Intergage Group Acceptable Use Policy

1. Introduction

Intergage has created this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for hosting customers to protect our resources and the resources of our other customers and hosting providers’ networks in order to provide high speed, high availability services and to ensure that Intergage complies with all relevant laws. This AUP must be read in conjunction with the Terms and Conditions and forms part of those Terms and Conditions.

This AUP may be revised from time to time, as explained in the clauses “Changes to Terms and Conditions” in the Terms and Conditions document. It is the responsibility the Customer to ensure that they comply with the latest edition of the AUP at any given time.

In the event of a breach of this policy, Intergage reserves the right to terminate all or part of any service with immediate effect, without recompense, to delete any files held in the Customer’s account(s) on our servers and to take legal action.

If you have any questions about any of our policies, please contact the Customer Services Team.

2. Compliance with UK Law

It is an offence under UK law to transmit, receive or store certain types of files.

Customers may not use our services to engage in activities, or store, transfer or receive material of an indecent, offensive or otherwise illegal nature. Any such activities may result in prosecution by the UK authorities under the relevant Criminal Acts including but not limited to the Computer Misuse Act 1990, the Protection of Children Act 1978, the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Prevention of Harassment Act 1997.

It is also a criminal offence under UK law to knowingly infringe intellectual property rights, such as copyright, patents, database rights and registered trade marks. Customers are reminded that sharing copyright material may constitute a criminal offence if done without permission of the right owner in question. Intergage will co-operate with any agency or rights holder wishing to assert their rights in these matters and Intergage reserves the right to withdraw Service under such circumstances.

The Data Protection Act 1998 imposes numerous duties on any organisation that processes personal data relating to third parties. Failure to comply with many of these duties constitutes a criminal offence. Customers are reminded of their likely duty to register with the Information Commissioner.

Under the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, Intergage is in general not liable to any criminal or pecuniary penalty for any unlawful acts carried out using our service unless we have actual knowledge of those unlawful acts. Accordingly, if we become aware of credible evidence that the Customer has carried out any unlawful acts we will take preventative measures to bring those acts to an end.

3. Compliance with Foreign Law

The Internet is global in reach. Consequently it is possible for anyone using the Internet to break the laws of foreign countries. The Customer is therefore advised to take all reasonable steps to avoid breaching relevant foreign laws.

4. Warranties & Disclaimers

Our service warranties and the extent of our liability are explained fully in our Terms and Conditions.
The Customer agrees to hold Intergage harmless in the event of any legal claim regarding our services.

5. Irresponsible Usage

The Customer agrees that they will not use our services in an irresponsible manner. Intergage deem irresponsible use to include, but not be limited to, sending unsolicited e-mail ("spamming"), attempting to breach the security of a computer system, and unreasonable use of computing resources.

In the event that the Customer uses Intergage services for any purpose that Intergage deem irresponsible then Intergage reserves the right to suspend service while the usage is investigated in consultation with the Customer. Should investigation determine that the service has been used irresponsibly, Intergage reserves the right to terminate the Customer’s account with immediate effect. Wherever possible the Customer will be notified in advance of any termination.

6. Login Details & Privacy

Login names and passwords must be kept secret and not be communicated to any third party unless authorised in writing by Intergage. If someone were to gain access to a Customer’s account password, they could tamper with files held on the account.

Intergage must be notified immediately if the security of login names or passwords has been compromised.

The Customer should contact our Customer Services Team should they forget or lose their password.

7. E-mail

The Customer may not use Intergage services to send unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE, also known as 'Spam'). Intergage will block the mail services of any Customer found to be sending such mail.

Opt-in mailing lists are allowed, where it can be proved that subscribers did opt-in and that a suitable opt-out mechanism is available.

Customers may not run unauthorised mailing lists from or through any of our machines or mail servers.

Intergage reserves the right to remove any mail older than 60 days from Intergage mail servers. It is the Customer's responsibility to ensure that mail is regularly collected and removed from Intergage's POP3 server. Intergage strongly advises against the use of the POP3 option to keep mail on the server. If a POP3 mailbox contains an excessive amount of mail, Intergage reserves the right to remove older mails from the mailbox to reduce its size and/or suspend the operation of the mailbox.

8. Web Hosting (General)

The Customer is responsible for the content on their web hosting account, including obtaining the legal permission for any works they include and ensuring that the content on the server does not violate UK law. Intergage reserves the right, without notice or explanation, to disable a web hosting account that does not comply with this AUP or our Terms and Conditions, such as one storing material of an adult nature or pirated software.

Intergage reserves the right to disable a web hosting account, if it is deemed to be causing excessive load or traffic, is adversely affecting the performance of the server(s), or is being abused by an external entity.

The Customer agrees not to advertise their website via unsolicited commercial e-mail. Intergage reserves the right to suspend a site which has been 'spamvertised' at any time.

Intergage reserves the right to suspend any or all of the service at any time, without prior notice, explanation, or recompense.

Customers will be held solely responsible for any defamatory, confidential, secret or other proprietary material made available via their web hosting account. Intergage reserves the right to disable a web hosting account containing such material.

Where Intergage provides the Customer with FTP account(s) as part of the web hosting account, the Customer is solely responsible for ensuring that the content of the FTP account(s) are backed-up.

During a time of propagation following DNS changes, the Customer accepts that web services such as, but not limited to, website hosting and website administration may be unavailable.

On closing an account, the relevant data on the account will be deleted.

It is the responsibility of the Customer to remain within their usage quota. Intergage reserves the right to delete files for over-quota users if disk space is affecting the normal running of the server.

8.1. Web Hosting (Shared)

The Web Hosting service is normally provided under terms of reasonable usage as explained in the Terms and Conditions. Unless otherwise agreed this service will be provided on a web server that also provides services for other customers, i.e. it is “shared”.

The per calendar month quota for data transfer (“bandwidth”) and disk space on shared servers shall be as detailed in the Terms and Conditions document. If the Customer is using more than the agreed bandwidth or disk space Intergage reserves the right to impose a charge for the excess usage. We ask customers who intend to use high volumes of bandwidth or disk space to first discuss their requirement with their dedicated Account Manager.

8.2. Web Hosting (Dedicated)

Where the Customer’s website exceeds reasonable usage, or if otherwise agreed, Intergage may provide a higher capacity service as explained in the Terms and Conditions. This service may be provided as shared or dedicated hosting depending on requirements. Where one or more servers are provided for the exclusive use of one Customer, the web server(s) are “dedicated” to that Customer.

The per calendar month quota for data transfer (“bandwidth) and disk space on dedicated servers shall be stated in a Proposal for the hosting solution. If the Customer is using more than the agreed bandwidth or disk space Intergage reserves the right to impose a charge for the excess usage. We ask customers who intend to use high volumes of bandwidth or disk space to first discuss their requirement with their dedicated Account Manager.

9. Security and Attempted Security Breaches

If Intergage finds malicious traffic emanating from a Customer’s hosting account, Intergage has an obligation to our other customers and to our hosting providers to take urgent measures to block that traffic. This may involve suspending the account until the issue has been resolved. Intergage understands that in many cases the Customer may not be responsible for or aware of the problem, and therefore Intergage will work with the Customer to resolve the issue as efficiently as possible to restore normal service.

The Customer may not mount an attack, by whatever means, against our systems, or use our services to attack any other systems.

The Customer may not attempt to probe or breach the security of our servers.

The Customer may not run any programme on a server except those supplied or authorised in writing by Intergage.

The Customer may not run external programmes, or make use of external services, that access a server’s resources, other than standard web browsers, FTP clients and email clients without the express written authorisation of Intergage. This includes, for example, software that scans for security vulnerabilities or automates requests for web pages.

It should be noted that attempting to breach security may lead to prosecution under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 or any other relevant criminal legislation.

Attempts to circumvent copy protection technology and encryption are also likely to be illegal under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended).

Last updated January 2012