Mad Hippo Media Acceptable Use Policy

Introduction

Mad Hippo Media is dedicated to providing top quality service at a very affordable price. The conditions which follow are necessary to ensure that we may continue to provide the best possible service to all of our customers whilst at the same time satisfying our legal and ethical responsibilities.

Failure to follow any condition will be grounds for immediate account deactivation without notice. Mad Hippo Media will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of any of these provisions.

Activity which results in the suspension or deactivation of an account will result in a forfeiture of all fees paid. Complaints made regarding abuses of an account will be investigated and if found guilty will be grounds for immediate suspension.

To report suspected abuses or any violations of these policies, please contact our abuse department at abuse(@madhippo.com).

Illegal Usage

Mad Hippo Media servers may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or distribution of any information, data or material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws. Examples of non-acceptable content or links: pirated software, hacker programs or archives, warez sites, MP3, and IRC bots. Any type of forum/discussion board discussing where to obtain such files or one that distributes the files is also prohibited. The subscriber to Mad Hippo Media service agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Mad Hippo Media from any claims resulting from the use of the service that damages the subscriber or any other party. Mad Hippo Media will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.

Illegal Content

Mad Hippo Media does not allow background Daemons such as IRC bots; eggdrop; BitchX; XiRCON; and any other program that interferes with normal server operation. No warez is allowed. Web proxies are not tolerated. This includes NPH-Proxy, and web proxy. If your site is found to hold any proxy files, your account will be suspended and the account holder will be issued a fee of $50 USD. When using an account with shell, you are not allowed to run ANY servers or services on the Surpass network. Servers are defined as perlbots, proxies, bitchX, psyBnc, root exploits, DDoS scripts, Shoutcast servers, etc. Running any of these will face an immediate suspension, and users will be subject to a fine no less than $50.00 USD, and no more than $100.00 USD. Surpass reserves the right to terminate an account for these activities also.

Chat Rooms

Mad Hippo Media does not provide nor allow chat rooms on its servers.

IRC

Mad Hippo Media does not allow IRC or IRC bots to be operated on our servers.

Security

Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Mad Hippo Media Network. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. Mad Hippo Media will investigate occurrences, which may involve cooperation with law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Users who are involved in such violations. These violations include, without limitation:

1) Accessing data not intended for such user or logging into a server or account, which such user is not authorized to access,
2) Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization,
3) Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding", "mail bombing" or "crashing",
4) Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or forum posting,
5) Taking any action in order to obtain services to which such User is not entitled.

Server Abuse

Any attempts to undermine or cause harm to a Mad Hippo Media server or customer of Mad Hippo Media is strictly prohibited. The failure to meet or follow any of the above guidelines are grounds for account deactivation. We reserve the right to remove any account without prior notice.

Client Responsibility

The client is responsible for all activity originating from the account unless proven to be a victim of outside hacking or address forgery. The client is responsible for securing their username/password. The client assumes responsibility for all material on their site that may be put on by a third party.

Backup Policy

Mad Hippo Media takes extreme steps to maintain system integrity. However, Mad Hippo Media shall not be held responsible for loss of data due to any cause. To ensure the highest level of data protection, Mad Hippo Media recommends that ALL information be backed up on your own computer. As with any data that you hold a high importance to, it should be in more than one location at all times. All Mad Hippo Media data backups are designed against hardware failure, not customer user error.

Actions Taken

The failure by a customer to meet or follow any of the above policies/terms is grounds for account deactivation. Mad Hippo Media will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of the AUP. Mad Hippo Media reserves the right to remove any account without prior notice.

When Mad Hippo Media becomes aware of an alleged violation of its AUP, Mad Hippo Media will initiate an investigation. During the investigation, Mad Hippo Media may restrict a customer's access in order to prevent further potentially unauthorized activity. Depending on the severity of the violation, Mad Hippo Media may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend, or terminate a customer's web hosting account and/or pursue other civil remedies. If such violation is a criminal offense, Mad Hippo Media will notify the appropriate law enforcement authorities of such violation.

Mad Hippo Media does not issue credits for outages incurred through service disablement resulting from AUP violations.

Mad Hippo Media customers agree to indemnify and hold harmless Mad Hippo Media from any claims resulting from the use of our services that damages them or any other party. The Mad Hippo Media service is provided on an as is, as available basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Mad Hippo Media expressly disclaims any representation or warranty that the Mad Hippo Media service will be error-free, secure or uninterrupted. No oral advice or written information given by Mad Hippo Media, its employees, licensors or the like, will create a warranty; nor may you rely on any such information or advice. Mad Hippo Media and its partners and suppliers will not be liable for any cost or damage arising either directly or indirectly from any transaction or use of the service.

Modification

Mad Hippo Media reserves the right to add, delete, or modify any provision of this policy at any time without notice.

Refusal of Service

We reserve the right to refuse, cancel, or suspend service at our sole discretion. An example of refusal of service is if an account continues to abuse our policies after warnings. Refusal, cancellation or suspension of services especially holds true to issues with spam or any script abuse. Another example of refusal of service is if a customer becomes very unreasonable, unprofessional, extremely difficult to work with or threatening. Said customer's account will be suspended and we will recommend to the customer to find a new host. A backup of the account(s) will be provided.