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Terms of Service & Acceptable Usage Policy

Terms of Service & Acceptable Usage Policy

SBIM’s Acceptable Use Policy is provided to give our customers and users a clear understanding of what SBIM expects of them while using the service. All users of SBIM’s Internet services: those who access some of our services but do not have accounts, as well those who pay a service fee to subscribe to the services, must comply with this Acceptable Use Policy.

The use of SBIM’s Services (including Hosting, SiteCare (monthly maintenance, backup, security, monitoring etc), SSL, Domains & DNS Management) constitutes acceptance and agreement to SBIM’s Acceptable Use Policy as well as SBIM’s Terms of Service (TOS).

Important Notice: Refunds will be given at the discretion of SBIM Management. In the event of a breach of the Acceptable Use Policy refunds will NOT be provided.

SBIM supports 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 content of any website, e-mail transmission, newsgroups, or other material created or accessible over or through the services, except for certain proprietary Web sites. However, in accordance with our Terms of Service (TOS), we may remove any materials that, in our sole discretion, may be illegal, may subject us to liability, or which may violate this Acceptable Use Policy. SBIM may cooperate with legal authorities and/or third parties in the investigation of any suspected or alleged crime or civil wrongdoing. Your violation of this AUP may result in the suspension or immediate termination of either your SBIM account or other actions as detailed in Section 3 without prior notice.

This document is intended to provide a basic understand of SBIM’s Acceptable Use Policy. The following are guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of SBIM’s Acceptable Use Policy:

  • 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

SBIM intends to provide its customers access to everything the Internet has to offer. While SBIM is firmly committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities that may be damaging to the resources of both SBIM and the Internet, cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of SBIM 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.

You may not use your virtual site to publish material, which SBIM 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.

If a SBIM client account is used to violate the Acceptable Use Policy or our Terms of Service, 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@sbim.com.au.

Violations of SBIM’s Acceptable Use Policy

The following constitute violations of this AUP:

Illegal use: SBIM’s services may not be used for illegal purposes, or in support of illegal activities. SBIM reserves the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.

Harm to minors: Use of the SBIM’s service to harm, or attempt to harm, minors in any way, including, but not limited to child pornography.

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

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

Fraudulent activity: Use of SBIM’s 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.”

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 remailers or nicknames does not constitute impersonation.

Unsolicited commercial e-mail / Unsolicited bulk e-mail (SPAM): Use of the SBIM’s service to transmit any unsolicited commercial or unsolicited bulk e-mail is expressly prohibited. Violations of this type will result in the immediate termination of the offending SBIM client account.

You may not use your account to send unsolicited bulk or commercial messages (“SPAM”). This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, charity requests, petitions for signatures, and political or religious tracts. Such messages may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it.

Beginning immediately, anyone hosting websites or services on our server that support spammers or cause any of our IP space to be listed in any of the various SPAM Databases will have their account immediately removed from our network. The service will not be reconnected until such time that you agree to remove all traces of the offending material immediately upon reconnection and agree to allow us access your account or server to confirm that all material has been completely removed. Offenders will be charged at $330/hour for repair of damages related to SPAM and having IP space listed in any SPAM database. Severe violations may result in immediate and permanent removal of the account/server from our network without notice to the customer. Any account/server guilty of a second violation will be immediately and permanently removed from our network without notice.

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 SBIM account.

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

Usenet SPAMing: SBIM 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.

Unauthorized access: Use of the SBIM’s service to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others, or to penetrate, or attempt to penetrate, security measures of SBIM’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 SBIM account is subject to immediate termination.

Copyright, Intellectual Property or Trademark Infringement: Use of the SBIM’s service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that infringes any copyright, intellectual property, 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.

Torrents: We allow the hosting of torrent tracker sites for legal content only. Any host found to be allowing the tracking of copyright protected software applications or other data will face immediate suspension and account review. Please follow any request by copyright holders to remove links to downloadable files from your site. Ignoring these requests will only lead to them contacting our abuse department directly request immediate disconnection of your server. Hosting any kind of torrent services on a shared/reseller hosting account is prohibited.

Collection of personal data: Use of SBIM’s 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 SBIM’s service for any activity which affects the ability of other people or systems to use SBIM’s 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. SBIM 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.

System Resources: Any one site found to be utilizing in excess of 5% of the system resources at any given time shall be temporarily suspended. Web hosting accounts are not to be used for storage purposes. We reserve the right to terminate such account if we see fit.

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

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.

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 offence 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 SBIM’s services could result in suspension service.

Third Party Accountability: SBIM’s 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.

Violation of SBIM’s Services: It is absolutely forbidden to host illegal pornographic content whereas the subjects are under the age of majority, or IRC related services on shared hosting accounts. Shared hosting accounts found hosting this material will be subject to immediate cancellation without refund.

IRC networks: IRC in any form is strictly prohibited on our network, unless otherwise stated.

Game Servers: At this time we do not allow game server hosting on our network.

Security

You are responsible for any misuse of your account, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a client, 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. SBIM 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

SBIM’s virtual sites operate on shared resources. Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer (eg. in excess of 5% CPU usage) 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 SBIM’s systems or networks. SBIM reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities.

Uptime Guarantee:

Service Credit is not issued for issues relating to hardware failure such as RAID cards RAM, CPU’s, and Disk Drives, motherboards or any other hardware component required for the service to be provided. SBIM offers a “Best effort” guarantee on hardware related issues.

SBIM offers a 99.9% Network Uptime Guarantee. If your service has network downtime that is not within the 99.9% uptime guarantee service credit can be issued equal to the following

  • 99.9 = 0% – Downtime up to: 44 minutes 38 seconds
  • 99.9 – 99.5 = 5% – Downtime up to:3 hours 43 minutes 12 seconds
  • 99.4 – 98.5 = 10% – Downtime up to: 11 hours 9 minutes 36 seconds
  • 98.4 – 97.0 = 15% – Downtime up to: 14 hours 52 minutes 48 seconds
  • 96.9 – 96.0= 20% – Downtime up to: 29 hours 45 minutes 36 seconds
  • Below 95.9 = 30% – Downtime below: 30 hours 30 minutes 14 seconds

Network downtime does not include planned maintenance, incoming or outgoing DOS or DDOS attacks, or issues connecting to the service using third party software or connection issues brought on by customer changes to the service.

Approval of the credit is at the discretion of SBIM dependent upon justification provided. The uptime of a server is defined as the reported uptime by the server’s operating system. To request a credit, please submit a support ticket at support@sbim.zendesk.com. All requests must be made in writing via the Support Desk.

Uptime and SLA credit is calculated on a monthly basis.

SBIM’s staff members

Abuse of any kind in any communication between Client and Provider will not be tolerated. Provider reserves the right to Terminate Client Services for excessive abuse and the right to determine when to apply said Termination.

Billing, Refunds and Overdue Accounts

Refunds are provided at the discretion of SBIM Management. Setup fees, Domain Registration Fees Setup Fees and SSL Certificates are non-refundable.

Refunds are not issued for pre-paid periods such as quarterly, semi-annual, annual or bi-annual.

Without further notice overdue accounts will be suspended after 14 days. Accounts 14 days and older may attract a late fee equal to 10% of the total value of the invoice. Management reserves the right to suspend an overdue account prior to the 14 day notice at their sole discretion.

Without further notice, overdue accounts will be terminated after 30 days. Management reserves the right to terminate an overdue account prior to the 30 day notice at their sole discretion.

Chargebacks attract a $110 fee which is split up between an Administration fee of $55 and a Chargeback fee of $55.

Server Disconnections:

In the event of breach of SBIM’s AUP by abuse or non-payment, customer must pay a reconnection fee of $110/account/server.

Remote Hands:

Remote hands are billed and charged at a rate of AU $110/hour for basic support, and $220/hour for advanced support.

Data Integrity:

You use at your own risk, SBIM is not responsible for files and/or data residing on your account. You agree to take full responsibility for files and data transferred and to maintain all appropriate backup of files and data stored on SBIM’s servers.

Reporting Violations of SBIM’s Acceptable Use Policy

SBIM requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of this AUP direct the information to the Abuse Department at abuse@sbim.com.au.

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. SBIM may take any one or more of the following actions in response to complaints:

  • Issue written or verbal warnings
  • Suspend the Member’s account
  • Terminate the Member’s account
  • Bill the Member for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges
  • Bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect damages, if any, cause by violations

Account Cancellations

All account cancellations must be submitted 7 days before the next billing cycle, failure to do so will result in service being billed for an additional cycle. Cancellations must be submitted via writing to accounts@sbim.com.au, failure to submit the cancellation via this channel will result in the cancellation not being processed. Cancellation requests must also include the domain name associated with the account. You may be contacted shortly after the submission of your cancellation request, you must respond to complete the cancellation process.

Special offers and Coupon Usage

  • Specials are applicable to new customers only unless otherwise stated.
  • Existing customers can take advantage of new customer specials when they upgrade their service.
  • Specials are not applicable to downgrades.
  • Multiple specials cannot be used in conjunction with each other; only one special can be applied per order.
  • Services that have been downgraded then upgraded to take advantage of specials will have the order voided
  • Customers whom order multiple accounts can take advantage of new customer specials however they must maintain 2 or more of the same services at any one time to maintain the special offers.
  • SBIM reserves the right to cancel an order if they believe that a customer is trying to circumvent the system.
  • SBIM reserve the right to update and change specials at any time.

Revisions of the Acceptable Use Policy

SBIM reserves the right to revise, amend, or modify this AUP, our TOS (Terms of Service) and our other policies and agreements at any time and in any manner.