VONL intends to provide its customers access to everything the Internet has to offer. While VONL is firmly committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities are damaging to the resources of both VONL and the Internet and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of VONL and the Internet are limited, and abuse of these resources by one user has a negative impact on the entire community.

We do not routinely monitor the activity of accounts except for measurements of system utilization and the preparation of billing records. 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 service.

If a VONL account is used to violate the Acceptable Use Policy, we reserve the right to terminate your service without notice. We prefer to advise customers of inappropriate behavior and any necessary corrective action. However, flagrant violations of the Acceptable Use Policy will result in immediate termination of service. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.

As a member of our network community, you must use your Internet access responsibly. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact us at abuse@vonl.net.

VIOLATIONS OF VILLAGE ONLINE'S ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

The following constitute violations of this AUP:

1. Illegal use. Use of the VONL service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that, intentionally or unintentionally, violates any applicable local, state, national, or international law, or any rules or regulations promulgated thereunder.

2. Harm to minors. Use of the VONL service to harm, or attempt to harm, minors in any way, including, but not limited to child pornography.

3. Threats. Use of the VONL service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that threatens or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property.

4. Harassment. Use of the VONL service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that harasses another.

5. Fraudulent activity. Use of VONL service to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items, or services, or to advance any type of financial scam such as "pyramid schemes," "bonzi schemes," and "chain letters."

6. Forgery or impersonation. Adding, removing or modifying identifying network header information in an effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited. Attempting to impersonate any person by using forged headers or other identifying information is prohibited. The use of anonymous re-mailers or nicknames does not constitute impersonation.

7. Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (UCE) / Unsolicited Bulk E-Mail (UBE): Use of the VONL servers to transmit any unsolicited commercial or unsolicited bulk e-mail (Spam) is expressly prohibited. Violations of this type will result in the immediate termination of the offending VONL account.

8. E-mail / News Bombing: Malicious intent to impede another person's use of electronic mail services or new media will result in the immediate termination of the offending VONL account.

9. E-mail / Message Forging: Forging any message header, in part or whole, of any electronic transmission, originating or passing through the VONL service is in violation of this AUP.

10. Usenet Spamming: Village Online, Inc. has a zero tolerance policy for the use of its network for the posting of messages or commercial advertisements which violate the rules, regulations, FAQ or charter of any newsgroups or mailing list. Commercial messages that are appropriate under the rules of a newsgroup or mailing list or that are solicited by the recipients are permitted.
    • Copyrights Almost every country has copyright laws. Village Online cannot and does not review the information flowing through or stored on our system. When you become a Village Online customer, you are agreeing not to transfer or store copyrighted works on our system without the permission of the copyright holder.
    • Content The content of USENET newsgroups is not regulated by Village Online; therefore, Village Online is not liable for their contents. Please do not contact the administrators regarding copyright issues, inflammatory posts, etc.
    • Commercial Posts Commercial posts are frowned upon in many newsgroups. If you are attempting to sell goods or services, please make sure you do so in the proper forums (*.forsale, business groups, etc.).
    • Chain Letters/Pyramid Schemes According to United States law, chain letters and pyramid schemes are illegal. If you are found to be posting these to the newsgroups, your access to the newsgroups will be terminated, and you could face criminal proceedings.
    • Binary Posts Certain newsgroups are specifically designated as allowing binary files to be posted, and some are designated for binary posts only. It is well accepted all over Usenet that binary files will be posted only in designated groups. Posting of binaries or text articles inappropriately, regardless of whether explicitly stated in a newsgroup charter or FAQ will bring your access to the newsgroups under review for possible termination.
    • Spam Spam is the repeated posting of articles to inappropriate newsgroups. Village Online does not tolerate spam in any form. We run filters on our incoming and outgoing feeds to cut down on spam traffic that goes in either direction. Village Online is very strict about spamming. You agree to not spam, and you agree to avoid heavy repetitive posting, as that may look like spam. If you are determined to have spammed, you will be charged a $50 cleanup fee per spam message that you post, and your access to the newsgroups could be terminated.

11. Unauthorized access. Use of the VONL service to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others, or to penetrate, or attempt to penetrate, security measures of Village Online's or another entity's computer software or hardware, electronic communications system, or telecommunications system, whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption or loss of data, is expressly prohibited and the offending VONL account is subject to immediate termination.

12. Copyright or trademark infringement. Use of the VONL service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other proprietary rights of any third party, including, but not limited to, the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, the digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, and the unauthorized transmittal of copyrighted software.

13. Collection of personal data. Use of the VONL service to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent.

14. Reselling the services. Reselling of VONL service without our express written authorization is prohibited.
    

15. Network disruptions and unfriendly activity. Use of the VONL service for any activity which affects the ability of other people or systems to use Village Online Services or the Internet. This includes "denial of service" (DOS) attacks against another network host or individual user. Interference with or disruption of other network users, services or equipment is prohibited. It is the Member's responsibility to ensure that their network is configured in a secure manner. A Subscriber may not, through action or inaction, allow others to use their network for illegal or inappropriate actions. A Subscriber may not permit their network, through action or inaction, to be configured in such a way that gives a third party the capability to use their network in an illegal or inappropriate manner. Unauthorized entry and/or use of another company and/or individual's computer system will result in immediate account termination. VILLAGE ONLINE will not tolerate any subscriber attempting to access the accounts of others, or penetrate security measures of other systems, whether or not the intrusion results in corruption or loss of data.

16. Long Connections and Multiple Logins. Using a personal account for high volume or commercial use is prohibited unless otherwise sanctioned by your individual contract, and/or service terms. The Services are intended for, but not limited to; periodic, active use of e-mail, newsgroups, file transfers, Internet chat, games, and browsing the World Wide Web. Members may stay connected so long as they are actively using that connection for the above purposes. Inactive or idle connections will be disconnected without notice after a period of 15 minutes. Connections may also be disconnected without notice after 8 hours of continuous connect time. Members may not use the Services on a standby or inactive basis in order to maintain a connection. Accordingly, Village Online maintains the right to terminate any member's connection following any extended period of inactivity as determined by Village Online. A single account is intended for one individual to access the Internet. Multiple logins under the same user ID are not allowed.

17. Fraud: Involves a knowing misrepresentation or misleading statement, writing or activity made with the intent that the person receiving it will act upon it.

18. Infringement of Copyright, Patent, Trademark, Trade Secret, or Intellectual Property Right: Distribution and/or posting of copyrighted or the aforementioned infringements will not be tolerated.

19. Distribution of Viruses: Intentional distributions of software that attempts to and/or causes damage, harassment, or annoyance to persons, data, and/or computer systems are prohibited. Such an offense will result in the immediate termination of the offending account.

20. Inappropriate Use of Software: Use of software or any device that would facilitate a continued connection, i.e. pinging, while using VILLAGE ONLINE services could result in suspension service.

21. Third Party Accountability: VILLAGE ONLINE subscribers will be held responsible and accountable for any activity by third parties, using their account, that violates guidelines created within the Acceptable Use Policy.

22. Your Personal Home Page Your account with VONL provides you with personal home page space. This space should not be used for commercial activities. VONL will not routinely monitor the contents of your personal home page. You are solely responsible for any information contained on your personal home page. However, if complaints are received regarding language, content or graphics contained on your personal home page, VONL may, at its sole discretion, remove the personal home page hosted on VONL servers and terminate your personal home page service. You may not use your personal home page site to publish material which VONL determines, at its sole discretion, to be unlawful, indecent or objectionable. For purposes of this policy, "material" refers to all forms of communications including narrative descriptions, graphics (including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs, video recordings, and audio recordings.

23. Additional E-mail Boxes All provisions of the Acceptable Use Policy apply to your use of extra e-mail boxes. Misuse of Extra E-mail Boxes services may result in termination of your account. As the primary account holder, you are responsible for all account activity. If a secondary mailbox is involved in a violation of the Acceptable Use Policy, your account, including all secondary mailboxes may be terminated. A terminated account will result in lost e-mail and Internet access for all users of your account. Therefore, it is important that your make sure everyone you will allow to use your account or a secondary mailbox understands all terms of this Acceptable Use Policy and the consequences of violations.

Security

You are responsible for any misuse of your account, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a friend, family member, guest or employee. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access to your account.  In addition, you may not use your account to breach security of another account or attempt to gain unauthorized access to another network or server.

• Your password provides access to your account. It is your responsibility to keep your password secure.
• Sharing your password and account access with unauthorized users is prohibited. You should take care to prevent others from using your account since you will be held responsible for such use.
• Attempting to obtain another user's account password is strictly prohibited, and may result in termination of service.
• You must adopt adequate security measures to prevent or minimize unauthorized use of your account.
• You may not attempt to circumvent 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 is prohibited. Examples of these tools include, but are not limited to, password, guessing programs, cracking tools or network probing tools.
• You may not attempt to interfere with service to any user, host or network ("denial of service attacks"). This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service, and attempts to "crash" a host.
• Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. VONL will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations.

Network Performance

VONL accounts operate on shared resources. Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer may have a negative impact on all other customers. Misuse of network resources in a manner which impairs network performance is prohibited by this policy and may result in termination of your account.

• You are prohibited from excessive consumption of resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space and session time. You may not use resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other customers or the performances of VONL systems or networks. VONL reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities.
• You may not establish more than one connection to our network from your account at any one time.
• Each customer account will be provided 10 MB of disk storage for each e-mail box. Messages left on VONL's mail servers for more than thirty days (30 days) are subject to immediate deletion read or unread. Total mailbox storage is limited to 10 MB per mailbox without regard to the age of the messages in the mailbox. Once the 10 MB limit is exceeded, any incoming messages will be returned to the sender until the subscriber reduces mailbox size by removing mail from the server.
• You may not employ automated electronic or mechanical processes designed to defeat network inactivity time-outs. Such tools include, but are not limited to, use of an auto-dialer and repetitive pinging of a host.

Internet Relay Chat

Although VONL does not offer technical support for Internet Relay Chat (IRC), you may use your account to connect to IRC servers and networks maintained by VONL or third parties. Please remember that you are a guest when you make use of these facilities. It is particularly important that you do not engage in activities which might interfere with other customers' access to IRC.

• You may not use IRC scripts or programs that interfere with or deny service to other users on any other server, host, network or channel.
• You may not engage in activities which harass other users. This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" (rapidly entering text with the intent to disrupt service), "flashing" (disrupting terminal emulation), "takeovers" (improper seizure and abuse of operator privileges), attempting to send private messages to those who do not wish to receive them, attempting to return to a channel after being banned from it, and other disruptive behaviors.
• You may not attempt to impersonate other users. The use of nicknames does not constitute impersonation.
• You may not run "clones" (multiple simultaneous IRC connections).

REPORTING VIOLATIONS OF VILLAGE ONLINE'S AUP

Village Online requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of this AUP direct the information to the Abuse Department at .

If available, please provide the following information:

• The IP addres(s) used to commit the alleged violation
• The date and time of the alleged violation, including the time zone or offset from GMT (ex: -500)
• Evidence of the alleged violation

E-mail with full header information provides all of the above, as do system log files. Other situations will require different methods of providing the above information. Village Online may take any one or more of the following actions in response to complaints:

1. Issue written or verbal warnings
2. Suspend the member's newsgroup posting or e-mail privileges
3. Suspend the member's account
4. Terminate the member's account
5. Bill the Member for administrative costs, clean-up costs, and/or reactivation charges
6. Bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect damages, if any, caused by violations

REVISIONS TO THIS ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Village Online reserves the right to revise, amend, or modify this AUP, our Terms and Conditions and our other policies and agreements at any time and in any manner. Notice of any revision, amendment, or modification will be posted in accordance with the Terms and Conditions.