardless of the origin of the unsolicited electronic messages;
• sending messages that are harassing or malicious, or otherwise could reasonably be predicted to interfere with another party’s quiet enjoyment of the Hosting services or the Internet (e.g., through language, frequency, size or otherwise);
• using distribution lists containing addresses that include those who have opted out;
• sending electronic messages that do not accurately identify the sender, the sender’s return address, the e-mail address of origin, or other information contained in the subject line or header;
• falsifying packet header, sender, or user information whether in whole or in part to mask the identity of the sender, originator or point of origin;
• using redirect links in unsolicited commercial e-mail to advertise a website or service;
• posting a message to more than ten (10) online forums or newsgroups, that could reasonably be expected to generate complaints;
• intercepting, redirecting or otherwise interfering or attempting to interfere with e-mail intended for third parties;
• knowingly deleting any author attributions, legal notices or proprietary designations or labels in a file that the user mails or sends;
• using, distributing, advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software program, product, or service that is designed to violate this AUP or the AUP of any other Internet Service Provider, including, but not limited to, the facilitation of the means to spam.

Connectivity Services

• EVOWEB reserves the right to establish policies, rules and limitations, from time to time, concerning the use of the IP Service. You must comply with any bandwidth, data storage and other limitations we may impose, in our reasonable discretion. Failure to comply with these rules will result in your service being restricted, suspended or terminated, in our reasonable discretion.
• We reserve the right to limit the number of emails that you may send in any given period or to limit the total message volume (amount of data) sent per hour.
• Unless you are subscribed to a business package, you may not use any services for anything other than your own personal use.
• Unless you subscribe to a business packages and you are permitted in terms of such business package, you may not resell any services, receive any charge or benefit for the use of any services or provide Internet access or any other feature of the services to any third party or in any other way exploit the service for any commercial purposes. For example, you cannot provide Internet access to others through a dial up, ADSL or other connection, host shell accounts over the Internet, provide e-mail or news services, or send a news feed. You may not run a server (including game servers) in connection with the services. You may not provide network services to others via the services. In addition, you are prohibited from running servers for mail, http, ftp, irc and multi-user interactive forums. You may not share your services.
• You may not restrict, inhibit or interfere with the ability of any person to access, use or enjoy the Internet or the any services, or create an unusually large burden on our network, including, without limitation, continuously uploading or downloading streaming video or audio; continuous FTP uploading or downloading, or otherwise generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others’ ability to send or retrieve information, or to use the services in an abusive manner in connection with any unlimited packages, options or promotions.
• We reserve the right to establish policies, rules and limitations, from time to time, concerning the use of any service. You must comply with any bandwidth, data storage and other limitations we may impose, in our reasonable discretion. Failure to comply with these rules will result in your service being restricted, suspended or terminated, in our reasonable discretion.
• We will manage bandwidth usage to the best of our ability during peak periods, however, it remains a best effort service.
• We reserve the right to manage our network in order to optimize its efficiency for the benefit of all our subscribers, including, without limitation, by way of the following: rate limiting (speed), rejection or removal of spam or otherwise unsolicited bulk e-mail, anti-virus mechanisms, protocol filtering and imposing restrictions on your use. We may take any other action we deem appropriate in order to help ensure the integrity of the network experience for all subscribers, including limiting your data traffic by controlling your network and/or bandwidth usage.
• You may not use service for unattended automated operation, unless otherwise agreed. You may stay connected as long as you are actively using that connection. You further agree not to use Internet applications for the purpose of simulating network activity to avoid session inactivity disconnection.
• We do not make any express or implied representations, warranties or guarantees regarding the availability, accuracy, reliability, timeliness, quality or security of any services.
• We are committed to provide you with uninterrupted services. However, we can not guarantee that service and the allocated capacity will always be available.
• We can terminate the service at any time if we decide to discontinue the service offering for any reason whatsoever, without any further liability to you.

Security Violations

Customers are responsible for ensuring and maintaining security of their systems and the machines that connect to and use IP Service(s), including implementation of necessary patches and operating system updates.

Hosting services may not be used to interfere with, gain unauthorized access to, or otherwise violate the security of EVOWEB’s (or another party’s) server, network, network access, personal computer or control devices, software or data, or other system, or to attempt to do any of the foregoing. System or network security violations shall include, but are not limited to:

• unauthorized monitoring, scanning or probing of network or system or any other action aimed at the unauthorized interception of data or harvesting of e-mail addresses;
• hacking, attacking, gaining access to, breaching, circumventing or testing the vulnerability of the user authentication or security of any host, network, server, personal computer, network access and control devices, software or data without express authorization of the owner of the system or network;
• impersonating others or secretly or deceptively obtaining personal information of third parties (phishing, etc.);
• using any program, file, script, command or transmission of any message or content of any kind, designed to interfere with a terminal session, the access to or use of the Internet or any other means of communication;
• distributing or using tools designed to compromise security (including but not limited to SNMP tools), including cracking tools, password guessing programs, packet sniffers or network probing tools (except in the case of authorized legitimate network security operations);
• knowingly uploading or distributing files that contain viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancel bots, corrupted files, root kits or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another’s computer, network system or other property, or be used to engage in modem or system hi-jacking;
• engaging in the transmission of pirated software;
• with respect to dial-up accounts, using any software or device designed to defeat system time-out limits or to allow Customer’s account to stay logged on while Customer is not actively using the Hosting services or using such account for the purpose of operating a server of any type;
• using manual or automated means to avoid any use limitations placed on the Hosting services;
• providing guidance, information or assistance with respect to causing damage or security breach to EVOWEB’s network or systems, or to the network of any other IP Service provider;
• failure to take reasonable security precautions to help prevent violation(s) of this AUP.

Customer Responsibilities

Customers remain solely and fully responsible for the content of any material posted, hosted, downloaded/uploaded, created, accessed or transmitted using the Hosting services. EVOWEB has no responsibility for any material created on the EVOWEB’s network or accessible using Hosting services, including content provided on third-party websites linked to the EVOWEB network. Such third-party website links are provided as Internet navigation tools for informational purposes only, and do not constitute in any way an endorsement by EVOWEB of the content(s) of such sites.

Customers are responsible for taking prompt corrective action(s) to remedy a violation of AUP and to help prevent similar future violations.

AUP Enforcement and Notice

Customer’s failure to observe the guidelines set forth in this AUP will be regarded as a material breach and may result in EVOWEB taking actions, which may either be a warning, a suspension or termination of Customer’s services. When reasonably possible, EVOWEB may provide Customer with a notice of an AUP violation allowing the Customer to promptly correct such violation.

If the Hosting services are used in a way that we, in our reasonable discretion, believe violates this Acceptable Use Policy or any of our rules or limitations, we may take any responsive actions we deem appropriate. Such actions may include without limitation, temporary or permanent removal of content, cancellation of newsgroup posts, filtering of Internet transmissions, and/or the immediate limitation, restriction, suspension or termination of all or any portion of the services or your account.

Should you engage in any one or more of the above activities, which shall be determined in EVOWEB’s reasonable discretion and which decision shall be final, then EVOWEB shall be entitled, without prejudice to any other rights it may have, to take any responsive action we deem appropriate, such actions may include, without limitation:

• without notice, temporary or permanent limitation, restriction or suspension of your access to the IP Service concerned;
• terminate all agreements with you with immediate effect;
• bill you for any costs incurred by EVOWEB as a result of the offending activity, including (without being limited to) bandwidth used, administration costs, downtime, usage of EVOWEB’s name or registered domain namesand CPU cycles; and
• disclose information relating to the offending activity as may be required under the circumstances.

EVOWEB has no obligation to monitor content of any materials distributed or accessed using the Hosting services. However, EVOWEB may monitor content of any such materials as necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulations or other governmental or judicial requests; or to protect the EVOWEB network and its customers.

Incident Reporting

Any complaints (other than claims of copyright or trademark infringement) regarding violation of this AUP by a EVOWEB Customer (or its user) should be directed to [email protected], include details that would assist EVOWEB in investigating and resolving such complaint.