ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

SAIX ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

1 INTRODUCTION
This document is intended to provide a general understanding of the South African Internet eXchange (SAIX) Acceptable Use Policy. Protection of our customers and our resources, the ability to provide quality service to our customers, conformance with existing laws, and protection of our reputation as a responsible service provider are all contributing factors to decisions on Acceptable Use Policy violations. SAIX reserves the right to modify the Policy at any time, effective upon posting of the modified Policy on this website.

It is our intention to allow SAIX customers access to everything the Internet has to offer with minimal or no interference. Our belief in free speech is a firm commitment to our customers. However, certain activities are considered inappropriate by the Internet community at large and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech.

Save as may be set out herein, we do not monitor the activity of accounts except for measurements of system utilization and billing records. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, if we become aware of inappropriate use of our service, we will respond appropriately.

Important note: If the Acceptable Use Policy is violated, we reserve the right to terminate the service without notice. Our preferred course of action is to advise the ISP of the inappropriate behavior and any corrective action that is necessary. However, flagrant violations of the Acceptable Use Policy will result in immediate termination of service. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.

As a member of our network community, we encourage you to use your SAIX service responsibly.

Reports of activity in violation of this policy may be sent via e-mail to abuse@saix.net.

2 GENERAL
Using SAIX as your Access Service Provider, the network provides you access to a vast collection of networks around the world via the World Wide Web, electronic mail, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and USENET. Your use of these services is subject to the SAIX Acceptable use Policy (AUP). Violations of this policy may result in the blacklisting of the user id, with or without notice in accordance with the terms and conditions of the SAIX AUP.

In general, remember that you may not use your user id -

in a manner which violates rules, regulations and policies applicable to any network, server, computer database, web site or Internet Service Provider ("ISP") that you access through your Internet account;
in a manner which violates any law, regulation, treaty or tariff;
in a manner which is defamatory, fraudulent, indecent, offensive or deceptive;
to threaten, harass, abuse or intimidate others;
to damage the name or reputation of SAIX, its holding company, affiliates and subsidiaries;
in a manner which interferes with other customers' use and enjoyment of the services provided by SAIX; or
to breach the security on any computer network, or to access an account which does not belong to you.

The following is a list of guidelines for using your Internet account. The following information is intended as a guideline, and thus cannot be all-inclusive.

3 USENET POSTINGS

SAIX provide access to thousands of USENET newsgroups. These newsgroups allow you to read and post messages on a variety of topics. USENET newsgroups may be moderated or unmoderated. Newsgroups may also have a charter or a FAQ that describes what posts are appropriate. Misuse of USENET may result in the termination of your service.

SAIX provides an uncensored news feed. As such, SAIX does not control the content of the newsgroups available to you. SAIX believes that decisions about which newsgroups and messages to read are best left to its customers. Screening software is available from third parties, and it is your responsibility to use such tools if desired.

SAIX is not responsible for the content of any USENET posting, whether or not a SAIX customer or employee made the posting.

Postings to USENET newsgroups must comply with the written charters or FAQ’s for those newsgroups. Advertisements, solicitations or other commercial postings should only be posted in those newsgroups whose charters/FAQ’s explicitly permit them. You are responsible for determining the policies of a given newsgroup prior to posting to it. If you are unable to find a newsgroup's policy regarding commercial posts, you must assume that such postings are not welcome.

You may not post or cross-post the same or substantially similar message to one or more newsgroups. Excessive cross-posting or multiple postings, also known as ‘SPAM’, is explicitly prohibited. A seemingly accepted number of postings are a maximum of 5 (five). Continued cross posting can result in termination of service and the removal of the articles from the newsgroups.

You are prohibited from posting binary files to newsgroups not specifically named for that purpose.

You are prohibited from posting messages promoting pyramid schemes, "Make Money Fast" (MMF) schemes, chain letters, or other schemes to USENET newsgroups. Doing so will result in immediate termination of service.

You are prohibited from forging or removing header information. This includes attempting to circumvent the approval process for posting to a moderated newsgroup.

You may not solicit mail for any address other than your SAIX Service account or service where doing so manifests intent to harass others.

You may not post USENET messages for the purpose of threatening, harassing or intimidating other USENET newsgroup users.

You may not post messages that infringe on personal or property rights of others (e.g., privacy rights, copyrights).

You may not cancel posts other than your own, with the exception of official newsgroup moderators performing their duties.

SAIX does not censor or control content posted to a USENET newsgroup. As a user of our service, you are solely responsible for the content that you publish. SAIX, upon receiving notification, that certain postings violate this policy, or any law or regulation currently in force, or infringe on the trademark or copyrights of another, reserves the right to remove postings from the news server and to terminate the Internet account.

4 ACCOUNT AND NETWORK SECURITY
Your password provides access to your individual account. It is your responsibility to keep your password secure. Sharing your password and account access with others is prohibited. Attempting to obtain another user's account password is strictly prohibited, and may result in termination of service.

You may not attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network or account ("cracking"). This includes, but is not limited to, accessing making use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other networks. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security is prohibited. Examples of these tools include, but are not limited to, password guessing programs, cracking tools or network probing tools.

You may not attempt to interfere with service to any user, host, or network ("denial of service attacks"). This includes, but is not limited to "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service, and attempts to "crash" a host.

Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. SAIX will co-operate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including co-operating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations.

5 ELECTRONIC MAIL
Your service with SAIX includes the ability to send electronic mail via the SAIX mail relay service (SMTP). Misuse of the SMTP service may result in blacklisting of the user id. The following examples are non-exclusive and are provided for guidance to customers.

Use of your e-mail account to send unsolicited bulk (UBE) or commercial messages (UCE) is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, bulk-mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, charity requests, petitions for signatures, and political or religious tracts. Such material may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it.

Using your e-mail account to collect responses from unsolicited bulk or commercial e-mail is prohibited.

Sending mass unsolicited mail or deliberately sending very large messages or files to one or more recipients ("mail bombing") is prohibited.

Forging or removing e-mail headers is prohibited.

Use of e-mail to harass or intimidate other users is prohibited. Harassment, whether through language, frequency of messages, or size of messages, is prohibited. Sending a single unwelcome message may be considered harassment. If a recipient asks to stop receiving e-mail from you, you must not send that person any further messages.

You may not forward or otherwise propagate chain letters, whether or not such messages solicit money or other items of value, and whether or not the recipient wishes to receive such mailings.

SAIX services may not be used to collect replies to messages sent from another ISP, where those messages violate this Acceptable Use Policy or the Acceptable Use Policy of the other ISP.

SAIX reserves the right to delete messages or files which have remained on its servers for excessive periods of time as determined by SAIX, in its sole discretion.

6 PROTECTION OF NETWORK PERFORMANCE
SAIX reserves the sole discretion to determine whether any customer's use of the service interferes with other customer’s use and enjoyment of the services.

The sending of excessive numbers of e-mail or excessively large files which, in SAIX's sole opinion, negatively affects the performance of the network or any server on the network may result in deletion of the offending message or file, and may result in the termination of services.

You may not employ automated electronic or mechanical processes designed to defeat network inactivity time-outs. Such tools include, but are not limited to, use of an auto-dialer and repetitive pinging the host.

8 THIRD PARTY INTERNET RELAY CHAT (IRC)
You may not use IRC scripts or programs that interfere with or deny service to other users on any other server or host. You also may not engage in activities that harass other users. This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" (rapidly entering text with the intent to disrupt service), "flashing" (disrupting terminal emulation), "takeovers" (improper seizing and abuse of operator privileges), attempting to send private messages to those who do not wish to receive them, attempting to return to a channel after being banned from it, and other disruptive behaviors. You may run clones (multiple simultaneous IRC connections) and robots only as permitted by the host IRC server.

9 ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES
Any activity on SAIX's network that is a violation of any law or regulation in force from time to time or of this policy and will result in immediate termination of service. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to -

Transmitting obscene materials; intentionally spreading or threatening to spread computer viruses; gaining or attempting to gain unauthorized access to private networks including SAIX's private network infrastructure; accessing or attempting to access information not intended for the customer; engaging in the transmission of pirated software; and, conducting or participating in illegal gambling, soliciting for illegal pyramid and other schemes through electronic mail or USENET postings.