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GRU.Net Acceptable Use Policy


Table of Contents

Introduction

General

LIMITATION OF WARRANTIES AND
LIABILITY; DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

Indemnification

Copyright Infringement

Acceptable Use

E-mail

Personal Webpages

Newsgroups

Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Instant Messaging (IM)

Miscellaneous

Term

Acceptable Use Policy Modifications


GRUCom Internet Service Acceptable Use Policies

Introduction

THIS AGREEMENT provides a general understanding between The City of Gainesville, doing business as GRUCom ("GRUCom") and the account holder for the use of the GRUCom online gateway and Internet-access service (the "Service"). It is designed to help protect our Service, our customers and the Internet community, from irresponsible or illegal activities. We hope and expect that common sense and good judgment will guide all of our subscribers' Internet activities. These guidelines point out generally accepted practices on a range of topics and the general GRUCom approach to these areas.

Account holder's (also referred to as "Subscriber") use of GRUCom services shall constitute account holder's acceptance of the terms and conditions of this Agreement. GRUCom may modify these terms and conditions, amplify them, and/or modify the prices, as well as discontinue or change the services offered. Account holder's use of GRUCom services after modification shall constitute account holder's acceptance of the modifications.

The primary reason for decisions and taking action on the Acceptable Use Policy violations include but are not limited to protection of our customers and our resources, provision of quality service to our customers, compliance with applicable law, and the protection of our reputation as a superior service provider.

If a GRUCom Internet Service account is involved in a violation of these policies, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate Service without notice. Our preferred course of action would be to advise the account owner of the inappropriate behavior and any corrective action that may be necessary. However, repeated or flagrant violations of these policies may result in immediate termination of Service.

Account holder to pay the applicable fees by the due date, and to pay any interest or late fees incurred to late payment of the required fees.

In the event that an account is deactivated or canceled as a result of any activities described in these policies, the account may be subject to set-up fees, reactivation charges, and/or deposit requirements to be determined by GRUCom if such account is permitted to be re-activated or re-established. Subscribers whose accounts have been canceled for misuse or violation of these policies are not entitled to re-register for the Service without express permission from GRUCom outside the normal flow of the registration process. Any further registrations for the Service by or for the subscriber whose account has been terminated for such activities may be rejected or the new account(s) may be terminated upon discovery.

GRUCom may take such action, as it deems appropriate, against any subscriber for violations of these policies. However, there is no promise or obligation on our part to monitor or police any such activity and GRUCom will have no liability to any party for any other party's violation of these policies.

Subscriber agrees not to transmit or publish on or over the Service any information, software or other content which violates or infringes upon the rights of any others or to use the facilities and capabilities of the Service to conduct any business or activity or solicit the performance of any activity which is prohibited by law. Subscriber agrees to comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations in connection with the Service. Subscriber acknowledges that you are aware that certain content, services, or locations of the Service or of other parties that may be accessible through the Service may contain materials that are unsuitable for minors (persons under 18 years of age). Subscriber agrees to supervise usage of the Service by any minors whom you permit to use the Service. Subscriber agrees to perform independent backup of data stored on GRUCom services, as GRUCom is not responsible for personal files residing on GRUCom's server.

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General

Provision of Services

The Service consists of dial-up and broadband Internet Protocol connectivity to the GRUCom online gateway, as well as access or connectivity to any of the information sources of services which may be provided by GRUCom or is available from other service providers participating in or connected to GRUCom.

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Service Rates and Charges

The rates and charges for the Service shall be in accordance with GRUCom's rate schedule as in effect from time to time, a copy of which will be available on-line on the Service or otherwise shall be provided to you upon request. Subscriber will be billed monthly for usage of the Service and for any other service utilized by subscriber or other users of subscriber's account which are billed for by GRUCom in connection with the Service (including any applicable taxes), directly by GRUCom, by electronic funds transfer (EFT) or through your designated credit card company except in such cases where GRUCom's service is considered a bulk account, i.e. there is a separate contract with the owner of the property or Homeowner's Association. If paid by credit card, the terms of the applicable credit card agreement will apply. Otherwise, payment for the Service and any such other services billed by GRUCom, including any applicable taxes, shall become delinquent if not received by GRUCom or its billing agent, on the close of business on the twenty first (21st) day (fifteenth day (15th) for EFT payments) after the billing is rendered. Service charges for late payments, returned checks or non-paid EFT transactions shall be in accordance with GRUCom's rate schedule as in effect and may be modified from time to time.

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Impersonation

Subscriber may not attempt to send Electronic Mail or USENET News articles using a name and address of someone other than subscriber. Attempting to impersonate any person, using forged headers or other identifying information, is prohibited. Attempts to do so that are discovered by GRUCom or reported by other parties may be reported to the proper authority immediately, and may result in the offending account being terminated immediately without notice. The use of anonymous e-mailers and nicknames, by themselves, does not necessarily constitute impersonation if it is not being done with the intention of misleading the recipient or another party into believing that subscriber is some other specifically identifiable user or person other than subscriber. Accounts registered using false or misleading information may be terminated without notice.

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Network unfriendly activity

Activities which adversely affect the ability of other people or systems to use GRUCom Internet Service or the Internet are prohibited, including denial-of-service attacks and can result in termination of service.

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Unauthorized uses - non-payment

Unless otherwise specified in the GRUCom Internet Service subscriber's pricing plan agreement, sharing of accounts and/or connections on unlimited usage plans with anyone other than immediate family members in the same dwelling is strictly prohibited. Reselling Service without express written consent from GRUCom, or offering any information service using such accounts, such as running an e-mail server, Web server, FTP server, or proxy server is prohibited. Subscribers may not provide public or commercial information over such connections. GRUCom does offer GRUCom Internet for Business services for such purposes. Untimely payment of any and all amounts due may result in account cancellation.

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Excessive usage of bandwidth, disk utilization, simultaneous connections, or aggregate data download/upload

Where a GRUCom Internet Service account, service or feature description specify limits on bandwidth, disk utilization, simultaneous connections, and/or aggregate data download or upload, use in excess of those limits is not permitted without an appropriate change in account type or status and may incur additional charges for such usage.

Bandwidth, disk utilization, simultaneous connections, and aggregate data downloads/uploads will be computed or determined by GRUCom from time to time in developing its product and service offerings. In addition, sessions on dial accounts that exceed a reasonable time may be terminated in order to protect network resources and preserve Service availability for other users. In the event GRUCom determines that an account is exceeding the relevant bandwidth, disk utilization, aggregate data download/upload limits, simultaneous connections, or reasonable session times for dial-up or fiber optic accounts, the account owner will generally be notified by E-mail. If the excess use continues after such notification, the owner may be requested to modify the activity creating the excess use, or the account may be terminated.

If excessive bandwidth, disk space utilization, simultaneous connections, aggregate data download or upload, or dial-up session length is determined to adversely affect GRUCom's ability to provide service, immediate action may be taken. The account owner may be notified by e-mail as soon as practical thereafter.

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Idle Timeouts

Dial-up account sessions that use the GRUCom Internet Service are subject to idle timeouts. An account session may be determined to be idle if there appears to be no interactive, human generated data received from the remote user's computer system within a prescribed amount of time.

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Automated Data

Data that is generated on a user's computer system automatically, either by an automated program, script, automatic re-dialers or any other software device, is considered automated data. Automated data of any kind is not considered interactive use of the GRUCom's Dial-Up Internet Service, and as such, may be disregarded in determining idle timeouts.

GRUCom's Unlimited Dial-up Usage Plan is not intended to provide full-time connections, and the Service may be disconnected after a significant period of inactivity or after sessions of excessive length. Subscribers should keep the connection open only when actively using it, and may not use any automatic method to avoid inactivity disconnect. Intentional use of automated data methods to avoid idle timeouts on dial-up accounts is prohibited and grounds for account termination at GRUCom's sole discretion. This includes the use of automatic redialers to reinstate an idle connection.

GRUCom's Fiber Optic Internet Plan is an always-on connection; however, periodically users may be required to "re-login" due to system maintenance or other operational issues.

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Misuse of Subscriber Account

Internet access accounts cannot be transferred or used by anyone other than the subscriber and members of the subscriber's immediate family. Unless otherwise specified in the GRUCom Internet Service subscriber's pricing plan agreement, account and connection sharing (other than among immediate family members within the same dwelling) is strictly prohibited. Subscriber agree that subscriber will be the only user of account ID and password and that subscriber will not transfer or disclose either account ID or password to any other person (except that subscriber may at subscriber's own risk and on subscriber's own responsibility permit other members of subscriber's family or business associates to access the Service using your account ID and password), and that subscriber will be responsible for all usage of the Service and any other services accessed through the Service on subscriber's account whether or not authorized by subscriber. Unless otherwise specified in the GRUCom Internet Service subscriber's pricing plan agreement, no more than one login session can be active at a time on a subscriber's account. Accounts which have been transferred to other parties, or which show other activity in violation of this condition, may be terminated without notice. GRUCom will not provide technical assistance to subscribers who are or are attempting to use or set-up a router or switch except where expressly permitted under other contractual obligations.

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Service, Network, and System Interference

Subscribers may not attempt to interfere with or compromise the operation of GRUCom's network in whole or part, to interfere with any of the equipment comprising the system, or to access other accounts or restricted areas of the system.

Subscribers may not use GRUCom Internet Service in a manner that adversely affects the availability of its resources to other GRUCom customers.

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Facility Usage

Subscribers may only use those GRUCom Internet Service online and computing facilities and Service areas which have been authorized for subscriber use. If access is protected by a password, subscribers are not to make this password available to others or use the password(s) of others to gain access to such areas. Subscribers may not attempt to find out the password of another user, nor aid such attempt by any other person.

Subscribers may use GRUCom Internet Service online and computing facilities and Service areas only for authorized purposes.

Subscribers may not attempt to interfere with the proper or intended operation of any computing facility.

Subscribers may not attempt to subvert -- or aid others to subvert -- the security of any computing facility.

Subscribers may not interfere with use by any other authorized user, nor compromise the confidentiality of GRUCom's or any other party's internal business practices or records.

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Hacking

Any attempts, whether successful or not, to gain access to any computer system or customer's data without consent are prohibited and may result in immediate cancellation of service.

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Privacy

It may be necessary for GRUCom employees or representatives to examine system operational and accounting logs and other records to resolve Service-related problems. GRUCom reserves the right to access an account's mailbox or other features to resolve problems or mail system errors.

In addition, GRUCom will cooperate with the appropriate legal authorities or other parties as allowed by law in investigating claims of illegal activity, including but not limited to illegal transfer or use of copyrighted material, postings, or e-mail containing threats of violence or other illegal activity.

GRUCom makes no guarantee and assumes no liability for the security of any data on any server including those designated as "secure servers."

No computer system can be completely protected or should be considered 100% safe from intrusion. E-mail and other data transmissions over the Internet may pass through many computer systems, and should not be considered a secure means of communication unless encrypted. Even then, such information is only as secure as the encryption method used.

GRUCom does not generally monitor the activity of accounts except to measure system utilization and accumulate billing records. However, in our efforts to protect the integrity of our Service and fulfill any responsibility we may have as good citizens within the Internet community, if we become aware of inappropriate use of GRUCom Internet Service we may respond accordingly. Results of investigations conducted by the GRUCom Internet Services Abuse team are private, confidential and are not released except as required by law.

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Censorship

GRUCom does not intend to censor the content of any newsgroups or other communications passing through its systems. Software tools are available to screen a subscriber's account access to newsgroups and Websites that might be considered offensive. It is the subscriber's responsibility to make use of such tools if desired.

Newsgroup postings and other e-mail messages sent via GRUCom Internet Service and the Internet are communications between the senders and consenting receivers thereof, and GRUCom has neither the authority nor the responsibility to regulate their content. The views and comments expressed by GRUCom Internet Service subscribers or other senders of such postings or messages are solely those of their authors and do not reflect any review, approval or endorsement by GRUCom. GRUCom will, however, attempt to assist subscribers who continually receive e-mail they deem to be objectionable and/or unsolicited e-mail and who notify GRUCom of the problem.

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Conduct with a Minor

Subscribers shall not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from a minor or use this Service to harm a minor. A minor is defined as any person under the age of 18 years..

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Illegal Activity

Internet access and all other Services provided to GRUCom Internet Service subscribers may be used for lawful purposes only, and use by a subscriber of GRUCom Internet Service for the transmission or storage of any information, data, or material in violation of any federal or state regulation or law (including, but not limited to, material protected by copyright, trade secrets, and information that is confidential as a matter of law) is strictly prohibited. The subscriber may not use GRUCom Internet Service to transmit or store any information, data, or material that is threatening, libelous, obscene, or personal matters concerning any person.

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LIMITATION OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY; DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

Subscriber's use of the Service is at subscriber's own risk. Neither GRUCom nor any of its underlying service providers, information providers, licensers, employees, or agents, warrants that the Service will be uninterrupted, or error free; nor does GRUCom or any of its underlying service providers, information providers, licensers, employees, or agents, make any warranty as to the results to be obtained from the use of the Service. THE SERVICE IS DISTRIBUTED ON AN "AS IS", "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR OTHERWISE, OTHER TH AN THOSE WARRANTIES (IF ANY) WHICH ARE IMPLIED BY AND INCAPABLE OF EXCLUSION, RESTRICTION, OR MODIFICATION UNDER THE LAWS APPLICABLE TO THIS SERVICE AGREEMENT, ALL SUCH WARRANTIES BEING EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. NEITHER GRUCom NOR ANY OF ITS UNDERLYING SERVI CE PROVIDERS, INFORMATION PROVIDERS, LICENSERS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR SPECIAL DAMAGES SUFFERED BY SUBSCRIBER OR ANY OTHER PARTY AS A RESULT OF THE OPERATION OR MALFUNCTION OF THE SERVICE, REGARDL ESS OF WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SUBSCRIBER EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION SHALL ALSO APPLY TO ALL CONTENT OR OTHER SERVICES AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICE. SUBSCRIBER AGREES THAT SUBSCRIBER WILL NOT IN ANY WAY HOLD GRUCom RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SELECTION OR RETENTION OF, OR THE ACTS OR OMISSIONS OF, THIRD PARTIES IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICE (INCLUDING THOSE WITH WHOM GRUCom MAY CONTRACT TO OPERATE VARIOUS AREAS ON THE SERVICE). SUBCRIBER ASSUMES TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK FOR USE OF THE SERVICE AND THE INTERNET. GRUCom DOES NOT MAKE ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS OR ENDORSEMENTS WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE) WITH REGARD TO THE SERVICE, ANY MERCHANDISE, INFORMATION OR SERVICE PROVIDED THROUGH THE SERVICE OR ON THE INTERNET GENERALLY, AND GRUCom SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY COST OR DAMAGE ARISING EITHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY FROM ANY SUCH TRANSACTION.

It is solely subscriber's responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness, and usefulness of all opinions, advice, services, merchandise, and other information provided through the service or on the internet generally. GRUCom does not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free or that defects in the service will be corrected. Subscriber understands further that the internet contains unedited materials some of which are sexually explicit or may be offensive to. Subscriber accessing such materials is at subscriber's own risk. GRUCom has no control over and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for such materials. The information available through the interconnecting networks may not be accurate. GRUCom has no ability or authority over the material. GRUCom makes no warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, regarding the quality, accuracy, or validity of the data and/or information residing on or passing through these networks. Use of information obtained from or through GRUCom's services is at the risk of the account holder.

Subscriber's sole and exclusive remedy for any failure or non-performance of the Service (including any associated software or other materials supplied in connection with the Service) shall be for GRUCom to use commercially reasonable efforts to effectuate an adjustment or repair of the Service and, in the event such downtime exceeds twenty-four (24) consecutive hours, the account holder has the right to request a pro-rata refund or credit of or against any charges otherwise payable for the Service for the period of Service downtime.

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Indemnification by User

Subscriber shall indemnify and hold harmless GRUCom and any of its underlying service providers, information providers, licensers, employees or agents from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, causes of action, suits proceedings, losses, damages, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorney fees, arising from or relating to subscriber's use of the Service, or any act, error, or omission of subscriber or any user of account in connection therewith, including, but not limited to, matters relating to incorrect, incomplete, or misleading information; libel; invasion of privacy; infringement of a copyright, trademark, service mark, or other intellectual property; any defective product or any injury or damage to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed through or in connection with the Service; or violation of any applicable law.

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Copyright Infringement

Intellectual Property/Use of Material

Ownership of any software developed or modified by GRUCom and all graphics, text or other information or content materials supplied or furnished by GRUCom as part of GRUCom Internet Service or for incorporation into a subscriber's personal WebPages in connection with the Service shall remain with GRUCom (or the party which supplied such materials to GRUCom). Subscribers should be aware of the law of copyright as it affects computer software and other information or materials available or accessible on the Internet. A formal copyright notice need not be in evidence for legal copyright protection to be in force.

As a general rule, the subscriber is the copyright owner of any file that subscriber solely creates for his or her own exclusive use. The copyright to any other file may be owned either by its creator, by commercial vendors, or by other individual users, and it is generally illegal for the subscriber to reproduce such file in any part or in any form, except by permission of the copyright owner or under an appropriate statutory exception. GRUCom Internet Service subscribers are strictly prohibited from transmitting, distributing, receiving, using, posting, or storing any materials in violation of any applicable law with regard to ownership and use of intellectual property. This prohibition includes, without limitation, the following activities:

  • Posting, using, transmitting, distributing, receiving or storing any materials in violation of any copyrights, patents, trademarks, service marks, trade names, trade secrets or other intellectual property rights of others;
  • Offering or facilitating the offering of pirated computer programs, links to such programs, serial or registration numbers for software programs or pirated copyrighted content, including authorized copies of music, video or other media files, whether through IRC or file sharing programs or services;
  • Failing to obtain all required permissions to receive, upload, download, display, distribute, reproduce, use, make, sell, perform, or execute a program, copyrighted content or other works protected by intellectual property laws, including copyright, trademark, trade secrets and patent laws; Deleting or altering author attributes or copyright notices unless expressly permitted in writing by the author or the owner.
  • Violations of this Intellectual Property section, including any of the foregoing may result in a demand by GRUCom for immediate removal of the offending material, immediate temporary or permanent filtering, blocked access, suspension, or termination of Service, or other action appropriate to the violation, as determined by GRUCom at its sole discretion;
  • GRUCom company names and logos and all related product and service names, design marks and slogans are the property of GRUCom or its affiliates. Subscriber is not authorized to use any GRUCom name or mark in advertising, publicity or in any other commercial manner without the prior written consent of GRUCom;
  • All product and service marks contained on or associated with the Service that are not GRUCom marks are the trademarks of their respective owners. References to any names, marks, products or services of third parties or hypertext links to third party sites or information do not necessarily constitute or imply GRUCom's endorsement, sponsorship or recommendations of the third party, information, product or service.
  • With regard to certain allegations of intellectual property infringement, GRUCom, as an Internet Service Provider (ISP, may be required to release, under the subpoena provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), information to a copyright holder about one or more of GRUCom's Subscribers. DMCA violation notifications should be sent to abuse@gru.net.

While it is not GRUCom's intent to monitor, control or censor communications on its Service, when GRUCom becomes aware of a violation of its Policy, GRUCom may take such actions as it deems appropriate to investigate and address the violation. Although GRUCom will make reasonable efforts to provide notice so that violations may be addressed voluntarily, GRUCom reserves the right to expeditiously remove or disable access to offending materials and/or terminate Service without notice if it believes in its sole discretion that there has been a copyright or other property rights infringement. Refunds, credits or other forms of compensation are not issued in connection with action taken for violations of GRUCom's Internet Service Acceptable Use Policy.

If subscriber believes, in good faith, that GRUCom should be notified of a potential online copyright infringement occurring on a Website hosted by GRUCom, please send notifications to abuse@gru.net.

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EMAIL

Notices from GRUCom

Users may receive announcements from time to time from GRUCom via e-mail regarding various aspects of the Service, including without limitation notices of feature upgrades or changes, Service-affecting issues or events, special offers for Subscribers from GRUCom distribution partners or other parties, etc.

Any feedback, data, answers, questions, comments, suggestions, ideas or the like, which subscriber sends to GRUCom will be treated as being non-confidential and nonproprietary. GRUCom assumes no obligation to protect such information from disclosure and will be free to reproduce, use, and distribute the information to others without restriction, except for information protected by law. GRUCom will also be free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how, or techniques contained in such information for any purpose whatsoever including but not limited to developing, manufacturing and marketing products and services incorporating such information. GRUCom may also use your status as a subscriber to the Service for the purpose of marketing other GRUCom products and services.

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Unsolicited E-mail

Sending mass, unsolicited e-mail by Subscribers is prohibited. GRUCom Internet Services reserves the right, in GRUCom's sole discretion, to determine whether such email constitutes unsolicited messages or transmission and take appropriate action.

Sending unsolicited e-mail advertising a service or Website, newsgroup, etc. located or hosted within the GRUCom Internet Service domain space or address space, or service otherwise associated with GRUCom Internet Service is prohibited regardless of e-mail point of origin. Using a GRUCom Internet Service e-mail address or website address to collect responses from unsolicited e-mail is prohibited.

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Mail bombing

Sending large volumes of unsolicited e-mail to a single user, or group of users, commercial or otherwise, by Subscriber is prohibited.

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Harassment

Sending threatening or harassing e-mail (for example, making terrorist threats, or threatening physical injury or damage to persons or property), especially after being requested to stop, is prohibited. GRUCom is not responsible for the content or tone of any e-mail or other transmissions of the subscribers to its Service or other parties using the Internet, and subscribers or others should not expect that GRUCom will attempt to mediate or otherwise become involved in any particular disagreement or dispute between Internet users. However, GRUCom will cooperate with appropriate law enforcement agencies involved in investigating instances that may be reported to such authorities by subscriber or other users who believe they are being subjected to potentially unlawful harassment.

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Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses

Subscriber also may not engage in the following while using the GRUCom Internet Service:

Through action or inaction allowing the transmission of files that contain a virus or corrupted data which may have a detrimental impact on our network or on other subscribers.

In order to protect our subscribers and our network, GRUCom may suspend and/or cancel a subscriber's account if we believe that it is transmitting a virus to other Internet users or our network.

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Other e-mail related issues

Subscribers also may not engage in the following activities while using the GRUCom Internet Service:

  • Intercepting, redirecting or otherwise interfering or attempting to interfere with e-mail intended for other parties;
  • Forging headers or identifiers in order to disguise the origin of e-mail;
  • Mailing or sending files that contain copyrighted, commercial software or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by rights of privacy or publicity) unless the user owns or controls the rights thereto or has received all necessary consents;
  • Knowingly deleting any author attributions, legal notices or proprietary designations or labels in a file that the user mails or sends;
  • Publishing, posting, distributing or disseminating defamatory, infringing, obscene or other unlawful material or information;
  • Using the GRUCom Internet Service or systems to threaten, harass, stalk, abuse, or otherwise violate the legal rights (including rights of privacy and publicity) of others;
  • Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to violate this AUP or the AUP of any other Internet Service Provider, including, but not limited to, the facilitation of the means to Spam;
  • Harvesting or collecting information on others including e-mail addresses.

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Purging of Spam and Deleted/Trashed Emails

Subscriber acknowledges that GRUCom may establish general practices and limits concerning the use of the Service, including without limitation the maximum number of days that email messages and other uploaded content will be retained by the Service, the maximum number of email messages that may be sent from or received by an account on the Service, the maximum size of any email message that may be sent from or received by an account on the Service, the maximum disk space that will be allotted on GRUCom's servers on subscriber's behalf, and the maximum number of times (and the maximum duration for which) subscriber may access the Service in a given period of time. Subscriber agrees that GRUCom has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any messages and other communications or other content maintained or transmitted by the Service. The present retention schedule is 14 days for items in the Subscriber's Spam folder, 30 days for items in the Subscriber's Trash folder and 12 months for items in the In Box. Subscriber acknowledges that GRUCom reserves the right to modify these general practices and limits from time to time.

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Personal Webpages

GRUCom provides 50 Mb personal Web page space to its subscribers. Use of the personal Web pages shall be subject to the General Acceptable Use Policies and the following:

  • Subscribers may use up to 50 Mb personal web page space per account
  • GRUCom reserves the right to take corrective action in the event subscriber's Webpage contains material that violates any state or federal law, or that GRUCom determines, in the exercise of its sole discretion, to be threatening, libelous, abusive, or obscene.
  • GRUCom reserves the right to limit usage on the application.
  • Server side executable programs are not permitted.
  • GRUCom is not responsible for any revenue lost by a site being down.
  • Subscribers may not share their password.
  • GRUCom name and trademark may not appear to endorse a personal web page site.

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Newsgroups

General

Subscriber's account type or status will determine whether registration is necessary prior to gaining access to the newsgroups. Certain download limits or speed restrictions may apply.

No more than one newsgroup registration is permitted for each Subscriber's account.

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Newsgroup Abuse

In general, newsgroup abuse includes the following:

  • posting commercial advertisements
  • posting off-topic
  • posting to more than 6 newsgroups at a time
  • posts with a URL advertising a website
  • flooding: posting excessive numbers of articles to make it difficult to find legitimate posts
  • binary bombing: flooding a newsgroup with binaries that does not allow binary posts

Violations of these policies could result in being banned from newsgroups and may result in immediate cancellation of service.

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Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Violation of any accepted policies on IRC servers and the use of IRC bots are prohibited. If GRUCom is banned or threatened with being banned or restricted from a server, the offending account may be terminated without notice.

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Instant Messaging (IM)

Violation of any accepted policies IM etiquette or violation of any state or federal laws is prohibited. If GRUCom is threatened with legal action or of being banned or restricted from a server, the offending account may be terminated without notice.

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Miscellaneous

Any other behavior as reasonably determined by GRUCom to be unacceptable may result in subscriber's account being terminated without notice. This includes any behavior deemed unacceptable by other ISPs, behavior which is in violation of generally acceptable "Netiquette" practices, behavior which causes GRUCom Internet Service to be viewed unfavorably by others, or other behavior which may cause GRUCom Internet Service to be adversely affected via e-mail or news blocking, or which may cause GRUCom to appear on detrimental lists for spamming, etc.

This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida applicable to agreements made and to be performed in Florida. Subscriber agrees that any legal action or proceeding between GRUCom and subscriber for any purpose concerning this Agreement or the parties' obligations hereunder shall be brought exclusively in a federal or state court of competent jurisdiction sitting in Florida. Any cause of action or claim subscriber may have with respect to the Service must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim or cause of action arises or such claim or cause of action is barred. GRUCom's failure to insist upon or enforce strict performance of any provision of this Agreement shall not be constructed as a waiver of any provision or right. Neither the course of conduct between the parties nor trade practice shall act to modify any provision of this Agreement. GRUCom may assign its rights and duties under this Agreement to any party at any time without notice to subscriber.

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Term

This Agreement for the use of the Service will be in effect from the date subscriber completed registration is accepted by GRUCom. This Agreement and subscriber's use of the Service may be terminated by either subscriber or GRUCom at any time by written notice to the other or by GRUCom at any time with or without notice for subscriber's non-payment or other default. The provisions as described in section 5- Unauthorized uses and all other obligations of and restrictions on subscriber and any user of subscriber's account with respect to the Service shall survive any termination of this Agreement.

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Acceptable Use Policy Modifications

GRUCom reserves the right to modify its Acceptable Use Policies at any time at its discretion. Such changes, or notice thereof, will generally be posted online on the Service or otherwise electronically transmitted to users over the Service. A subscriber's use of the Service after such posting or other notice shall constitute acceptance of such policies by the subscriber.

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GRU Flushables