Our Policies are designed to help protect our customers, Velocity Online and the Internet community, from irresponsible or illegal activities. As good Net citizens, we prohibit the impersonation of others, unsolicited commercial appeals, and any disruption of Internet services. Examples of such activities are given below:

E-mail

Commercial e-mail: Sending unsolicited commercial e-mail is prohibited. Using a Velocity Online account or email address to collect responses from unsolicited commercial e-mail is prohibited.

Mail bombing: Sending large volumes of unsolicited e-mail is prohibited.

Harassment: Sending threatening or harassing e-mail after being requested to stop, is prohibited. Extremely threatening or harassing e-mail is prohibited. Violators will be reported to the appropriate authorities.

Size of e-mail box: A user may be sent a large file from time to time. But using e-mail to store large files, or large amounts of files is forbidden. Therefore, a limit of 2mb of space will be allocated for e-mail. If a user goes over this limit for any period of time, Velocity Online reserves the right to delete the offending message. This can be done at any time, but as a rule we will usually give the user a few days to get the e-mail downloaded.

Storage: Velocity Online is happy to allow its users to store up to their 8mb limit in email on our servers, however, we do not maintain a fail-safe backup of the email folders for several reasons. Velocity Online is not responsible for any mail lost due to user error, hardware failure, or any other circumstance. Velocity Online tries to maintain failsafe copies of all systems, but we offer no guarantees.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

If Velocity Online is banned from a server, the offending account will be terminated.

General

Impersonation: Attempting to impersonate any person, using forged headers or other identifying information, is prohibited. The use of anonymous remailers and nicknames does not constitute impersonation.

Network unfriendly activity: Activities which adversely affect the ability of other people or systems to use Velocity Online services or the Internet is prohibited. This includes sending and/or receiving responses from Spam (unsolicited email). Review the email section above.

Privacy violations: Attempts, whether successful or not, to gain access to any computer system, or customer's data, without consent is prohibited. Repeated attempts by any Velocity Online member to "hack" anyone's account will result in a termination of membership, and no refund of any fees paid to Velocity Online.

Financial

In the event of cancellation, we do not prorate the final month of service. All cancellations are effective at the end of the month in which the cancellation is received.

Sharing accounts with anyone other than an immediate family member, or re-selling any part of the service without express written consent from Velocity Online, or offering any public information service, such as running a web server or FTP server, is prohibited. Using programs to defeat system timers limiting inactivity is prohibited. Untimely payment of any and all amounts due will result in account cancellation.

Excessive bandwidth, disk utilization, and abuse

Velocity Online account descriptions specify limits on bandwidth and disk utilization, and use in excess of those limits is not permitted. Bandwidth utilization is determined by the total number of bytes transferred from an account's Web and FTP space. Disk utilization is determined by the total number of bytes required to store an account's Web, FTP, and Mail data.

In the event Velocity Online determines that an account is exceeding the bandwidth or disk utilization, the account owner will be notified by e-mail. If the excess use continues for more than 24 hours after such notification, the owner may be requested to upgrade the account's service agreement or to modify the activity creating the excess use. If no corrective action is taken by the Velocity Online member after the 24 hour period, additional fees will be charged at a $5 per 5MB rate. If these additional fees are not paid by the member within 30 days, the account will be deactivated until such fees are paid.

If excessive bandwidth or disk space utilization is determined to adversely affect Velocity Online's ability to provide service, immediate action will be taken. The account owner will be notified by email as soon as reasonably possible.

Abuse is defined as excessive use of a Velocity Online connection (maintaining an 8-hour average of online time during a given 7-day period). Account abusing the service can be restricted and/or terminated without prior notice. If the account has been paid in full for a given month, Velocity Online may offer to return the unused portion of the month's fees.

Privacy

Velocity Online is committed to respecting the privacy of our customers. The personal information a customer provides to us is used by us to provide access service, bill the customer’s account and update our customers on happenings at Velocity Online. We do not sell our customer lists or any customer personal information to others for marketing purposes.

Additionally, we do not regularly monitor our customers’ email, newsgroups, web sites or track their movements on the Internet. We do everything possible to protect your privacy and not subject you to multi level marketing schemes. It may be necessary for Velocity Online employees to examine system accounting logs and other records to resolve system problems. Velocity Online reserves the right to access an account's mailbox to resolve system problems ormail system errors.

Information about customers of Velocity Online will be released only to the customer, to the appropriate employees of Velocity Online or to duly authorized officers of the state and federal courts or investigatory authorities who present the proper legal documents. Velocity Online will cooperate with these authorities in investigating claims of illegal activity, including but not limited to illegal transfer or use of copyrighted material, postings or e-mail containing threats of violence, posting or soliciting child pornography, or other illegal activity.

Merchants on the Internet may obtain your information and may make it available to third parties in accordance with their normal practices unless you the customer, notifies those merchants directly that you do not wish such information to be made available. Velocity Online assumes no liability if your information is made public over the Internet.

Velocity Online makes no guarantee and assumes no liability for the security of any data on any server including "secure servers."

Our customers are reminded that no computer system should be considered safe from intrusion. E-mail may pass through many computer systems, and should not be considered a secure means of communication unless encrypted. Even then, information is only as secure as the encryption method.

Rationale

This document provides a general understanding of Velocity Online's policy on the use Velocity Online services. Common sense and judgement are a necessary part of any system of rules, and this is no exception. Of course, flagrant or repeated violations of the Policy are viewed in a very different light than minor infractions.

Protection of our customers and our resources, the ability to provide quality service to our customers, conformance with existing law, and the protection of our reputation as a service provider are all contributing factors to decisions on policy violations.

It is our intention to allow Velocity Online customers access to everything the Internet has to offer with minimal or no interference. Our belief in Free Speech is a firm commitment to our customers. However, Free Speech does not include the right to shout "Fire" in a crowded theater. In an analogous manner, certain activities are considered inappropriate by the Internet community at large, and cannot be permitted under the guise of Free Speech.

Velocity Online does not monitor the activity of accounts except for measurements of system utilization and billing records. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, if we become aware of inappropriate use of Velocity Online service, we will respond.

Velocity Online reserves the right to terminate service without notice for violation of these policies. Velocity Online also reserves the right to terminate service for any user, at any time, without prior notification, for violating any of KMC's, ATT's or UUNet's policies regarding the Internet (provides Velocity Online's access). Velocity Online reserves the right to modify and change this policies without prior. Our preferred course of action would be to advise the account owner of the inappropriate behavior and corrective action necessary. However, flagrant violations will result in immediate termination of service.

In the event that an account is temporarily inactivated as a result of any prohibited activities, the account may be subject to reactivation charges and/or deposit requirements to be determined by Velocity Online.

[home]