Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Introduction

The Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) is designed to provide an understanding of the rules, limitations and restrictions regarding the use of Innove Communications, Inc. (“Innove”) Direct Internet Access Service (“Service”) by the Customer. References to “you" and “your” are references to you, the Customer and to your end-customer. This AUP supplements Innove’s Customer Agreement/Service Proposal/Service Schedule (“CA”). From time to time, Innove may impose reasonable rules and limitations regarding the use of its Service. The AUP is not exhaustive and Innove reserves the right to modify the AUP at any time, effective upon either the posting of the modified AUP at its website or notification of the modified AUP to you.

By registering for and using the Service, and thereby accepting the terms and conditions of the CA, you agree to abide by the AUP as modified from time to time. You agree that you shall only use the Service for the following:

1. Business Use;
2. Use that is within the bounds of the laws and any rules and regulations of any government agencies for the use of the Service;
3. Use that does not in any way violate, impinge, interfere with the rights or affect the use by other users of the network.

Any violation of the AUP, direct and indirect, by you or by a third party on your behalf, may result in the immediate suspension or termination of your Service without prior notice or such other action as Innove deems appropriate. An unlisted activity may also be a violation of the AUP if it is illegal, irresponsible, or disruptive use of the Service. No credits will be issued for any interruption in Service resulting from policy violations.

VIOLATION OF THE AUP IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND MAY RESULT IN THE IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OR SUSPENSION OF THE SERVICE YOU RECEIVE FROM INNOVE WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. YOU SHALL REMAIN SOLELY LIABLE AND RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE AND ANY AND ALL CONTENT THAT YOU DISPLAY, UPLOAD, DOWNLOAD OR TRANSMIT THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE. CONTENT INCLUDES, WITHOUT LIMITATION, YOUR ELECTRONIC MAIL, WEB PAGES, PERSONAL HOME PAGES, AND DOMAIN NAMES. IT IS INNOVE’S POLICY TO IMMEDIATELY TERMINATE REPEAT INFRINGERS WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. INNOVE RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT THE NEED TO EXPLAIN THE REASON THEREOF.

Customer Security Responsibilities

You are solely responsible for any breaches of security affecting servers under your control or under a third party’s control on your behalf. If such server is involved in an attack on another server or system, the Service will be immediately shut down and an immediate investigation will be launched to determine the cause/source of the attack. In such an event, you are responsible for anything related to the rectification of the damage done to such server and any other requirement affected by the security breach. In the event that Innove needs to rectify, the labor used to rectify any such damage is categorized as emergency security breach recovery and Innove shall charge to you all costs related to rectifying the damage. 

System and network security violations are prohibited, and may result in criminal or civil liability. Innove may investigate incidents involving such violations and may involve and could mean cooperation with law enforcement if a criminal violation is suspected. Examples of system or network security violations include, without limitation, the following:

1. Unauthorized access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without express authorization of the owner of the system or network; 
2. Unauthorized monitoring of data or traffic on any network or system without express authorization of the owner of the system or network; 
3. Interference with Service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mail-bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks; 
4. Forging of any Transmission Control Protocol - Internet Protocol (“TCP-IP”) packet header or any part of the header information in an e-mail or newsgroup posting.

High-risk Service, which are services which tends to attract denial of Service attacks, are strictly prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, Internet Relay Chat (“IRC”) related services and selling of shell accounts.

Violators of the policy are responsible, without limitations, for the cost incurred by Innove to clean up and correct any damage done to the operation of the network and business operations supported by the network, and to respond to complaints including but not limited to labor costs. Such labor is categorized as emergency security breach recovery and Innove reserves the right to charge to you all costs related to rectifying the damage. Innove is concerned with the privacy of online communications and web sites. In general, the internet is neither more nor less secure than other means of communication, including mail, facsimile, and voice telephone service, all of which can be intercepted and otherwise compromised. As a matter of prudence, however, Innove urges you to assume that all of your online communications are not secure, and we encourage you to make use of the following tools including but not limited to:

1. anti-virus software;
2. appropriate software and/or hardware firewalls;
3. privacy protection tools.

Innove shall not take responsibility for the security of information transmitted over Innove facilities.

Password Protection

You are responsible for protecting your password and for any authorized and unauthorized use of your password. You will not use or permit anyone to use Innove Service or to access other systems or networks without authorization. Innove will fully cooperate with law enforcement authorities in the detection and prosecution of illegal activity.

Internet Etiquette

You are expected to be familiar with and to practice good internet etiquette (Netiquette) as stated in this AUP. You will comply with the rules, appropriate to any network to which Innove may provide access. You will not post, transmit, or permit internet access to information you desire to keep confidential. You are not permitted to post any material that is illegal, libelous, tortuous, indecent or is likely to result in retaliation against Innove by offended users. You are not allowed to post any material that will result in rebellion, insurrection, coup d’ etat, sedition, conspiracy to commit sedition or inciting to sedition.

Innove reserves the right to immediately refuse or terminate Service at any time for violation of this section. This includes advertising services or sites via public domain.

Copyright Infringement – Software Piracy Policy

Innove network may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution or storage of any information, data or material in violation of the law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights. Making unauthorized copies of software is a violation of the law, regardless how many copies you are making. If you copy, distribute or install the software in ways that the license does not allow, you are violating copyright law. If caught with pirated software, you may be liable under both civil and criminal law, and you may be fined and/or imprisoned. In compliance with the laws relating to Intellectual Property, please send notifications of claimed infringements to our customer support team. Innove will fully cooperate with any civil and/or criminal litigation arising from the violation of this policy.

Network Responsibility

You have a responsibility to use the Innove network responsibly. This includes respecting the other customers of Innove. Innove reserves the right to immediately suspend and/or cancel the Service without prior notice of any customer who uses the Innove network in such a way that adversely affects other Innove network customers. This includes but is not limited to:

Attacking or attempting to gain unauthorized access to servers and Service that belong to Innove or its customers (i.e. computer hacking), and/or participating in behavior which result in reprisals that adversely affect the Innove network or other customers’ access to the Innove network;

Innove will react strongly to any use or attempted use of an internet account or computer without the owner’s authorization. Such attempts include, but are not limited to “Internet Scanning” (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password robbery, security hole scanning, port scanning, etc. Any unauthorized use of the accounts or computer by an Innove customer, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to Innove, will result in severe action taken against the attacker. Possible actions include warnings, immediate account suspension or cancellation without prior notice, and civil or criminal legal action, depending on the seriousness of the attack. Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server or customer of Innove is strictly prohibited.

Lawful Purpose

All Service may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any applicable law, regulation or AUP is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to:

Using any Innove service or product for the purpose of participating in any activity dealing with subject matters that are prohibited under the applicable law is prohibited;

Any conduct that constitutes harassment, fraud, stalking, abuse, spamming, the spread of viruses, or denial of Service attacks in connection with use of Innove Service or products is prohibited. Using the Innove network to solicit the performance of any illegal activity is also prohibited, even if the activity itself is not performed. In addition, knowingly receiving or downloading a file that cannot be legally distributed, even without the act of distribution, is prohibited;

Servers hosted within the Innove network are open to the public. You are solely responsible for your usage of the Innove network and servers and any statement you make on servers hosted within the Innove network may be deemed “publication” of the information entered. Acknowledging the foregoing, you specifically agree not to use our Service in a manner that is illegal or libelous.

Pornography on the Internet

Our policy on pornography is zero tolerance. Innove will fully cooperate with any criminal investigation into a customer’s violation of the Child Protection Act of 1984 concerning child pornography and the other laws on pornography. You are ultimately responsible for the actions of your customers over the Innove network, and will be liable for illegal material posted by your customers.

According to the Child Protection Act, child pornography includes photographs, films, video or any other type of visual presentation that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age eighteen (18) years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ on the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years or any written material or visual representation that advocates or counsels sexual activity with a person under the age of eighteen (18) years.

Commercial Advertisements with Email

Innove takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (“UCE”) or Sales Promotional Advertising Mail (“SPAM”) over our network. This means that a customer of Innove may not use or permit others to use Innove’s network to transact in UCE. You may not host or permit hosting of sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including immediate termination of Service without prior notice.

Sending unsolicited messages to a number of recipients is by itself spamming, unless the individuals have specifically requested to be added to a mailing on the topic. This includes commercial advertisements and informational messages sent to recipients via electronic mail (e-mail). Mailing lists must be true opt-in mailing lists. Before sending any email to a listed user, a confirmation email, with a tracking number, must be sent to the new customer, to which they must respond with a confirmation that they wish to be added to the list. You must keep these confirmations on file, so that in the case that a spam complaint is made against you, you have proof that the user did indeed opt-in. In addition, you must provide at least one easy way to opt-out. Opt-out requests must be honored immediately.

Email is a Person-to-Person Medium, Not a Broadcast Medium

You are strictly prohibited from using or permitting others to use UCE or SPAM over our network. As our customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their customers over the Innove network, it is advisable to develop a similar or stricter policy for your customers.

Violation of Innove’s SPAM policy as contained in this Agreement will result in appropriate legal action. Upon notification of an alleged violation of the SPAM policy, Innove will initiate an immediate investigation. During the investigation, Innove may restrict your access to the network to prevent further violation of the SPAM policy. Innove may, at its sole discretion, restrict, immediately suspend or terminate your Service without prior notice. Further, Innove reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. Innove will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offence.

Violation if Innove SPAM policy may be reported to Innove’s customer support team.

Internet Protocol (“IP”) Address Overlap

Innove administers the network on which your servers reside. You cannot use IP addresses which have not been assigned to you by Innove staff. Any server found using IPs that have not been assigned will be immediately suspended from network access without prior notice until such time as the IP address overlap can be connected.

Billing

You understand that you are responsible for paying for any network resources that are used to connect your Service to the internet. You may request that your server be disconnected from the internet, but you will still be responsible for paying for any network resources used up to the point of suspension or cancellation or termination.

Suspension

Innove reserves the right to immediately suspend without prior notice network access to you if, in the judgment of the Innove network administrators, your server is the source or target of the violation of any of the other terms of the AUP or for other analogous grounds which in Innove’s reasonable judgment are violations of the terms of the AUP. If inappropriate activity is detected, all your Service in question will be immediately deactivated without prior notice until an investigation is complete. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. You will not be entitled for rebates during suspension. You will be charged on a prorated basis based on the monthly fees you pay for the Service that was suspended for the time your equipment had to be suspended.

Cancellation

Innove reserves the right to immediately suspend Service at any time without prior notice. If inappropriate activity is detected, all your accounts in question will be immediately deactivated without prior notice until an investigation is complete. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. All fees paid in advance of cancellation are non-refundable if Innove institutes its right of immediate suspension without prior notice. Any violation of policies which results in extra costs will be billed to you (i.e. transfer, space/location, etc.).

Indemnification

Innove wishes to emphasize that in signing the Innove’s CA, you will indemnify Innove for any violation of Innove’s CA, law or AUP that results in loss to Innove or the bringing of any claim against Innove by any third party. This means that if Innove is sued because of your or your customer’s activity, you will immediately pay any damages awarded against Innove, plus costs and reasonable attorney’s fee.

Acceptable Use

You must not use the Service in a manner which interferes with the rights of the other users or which breaches Internet Etiquette as likewise enumerated herein.

Among others, you must not:

1. Disobey the rules of any newsgroup, forum, email mailing list or other similar group;
2. Post the same or similar messages to more than one newsgroups (including excessive cross-posting or multiple-posting, also known as “SPAM”).

Unauthorized Access

You must not use the Service to obtain unauthorized access to a computer, system or network.

If you do not have authorization, you must not:

1. Access or use any data, systems or networks;
2. Probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network;
3. Breach any security or authentication measures for a system or network;
4. Attempt to gain access to the account of any other user or system or network.

Unlawfully accessing or damaging data in a computer is not only a breach of the AUP, it is also a criminal offense punishable by fine or imprisonment or both according to law.

You must not use the Service in a manner which may interfere with the technical operation of the Service or any other computer, system or network.

You must not attempt to interfere with the regular workings of the Innove systems or network connections or the Innove or its providers/partners or any other network. Innove may override any attempt by you to specify a particular traffic routing pattern.

You must not impair the ability of other people to use the Innove systems or the internet or any other connected networks. You must not use the Service as a staging ground to disable or interfere with other systems, for example Denial-of-Service (“DoS”) / Distributed Denial-of-Service (“DDoS”) attacks, Port Scans, etc.

Legal Compliance

In using the Service, you must not break any laws or infringe the rights of other persons.

For example, you must not:

1. Distribute or make available any abusive, obscene, defamatory or pornographic material;
2. Distribute or make available any material which would be classified R or X (or refused classification) by the Classification Board or banned under the laws of the Republic of the Philippines;
3. Copy or attempt to copy any material if you do not have the owner’s permission to do so.

Detection/Cooperation

To detect and deal with the breaches of the AUP, Innove may take the following actions:

1. Cooperate with the other service providers to control unacceptable user behavior;
2. Cooperate with the Police, or other law enforcement or intelligence agencies of the Republic of the Philippines, by providing the details and related data (i.e., log files) of users who are suspected of breaking any laws of the Republic of the Philippines;
3. Cooperate with any court order requiring information about the activities or the Service details. Innove may implement technical mechanisms to prevent behavior which breaches this policy (for example, which block multiple postings before they are forwarded to their intended recipients, access to peer-to-peer networks or websites or network addresses deemed to hold illegal content).

Innove may exercise any rights it has under its CA with you whose account is being used in breach of this policy. Such rights include the right to immediately suspend or terminate your use of the Service without prior notice and without liability.

Innove may take any other action it deems appropriate, including taking action against offenders to recover costs and expenses of identifying them.

IP Address Allocation

An IP address is a number that identifies a connection to the internet.

1. Business grade services are assigned an IP address upon successful authentication. This means that an IP address from an allocated pool is assigned to you;
2. Customers with static IP or those that do not form part of the allocated pool and will have a constant IP address.

Permitted Service

Subject to Innove’s prior written approval, the Customer may provide the following subject to charges for colocation fees for the internet “servers” or “services” namely:

1. Anything that may be defined as a “server”; examples are as follows:
   • Web Server Mail Server; 
   • Game Server;
   • Any File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”) Server; 
   • Domain Name System (“DNS”) Servers; 
   • Peer-to-Peer (“P2P”) Server (various ports).
2. Services specifically exempt are:
   • Non-Business Virtual Private Network (“VPN”);
   • Remote Access Control Applications No peer to peer or anonymous services although Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (“SMTP”), File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”) and alike are allowed.

Open Relay Mail Servers

Innove defined an “Open-Relay” mail server as an SMTP mail server that allows third parties to send emails to other third parties. Third parties are those people/services that are not authorized to use an end-customer mail server.

One use of an Open-Relay server is that they are used to send spam/viruses to many people (perhaps hundreds of thousands). Open Relay servers cause significant stress on Innove’s network and are not allowed under any circumstances.

Customers who choose to operate their own mail servers are responsible for the orderly administration of those servers. They must be configured not to be able to be used for “open relaying”. If you need assistance, please contact Innove’s customer support team.

Any customer, who operate an Open Relay mail server, whether purposely or accidentally, will be liable for costs incurred by Innove in dealing with the situation.

Disclaimer of Responsibility

Innove is under no duty to look at each customer’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. Innove disclaims any responsibility for any such inappropriate use and any liability to any person or party for any other person’s or party’s violation of this policy.

All sub-networks, resellers and managed servers of Innove must adhere to the above policies. Failure to follow any term or condition will be grounds for immediate cancellation, suspension or termination without prior notice.