Terms and Conditions for Dial-up Accounts
Terms and Conditions for Dedicated Business Accounts
General Acceptable Use Policies

1. Intro
2. General Conduct
3. Use of Email and News
4. US Net Policy
5. Abusive Behavior
6. Multiple Logins
7. UNIX Login Shell

Acceptable Use Policies for Web Sites
Acceptable Use Policies for News Groups
Acceptable Use Policies for Web Hosting

Intro
These acceptable use policies concern behavior that is unacceptable on US Net's service.  For most of our subscribers, these things are common sense and would never be an issue.  However, we do have subscribers from time to time that insist on doing things that either impose on others, use our resources excessively, act in an abusive manner to our employees, or circumvent our systems, software, or procedures.  Because of this, we have established a series of written acceptable use policies that define unacceptable conduct and its consequences.

GENERAL CONDUCT.
All US Net subscribers agree to follow general "netiquette" when using the Internet — this includes sending messages to news groups and email recipients.  

USE OF EMAIL AND NEWS.  
US Net subscribers must refrain from advertising in those areas of the Internet that do not expressly allow advertising.  Spam, MMF scams, chain letters, fraudulent email, warez, hacking, and other forms of unacceptable conduct is prohibited on US Net's service.  The following definitions are used for this purpose:

• Spam.  Any message that is broadcast to a wide audience of Internet users that is unwelcome or unsolicited.  Most spam is in the form of an advertisement for products or services, but can also include chain letters, make money fast (MMF) schemes, and other solicitations.  Spam is commonly referred to as UCE (unsolicited commercial email).
  
  
• MMF Scams.  Make money fast scams are a form of mass email that promise you large financial rewards if you follow their instructions.  Because these letters generally take the form of a chain letter, MMF scams are generally illegal.
  
  
• Chain Letters.  A form of letter that requests you forward it on to one of more other people.  Chain letters are illegal.
  
  
• Email Fraud.  Altering your email address in such a way as to conceal your identity.  This is commonly employed with spam to prevent angry recipients from contacting the sender.
  
  
• Warez.  Pronounced "wares", warez is the slang name for illegally copied computer software.  This software is often exchanged over the Internet using FTP sites and special IRC channels.  Trading in warez is illegal.
  
  
• Hacking.  Hacking is a slang term for attacking someone's computer or network.  More information about hacking is available at http://www.cert.org.  Hacking is illegal under federal law and carries stiff penalties.
  

Email Spam.  Sending unsolicited mass emailings, which may provoke complaints from its intended recipients, is prohibited and will result in immediate suspension of the Subscriber's account.  Unsolicited commercial email is illegal because it violates United States Code Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Section 227, "Restrictions on use of telephone equipment".

News Group Spam.  Posting a single article or substantially similar articles to an excessive number of newsgroups (i.e., more than 20) or continued posting of articles which are off-topic (e.g., off-topic according to the newsgroup charter or the article provokes complaints from the regular readers of the newsgroup for being off-topic) is prohibited.  

Facilitating News or Email Spam.  Engaging in either news spamming or email spamming from a provider other than US Net and using an account on US Net as a mail drop for responses, or to draw attention to a web site housed within US Net's networks is prohibited.  

Harassment.  Continued harassment of other individuals on the Internet after being asked to stop by those individuals is prohibited.

Mail Bombing.  Mail bombing (e.g., sending large volumes of unsolicited e-mail to as a protest or revenge) is prohibited at US Net.  Mail bombing is illegal and is classified as a "denial-of-service" attack under US Federal Law.  Mail bombing has been used as a basis for civil suits.

Email Fraud.  Impersonating another user or otherwise falsifying one's user name in email, Internet news postings, on Internet Relay Chat (IRC), or with any other Internet service is prohibited.  Note that this does not preclude the use of nicknames in IRC or the use of anonymous remailer services.  

Warez.  The use of US Net systems and accounts for the purpose of exchanging illegally copied copyrighted software is prohibited.

Privacy.  Attempts, whether successful or not, to gain access to any other system or users' private data without express consent of the user is prohibited.  

IRC Bots.  Use of IRC bots or clonebots on US Net, whether on IRC servers controlled by US Net or by other parties, is prohibited.  An IRC bot is a program which runs and is connected to an IRC server 24 hours a day, automatically performing a predesignated set of actions.

Interference.  Attempts to interfere with the regular workings of US Net's systems or network connections, or activities which adversely affect the ability of other people or systems to use US Net's services or the Internet is prohibited.

Computer Hacking.  Any unauthorized attempt by a user to gain access to any account not belonging to that user on any computer system is prohibited.  Furthermore, any use of a US Net account as a staging ground to disable other systems will result in immediate termination of the account.  US Net will cooperate with law enforcement authorities to stop hackers.

US NET POLICY.  
If we find a subscriber that is involved in an activity that violates our AUP, violates federal or state law, or is acting abusively to others on the Internet, it is US Net policy to lock the account while we research the problem.  This lockout will occur immediately and without warning to the subscriber, and can be activated whenever anyone notifies us of a serious problem.  If we find there is no basis for the accusation, we will unlock the account.  If there is substantial reason to believe the subscriber did commit the violation, the account will be terminated.

ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR.
The Internet is a complex series of networks and computers that must work together with the public telephone network and your computer equipment in order for you to be able to access various sites on the Internet.  US Net provides phone support, email support, and web support to assist you with these difficulties.  

MULTIPLE LOGINS.
With the exception of 128K ISDN customers, logging into the modem bank multiple times is a violation of our AUP.  Subscribers that are found in violation of this policy the first time will have their accounts locked and will need to call the business office to have them unlocked.  Subscribers that violate this policy a second time will have their service terminated.  This policy applies to physical modem connections, and does not apply to multiple logins over telnet.

UNIX LOGIN SHELL.
US Net has made a concious effort to restrict customer activity on production UNIX servers to a specific subset of Internet-based utilities.  These utilities include programs like FTP, telnet, elm, pine, trn, tin, ping, passwd, irc, talk, and other related programs.  While it is possible to escape from the usnsh menu shell, it is a violation of our AUP to do so.  To allow subscribers to run standard UNIX shell scripts, run unattended programs through cron, start daemons, compile software, and nohup processes on our production servers would have a detrimental impact on the stability and reliability of our service, and could potentially compromise the security of our systems and our subscribers.  As a result, no US Net subscriber will have access to a standard UNIX shell.  Customers that violate this policy will have their accounts terminated.  Subscribers that change their UNIX shell will be terminated.  Subscribers that require access to standard UNIX shells are encouraged to install FreeBSD or Linux on their own computers.  US Net can help you with configuring your own UNIX system for Internet access by calling our technical support line.