Gamco Access Acceptable use Policy (AUP)
LAWS AND REGULATIONS
- GAMCO’s infrastructure may be used only for lawful purposes. Users may not violate any applicable laws or regulations of South Africa within the territory of South Africa. Should the user reside outside of South Africa, the laws of the country in which the user resides shall apply.
- Transmission, distribution or storage of any material on or through the infrastructure in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorisation, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws.
THE NETWORK
- The user acknowledges that GAMCO is unable to exercise control over the content of the information passing over the infrastructure and the Internet, including any websites, electronic mail transmissions, news groups or other material created or accessible over its infrastructure. Therefore, GAMCO is not responsible for the content of any messages or other information transmitted over its infrastructure.
- GAMCO’ infrastructure may be used to link into other networks worldwide and the user agrees to conform to the acceptable use policies of these networks.
- The user may obtain and download any materials marked as available for download off the Internet but is not permitted to use its Internet access to distribute any copyrighted materials unless permission for such distribution is granted to the user by the owner of the materials.
- The user is prohibited from obtaining, disseminating or facilitating over IS network any unlawful materials, including but not limited to
- copying or dealing in intellectual property without authorization,
- child pornography, and/or
- any unlawful hate-speech materials.
ADSL BANDWIDTH USAGE
GAMCO reserves the right, to take necessary steps, to prevent improper or excessive usage. This action includes, but is not limited to:
- limiting throughput;
- preventing or limiting service through specific ports or communication protocols; and/or
- a complete termination of service to customers with improper or excessive usage.
This policy applies to and will be enforced for intended and unintended prohibited usage (e.g., viruses, worms, generating of spam, malicious code or otherwise unknown causes).
Online activity will be subject to the available bandwidth, data storage and other limitations of the ADSL access service.
SYSTEM AND NETWORK SECURITY
- All references to systems and networks under this section includes the Internet (and all those systems and/or networks to which user is granted access through GAMCO) and includes but is not limited to the infrastructure of GAMCO itself.
- The user may not circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account (referred to as “cracking” or “hacking”) , nor interfere with service to any user, host, or network (referred to as “denial of service attacks”). The host, network or account shall also not be used for “phishing” or any other illegal purpose.
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Violations of system or network security by the user are prohibited, and may result in civil or criminal liability. GAMCO will investigate incidents involving such violations and will involve and will co-operate with law enforcement officials if a criminal violation is suspected. Examples of system or network security violations include, without limitation, the following:
- Unauthorised access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without the express authorisation of GAMCO.
- Unauthorised monitoring of data or traffic on the network or systems without express authorisation of GAMCO.
- Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mailbombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks.
- Forging of any TCP-IP packet header (spoofing) or any part of the header information in an email or a newsgroup posting.
E-MAIL USE
- It is explicitly prohibited to send unsolicited bulk mail messages (“junk mail” or “spam”) of any kind (commercial advertising, political tracts, announcements, etc). This is strongly objected to by most Internet users and the repercussions against the offending party and GAMCO can often result in disruption of service to other users connected to GAMCO. In addition, certain spam is unlawful in terms of the Electronic Communications and Transaction Act 2002, and GAMCO is entitled to take appropriate steps against the User in contravention of these provisions of the Act.
- Maintaining of mailing lists by users of GAMCO is accepted only with the permission and approval of the list members, and at the members’ sole discretion. Should mailing lists contain invalid or undeliverable addresses or addresses of unwilling recipients those addresses must be promptly removed.
- Users may not forward or propagate chain letters nor malicious e-mail.
- Public relay occurs when a mail server is accessed by a third party from another domain and utilised to deliver mails, without the authority or consent of the owner of the mail-server. Users’ mail servers must be secure against public relay as a protection to both themselves and the Internet at large. Mail servers that are unsecured against public relay often become abused by unscrupulous operators for spam delivery and upon detection such delivery must be disallowed.
- GAMCO reserves the right to examine users’ mail servers to confirm that no mails are being sent from the mail server through public relay and the results of such checks can be made available to the user. GAMCO also reserves the right to examine the mail servers of any users using GAMCO mail servers for “smarthosting” (when the user relays its mail off an GAMCO mail server to a mail server of its own) or similar services at any time to ensure that the servers are properly secured against public relay. All relay checks will be done in strict accordance with GAMCO’ policy of preserving customer privacy.
USENET NEWS
- Users should, before using the service, familiarise themselves with the contents of the following newsgroups: news.newusers.questions, news.announce.newusers, news.answers
- Excessive cross-posting (ie, posting the same article to a large numbers of newsgroups) is forbidden.
- Posting of irrelevant (off -topic) material to newsgroups (also known as USENET spam) is forbidden.
- Posting binaries to a non-binary newsgroup is forbidden.
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GAMCO reserves the right to delete and/or cancel posts which violate the above conditions. COMPLAINTS Upon receipt of a complaint, or having become aware of an incident, GAMCO reserves the right to:
- Inform the user’s network administrator of the incident and require the network administrator or network owner to deal with the incident according to this AUP.
- In the case of individual users suspend the user’s account and withdraw the user’s network access privileges completely.
- Charge the offending parties for administrative costs as well as for machine and human time lost due to the incident.
- In severe cases suspend access of the user’s entire network until abuse can be prevented by appropriate means.
- Share information concerning the incident with other Internet access providers, or publish the information, and/or make available the users’ details to law enforcement agencies.
Any one or more of the steps listed above, insofar as they are deemed necessary by GAMCO in its absolute and sole discretion, may be taken by GAMCO against the offending party.
INTERCEPTION
The User acknowledges that GAMCO is lawfully required to intercept communications in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation of Interception and Provision of Communication -related Information Act 70 of 2003 (“the Act”). Any interception of communications shall be strictly in accordance with the requirements of the Act, as and when required under the Act.
The User undertakes to use GAMCO’s services in accordance with any restrictions imposed under the following legislation:
- Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002;
- Electronic Communications Act 36 of 2005;
- Films and Publications Act 65 of 1996 (as amended);
- Regulation of Interception and Provision of Communication-related Information Act 70 of 2003
All cases of violation of the above Acceptable Use Policy should be reported to abuse@GamCo.co.za.
USAGE GUIDELEINES AND ACCEPTABLE USE
To help ensure that all customers have fair and equal use of the service and to protect the integrity of the network, Internet Solutions reserves the right, and will take necessary steps, to prevent improper or excessive usage thereof.
The action that Internet Solutions may take includes, but is not limited to:
- limiting throughput;
- preventing or limiting service through specific ports or communication protocols; and/or
- complete termination of service to customers who grossly abuse the network through improper or excessive usage.
This policy applies to and will be enforced for intended and unintended (e.g., viruses, worms, malicious code, or otherwise unknown causes) prohibited usage.
Online activity will be subject to the available bandwidth, data storage and other limitations of the ADSL access service, which Internet Solutions may, from time to time, revise at its own discretion and without prior notice to the customer.
Examples of use, which may result in excessive data transfer, include, but are not limited to:
Activity:Downloading large files or large quantities of files
Usage Behaviour:
Downloading files such as movies, MP3s, games and software using software such as Napster, Kazaa, E-donkey etc.
How to minimise this type of usage:
Refrain from using automated download programs. You may not install automated search and retrieve programs or similar automated and manual routines, which generate excessive amounts of network traffic
Activity: On-Line Gaming
Usage Behaviour:
On-line gaming can average data transfer of between 10 – 60 Mb per hour.
How to minimise this type of usage:
Limit the usage of data transfer when playing games on line. Alternatively use local gaming sites
Activity: Mail / News Groups / CHAT
Usage Behaviour:
e-Mail, Newsgroups and Chat clients are used to communicate online, however when files with suffix of “avi”, “jpeg”, “mpeg”, “gif”, etc are sent to customers they can contain very large amounts of data.
How to minimise this type of usage:
Be careful when subscribing to sites, which automatically send information with large attachments. Be aware of “background download” programs.
Activity: Fraud
Usage Behaviour:
Customers who do not protect their equipment by using a firewall or proxy server create a possibility for remote access to the PC, which may, by using the use of various programs,
determine their username and passwords or the PC can be used to transfer data via the owner’s account.
How to minimise this type of usage:
Secure your PC by setting up a firewall or proxy server.
Activity: Browser
Usage Behaviour:
Use Automated copying of website content can result in high usage levels.
How to minimise this type of usage:
Manually select the content that needs to be copied.
NO PROHIBITED USAGE OF THE NETWORK
Customers may not engage in any activity that compromises or threatens Internet Solutions’ ability to provide the ADSL access service in a reasonable and efficient manner to all other customers.
Examples of prohibited use include, but are not limited to, running servers (that put traffic on the network) and hosting multi-user interactive forums, such as chat rooms.
The ADSL access service may be used only for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorisation, and material that is o bscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws.
Violations of system or network security are prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability.
Internet Solutions will investigate incidents involving such violations and may involve, or will cooperate with, law enforcement agencies if a criminal violation is suspected.
Examples of system or network security violations include, without limitation, the following:
- Unauthorised 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 authorisation of the owner of the system or network.
- Unauthorised monitoring of data or traffic on any network or system without express authorisation of the owner of the system or network.
- Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks.
- Forging of any TCP-IP packet header or any part of the header information in an e-mail or a newsgroup posting.
- Knowingly distributing computer viruses or other malicious computer programs.
- The infringement of third partys’ intellectual property rights or the breach of any laws or infringement of any third party rights, including without limitation, copyright.
DOWNLOAD LIMITATIONS AND TECHNICAL MEASURES TO PREVENT ABUSE OF THE ADSL ACCESS SERVICE
Internet Solutions strictly reserves all of its right to implement appropriate technical mechanisms in order to prevent usage patterns in violation of this AUP.
Internet Solutions further reserves the right to take such action as may be necessary to protect the integrity of the system, including, but not being limited to, system monitoring, as well as protocol management and shutting down of ports affected by viruses, worms or other malicious code.
LEGAL RIGHTS
Nothing contained in this policy shall be construed to limit Internet Solution�s rights or remedies in any way with respect to any of the aforegoing activities, and Internet Solutions reserves the right to take any action that it may deem appropriate with respect to such activities, including without limitation:
- investigating suspected violations of this AUP,
- taking action to recover costs and expenses incurred in identifying offenders;
- terminating users’ access to and use of the ADSL access service;
- levying cancellation charges to cover Internet Solutions�s costs in the event of termination of access to the ADSL access service.
In addition, Internet Solutions reserves all available rights and remedies with respect to such activities at law or in equity.
This AUP may be clarified or modified periodically and Internet Solutions reserves the right to modify this policy at any time, any such changes coming into effect as soon as they are published on the Internet Solutions website (www.GamCo.co.za). This policy forms part of the customer’s agreement with Internet Solutions regarding the ADSL access service.