Vertical8seo.com HOSTING TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENT
This Terms of Service Agreement (TOS) is a formal and legally binding agreement between Vertical8seo.com (we, Company) and You, the service user (you, Subscriber). Use of our service constitutes acceptance and agreement to the TOS in full.
Contents:
I) Purpose and Overview of the TOS
II) Specific Violations of the TOS
III) Security
IV) Network Performance
V) Payment Policy
VI) General Operations
VII) Violation Reporting
VIII) Violation Procedures
IX) Miscellaneous Provisions
I) PURPOSE AND OVERVIEW OF THE TOS
The TOS is provided to give our Subscribers and users a clear understanding of what we expect of
them while using our services. All users of our services including those who access our services but
do not have accounts, as well as those who pay a service fee to subscribe to the services, must
comply with our TOS.
We support the uncensored flow of information and ideas over the Internet and do not actively
monitor subscriber activity under normal circumstances. Similarly, we do not exercise editorial
control over the content of any website, e-mail transmission, newsgroups, or other material created
or accessible over or through the services, except for certain proprietary websites. However, in
accordance with our TOS, we may remove any materials that, in our sole discretion, may be illegal,
may subject us to liability, or which may violate the TOS. We may cooperate with legal authorities
and/or third parties in the investigation of any suspected or alleged crime or civil wrongdoing.
Your violation of the TOS may result in the suspension or immediate termination of your account
without prior notice.
The following are guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of the TOS:
-Ensure reliable service to our customers
-Ensure security and privacy of our systems and network, as well as the networks and systems of
-others
-Comply with existing laws
-Maintain our reputation as a responsible service provider
-Encourage responsible use of the Internet and discourage activities which reduce the usability and
value of Internet services
-Preserve the value of Internet resources as a conduit for free expression and exchange of
information
-Preserve the privacy and security of individual users
While we are committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities that may be damaging to
the resources of both us and the Internet and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech.
The resources of us 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 you violate the TOS, we reserve the right to terminate your service without notice. We prefer to
advise Subscribers of inappropriate behavior and any necessary corrective action, however, flagrant
violations of the TOS 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.
II) SPECIFIC VIOLATIONS OF THE TOS
By using our services you agree not to commit any of the following specific violation of the TOS.
The following constitute specific violations of the TOS:
Illegal use: Our services may not be used for illegal purposes, or in support of illegal activities.
We reserve the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the
investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing. If anything is not legal in the United
States of America, it is not permitted to reside on our servers. If illegal content or usage is
found, the account will be suspended and/or terminated. Subscriber agrees that the Company may
disclose any and all subscriber information including assigned IP numbers, account history, account
use, etc. to any law enforcement agent who makes a written request without further consent or
notification to the Subscriber.
Harm to minors: Use of our service to harm, or attempt to harm, minors in any way, including, but
not limited to child pornography is prohibited. Violation of this policy will result in immediate
termination of your service and a report will be made to law enforcement authorities.
Threats: Use of our service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise)
that threatens or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property is prohibited.
Harassment: Use of our service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise)
that harasses another is prohibited.
Fraudulent activity: Use of our 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," "ponzi schemes," and
"chain letters" is prohibited This also includes any knowing misrepresentation or misleading
statement, writing or activity made with the intent that the person receiving it will act upon it.
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. Forging any message header, in part or
whole, of any electronic transmission, originating or passing through our service is in violation of
the TOS. The use of anonymous remailers or nicknames does not constitute impersonation.
Unsolicited commercial e-mail/Unsolicited bulk e-mail (SPAM): Use of our service to transmit any
unsolicited commercial or unsolicited bulk e-mail is expressly prohibited. Violation of this SPAM
policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM
policy, we will initiate an investigation. During the investigation, we may restrict Subscriber
access to the network to prevent further violations. If a Subscriber is found to be in violation of
our SPAM policy, we may, at our sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate the Subscriber's
account. Further, we reserve the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the
investigation of a substantiated policy violation. We will notify law enforcement officials if the
violation is believed to be a criminal offense. Anyone using our service to host websites or
services that support spammers or cause any of our IP space to be listed in any of the various Spam
Databases will have their account(s) immediately suspended. The account will not be unsuspended
until such time that you agree to remove any and all traces of the offending material immediately
upon reconnection. First violations of this policy will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $25 and
your account will be reviewed for possible immediate termination. Severe violations may result in
immediate and permanent removal of the account(s) from our network without notice to the customer. A
second violation will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $100 and immediate termination of your
account.
E-mail/News Bombing: Malicious intent to impede another person's use of electronic mail services or
news will result in the immediate termination of the offending account.
Usenet Abuse/Spamming: We have a zero tolerance policy for the use of our service for the posting of
messages or commercial advertisements which violate the rules, regulations, 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.
Unauthorized access: Use of our service to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others,
or to penetrate, or attempt to penetrate, security measures of ours 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
account is subject to immediate termination. 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. Violations of
system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. We will investigate
occurrences, which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement
authorities in prosecuting users who are involved in such violations.
Copyright or trademark infringement: Use of our 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 is prohibited.
This also includes intellectual property rights. Distribution and/or posting of copyrighted or the
aforementioned infringements will not be tolerated.
Collection of personal data: Use of the service to collect, or attempt to collect, personal
information about third parties without their knowledge or consent is prohibited.
Network disruptions and unfriendly activity: Use of the service for any activity which affects the
ability of other people or systems to use our services or the Internet is prohibited. 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. This includes, but is not
limited to: "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service, and attempts to
"crash" a host. It is the Subscriber's responsibility to ensure that their account(s) are configured
in a secure manner. A Subscriber may not, through action or inaction, allow others to use their
account for illegal or inappropriate actions. A Subscriber may not permit their account, through
action or inaction, to be configured in such a way that gives a third party the capability to use
their account 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. We 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. We
reserve the right, to drop the section of IP space involved in Spam or Denial-of-Service complaints
if it is clear that the offending activity is causing great harm to parties on the Internet. In
particular, if open relays are on your account, or if denial of service attacks are originating from
your account. In certain rare cases, we may have to do this before attempting to contact you. If we
do this, we will contact you as soon as is feasible.
Distribution of Viruses: Intentional distributions of software or anything 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.
Inappropriate Use of Software: Use of software or any device that would facilitate a continued
connection, i.e. pinging, while using our services could result in suspension of service.
IRC networks: It is forbidden to host IRC (Internet Relay Chat) that is part of or connected to
another IRC network or server. Accounts found to be connecting to or part of these networks will be
immediately suspended without notice. The account will not be unsuspended until such time that you
agree to remove any and all traces of the offending material immediately upon reconnection. Severe
violations may result in immediate and permanent removal of the account(s) from our network without
notice to the customer. Any user who commits a second violation will be immediately and permanently
removed from our network without notice.
Streaming Video and Audio: Streaming Video and Audio is not permitted on our servers. You must zip
the content to prevent this if you wish to have it hosted, and like everything else this content
must be legal and in compliance with our copyright guidelines.
Eggdrop Scripts: Eggdrop scripts/bots and IRC bots of any type are not allowed, these are grounds
for immediate account deletion.
Adult Material: Adult Material is not allowed, unless specified in your package deal. If a website
is found to contain adult material that is not on an adult approved server/package, the website will
be suspended.
Objectionable Material: You may not use our service to publish material, which we determine, at our
sole discretion, to be unlawful, indecent or objectionable. For purposes of this policy, "material"
refers to all forms of communications including but not limited to: narrative descriptions, graphics
(including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs, video
recordings, and audio recordings. If you unsure if your content is objectionable, please contact us
before posting it.
Chinese Forums: Chinese Forums are not allowed on our network. These sites require too much CPU
usage. They almost require a dedicated server to run properly. If they are found on any server we
will suspend and/or terminate them.
ANIME: Anime websites are not allowed on our network. If an Anime website is found we will terminate
the account. These sites are not allowed on our servers because most of them are illegal.
III) SECURITY
By using our services you agree to adopt adequate security measures to prevent or minimize
unauthorized use of your account. 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.
Subscribers will be held responsible for any activity by third parties using their accounts in a way
that violates the TOS. 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.
Subscribers who are resellers are responsible for enforcing the TOS to all of their clients. If
their clients are found to be violating the TOS, we will suspend and or/terminate the offending site
and let the reseller know. It is advisable that you adopt similar or stricter policies than ours.
Our Subscribers may use and/or modify a copy of our TOS for use on their website(s).
IV) NETWORK PERFORMANCE
By using our service you agree to abide by this policy. Our services 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 our systems or networks. We reserve the right to terminate or limit
such activities.
Policy for Unlimited Accounts: Unlimited Accounts are indeed unlimited. These accounts may not to be
used to host a collection of MP3's, Warez, or to backup your computer or another source. They may
not be used for general storage of any type. All content stored on an unlimited account must be
directly used on the Internet by the website associated with that account. These accounts may not be
used as a download distribution point for your bundled software. They are to be used for standard
web practices only. This means that all content stored on an unlimited account must be used for
?normal? website use. ?Un-normal? usage is anything that a shared server would not be able to
provide under standard circumstances. If your account requires resources that are not able to be
provided by a shared server, we may require you to rent a dedicated server. If you are unsure of
whether your account may violate this policy, please contact us prior to subscribing.
V) PAYMENT POLICY
By using our services you agree to the following payment policy and instructions.
Refunds: We offer a seven-day money-back guarantee. If during the first seven days after subscribing
you are unhappy with the service you may submit a refund request. Any such request must be made in
writing and must be made before the end of seven days from the moment your initial payment was made.
In such case your payment will be refunded (less any set-up fees or special costs) and your account
will be deleted from our network upon refunding. The seven-day money-back guarantee only applies to
the first payment made on a new account. After the initial seven-day period, no refunds will be made
at any time for the first payment on a new account. All subsequent payments made to
Vertical8seo.com are absolutely non-refundable. If you dispute a charge to your credit card issuer
or take any action that results in a payment being reversed that, in our sole discretion is a valid
charge under the provisions of the TOS, you agree to pay us an "Administrative Fee" of $100.
Payment/Subscription: Establishment of this service is dependent upon receipt by the Company of
payment of stated charges. We require that all Subscribers use an automatically recurring payment
subscription through one of our payment processors (currently Paypal). Your recurring
subscription must remain active at all times for your account to remain activated. If a subscription
becomes inactive and/or is cancelled, we will suspend the account and issue a warning to the
Subscriber to their email address on file. If the subscription is not rectified within 7-days of the
warning we will delete the account from the server. If it is a reseller account we will also delete
any domains ?under? the primary account. Such termination or denial will not relieve Subscriber of
responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges, plus reasonable interest and any collection
fees. We may allow some users to purchase our services with a one-time payment or subscription that
is not automatically recurring. Any such allowance does not forfeit our right to require any such
user to activate a recurring subscription at any time.
Cancellation: All cancellations must be made by the subscriber by canceling their recurring
subscription. We will not comply with verbal or written requests to cancel accounts. It must be done
by canceling the subscription with the payment processor. Upon notification that a subscription has
been cancelled we will delete the Subscriber's account from the server. We will not wait until the
end of any advertised or perceived billing cycle, and we will not refund any unused portions of any
subscription payment. We require that a recurring subscription be active at all times and will
therefore delete the account upon termination of the subscription.
Service Rates: Subscriber acknowledges that the nature of the service furnished and the initial
rates and charges have been communicated to Subscriber. Subscriber is aware that the Company may
prospectively change the specified rates and charges from time to time. The promotional offer is
contingent upon Company achieving and maintaining its cost of service goals including but not
limited to rates charged to company by its suppliers.
VI) GENERAL OPERATIONS
By using our service you agree to the following policy and limitations pertaining to our services.
Uptime: Subscriber acknowledges that the service provided is of such a nature that service can be
interrupted for many reasons other than the negligence of the Company and that damages resulting
from any interruption of service are difficult to ascertain. Therefore, Subscriber agrees that the
Company shall not be liable for any damages arising from such causes. In no event shall the Company
be liable for any special or consequential damages, loss or injury. Although many of our own network
providers guarantee an uptime of 99% or more, we make no guarantees about uptime performance because
we realize there are influencing factors that are outside of our control, and in most cases even
outside the control of the data centers and network providers we work with.
Support Boundaries: We provide technical support to our Subscribers. We limit our technical support
to our areas of expertise. We provide support related to your account or virtual site?s physical
functionality. We do not offer tech support for application specific issues such as cgi programming,
html, or any other such issue. We do not provide technical support for your customers, unless an
outsourced support subscription has been purchased. We provide a variety of support information and
options to our Subscribers. These support options can be found on the support page of our website.
Abuse of Our Staff or Network Staff: Abuse towards our staff or our network staff will not be
tolerated. If you use foul language, threaten us, or do anything we find offensive, we may suspend
and/or delete your account. Per our payment policy we offer no refunds.
Internet Protocol (IP) Address Ownership: If we assign a Subscriber an IP address for the
Subscriber's use, the right to use that IP address shall belong only to us, and Subscriber shall
have no right to use that IP address except as permitted by us in our sole discretion in connection
with the services. We shall maintain and control ownership of all IP numbers and addresses that may
be assigned to Subscriber by us, and we reserve the right to change or remove any and all such IP
numbers and addresses, in our sole and absolute discretion. Our allocation of IP addresses is
limited by the policies set forth by ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers). These policies
state that use of IP addresses for IP-based virtual hosts will not be accepted as justification for
new IP addresses. What this means to you is that you MUST use name-based hosting where possible. We
will periodically review IP address usage, and if we find that clients are using IP addresses where
name-based hosting could be used, we will revoke authorization to use those IP addresses that could
be used with name-based hosting.
Bandwidth and Disk Usage: Subscriber agrees that bandwidth shall not exceed 1GB per month
or 100MB per day. Subscriber agrees that Disk usage will not exceed 100MB.
We will monitor Subscriber's bandwidth and disk usage. We have the right to
take corrective action if Subscriber's bandwidth or disk usage exceeds the Agreed Usage in our
sole discretion. Such corrective action may include the assessment of additional charges, or
disconnection or discontinuance of the service. If
we take any corrective action under this section, Subscriber shall not be entitled to a refund of
any fees paid in advance prior to such action.
VII) VIOLATION REPORTING
By using our service you agree to report violations of the TOS to us. Anyone who believes that there
is a violation of our TOS should direct such information to us by email immediately. If available,
please provide the following information:
-The IP address used to commit the alleged violation
-The date and time of the alleged violation, including the time zone or offset from GMT
-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. We may take any one or
more of the following actions in response to complaints:
-Issue written or verbal warnings
-Suspend the Subscriber's newsgroup posting privileges
-Suspend the Subscriber's account
-Terminate the Subscriber's account
-Bill the Subscriber for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges
-Bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect damages, if any, cause by violations
VIII) VIOLATION PROCEDURES
By using our services you understand and agree with the following procedures and policies.
We are under no duty to look at each Subscriber's or user's activities to determine if a violation
of the TOS has occurred, nor do we assume any responsibility through our TOS to monitor or police
Internet-related activities.
First violation: Any Subscriber, which we determine to have violated any element of the TOS, shall
receive an email, warning them of the violation. The service may be subject at our discretion to a
temporary suspension pending a Subscriber's agreement in writing, to refrain from any further
violations.
Second Violation: Subscribers that we determine to have committed a second violation of any element
of this Acceptable Use Policy shall be subject to immediate suspension or termination of service
without further notice.
Suspension of Service or Cancellation: We reserve the right to suspend network access to any
Subscriber if in the judgment of the network administrators the customer's account is the source or
target of the violation of the TOS or for any other reason which we choose. If inappropriate
activity is detected, all accounts of the Subscriber in question will be deactivated until an
investigation is completed. Prior notification to the Subscriber is not assured. In extreme cases,
law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity.
IX) MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Indemnification: In agreeing to the TOS, Subscriber indemnifies us for any violation of the TOS that
results in loss to us or the bringing of any claim against us by any third-party. This means that if
we are sued because of a Subscriber's or a customer of a Subscriber's activity, the Subscriber will
pay any damages awarded against us, plus all costs and attorney's fees.
Contact Information: You must provide us with, and keep current, good contact information for
yourself including an E-mail address and telephone number. If we fail to communicate any information
to you due to a non-current, inoperative, or incorrect email address you are still responsible and
accountable for any such information we attempted to communicate.
Waiver: A waiver by the Company of any breach of any provision of the TOS by Subscriber shall not
operate as or be construed as a continuing or subsequent waiver thereof or as a waiver of any breach
of any other provision thereof.
Assignment: Subscriber shall not transfer or assign the TOS without the prior written consent of the
Company. Company may assign the TOS at anytime without consent from or notice to Subscriber. Company
reserves the right to cancel Subscriber's rights under this contract at any time without further
obligation.
3rd Party Disclaimer: We take no responsibility for any material input by others and not posted to
our website by us. We are not responsible for the content of any other websites linked to us; links
are provided as Internet navigation tools only. We disclaim any responsibility for any such
inappropriate use and any liability to any person or party for any other person or party's violation
of this policy.
Disclaimer of warranties: We are not responsible for any damages your business may suffer. We do not
make implied or written warranties for any of our services. We deny any warranty or merchantability
for a specific purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong
delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by us.
3rd Party Software and Services: We may provide you access to third party software and/or services
("Third Party Products ") through reseller relationships we have established with certain commercial
vendors. Subscriber understands that product support for Third Party Products is provided by us and
not by the Third Party Vendor, unless otherwise notified. Neither us nor any Third Party Vendor
makes any representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding any Third Party Products.
Subscriber expressly acknowledges and agrees that use of third party products is at customer's sole
risk and such third party products are provided "as is" and without representation or warranty of
any kind from us or any third party vendor, including without limitation, any implied warranty of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy or completeness of responses or results,
correspondence to description, or non-infringement of third party rights. To the maximum extent
permitted by applicable law, neither us nor any third party vendor will be legally responsible for
any damages, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from the use or inability to use
any third party product. Subscriber agrees to observe the terms of any license and/or applicable
end-user subscriber agreement for third party products and that customer shall be fully liable to
third party vendors and us with respect to any improper use of such third party products or
violation of license agreements with them and/or applicable end user subscriber agreements.
Subscriber agrees not to remove, modify or obscure any copyright, trademark or other proprietary
rights notices that appear on Third Party Products or that appear during the use of Third Party
Products. Subscriber further agrees not to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Third
Party Products.
Revisions to the TOS: We reserve the right to revise, amend, or modify the TOS at any time and in
any manner. In such case the amended or revised TOS will be posted to our website. Subscriber
understands that changes to the TOS shall not be grounds for early contract termination or
non-payment.
Location and Severability: The TOS shall be construed in all respects in accordance with the laws of
the State of Colorado. If any part of the TOS is found to be invalid or unenforceable by law, the
remainder of the TOS will remain enforceable and in full effect.