Acceptable Use Policy (the 'Policy'), version 1.1
Headings in italics are for ease of reading only and do not confer any
legal meaning.
Introduction
- The Ninja BBS and its operators and associates ('Us'/'We') provides a variety of Internet and related services (the
"Services"). It is run as a hobby, and this should be remembered at all times.
- The Services use resources that are shared with many other users - both
users of the bulletin board, and private users. Moreover, the Services provide access to the Internet which is used by millions of other users. Each user benefits by being able to share resources and communicate almost effortlessly with other members of the user community. However, as with any community, the benefits and privileges available from the Services, and the Internet in general, must be balanced with duties and responsibilities so that other users can also have a productive experience.
General Security
- Your password(s) are your responsibility and must not be disclosed to any
third party. You are responsible for any misuse of the Services using
your account, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a friend, family member, guest, employee or customer with access to your account. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access to the
Services.
- The Services may not be used to breach the security of another user or to attempt to gain access to any other person's computer, software or data, without the knowledge and consent of such person. They also may not be used in any attempt to circumvent the user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or 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, such as password guessing programs, cracking tools, packet sniffers or network probing tools, is prohibited. Users are reminded that
We operate security tools and regular audits, and all activity may be subject to monitoring.
- You may not disrupt the Services. The Services also may not be used to interfere with computer networking or telecommunications services to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, denial of service attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service, improper seizing and abuse of operator privileges and attempts to "crash" a host. The transmission or dissemination of any information or software which contains a virus
or other harmful feature also is prohibited.
You must accept mail to user@users.ninja.org.uk as a
precondition of using the Services, or include clear links to an email
address you read at least weekly from the main index.html page on your site.
- No user defined CGIs are permitted.
- Support is only available for uploading, downloading and viewing pages. No
support will be given for HTML authoring or page design.
Web sites and related
- No logs or any detail of who visited your site will be made available.
- You will be responsible for retaining copies of your own data. No backups
will be kept of your pages. You may, however, download your own pages by FTP
(using your username and password) for backup.
- We accept no responsibility for hit counts being reset or incorrect.
- You will be responsible for the content of your site, including obtaining
the legal permission for any works they include and ensuring that the
contents of these pages do not violate English law.
- You will be held responsible for and accept responsibility for any
defamatory, confidential, secret or other proprietary material available via
your site.
- You must ensure that your index.htm or index.html
file [the first to be viewed on a site] does not contain any material liable
to offend. A clearly readable warning page must be displayed before any
adult material is displayed. Additionally, you must ensure that the recipient of the content is appropriate. For example, you must take
appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving inappropriate content.
- By uploading your files, you will be deemed to have agreed to and accepted
the terms and conditions of use of the Services.
- You must not refer to your pages by any means other that the address users.ninja.org.uk/~username
nor register your web pages anywhere using any form of URL except in the
form beginning http://users.ninja.org.uk/~username/....
Specifically, you must not reference or cause your site to be referenced by
dotted IP address (e.g. [10.2.3.4]). Requests made to your site using dotted
IP addresses or alternative names may not work.
- The IP address that may be allocated to your site may be changed or
withdrawn at any time without notice.
- When your account is closed, your files, programs, data and email messages
will be deleted.
Email and related
- The Services may not be used to collect responses from unsolicited email sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or email services which violates this Policy or the acceptable use policy of any other Internet service provider. Moreover, unsolicited email may not direct the recipient to any web site or other resource which uses the Services.
- Your use of the Services may not include the distribution or advertising
of any of the following:
- software for sending SPAM (bulk emails, excessive news postings,
etc.).
- lists of email addresses except where all the addressees have given
their explicit permission.
- any collection of personal data other than in accordance with the Data
Protection Act and the Data Protection Principles.
- You may not advertise your site, or cause another person to advertise it,
by techniques that would be classified as abuse if they were carried out
from an account at a major UK ISP, such as Demon Internet. This includes,
but is not limited to, bulk emailing and excessive news posting. Such action
may be treated under the appropriate AUP as if it had been done from the
Account, or as a violation of this AUP or both.
- Forging, altering or removing electronic mail headers is prohibited. However, you may insert additional characters into your from: and reply-to: addresses in order to prevent your true address from being automatically added to the mailing lists used by bulk
emailers. In this case, your true address must remain obvious to any human viewer. For example, you may substitute
"nospam.john.smith" for "john.smith".
- You may not reference Us (e.g. by including "Organization:
ninja.org.uk" in the header or by listing an IP address that is
allocated to Us) in any unsolicited email even if that email is not sent through
the Service.
- We are not responsible for the forwarding of email sent to any account which has been suspended or terminated.
We will either return, ignore, delete or temporarily store such email at our
sole discretion.
Internet Relay Chat
- The Services may be used to participate in "chat" discussions. These discussions may be hosted by
Us, by third party servers, or may not involve any servers at all. In all cases,
We do not normally monitor the contents of the discussion and are not liable for the contents of any communications made via Internet chat.
- The Services may not be used to perform chat "flooding". Flooding is defined as deliberately repeating actions in quick succession in order to fill the screens of other Internet users with text.
- Any computer or other device connected through the Services may not maintain more than 2 simultaneous chat connections. This includes the use of automated programs, such as "bots" or "clones". Automated programs may not account holder is not physically present at the device.
- The services may not be used to send messages which disrupt another Internet user's equipment, including software, hardware, and user display.
- The services may not be used to access any chat server in violation of the acceptable use policy of that server. The services may not
be used to manipulate any chat server in order to harass or disconnect other Internet users, or to gain privileges which have not been authorized.
- A customer may not use the services to connect to chat servers or channels from which they have been previously banned.
- The services may not be used to continue to send chat messages to an Internet user who has indicated their desire to not receive such messages.
- Forging, altering, or obscuring your identity while participating in chat sessions is forbidden. You, may, however, use a nickname as long as all chat participants are able to discover your real name via normal Internet conventions, such as the "whois" command.
Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitations
- Users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict or inhibit any other user's normal use of the Services.
- You may use up to a maximum of 20Mb of space unless We have agreed
otherwise by prior written arrangement.
- Should the automated limit on space not operate for any reason, We reserve
the right to request that you immediately remove enough files to bring you
below the limit.
- Users of the Services may not resell, share, or otherwise distribute the Services or any portion thereof to any third party without written consent
from Us. For example, you cannot provide Internet access to others through a dial up connection, host shell accounts over the Internet, provide email or news service, or send a news feed.
Violation of Acceptable Use Policy
- We do not always routinely monitor the activity of accounts for violation of this
Policy. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, we will
respond appropriately if we become aware of inappropriate use of our Services.
- We prefer to advise customers of inappropriate behavior and any necessary corrective action. However, if the Services are used in a way which
We, in our sole discretion, believe violates this Policy, We may take any responsive actions
we deem appropriate. Such actions include, but are not limited to, temporary or permanent removal of content, cancellation of newsgroup posts, filtering of Internet transmissions, and the immediate suspension or termination of all or any portion of the Services.
We shall not have any liability for any such responsive actions. The above described actions are not
our exclusive remedies and We may take any other legal or technical action
we deem appropriate.
- We reserve the right to investigate suspected violations of this Policy, including the gathering of information from the user or users involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on
our servers and network. During an investigation, We may suspend the account or
accounts involved and/or remove material which potentially violates this
Policy.
- You hereby authorize Us to cooperate with (i) law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations, and (ii) and system administrators at other Internet service providers or other network or computing facilities in order to enforce this
Policy. Such cooperation may include Us providing the username, IP address, or other identifying information about a user.
- The failure of Us to enforce this Policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of any right to do so at any time.
General
- You agree that, if any portion of this Policy is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion will be construed consistent with
applicable law as nearly as possible, and the remaining portions
will remain in full force and effect. This Policy shall be exclusively governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of
England and Wales.
- We shall not be held liable for any loss however occasioned as a result of
the suspension, removal or unavailability of the Services or material stored
within them.
- If your account is barred for any reason (e.g. non-payment, or alleged
abuse) access to the Services may be suspended.
- We accept no responsibility for loss of data, information in any form or
other matters whatsoever which result from the use of these Services.
- We reserve the right to remove any material from the Services at our sole
discretion, without prior notice and without explanation.
- We reserve the right to suspend any or all of the Services at any time,
without prior notice and without explanation.
- We will require sites that we consider to show excessive use to be
modified or be moved to a different server. We shall make the definition of
the term 'excessive use'.
- We reserve the right to make a charge for any assessment of suspended
sites, and to pass on any charges which may be incurred from our upstream
providers due to your use of the Services, directly to you.
- We reserve the right to vary the definition of 'excessive use' at their
sole discretion at any time without prior notice.
- We reserve the right to vary the Conditions of Use and acceptable use policy
for the Services at our sole discretion at any time and without prior
notice. Updates will be posted to this site and it is your responsibility to
check for any updates from time to time.
- Any decision We may make in relation to these Services shall be final.