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

  1. 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.
  2. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. No user defined CGIs are permitted.
  5. 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

  1. No logs or any detail of who visited your site will be made available.
  2. 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.
  3. We accept no responsibility for hit counts being reset or incorrect.
  4. 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.
  5. You will be held responsible for and accept responsibility for any defamatory, confidential, secret or other proprietary material available via your site.
  6. 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.
  7. By uploading your files, you will be deemed to have agreed to and accepted the terms and conditions of use of the Services.
  8. 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.
  9. The IP address that may be allocated to your site may be changed or withdrawn at any time without notice.
  10. When your account is closed, your files, programs, data and email messages will be deleted.

Email and related

  1. 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.
  2. Your use of the Services may not include the distribution or advertising of any of the following:
  3. 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.
  4. 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".
  5. 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.
  6. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. The services may not be used to send messages which disrupt another Internet user's equipment, including software, hardware, and user display.
  5. 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.
  6. A customer may not use the services to connect to chat servers or channels from which they have been previously banned.
  7. 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.
  8. 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

  1. Users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict or inhibit any other user's normal use of the Services.
  2. You may use up to a maximum of 20Mb of space unless We have agreed otherwise by prior written arrangement.
  3. 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.
  4. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. If your account is barred for any reason (e.g. non-payment, or alleged abuse) access to the Services may be suspended.
  4. We accept no responsibility for loss of data, information in any form or other matters whatsoever which result from the use of these Services.
  5. We reserve the right to remove any material from the Services at our sole discretion, without prior notice and without explanation.
  6. We reserve the right to suspend any or all of the Services at any time, without prior notice and without explanation.
  7. 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'.
  8. 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.
  9. We reserve the right to vary the definition of 'excessive use' at their sole discretion at any time without prior notice.
  10. 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.
  11. Any decision We may make in relation to these Services shall be final.