Acceptable Use PolicyAcceptable Use Policy (the
"Policy") for BNS's services is designed to help protect BNS, Inc., our customers and the Internet community in general from irresponsible or, in some cases, illegal activities. Our
customers shall not, nor shall they permit or assist others to abuse or fraudulently use our services, including but not limited to the following:
- Charging for usage of our services without explicit consent or a reseller's agreement
- Attempting to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account on BNS, Inc. systems or the Internet at large ("cracking")
- Engaging in or facilitating a denial of service attack
- Forging email or USENET posting header information; sending large numbers of unsolicited mail messages (i.e. "junk mail"). This includes adding or attempting to add addresses to
any mailing list without explicit positive consent of the addressee.
- Forwarding or posting "chain letters" (multiple forwarding) of any type
- Posting inappropriate messages to USENET newsgroups e.g., posting large numbers of unsolicited posts indiscriminately ("spamming")
- Posting encoded binary files to USENET newsgroups not specifically named for that purpose
- Attempting to cancel, supersede, or otherwise interfere with email or USENET posts other than one's own
- Engaging in harassment, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages
- Using an account at another provider to promote an BNS Web site in a abusive manner
- Using an BNS account or network connection to collect replies to messages sent from another provider in violation of these rules or those of that provider
- Using the work of other artists, designers, writers, musicians or programmers without their expressed, written authorization or the complete resolution of any copyright issues
- Reselling BNS services to third parties who do not abide by these guidelines
BNS also reserves the right to refuse to host, and remove from our servers, any existing web site it views as offensive, such as pornographic or hate oriented web sites. Our focus is hosting
professional commercial business sites. Each BNS customer is responsible for the activities of its customer base or end-users and, by accepting service from BNS, is agreeing to ensure that its customers
abide by this Policy. Complaints about customers or end-users of a BNS customer will be forwarded to the BNS Administrators for action. If irresponsible or illegal activity continues, then the BNS customer's
services may either be subject to termination or another course of action will be taken, as BNS deems appropriate and without notice. As stated in the terms and conditions for BNS services, BNS has the
right to terminate the account of an offending customer or take other action as BNS deems appropriate without notice (e.g., address filtering).
BNS, Inc. reserves the right to modify this Policy at any time.
Reports of abuse should be sent to
[email protected]Click here for a complete primer on e-mail, newsgroup and Internet etiquette (``netiquette").
Basic Mailing List Management Principles for Preventing Abuse Mailing lists have a long and venerable history on the Internet. Mailing lists are an excellent vehicle for distributing focused, targeted
information to an interested, receptive audience. Consequently, mailing lists have been used successfully as a highly effective direct marketing tool. Unfortunately, some marketers misuse mailing
lists through a lack of understanding of Internet customs and rules of the forum pertaining to email. Others fail to take adequate precautions to prevent the lists they manage from being used in an abusive
manner. Managers and administrators of mailing lists must understand that they have certain responsibilities, the two most important being (1) to respect the right of emailbox owners to determine how those
emailboxes are used, and (2) to ensure that mailing lists are not used for abuse. The following guidelines are offered as a statement of Internet standards and best current practices for proper mailing
list management.
- The email addresses of new subscribers must be confirmed or verified before mailings commence. This is usually accomplished by means of an email message sent to the subscriber to which s/he must
reply in order to complete the subscription. However, there are numerous ways to confirm or verify an email address in order to ensure that mailing lists are not used for abusive purposes.
- Mailing list administrators must provide a simple method for subscribers to terminate their subscriptions, and administrators should provide clear and effective instructions for unsubscribing from a
mailing list. Mailings from a list must cease promptly once a subscription is terminated.
- Mailing list administrators should make an "out of band" procedure (e.g., an email address to which messages may be sent for further contact via email or telephone) available for those who
wish to terminate their mailing list subscriptions but are unable or unwilling to follow standard automated procedures.
- Mailing list administrators must ensure that the impact of their mailings on the networks and hosts of others is minimized by proper list management procedures such as pruning of invalid or
undeliverable addresses, or taking steps to ensure that mailings do not overwhelm less robust hosts or networks.
- Mailing list administrators must take adequate steps to ensure that their lists are not used for abusive purposes. For example, administrators should maintain a "suppression list" of email
addresses from which all subscription requests are rejected. Addresses should be added to the suppression list upon request by the parties entitled to use the addresses at issue. The purpose of the
suppression list is to prevent subscription of addresses appearing on the suppression list by unauthorized third parties. Such suppression lists should also give properly authorized domain
administrators the option to suppress all mailings to the domains for which they are responsible.
- Mailing list administrators must make adequate disclosures about how subscriber addresses will be used, including whether or not addresses are subject to sale or trade with other parties. Once a
mailing list is traded or sold, it may no longer be an opt-in mailing list; therefore, those who are acquiring "opt-in" lists from others must examine the terms and conditions under which
the addresses were originally compiled and determine that all recipients have in fact opted-in specifically to the mailing lists to which they are being traded or sold.
- Mailing list administrators should make adequate disclosures about the nature of their mailing lists, including the subject matter of the lists and anticipated frequency of messages. A substantive
change in either the subject matter or frequency of messages may constitute a new and separate mailing list requiring a separate subscription. List administrators should create a new mailing list
when there is a substantive change in either the subject matter or frequency of messages. A notification about the new mailing list may be appropriate on the existing mailing list, but existing
subscribers should never be subscribed automatically to the new list. For example, if Company A acquires Company B, and Company B has compiled opt-in mailing lists, Company A should not summarily
incorporate Company B's mailing lists into its own.
Billing Policy Our goal is to provide excellent services at competitive prices. We initiate these services in good faith that we will be paid for them. Our billing policy for website
hosting states that fees should be paid in advance and in a timely manner. We typically invoice our hosting customers on a quarterly basis in March, June, September and December. We will also be
happy to set up an automatic payment plan, either with credit card debiting on Visa, MasterCard or American Express, or with monthly bank drafting. With automatic credit card payment, the period can be
monthly, quarterly or annually at your option. We do offer a 10% discount if all hosting fees are paid for one year in advance, including ancillary optional items such as Secure Server connections.
For development and programming projects, once the site requirements and timetable have been worked out and agreed to by all parties, we require a down-payment of 50% of the total estimated cost before work
begins. The balance will be required upon satisfactory completion of tasks set forward in the development agreement. Costs in time and resources of significant changes that, in our view, are not
covered under the initial development agreement, will be appended to the final balance. |
