Acceptable Use Policy

Introduction

As a provider of website hosting and other Internet-related services, Salama Hosting (referred to as "we", "our", or "us") offers its customer (also known as “Subscribers”) and their customers and users the means to acquire and disseminate a wealth of public, private, commercial and non-commercial information. Salama Hosting respects that the Internet provides a forum for free and open discussion and dissemination of information. However, when there are competing interests at issue, Salama Hosting reserves the right to take certain preventive or corrective actions. In order to protect these competing interests, Salama Hosting has developed an Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), which supplements and explains certain terms of each customer’s respective service agreement, and is intended as a guide to the customer’s rights and obligations when using Salama Hosting’ services. This AUP will be revised from time to time. You will be held responsible for all actions performed by your account whether done by you or by others! If server security is compromised, the account holder is responsible for all violations of Salama Hosting’ Terms of Service (the “Terms of Service”) and this Acceptable Use Policy (this “AUP”), including SPAM, and all disconnect and reconnect fees associated with violations.

One important aspect of the Internet is that no one party owns or controls it. This fact accounts for much of the Internet’s openness and value, but it also places a high premium on the judgment and responsibility of those who use it, both in the information they acquire and in the information they disseminate to others. When subscribers obtain information through the Internet, they must keep in mind that Salama Hosting cannot monitor, verify, warrant or vouch for the accuracy and quality of the information they acquire. For this reason, the subscriber must exercise his or her best judgment in relying on information obtained from the Internet, and also should be aware that some material posted to the Internet may be sexually explicit or otherwise offensive. Because Salama Hosting cannot monitor or censor the Internet, and will not attempt to do so, Salama Hosting cannot accept any responsibility for injury to its subscribers resulting from inaccurate, unsuitable, offensive or illegal Internet communications.

The Primary Purpose of Salama Hosting is to provide our clients with the resources necessary to put their Internet services online reliably in a lightning fast, high availability environment that responds quickly to each client’s individual needs.

The client is ultimately responsible for individual server security. Salama Hosting disclaims all liability for server content.

When subscribers disseminate information from the Internet, they must keep in mind that Salama Hosting does not review, edit, censor or take responsibility for any information its subscribers may create. When users place information on the Internet, they have the same liability as other authors for copyright infringement, defamation and other harmful speech. Also, because the information created is carried over Salama Hosting’ network and may reach a large number of people, including both subscribers and nonsubscribers of Salama Hosting, subscribers’ postings to the Internet may affect other subscribers and may affect Salama Hosting’ goodwill, business, reputation or operations. For these reasons, subscribers violate Salama Hosting policy and the Service Agreement when they, their customers, affiliates or subsidiaries engage in the following prohibited activities:

Network Misuse

All clients are allowed access to the public and private network; however misuse of the network in any way, including interference, will result in a violation of this AUP. All violations of this AUP shall be subject to review by Salama Hosting, and an appropriate course of action shall be taken as determined by Salama Hosting in its sole discretion. Proper use of public network must comply with all local, state, and federal laws. Clients assume full liability for all content which they place on the server. Content displaying or transferring acts of copulation or exposed genitalia is prohibited, regardless of context. Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting is deemed a violation of this AUP.

Spamming (Shared Hosting)

Sending unsolicited bulk and/or commercial information over the Internet is not only harmful because of its negative impact on consumer attitudes toward Salama Hosting, but also because it can overload Salama Hosting’s network and disrupt service to Salama Hosting’ subscribers. Also, maintaining an open SMTP relay is prohibited. When a complaint is received, Salama Hosting will investigate and shutdown the account that is SPAMing. A $250 charge for violating this policy will be charged to the person initiating the SPAM. Furthermore Salama Hosting reserves the right to prosecute for this violation. A $1.00 charge will be assessed PER EMAIL sent should Salama Hosting choose to pursue and prosecute.

Spamming (Dedicated Servers / VPS / Cloud Servers)

Salama Hosting reserves the right to deny mail delivery from any servers hosted on our network if they are believed to be involved in SPAM or SPIM activities. This includes spam support services such as DNS or spamvertised web sites. Our abuse department will locate abusive servers based on public blacklist monitors, abuse reporting from external networks, and other means. If our abuse department receives a report or otherwise becomes aware of abuse-related activities active on our network, we will identify the server the abuse was initially sent from (via IP and in some cases by domain).

In this event, your account is subject to immediate termination with or without notification. See also: Refund Policy.

Salama Hosting reserves the right to refuse services to any client whose account(s) have been fined or terminated for abuse-related activities. If an IP range or IP address has been blacklisted as a result of excessive abuse reports, Salama Hosting reserves the right to issue a fine of $200 and immediately terminate the service.

Compromised servers issued abuse notifications: if our abuse department suspects that abuse reports associated with a client’s server are a result of the server’s security being compromised, our abuse department will offer the following options:

• At the discretion of our abuse department, we will typically offer the ability to log in to the server and remedy the security compromise while leaving the abusive traffic filtered.
• Offer an Operating System reinstallation, setting the configuration back to the original state it was provisioned in.
• If Operating System reinstallation is not accepted as an option, Salama Hosting may offer to manually retrieve/repair the files on the server, at a fee to be assessed and paid prior to any work being done.
• Habitual security compromises that result in abusive traffic being transmitted or received from the server may result in service termination.
• If a client wishes to dispute any abuse reports, or any fine assessed in connection with abuse reports or blacklistings, the client must provide Salama Hosting with an explanation via our ticketing system within 10 days of the abuse ticket being opened.

Adult-Oriented Content

Salama Hosting permits adult content that is legal in nature. Salama Hosting has zero-tolerance for illicit contents, including the uploading or distributing sexual material involving minors. Salama Hosting will suspend/terminate any offending account immediately and forward the user details to the appropriate authorities for prosecution.

Obscene Speech or Materials

Using Salama Hosting’s network to advertise, transmit, store, post, display, or otherwise make available child pornography or obscene speech or material is prohibited. Salama Hosting is required by law to notify law enforcement agencies when it becomes aware of the presence of child pornography on or being transmitted through its network.

Defamatory or Abusive Language

Using Salama Hosting’s network as a means to transmit or post negative, defamatory, harassing, abusive or threatening language.

Sabotage

Any type of sabotage, regardless of intention, shall be grounds for termination of an account. This includes but is not limited to abuse of the remote reboot system by using it multiple times in a very short amount of time for improper reasons. Private Backbone Network (Private Tunnel).

Network Security

Clients are required and obligated to maintain all security on their servers. Any and all additional charges that are incurred due to client lack of monitoring or security are the responsibility of the client.

Monitoring Policy

Salama Hosting does not actively monitor the content on its servers. Dedicated server content will only be reviewed upon complaint. Content that does not violate local, state and federal law or this AUP or the Terms of Service is deemed in compliance and shall remain intact. If content is deemed to be in violation of this AUP or the Terms of Service, it shall be reviewed by Salama Hosting, and a course of action shall be taken to correct the problem, which may result in termination of the account or service.

Blacklist Policy

If any client or any third-party user that is a customer of our client uses Salama Hosting services, network, or its physical infrastructure in a manner that causes Salama Hosting, or any IP addresses issued by Salama Hosting to be “blacklisted” or “blocked”, Salama Hosting reserves the right to suspend or terminate services of such client and/or suspend or terminate the access to services, network, and/or its physical infrastructure. Operating Salama Hosting service on behalf of, or in connection with or reselling any service to persons or firms listed in the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations database at www.spamhaus.org shall constitute a violation of this AUP.

IP Addresses

All IPs addresses issued by Salama Hosting are the sole property of Salama Hosting. Clients retain no ownership rights to any IP addresses issued by Salama Hosting. Clients may not transfer IPs from Salama Hosting. Any client purchasing over 16 IP addressed in addition to their server may be required to submit ARIN justification forms as well as submit to additional terms depending on the number of IP addresses desired. For more information about IP Addresses, please contact read ARIN's Number Resource Policy Manual.

IRC / BitTorrent / P2P

IRC Usage shall be allowed on dedicated servers unless such usage is abused or creates or enhances any type of problem(s) with Salama Hosting’ services or network. It is also deemed a violation of this AUP if it is determined that IRC is the cause or root of a service interruption to other users. Clients may not operate and maintain IRC servers which connect to global IRC networks such as Undernet, EFnet and DALnet. Use of IRC plug-ins, scripts, add-ons, clones or other software designed to disrupt or deny service to other users is prohibited. If a client’s IRC servers are frequently compromised or attract denial of service or distributed denial of service attacks that disrupt or deny service to other clients or users, then Salama Hosting may null-route, filter, suspend, or terminate that client’s service. Salama Hosting allows the use of both Peer to Peer as well as Bit Torrent, but we do not permit the transfer of illegal content. Use of IRC/Bittorrent/P2P on shared hosting is strictly prohibited.

Violation Claims

Any claim of violation of this AUP that is being submitted by a third party must include the name and contact information of the complaining party, the IP address from which the alleged complaint originated, and a description of the violation. This AUP applies to all users of servers provided by Salama Hosting, including without limitation the customers, clients and other users of our clients.

Salama Hosting reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to refuse new service to any individual, group, or business. Salama Hosting also retains the right to discontinue service for any client for any reason or no reason and at any time, including without limitation for violation of this AUP.

Forging of Headers

Forging or misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the originator of the message.

Illegal or Unauthorized Access to Other Computers or Networks

Accessing, illegally or without authorization, computers, accounts or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another individual’s system (often known as “hacking”). Also, any activity that may be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (i.e., port scan, stealth scan or other information-gathering activity).

Distribution of Internet Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses or Other Destructive Activities

Distributing information regarding the creation of and sending Internet viruses, worms, Trojan horses, pinging, flooding, mail bombing or denial of service attacks (DDoS). Also, activities that disrupt the use of or interfere with the ability of others to effectively use the network or any connected network, system, service or equipment.

Facilitation a Violation of this AUP

Advertising, transmitting or otherwise making available any software, program, product or service that is designed to violate this AUP, which includes the facilitation of the means to spam, initiation of pinging, flooding, mail bombing, denial of service attacks and piracy of software.

Export Control Violations

Exporting encryption software over the Internet or otherwise, to points outside the United States.

Usenet Groups

Salama Hosting reserves the right not to accept postings from newsgroups where we have actual knowledge that the content of the newsgroup violates the AUP.

Illegal Activities

Engaging in activities that are determined to be illegal, including, but not limited to, false-advertising, transmitting or otherwise making available Ponzi schemes, fraudulently charging credit cards and pirating software (or distributing pirated software) (see also: DMCA Policy).

Other Activities

Engaging in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that Salama Hosting determines to be harmful to its subscribers, operations, reputation, goodwill or customer relations.

As we have pointed out, the responsibility for avoiding harmful activities just described rests primarily with the subscriber. Salama Hosting will not, as an ordinary practice, monitor the communications of its subscribers to ensure that they comply with Salama Hosting’ policy or applicable law. However, when Salama Hosting becomes aware of harmful activities, it may take any action to stop the harmful activity, including, but not limited to, removal of information, shutting down a web site, implementing screening software designed to block offending transmissions, denying access to the Internet, or any other action deemed appropriate by Salama Hosting.

Salama Hosting is also aware that many of its subscribers are themselves providers of Internet services, and that information reaching Salama Hosting’s facilities from those subscribers may have originated from a customer of the subscriber or from another third party. Salama Hosting does not require its subscribers who offer Internet services to monitor or censor transmissions or web sites created by customers of its subscribers. Salama Hosting reserves the right to directly take action against a customer of its subscribers. Also, Salama Hosting may take action against the Salama Hosting’s subscriber because of activities of a customer of the subscriber, even though the action may affect other customers of the subscriber. Similarly, Salama Hosting anticipates that subscribers who offer Internet services will cooperate with Salama Hosting in any corrective or preventive action that Salama Hosting deems necessary. Failure to cooperate with such corrective or preventive measures is a violation of Salama Hosting’s policy.

Salama Hosting will not intentionally monitor private electronic mail messages sent or received by its subscribers, unless required to do so by law, governmental authority or when public safety is at stake. Salama Hosting may, however, monitor its service electronically to determine that its facilities are operating satisfactorily. Also, Salama Hosting may disclose information, including, but not limited to, information concerning a subscriber, a transmission made using our network, or a web site, in order to comply with a court order, subpoena, summons, discovery request, warrant, statute, regulation or governmental request. Salama Hosting assumes not obligation to inform the subscriber that subscriber information has been provided and, in some cases, may be prohibited by law from giving such notice. Finally, Salama Hosting may disclose subscriber information or information transmitted over its network where necessary to protect Salama Hosting and others from harm, or where such disclosure is necessary to the proper operation of the system. However, Salama Hosting will never sell information to other services or outside companies.

Salama Hosting expects that its subscribers who provide Internet services to others will comply fully with all applicable laws concerning the privacy of online communications. A subscriber’s failure to comply with those laws will violate Salama Hosting policy. Finally, Salama Hosting wishes to emphasize that, in signing the Service Agreement, subscribers indemnify Salama Hosting for any violation of the Service Agreement, law or Salama Hosting policy resulting in loss to Salama Hosting or the bringing of any claim against Salama Hosting by any third party. This means that, if Salama Hosting is sued because of a subscriber’s or customer of a subscriber’s activity, the subscriber will be responsible for payment of any damages awarded against Salama Hosting, plus costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.