Acceptable Use Policy
Effective July 23, 1999
At First Internet Corporation ("FIC"), we value our customers and wish to offer them the ability to use and enjoy our network and services (the "FIC Service") in the ways that help them most in their business, recreation, and family life. However, to help us offer you the best service we can, we need to set some rules that everyone will follow. These policies are intended to make the FIC Service available to all our customers as consistently and efficiently as possible. While FIC does not monitor your use, you are obligated to adhere to these policies. These policies are part of your terms of service agreement, and violating them means we can take appropriate action to restrict or terminate your access to the FIC Service.
1. User-Supplied Content. Through the FIC Service, you may have access to chat areas, bulletin boards, Web pages, electronic mail (e-mail), Usenet or other newsgroups, or other services that enable you to send or post materials ("Content"), and make that Content available to others. You must not submit, publish, or display on the FIC Service any defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, obscene, infringing, or threatening Content, or Content that violates any federal, state, or local laws. You are solely responsible for the Content you make available through the FIC Service. FIC is not obligated to monitor the FIC Service to examine the Content available through it. You hereby acknowledge that if FIC is made aware of Content that FIC deems in its sole discretion to be unacceptable, undesirable, offensive, indecent, obscene, excessively violent, or otherwise objectionable, FIC has the right, but not the obligation, to edit, remove, or deny access to such Content. FIC may report to legal authorities any Content that is or is accused to be unlawful, and may disclose to such authority that you are the author of that Content.
2. Intellectual Property Rights. Material accessible to you through the FIC Service may be subject to protection under the United States or other copyright laws, laws protecting trademarks, trade secrets, or proprietary information. Except as expressly permitted by the owner of such rights, you must not use the FIC Service in a manner that would infringe, violate, dilute, or misappropriate any such rights, with respect to any material that you access or receive through the FIC Service. If you use a domain name in connection with the First Internet Host service or similar services, you must not use that domain name in violation of the trademark, service mark, or similar rights of any third party.
3. Lawful Use. You must use the FIC Service only strictly in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, and regulations. You may not use the FIC Service to assist any other person or entity to violate any federal, state, or local laws, ordinances, or regulations.
4. Netiquette. You should only use the FIC Service in a manner consistent with the principles of netiquette, which may be found at http://info.internet.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc/files/rfc1855.txt. You must not use the FIC Service in a manner that will disrupt third parties' use or enjoyment of the FIC Service or other communications services and outlets, or use the FIC Service to invade the privacy of third parties; impersonate FIC personnel; or post material in the Usenet or any other newsgroup that is off-topic according to the charter or other public statement of the Usenet or any other newsgroup. You must not use the FIC Service to solicit other members to patronize competing services, to violate or tamper with the security of the FIC Service, or to attempt to utilize another member's account name or persona without authorization from that member.
5. Mass Mailings. You must not use the FIC Service, FIC's equipment, or any FIC e-mail address in connection with the sending of the same or substantially similar unsolicited e-mail message, whether commercial or not, to more than one recipient. This prohibition extends to the sending of unsolicited mass mailings from another service that in any way implicates the use of the FIC Service, FIC's equipment, or any FIC e-mail address. A message is considered unsolicited if it is posted in violation of a newsgroup charter or if it is sent to a recipient who has not requested or invited the message. For purposes of this provision, merely making one's e-mail address accessible to the public will not constitute a request or invitation to receive messages. Without limiting the above, you must not use the FIC Service, FIC's equipment, or any FIC e-mail address in connection with the transmission of the same or substantially similar unsolicited message to 50 or more recipients or 15 or more Usenet newsgroups or other newsgroups in a single day. For each day that your e-mail use is in excess of the limitations of this provision, you must pay FIC additional service charges for such excess use. You must pay FIC US$10 per day if you unintentionally exceed the limitations of this provision, but where warranted, such as in the case of an accidental transmission, FIC may waive all or part of the applicable charge. If you intentionally exceed the limitations of this provision, you must pay FIC US$500 per day. FIC at its sole discretion may determine whether your use was unintentional or willful. Payment by you under this provision will not prevent FIC from seeking to obtain legal remedies against you for any damages FIC may incur as a result of such use, including damages or an injunction.
6. Storage Capacity. Your storage space and bandwidth utilization on the FIC Service must remain within the storage space and bandwidth allocations associated with the access plan you have selected. For personal dial-up accounts, FIC will provide 2 megabytes of e-mail storage for you, and you are responsible for ensuring that e-mail stored by you will not exceed this limit. For First Internet Host and similar accounts, these allocations are set forth in the Key Points Memorandum. Additional storage space and bandwidth may be available at an additional charge. Please contact FIC if you are interested.
7. Traffic and Hits. If you publish any Web page or site using the FIC Service, the usage of that Web page or site should be consistent with the access plan you have chosen. For dial-up accounts, FIC may suspend or terminate access to your Web page or site if FIC determines that the Web page or site has, on any single day, received download traffic of 50 megabytes or more.
8. Third Party Rules, Licenses, and Terms of Service. Through the FIC Service, you may have access to search engines, subscription Web services, chat areas, bulletin boards, Web pages, Usenet or other newsgroups, or other services that promulgate rules, guidelines, or agreements to govern their use. You must adhere to any such rules, guidelines, or agreements. In addition, if you use any software or data in connection with or through the FIC Service, you must use that software or data in accordance with any applicable license agreements.
9. Dial-Up Use. Dial-up access to the FIC Service is intended for periodic, active use of e-mail, Usenet or other newsgroups, file transfers via FTP, Internet relay chat, interactive games, and browsing of the World Wide Web. You must not use the FIC Service to operate server programs, including, but not limited to mail servers, IRC servers, FTP servers, or Web servers. You must not use dial-up access to the FIC Service on a standby or inactive basis to maintain a connection. Automated electronic or mechanical processes employed to maintain a constant connection, such as use of an auto-dialer, persistent checking of e-mail, or pinging the host are prohibited.