Acceptable Use Policy

WorldSpice's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Revision 13, 17 July 2015

This document is binding for all WorldSpice users. Use of WorldSpice's services signifies your acceptance of this document. It is not meant to threaten or intimidate but merely formalize some generally accepted reasonable guidelines for good use of the Internet.

WorldSpice reserves the right to change policy at any time, therefore this document should be read regularly and in its entirety. Further, WorldSpice reserves the right to terminate service based on abuse of this Acceptable Use Policy, or perceived abuse of same, with or without prior notice.

The current AUP will be available on the World Wide Web at:

http://www.worldspice.net/policies/aup.html

All related correspondence should be directed to abuse@worldspice.net.

What Is Acceptable

WorldSpice Internet access services may be used to send and receive email, retrieve documents and files via the WWW or FTP, use online chat services like IRC and ICQ, access social media sites, stream videos, read and post to Usenet (newsgroups), or engage in any other acceptable use of the Internet.

As a WorldSpice user, you are also bound by the rules and policies of any non-WorldSpice service you use while connected through our system and are responsible for upholding them.

Also, as a subscriber to the service we provide, you are bound by state and national laws concerning the use of the Internet. You must abide by the laws set forth by the State of Tennessee, the state wherein you reside, and the United States Government that are concerned with the appropriate use of the Internet. Laws of foreign jurisdictions that your data may transit may also apply.

NOTE: WorldSpice reserves the right to record details about all data transmitted through its network. The resulting records may be viewed at any time by WorldSpice technical staff, law enforcement agencies, with the required authorization, or those who have attained appropriate permission to review those log files. The data that is stored in those files can and will be used in any legal proceeding if necessary.

What Is NOT Acceptable

Denial of Service (DoS)

DoS is defined as any action which attempts to deny or in any way restrict the use or access to the Internet of any individual or group of people, or attempts to impair the ability of any machine or site on the Internet to provide service. DoS attacks by WorldSpice customers will result in immediate termination of service. Denial of Service attacks are a federal offense.

WorldSpice accounts whose users, through inappropriate activity on the Internet or misuse of WorldSpice's services, provoke DoS attacks against WorldSpice are considered a liability to WorldSpice network's integrity and will be suspended.

Hacking

Hacking is defined as any attempt, whether successful or not, to gain access to or retrieve data from any computer system, within or outside WorldSpice's network, without authorization from its maintainer or owner. Evidence of hacking will lead to immediate termination of service and possibly to prosecution. WorldSpice will assist any law enforcement agency or concerned Internet Service Provider in tracking and stopping hacking activities from within or transiting the WorldSpice network.

Under the broader sense of the term, the same policy applies to port scanning, vulnerability probes and intentional distribution of trojan horse programs, viruses and worms, as well as making use of systems compromised by third parties.

Spamming

Spamming will not be tolerated. Spamming includes, but is not limited to, these definitions:

  • The sending of unsolicited commercial email.
  • Unsolicited mass emailing of any sort.
  • The posting of articles to inappropriate newsgroups.
  • The excessive cross posting (posting to more than one news group) of articles.
  • Mass-advertising on online chat services such as Internet Relay Chat.

Commercial email is acceptable if it has been solicited. The question of solicited is black and white, either it has been requested or it has not.

Unsolicited email requires that the person that receives it must spend money to read it. It goes beyond freedom of speech to require that someone pay to hear what you say. Freedom of speech is acceptable as long as it is free. Spam is not free.

Harassment

Harassment of other Internet users via email, on online chat services, or through Usenet postings is strongly discouraged and WorldSpice will respond to complaints regarding local users. In any case, we assume the concerned party has taken reasonable measures to avoid the person in question and that those measures have failed.

Distribution of Sexually Oriented Material

The distribution of sexually explicit material and images, as perceived by WorldSpice, will not be allowed in any way, shape, or form on any WorldSpice servers. This means that no personal or commercial web site hosted by WorldSpice will contain sexually explicit material. Sites or personal pages hosting such material will be removed when found. NOTE: Posting adult material is in violation of Tennessee state law.

WorldSpice does not censor or filter incoming traffic but reserves the right to monitor the content of material being distributed through it. In short, you may download anything that is legally acceptable in your state and for your age but you may not use WorldSpice services to distribute what may be deemed obscene.

WorldSpice assumes no liability for unsuitable material accessed by minors. The responsibility of controlling access to such lies exclusively with the parents or legal guardians.

Account Security

You are solely responsible for the security of your account. WorldSpice assumes no liability for misuse of an account by unauthorized third parties and will terminate such an account immediately upon detection if necessary.