TERMS
OF SERVICE (TOS)
IMPORTANT
NOTICE: *All Payments To ChatStop Networks Servers Are
Non-Refundable*
ChatStop
Networks ("The Company") agrees to furnish services to the
Subscriber, subject to the following TOS (Terms of Service).
Use
of ChatStop Networks Service constitutes acceptance and agreement to ChatStop
Networks AUP as well as ChatStop Networks TOS (Terms of Service).
All
provisions of this contract are subject to the TOS (Terms of Service) of ChatStop
Networks and AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). The AUP may be changed from time to
time at the discretion of the Company. Subscriber understands that change to
the AUP by the Company shall not be grounds for early contract termination or
non-payment.
This
Agreement shall be construed in all respects in accordance with the laws of the
state of Michigan, county of Wayne
applicable to contracts enforceable in that state. Venue will be Wayne County, Michigan
- Disclosure to Law
Enforcement: The AUP specifically prohibits the use of our service for
illegal activities. Therefore, 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. In addition ChatStop Networks shall have the right to
terminate all service set forth in this Agreement.
- 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.
- Payment:
Establishment of this service is dependent upon receipt by the Company of
payment of stated charges. Subsequent payments are due on the anniversary
date of service. The above applies to all accounts and services provided
by ChatStop Networks.
- Payments and Fees: Payment
is accepted via PayPal (http://www.paypal.com)
only, unless prior arrangements have been made..
Service will be interrupted on accounts that are past due. Service
interrupted for nonpayment may be subject to a $30 reconnect charge.
Accounts not paid by due date may be subject to a $10.00 late fee. If you
desire to cancel your account, please follow the proper procedure to do
this as outlined in this TOS.
- Refund and Disputes:
All payments to ChatStop Networks are nonrefundable. This includes the one
time setup fee and subsequent charges regardless of usage. All overcharges
or billing disputes must be reported within 60 days of the time the
dispute occurred.
- Failure to Pay: The
Company may temporarily deny service or terminate this Agreement upon the
failure of Subscriber to pay charges when due. Such termination or denial
will not relieve Subscriber of responsibility for the payment of all
accrued charges, plus reasonable interest and any collection fees.
- Account Cancellation:
Requests for canceling accounts may be made in writing with at least 14
days notice but not more than 60 days prior notice and sent to:
chatmaster@chatstop.net. You
must have all account information to cancel.
- 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 beyond the
direct and exclusive control of the company. Subscriber further
acknowledges that the company's liability for its own negligence may not
in any event exceed an amount equivalent to charges payable by subscriber
for services during the period damages occurred. In no event shall the
company be liable for any special or consequential damages, loss or
injury.
- New Accounts: All new
accounts will be set up and entered into our servers within 3 days. Due to
unforeseen complications, however, this process may sometimes require up
to 7 business days. If a new domain is registered by the account holder,
there will be no handling fee. If the domain is registered by ChatStop
Networks on behalf of the account holder a handling fee will be incurred.
If the customer cancels service during the setup period for any reason,
all charges are considered earned.
- Support Boundaries: ChatStop
Networks, provides technical support to our current clientele. We limit our technical
support to our area of expertise. The following is our guidelines when
providing support: ChatStop Networks provides support related to your
servers physical functioning. ChatStop Networks does not offer tech
support for application specific issues such as cgi
programming, html or any other such issue. ChatStop Networks does not
provide technical support for YOUR customers. If you can email, we
encourage you to email chatmaster@chatstop.net for assistance. If you are
able to get online and have other questions, the answers may be on our
home page. - We encourage you to check there first. Lastly, the Help files
in the program you are using may have the answer to your question so
please do investigate these resources before calling tech support.
- SPAM, Unsolicited
Commercial Email (UCE) and Advertising: ChatStop Networks takes a zero
tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE), SPAM
and Advertising over our network or on other networks. Very simply this
means that customers of ChatStop Networks may not use or permit others to
use our network to transact in these activities. Customers of ChatStop
Networks may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is
advertised by UCE from or to other networks. In addition, it is not
acceptable to transmit bulk email through remote SOCKS, HTTP or other
similar proxies who in turn make a SMTP (TCP port 25) connection to the
destination mail servers. This technique may result in account suspension
or termination. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties,
including termination of service. In order to prevent unnecessary
blacklisting due to spam we reserve the right to occasionally sample bulk
email being sent from servers.
- Violation of ChatStop
Networks SPAM policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification
of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, ChatStop Networks will
initiate an immediate investigation (within 48 hours of notification).
During the investigation, ChatStop Networks may restrict customer access
to the network to prevent further violations. If a customer is found to
be in violation of our SPAM policy, ChatStop Networks may, at its sole
discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate customer's account. Further, ChatStop
Networks reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs
associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. ChatStop
Networks will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is
believed to be a criminal offense.
- First violations of
this policy will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $250 and
your account will be reviewed for possible immediate termination. A
second violation will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $500
and immediate termination of your account. Users who violate this policy
agree that in addition to these "Administrative" penalties,
they will pay "Research Fees" not to exceed $175 per hour that ChatStop
Networks personnel must spend to investigate the matter. PLEASE, DO NOT
SPAM or Advertise from your account.
- As our Customers
are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the ChatStop
Networks network, it is advisable that Customers develop a similar, or
stricter, policy for their clients.
- Network IP Address
Ownership: If ChatStop Networks assigns Customer an Internet Protocol
address for Customer's use, the right to use that Internet Protocol
address shall belong only to ChatStop Networks, and Customer shall have no
right to use that Internet Protocol address except as permitted by ChatStop
Networks in its sole discretion in connection with the Services, during
the term of this Agreement. ChatStop Networks shall maintain and control
ownership of all Internet Protocol numbers and addresses that may be
assigned to Customer by ChatStop Networks, and ChatStop Networks reserves
the right to change or remove any and all such Internet Protocol numbers
and addresses, in its sole and absolute discretion. Our allocation of IP
addresses is limited by ARIN's new policies.
These new policies state that use of IP addresses for IP based virtual
hosts will not be accepted as justification for new IP addresses.
- System and Network
Security: Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the
security of the ChatStop Networks Network. Violations of system or network
security may result in civil or criminal liability. ChatStop Networks 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. These violations include,
without limitation:
i.
Accessing data
not intended for such User or logging into a server or account, which such User
is not authorized to access.
ii.
Attempting to
probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach
security or authentication measures without proper authorization.
iii.
Attempting to
interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without
limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding", "mail
bombing" or "crashing".
iv.
Forging any
TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or
newsgroup posting.
v.
Taking any
action in order to obtain services to which such User is not entitled.
- Notification of
Violation: ChatStop Networks is under no duty to look at each customer's
or user's activities to determine if a violation of the AUP has occurred,
nor do we assume any responsibility through our AUP to monitor or police
Internet-related activities.
- First violation:
Any User, which ChatStop Networks determines to have violated any element
of this Acceptable Use Policy, shall receive an email, warning them of
the violation. The service may be subject at ChatStop Networks discretion
to a temporary suspension pending a User's agreement in writing, to
refrain from any further violations.
- Second Violation:
Users that ChatStop Networks determines 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.
- 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 network or a customer's network, or if denial of
service attacks are originating from your network. 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.
- Suspension of Service
or Cancellation: ChatStop Networks reserves the right to suspend network
access to any customer if in the judgment of the ChatStop Networks network
administrators the customer's server is the source or target of the violation
of any of the other terms of the AUP or for any other reason which ChatStop
Networks chooses. If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of
the Customer in question will be deactivated until an investigation is
complete. Prior notification to the Customer is not assured. In extreme
cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. The
customer will not be credited for the time the customer's machines were
suspended.
- Indemnification: ChatStop
Networks wishes to emphasize that in agreeing to the ChatStop Networks
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and Terms of Service (ToS),
customer indemnifies ChatStop Networks for any violation of the Acceptable
Use Policy (AUP) and Terms of Service (ToS) that
results in loss to ChatStop Networks or the bringing of any claim against ChatStop
Networks by any third-party. This means that if ChatStop Networks is sued
because of a customer's or a customer of a customer's activity, the
customer will pay any damages awarded against ChatStop Networks, plus all
costs and attorney's fees.
- Miscellaneous
Provisions: You must provide us with, and keep current, good contact
information for you. E-mail, and telephone
contacts are used, in that order of preference.
- A waiver by the
Company of any breach of any provision of this Agreement 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.
- Subscriber shall
not transfer or assign this Agreement without the prior written consent
of the Company. Company may assign Agreement at anytime without consent
from or notice to Subscriber. Company reserves right to cancel customers
rights under this contract at anytime without further obligation.
- ChatStop Networks
takes no responsibility for any material input by others and not posted
to the ChatStop Networks Network by ChatStop Networks. ChatStop Networks
is not responsible for the content of any other websites linked to the ChatStop
Networks Network; links are provided as Internet navigation tools only. ChatStop
Networks disclaims 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.
- ChatStop Networks
is not responsible for any damages your business may suffer. ChatStop
Networks does not make implied or written warranties for any of our
services. ChatStop Networks denies 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 ChatStop Networks.
- Responsibility for
Content: You, as ChatStop Networks customer,
are solely responsible for the content stored on and served by your ChatStop
Networks server.
- ChatStop Networks may
provide you access to other third party software and/or services
("Third Party Products ") through reseller relationships ChatStop
Networks has established with certain commercial vendors, including
without limitation. Unless otherwise notified, Customer understands that
product support for Third Party Products is provided by ChatStop Networks
and not by the Third Party Vendor. Neither ChatStop Networks nor any Third
Party Vendor makes any representations or warranties, express or implied,
regarding any Third Party Products. Customer 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 ChatStop Networks 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 ChatStop Networks 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. Customer 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 ChatStop
Networks 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.
- Denial of Service: We
reserve the right to refuse service to anyone at any time for any reason.
- Excessive Support: ChatStop Networks reserves the right to
determine when provided support has become excessive. Recovering a server due
to multiple server takeovers due to poor management, neglect or other factors
qualifies as excessive. When support has become excessive, a fee of $60.00 per
hour will be charged for any support during the remainder of the lease period,
with a minimum charge of 30 minutes (1/2
hour).