This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) identifies restrictions on the use by the user (“you,” “user”, “Customer” or “Subscriber”) of the Services provided by Affiliated Unified Communications, LLC (“we,” “us,” “AUC,” or “Affiliated Unified Communications, LLC ”), and the software used by AUC to delivery such Services, and is incorporated by reference in the Terms of Service between AUC and you. Your access to the Services may be suspended or terminated for violation of this AUP.

Inquiries regarding this policy should be directed to [email protected].

Abuse

You may not use AUC’s network or Services to engage in, foster, or promote illegal, abusive, or irresponsible behavior, including but not limited to:

  • Any purpose prohibited by applicable federal, state or local law, rule or regulation;
  •  Unauthorized access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without express authorization of the owner of the system or network;
  • Using the Services for auto-dialing, continuous or extensive call forwarding, telemarketing (including without limitation charitable or political solicitation or polling), fax or voicemail broadcasting or fax or voicemail blasting;
  • Use of the Services in any way that is threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another’s privacy, or any similar behavior;
  • Monitoring data or traffic on any network or system without the express authorization of the owner of the system or network;
  • Interference with service to any user of the AUC or other network including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks;
  • Use of an Internet account or computer without the owner’s authorization;
  • Collecting or using email addresses, screen names or other identifiers without the consent of the person identified (including, without limitation, phishing, Internet scamming, password robbery, spidering, and harvesting);
  • Collecting or using information without the consent of the owner of the information;
  • Use of any false, misleading, or deceptive TCP-IP packet header information in an email or a newsgroup posting;
  • Use of the service to distribute software that covertly gathers information about a user or covertly transmits information about the user;
  • Use of the service for distribution of advertisement delivery software unless: (i) the user affirmatively consents to the download and installation of such software based on a clear and conspicuous notice of the nature of the software, and (ii) the software is easily removable by use of standard tools for such purpose included on major operating systems; (such as Microsoft’s “ad/remove” tool); or
  • Any conduct that is likely to result in retaliation against the AUC network or website, or AUC’s employees, officers or other agents, including engaging in behavior that results in any server being the target of a denial of service attack (DoS).

Bulk Email

You may not use a AUC’s email service to send bulk mail. You may use your dedicated hosted system to send bulk mail, subject to the restrictions in this Acceptable Use Policy.

You must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and other laws and regulations applicable to bulk or commercial email. In addition, your bulk and commercial email must meet the following requirements:

  • intended recipients have given their consent to receive email from you via some affirmative means, such as an opt-in procedure;
  • procedures for seeking consent by you include reasonable means to ensure that the person giving consent is the owner of the email address for which consent is given;
  • You retain evidence of each recipient’s consent in a form that can be promptly produced on request, and you honor recipient’s and AUC’s requests to produce consent evidence within 72 hours of receipt of the request;
  • You have procedures in place that allow a recipient to revoke their consent – such as a link in the body of the email, or instructions to reply with the word “Remove” in the subject line; you shall honor revocations of consent within 48 hours, and notify recipients that the revocation of their consent will be implemented in 48 hours;
  • You must post an email address for complaints (such as [email protected]) in a conspicuous place on any website associated with the email, you must register that address at abuse.net, and you must promptly respond to messages sent to that address;
  • You must have a Privacy Policy posted for each domain associated with the mailing;
  • You have the means to track anonymous complaints;
  • You may not obscure the source of your email in any manner, such as omitting, forging, or misrepresenting message headers or return addresses. Your email must include the recipients email address in the body of the message or in the “TO” line of the email;
  • The subject line of the email must clearly describe the subject matter contained in the email, and the message must include valid contact information; and
  • You must not attempt to send any message to an email address if 3 consecutive delivery rejections have occurred and the time between the third rejection and the first rejection is longer than fifteen days.
  • These policies apply to messages sent using your AUC services, or to messages sent from any network by you or any person on your behalf that directly or indirectly refer the recipient to a site or an email address hosted via your AUC service. In addition, you may not use a third party email service that does not practice similar procedures for all its customers. These requirements apply to distribution lists prepared by third parties.

AUC may test and otherwise monitor your compliance with its requirements. AUC may block the transmission of email that violates these provisions. AUC may, at its discretion, require certain Customers to seek advance approval for bulk and commercial email, which approval will not be granted unless the Customer can demonstrate that all of the requirements stated above will be met.

Unsolicited Communications

You may not use your service to send email or any other communications to a person who has indicated that they do not wish to receive it. If the communication is bulk mail, then you will not be in violation of this section if you comply with the 48 hour removal requirement described above.

Newsgroup, Chat Forums, Other Networks

You must comply with the rules and conventions for postings to any bulletin board, chat group or other forum in which you participate, including their rules for content and commercial postings. These groups usually prohibit the posting of off-topic commercial messages, or mass postings to multiple forums.
You must comply with the rules of any other network you access or participate in using AUC’s Services.

Offensive Content

You may not publish, transmit or store on or via AUC’s network and equipment any content or links to any content that AUC reasonably believes:

  • Constitutes, depicts, fosters, promotes or relates in any manner to child pornography, bestiality, or non-consensual sex acts;
  • is excessively violent, incites violence, threatens violence, or contains harassing content or hate speech;
  • is unfair or deceptive under the consumer protection laws of any jurisdiction, including chain letters and pyramid schemes;
  • is defamatory or violates a person’s privacy;
  • creates a risk to a person’s safety or health, creates a risk to public safety or health, compromises national security, or interferes with an investigation by law enforcement;
  • improperly exposes trade secrets or other confidential or proprietary information of another person;
  • is intended to assist others in defeating technical copyright protections;
  • infringes on another person’s copyright, trade or service mark, patent, or other property right;
  • promotes illegal drugs, violates export control laws, relates to illegal gambling, or illegal arms trafficking;
  • is otherwise illegal or solicits conduct that is illegal under laws applicable to you or to AUC; or
  • is otherwise malicious, fraudulent, or may result in retaliation against AUC by offended viewers or recipients, or is intended to harass or threaten.

Content “published or transmitted” via AUC’s network or equipment includes Web content, email, bulletin board postings, chat, tweets, and any other type of posting or transmission that relies on the Internet.

Live Events

You may not use AUC’s Services to stream live sex acts of any kind, even if the content would otherwise comply with the AUP. AUC may prohibit the streaming of other live events where there is a special risk, in AUC’s reasonable discretion, that the event may violate the Offensive Content section above.

Copyrighted Material

You may not use AUC’s network or services to download, publish, distribute, or otherwise copy or use in any manner any text, music, software, art, image, or other work protected by copyright law unless:

  • you have been expressly authorized by the owner of the copyright for the work to copy the work in that manner; or
  • you are otherwise permitted by established copyright law to copy the work in that manner.

It is AUC’s policy to terminate in appropriate circumstances the services of customers who are repeat infringers.

Shared Systems

You not use any shared system provided by AUC in a way that unnecessarily interferes with the normal operation of the shared system, or that consumes a disproportionate share of the resources of the system. For example, we may prohibit the automated or scripted use of AUC email services if it has a negative impact on the mail system, or we may require you to repair coding abnormalities in your code if it unnecessarily conflicts with other customers’ use of the services. You agree that we may quarantine or delete any data stored on a shared system if the data is infected with a virus, or is otherwise corrupted, and has the potential to infect or corrupt the system or other customers’ data that is stored on the same system.

Use of Services Outside the United States

Although we encourage you to use of the Service to place calls to foreign countries from within the United States, we do not presently offer or support the Service in any countries other than the United States and Canada. If you use the Service outside of the United States or Canada, you will be solely responsible for any violations of local laws and regulations resulting from such use.

Other

You may only use IP addresses assigned to you by AUC in connection with your AUC Services.

You agree that if the AUC IP numbers assigned to your account or those of your End-Users are listed on an abuse database like Spamhaus, you will be in violation of this AUP, and AUC may take reasonable action to protect its IP numbers, including suspension and/or termination of your Service, regardless of whether the IP numbers were listed as a result of your actions or anyone else’s actions.

Service Level Agreement

No credit will be available under a AUC service level guaranty or agreement, if applicable, for interruptions of service resulting from AUP violations.