Net Storm - Website Creation and Development

Please read these Terms and Conditions fully before requesting any services or products from Net Storm. The requesting of any services or products from Net Storm will constitute the Customer's full agreement with these Terms and Conditions. If the Customer does not understand any aspect of these Terms and Conditions, they should contact Net Storm at info@net-storm.co.uk or consult a competent legal adviser. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions is intended to affect the Customer's statutory rights.

These Terms and Conditions supersede and take precedence over all previous versions.

1.1 "Account", "Email", or "Email Account" means the Account, which gives access to the widely supported one-to-one or one-to-many electronic messaging system.

1.2 "Charge(s)" means the charge(s) as published and levied by the Net Storm and agreed to be paid by the Customer in respect of the provision of services or products.

1.3 "Contract" means the contract voluntarily entered into by the Customer, and which exists to document the agreement between the Customer and Net Storm whereby the Customer agrees to purchase services or products from Net Storm. The Contract is regulated by and subject to the provisions of these Terms and Conditions.

1.4 "Customer" means the person or organisation requesting the provision of services or products from Net Storm and who has the legal authority to enter into the consequent binding Contract. "Customer" also means any person using the Service with the permission of the Customer.

1.5 "Delivery" means the process of Net Storm making a Customer Website available for access via the Internet or notifying a Customer that a Domain Name (or other Internet Name) or any product or service provided by Net Storm to the Customer is available for use and that Net Storm awaiting the Customer's instructions as to its use.

1.6 "Domain Name" means the unique name by which a Website is identified by the Internet.

1.7 "Hosting Service", "Hosting" or "Service" means the facility, provided by Net Storm and its Technology Provider by which they make a Customer's Website available to be accessed by third parties who have access to the Internet. This may also include the provision of Email Account(s) by Net Storm to the Customer.

1.8 "Internet" means the worldwide network of computers interconnected for the purpose of sharing data and information.

1.9 "Net Storm" means Net Storm of PO Box 23452, London, SE26 6GT, United Kingdom.

1.10 "Specification" means the design and other requirements of the Customer's Website as agreed between Net Storm and the Customer.

1.11 "Technology Provider" means the organisation through which Net Storm provides the technical aspects of the Service to the Customer.

1.12 "URL" means Uniform Resource Locator, which is the full address of a Website.

1.13 "Visitor" means the person (including the Customer) who accesses and views the Net Storm Website.

1.14 "Website" means a page or series of pages containing text, graphical images and other information, and which is intended to be made available (via a Hosting facility) to third parties who have access to the Internet.

2.1 All Charges are made in advance and no service or product can be provided until Net Storm is in receipt of cleared funds in full from the Customer. All annually renewable services must be fully paid in advance of the renewal date. Where such services remain unpaid at the renewal date, they will be suspended and an additional "reactivation" administration fee will become payable prior to the services being restored. No refund of payment by the Customer will be made by Net Storm to the Customer, where the Customer decides they no longer wish to continue receiving any services provided by Net Storm.

2.2 Net Storm is not an Internet Service Provider and does not provide the Customer with access to the Internet. Customers wishing to have access to the Internet are, at their own risk and cost, responsible for making their own arrangements.

2.3 These Terms and Conditions will be updated and amended from time to time and any subsequent version will be binding on the Customer whilst it is in force. Customers can elect to receive, by Email, notification that these Terms and Conditions have been amended. Customers not electing to receive notification are advised to regularly check these Terms and Conditions for any updates and amendments. Continued use of the Service will be deemed to be acceptance of this and any future revision of these Terms and Conditions.

2.4 Each of the sections of these Terms and Conditions should be read individually and as a whole, within the context of, and as a supplement to, all of the other sections.

2.5 At no time whatsoever will Net Storm's total financial liability to the Customer exceed the amount paid by the Customer in respect of the services or products purchased.

2.6 The Customer shall notify Net Storm of any action taken against them by a third party and will not hold Net Storm or its Technology Provider liable for any resulting costs.

2.7 Any Contract formed between Net Storm and the Customer will be subject to these Terms and Conditions which will always take precedence and prevail over any terms and conditions proposed by the Customer, unless otherwise agreed by Net Storm.

2.8 The Customer is not permitted to sub let, resell or lease or loan any services or products purchased through Net Storm without Net Storm's prior written permission.

2.9 The Customer is not permitted to act or conduct business in any way that implies that they act or conduct business on behalf of, in partnership with, or as agents of, Net Storm or its Technology Provider

2.10 Sections 6 and 7 of these Terms and Conditions represent the terms and conditions of the Technology Provider.

2.11 If Net Storm provides the Customer with any services or products other than a complete Website design and hosting service, the appropriate individual sections of these Terms and Conditions will apply to the transaction as necessary.

2.12 These Terms and Conditions are governed by English Law and any Contract formed between Net Storm and the Customer are subject to it.

2.13 If any of these Terms and Conditions is found at Law to be invalid, the remaining Terms and Conditions will remain applicable in full.

3.1 The Net Storm Website is intended only for use by Visitors from the United Kingdom. Aspects of the Website may not conform to the Law applicable in other countries. Accordingly, Visitors from non United Kingdom countries are not permitted to enter the Net Storm Website. If non United Kingdom Visitors choose to ignore this warning, they enter the Net Storm Website entirely at their own risk and have no recourse to Net Storm in Law or otherwise if they feel they have suffered or caused any damage or loss as a result of ignoring this warning.

3.2 By visiting the Net Storm Website the Visitor agrees to be bound by all of the conditions in this Section. If they cannot, without reservation, agree to be bound by all of the conditions, they must not visit the Net Storm Website.

3.3 All software (including HTML coding) used in the Net Storm Website, together with all design, format, text, graphics, special features, audio, animations, movies, the layout and arrangement thereof and any other content not specifically referred to are the property and/or copyright of Net Storm, its technology providers or licensors. All rights in these are reserved.

3.4 Permission is granted to access the Net Storm Website electronically as an information resource; and to print portions of it in hard copy for the express purpose of commissioning Net Storm to supply goods or services. Under no circumstances may any part of the Net Storm Website be used for commercial purposes by competitors or others. Other than such use as outlined, no permission is granted for copying, downloading, reproduction, modification, distribution or re-publication by any means whatsoever any part of the Net Storm Website without the express prior written permission of Net Storm.

3.5 All trade marks, and trade names referred to in the Net Storm Website are the property of Net Storm or their respective owners who have granted Net Storm the right and licence to use such marks.

3.6 The Net Storm Website is provided on an "as is" basis and to the fullest extent permissible under Law, Net Storm disclaims all representations and warranties, express or implied, of any kind, including, but not limited to, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and satisfactory quality. Net Storm cannot in any way accept responsibility for any actions, inactions or transactions, Visitors to the Net Storm Website may make or take as a consequence of using the Net Storm Website.

3.7 Under no circumstances, and without limitation, shall Net Storm, nor any person connected with Net Storm, be liable for negligence, personal injury or any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special, consequential loss or damage of any kind, including, but not limited to, the loss of data, profits or anticipated savings, howsoever caused and whatever the outcome, that results from the Net Storm Website being made available for use (including uploading and testing); or from the use or inability to use any part of the Net Storm Website.

3.8 Any person using the Net Storm Website indemnifies Net Storm against any responsibility for any loss or damage that may be caused as a result of such person using the Net Storm Website.

3.9 The Net Storm Website may contain forms or other features where Visitors have the opportunity to request information from the operators or owners of the Net Storm Website. This process may involve the Visitor in sending personal information about themselves to Net Storm via the Internet. Visitors should be aware that, unless specifically stated otherwise, this is a non-secure Website and that the confidentiality of any personal information cannot be guaranteed. If any Visitor is concerned that they do not want their personal information to enter the public domain, they should not input any such information. Net Storm cannot accept responsibility in any way for personal information transmitted to them via the Internet.

3.10 Net Storm does not warrant that the information accessible through the Net Storm Website is accurate, complete or current, nor that it will be available on a continuous, continual, regular or consistent basis.

3.11 Product descriptions, Specifications, Charges and all other information contained in the Net Storm Website are all subject to change without notice.

3.12 The Net Storm Website may contain links to other Websites and other Websites may contain links to the Net Storm Website. Net Storm cannot in any way be held responsible for the content or any actions, inactions or transactions, Visitors to the Net Storm Website may make as a result of accessing other such Websites.

3.13 The Net Storm Website may include directories, listings or advertisements from third parties. As a consequence of viewing such information, the Visitor may decide to contact the third party directly and subsequently purchase goods or services from them. In such circumstances, any contractual agreement arising from this action is made between the Visitor and the third party, separate from and external to the scope of the Net Storm Website. As such, Net Storm has no obligation or liability in relation of such contracts and cannot intervene or mediate in respect of any dispute that may arise.

3.14 This agreement is governed by English Law and any use of the Net Storm Website is subject to it. Any purchase or order arising from the direct use of the Net Storm Website and the resulting Contract will also be subject to English Law.

3.15 If any of the these Terms and Conditions are found at Law to be invalid, the remaining terms and conditions will remain applicable in full.

4.1 The Customer appoints Net Storm as their agent to acquire specific Internet Domain name(s) on their behalf.

4.2 Orders for Domain Name(s) are accepted subject to Domain Name availability. Acceptance of an instruction from the Customer, by Net Storm, to acquire a Domain Name does not guarantee ultimate availability of that specific Domain Name.

4.3 Application for a specific Domain Name by Net Storm on behalf of the Customer does not guarantee ultimate acceptance of the application by the appropriate Domain Name registration authority.

4.4 Once the Customer has instructed Net Storm to acquire a specific Domain Name and this has been actioned by Net Storm, the instruction cannot be revoked, nor can the Domain Name altered in any way.

4.5 The Customer warrants that they are legally entitled to use the specified Domain Name and agrees to indemnify Net Storm, without limit, against any action that may be taken as a result of any dispute as to the entitlement to use such Domain Name.

4.6 Domain Names are subject to re-registration on a periodic basis. Failure by the Customer to instruct Net Storm to renew the registration (and pay the appropriate fee) will result in the loss of use of the Domain Name (possibly permanently) and the inability to access any Website associated with it.

4.7 Without the need for justification, Net Storm reserves the right to refuse to accept any request to acquire a Domain Name.

4.8 Net Storm reserves the right to temporarily or permanently suspend the use of the Domain Name if they believe that it is being used or attempted to be used in any manner that conflicts with these Terms & Conditions.

5.1 Net Storm will ensure that the Website will perform largely in accordance with the design Specification as agreed between Net Storm and the Customer.

5.2 The Customer warrants that they have ownership of, or written permission of the owner, to use any material submitted to Net Storm for inclusion into the design of their Website. The Customer agrees to indemnify Net Storm without limit against any action brought against Net Storm for the wrongful use of any such material.

5.3 Any material submitted to Net Storm for inclusion into the Customer’s website should be a duplicate or high quality copy of the original. For the protection of the Customer, original or valuable material should not be sent to Net Storm. Where, unavoidably, original or valuable material has to be used, Net Storm will take every possible care of any such material, but cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to any items, however caused and whatever the outcome, whilst in transit or in the possession of Net Storm. It is recommended that the Customer uses the Post Office Special Delivery service (or equivalent). Any material to be returned to the Customer by Net Storm will incur a delivery charge for postage and packaging related to the Customer’s requested method of return.

5.4 Net Storm will endeavour to provide the Website by the date agreed with the Customer. However, Net Storm cannot accept any responsibility for loss or damage whatsoever or howsoever incurred by the Customer or others as a result of Net Storm being unable to provide the Website by such agreed date.

5.5 Net Storm will notify the Customer (by Email or other appropriate means) once the Website has been Delivered i.e. made available for access on the Internet. Within 30 days of this notification, Net Storm will correct free of charge any inaccuracies in the Website design, in respect of the original Specification, as identified by the Customer and notified by them to Net Storm within this period. After this period, all amendments will be chargeable.

5.6 Any revisions by the Customer to the original agreed Website Specification, which necessitates additional work by Net Storm, will be subject to additional Charges and a revised Delivery date.

5.7 Once the Customer has instructed Net Storm to commence work on the design and preparation of a Website, they do so irrevocably and will be liable for the full Charge associated with the Website design regardless of whether or not they accept Delivery of the completed design.

5.8 The Customer acknowledges that Net Storm does not provide any consultancy or advisory service in respect of any data or information the Customer may wish to have included in their Website.

5.9 The Customer agrees to indemnify Net Storm against any action that may be taken against Net Storm as a consequence of Net Storm undertaking any design or preparation work and its Delivery and Hosting in relation to the Customer's Website.

5.10 Net Storm reserves the right, without the need for explanation, to refuse to add to the Customer's Website material provided by the Customer, of any nature, if Net Storm believes that to do so may cause offence or anxiety to others - especially, but not limited to, images or material relating to sexual activity, nudity or violence; racial, religious, cultural, ethnic, gender, sexual preference, political abuse or extremism; substance abuse; cults; harassment of any kind; potentially defamatory or discriminatory statements; exploitation of vulnerable persons; or material or images which are in contravention of any civil or criminal law; or which conflict with these Terms & Conditions in any manner. The decision of Net Storm on the acceptability of material and images is final and absolute.

5.11 Acceptance of material for inclusion into the Customer's Website does not signify Net Storm's agreement that such material conforms with the provisions of these Terms and Conditions. Net Storm reserves the right at any time to reject (or remove from a Customer's Website) any material which it believes fails to conform with these Terms and Conditions even if such material has already been included in the Customer's Delivered Website.

5.12 Websites will be constructed with appropriate meta tags, designed to make them simple for Internet search engines to categorise and list. Submission for inclusion in the most popular search engines is available at extra cost. Because search engines are operated by third parties, submission does not guarantee acceptance that a particular Website will be listed at all, nor a Website's prominence if included in any rankings list, nor the timescale by which any search engine will include a Website in its listings, nor the duration a Website will remain listed by a particular search engine.

6.1.1 Net Storm, through its Technology Provider will use reasonable endeavours to ensure a prompt and continuing Service as described in the Specification the ("Service") but will not be liable for any loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, or Service interruptions caused by circumstances beyond the direct control of Net Storm or its Technology Provider , or by errors or omissions of the Customer. Net Storm and its Technology Provider specifically exclude any condition of warranty as to the accuracy of third party information received through the Service.

6.1.2 Neither Net Storm nor its Technology Provider will be held liable for indirect, economic or consequential loss whatsoever.

6.1.3 At no time whatsoever will Net Storm's total financial liability to the Customer exceed the amount paid by the Customer in respect of the goods or services purchased.

6.1.4 Any breach of these Terms and Conditions by the Customer shall lead to the termination of the Service with no entitlement to refund.

6.2.1 Unless otherwise agreed, the Service period shall normally be for periods of 12 months, renewable at the end of the period.

6.2.2 Net Storm or its Technology Provider may elect to suspend or terminate the Service immediately on any default of payment by the Customer.

6.2.3 From time to time parts of the Technology Provider's network may be taken off-line for repair or routine maintenance. Net Storm and its Technology Provider will endeavour to give as much notice as possible but will not be held liable for any unscheduled downfall in the network due to extraneous conditions including but not limited to Act of God, inclement weather, act of telephone or Governmental organisations or power failure.

6.3.1 The Customer shall acknowledge that they will only use the Service for lawful purposes. The Customer shall comply with the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) (see Section 7) which shall be considered as an integral part of this agreement. Net Storm and its Technology Provider reserve the right to revise the AUP from time to time.

6.3.2 The Customer shall take reasonable precaution to prevent the reception and transmission of viruses to the Technology Provider's network and beyond and shall not attempt any intentional and malicious damage to the Technology Provider's Network or use the Service to affect other computers.

6.3.3 The Account shall be used for single use only and will not allow simultaneous log-ins.

6.3.4 It is the Customer's responsibility to keep all user names and passwords secure and not let third parties have knowledge of, or access to them; or to store them on any computer in plain text or in a format that is easily accessible.

6.3.5 The Customer will notify Net Storm immediately by telephone or Email in any event of a username or password becoming known to a third party.

6.3.6 The Customer hereby indemnifies Net Storm and its Technology Provider against any action taken by a third party resulting from the Customer's use of the Service.

6.3.7 The Customer shall notify Net Storm of any action taken against them by a third party and will not hold Net Storm or its Technology Provider liable for any resulting costs.

6.3.8 The Customer shall be responsible and liable for any costs to telephone companies by use of the Service from their point of connection.

6.3.9 The Customer acknowledges that Net Storm and its Technology Provider cannot exercise control over the content of information passed across the Internet and via the Service.

6.3.10 The Customer agrees to conform to the acceptable policies of connecting to other networks or computers across the Internet.

6.4.1 The Customer agrees not to re-assign, re-sell, sub-lease or transfer their Account in any way, shape or form. Contravention shall lead to immediate termination of the Service to the Customer.

6.5.1 The Customer has the right to withdraw from or cancel their Service agreement with Net Storm at any time. No refunds will be due for any cancellation of Service or due to any suspensions or terminations of Service.

6.6.1 The Technology Provider reserves the right to perform normal system housekeeping tasks such as creating back-ups AND does not accept responsibility for ensuring that the back-ups work effectively.

6.6.2 If Net Storm or its Technology Provider suspect illegal activity, they may notify the appropriate authorities and reserve the right to do anything on the system which their lawyers advise them to do in the protection of the system.

6.6.3 This Agreement is governed by the laws of the United Kingdom, and the Customer consents to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the Central London County Courts or the London High Court in all disputes arising out of or relating to your use of the Service.

6.6.4 The Customer acknowledges that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between themselves and Net Storm or its Technology Provider as a result of their use of the Service. The Customer further agrees not to hold themselves out as a representative, agent or employee of Net Storm or its Technology Provider. The Customer also agrees that Net Storm or its Technology Provider will not be liable by reason of any representation, act or omission to act by the Customer.

7.1.1 This document (the AUP) forms part of the Terms and Conditions the Customer agrees to when using the Service. It defines what the Service may and may not be used for.

7.1.2 The activities prohibited here are those that are generally considered to be abuse of the Internet. Since the Internet is a shared resource paid for jointly by everyone connected to it, users are responsible for ensuring that their behaviour does not have an overly negative impact on others.

7.1.3 More general guidelines on acceptable behaviour on the Internet are called Netiquette, see http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt for more information.

Net Storm's and its Technology Provider's systems may not be used to violate applicable Law. They may not be used to commit fraud, violate intellectual property rights, threaten, intimidate or harass others or Host or transmit material which is obscene, offensive, defamatory or in breach of confidence. All Customer data must conform to UK Laws and in particular but not exclusive to the Data Protection Act and the Obscene Publications Act in all their revisions and amendments.

When using Net Storm's and its Technology Provider's systems to connect to other systems, Customers must respect any acceptable use policies, terms of Service, terms and conditions or similar restrictions placed on their use by the owners of those systems. Any violation of these will constitute a violation of this AUP and be treated accordingly.

Under no circumstances may Net Storm's and its Technology Provider's systems be used to gain or elevate access to a system or attempt to gain or elevate access to a system without the permission of the system's owners.

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is designed to disproportionately consume the resources of a system in order to reduce its ability to serve its function. Under no circumstances may Net Storm's and its Technology Provider's systems be used in DoS attacks.

7.3.3.1 Probe: A probe is a connection made to a computer in order to determine if it has a security vulnerability (for example, testing a mail relay to see if it allows third party relay).

7.3.3.2 Port-Scan: Making multiple attempts to connect to a computer on different ports in order to determine what services it provides is a port-scan

7.3.3.3 Sweep: A sweep is a series of attempts to connect to multiple network addresses in order to determine whether they are in-use, providing a specific service or to map a network's topology.

7.3.3.4 Spoofing: Faking the details of a connection in order to make it appear to come from a different computer, organisation or individual without their permission is known as spoofing. Examples include faking the From or Reply-to addresses of an Email, the SMTP sender in an SMTP connection or the source IP address of an IP packet.

7.3.4.1 Probes, port-scans, sweeps and spoofing of systems without the express permission of the owners of those systems is prohibited.

7.3.4.2 From time to time, the Technology Provider may perform security audits of the systems and those of Net Storm's Customers, and reserve the right to use probes, port-scans, sweeps and spoofing in these circumstances.

Email is a widely supported one-to-one electronic messaging system primarily defined by RFC821 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt),
RFC822 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2822.txt),
and RFC1123 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.txt).

General - Net-Storm may provide the Customer with an email Account or Accounts. Net Storm does not provide any virus or firewall type protection for such Accounts and it is the Customer’s responsibility to ensure that any computer or other system, making use of such email Accounts, is adequately protected against viruses and any unauthorised intrusion or attempt thereof.

Net Storm provides an email account or accounts on the condition that the Customer configures their email client software to remove email messages from Net Storm's email servers as part of the Customer's regular email checking / downloading process.

Each email account provided may only be used in its own name and, unless otherwise agreed, not as a catchall account for other or multiple email addresses.

Net Storm reserves the right, without notice, to suspend or terminate any email Account which has been configured to retain email messages on Net Storm's email servers.

As part of system maintenance procedures, designed to ensure continuous provision of high quality service, Net storm or it's technology provider may delete read messages that are in excess of 1 month old and unread messages that are in excess of 3 months old from the Customer's mailbox.

Net Storm will not accept any liability for email messages that are lost to the Customer as a result of their non compliance with these conditions and any resulting email deletion, account suspension or termination.

7.4.1.1 Bulk (or Broadcast) Email
Bulk Emailing is the sending of substantively similar Emails to more than 70 Email addresses.

7.4.1.2 Commercial Email
Any Email which promotes a commercial venture, offers a service or solicits payments of any sort is a commercial Email.

7.4.1.3 Unsolicited Email
If the recipient of the Email contacted the sender more than one working day prior to it's receipt requesting that they not send it, the Email is unsolicited.

i If the recipient has explicitly requested the Email (for example, by posting their Email address on a web page and inviting contacts related to their business), the Email is solicited. Posting an Email address on a web page or participating in a discussion in a public forum does not, in itself, constitute such permission.

ii If the sender and recipient are personal acquaintances (for example the sender is an old friend who has just discovered the recipients Email address), the Email is solicited.

iii If the Email is relevant to a pre-existing business relationship between the sender and recipient (for example, a company informing a Customer about a change in the Service they provide them), the Email is solicited. This does not include, for instance, situations where one company passes the recipients Email address (without their consent) on to another company who then contacts them.

iv If the Email was sent to one of the Email addresses reserved by RFC2142 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2142.txt) (e.g. postmaster@, webmaster@ or abuse@) and is relevant to it's reserved use, the Email is solicited.

vi Where there is a dispute over whether an Email was solicited or not it is the responsibility of the sender to provide evidence that it was solicited (for example, a confirmation Email for subscription to a mailing list). This evidence should include enough information to allow it to be correlated with records held by others (for example, a date and time and a source IP address or telephone number that the request came from).

7.4.1.4 Address Confirmation Step
An address confirmation step is any process used to verify the validity of the address that an Email appears to have come from. Usually, this consists of sending a confirmation request Email to the address containing simple instructions (such as "hit reply") which must be followed to confirm the authenticity of the original Email. In order to be effective, the instructions must be such that only the person who receives the confirmation Email can complete them (for example they could require knowledge of a unique number included only in the confirmation Email). Modern mailing list managers implement address confirmation by default.

7.5.1 Under no circumstances may Net Storm's and its Technology Provider's systems be used in the sending of Unsolicited Bulk Emails (UBE) or Unsolicited Commercial Emails (UCE).

7.5.2 The sending by Net Storm's Customers or others acting on their behalf of UBE or UCE promoting or advertising Domain Names, URL's or Email addresses Hosted by Net Storm is also prohibited.

7.5.3 See RFC2635 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2635.txt) for more information on UBE and UCE.

7.5.3.1 Bulk Emails
i Senders of bulk Emails have a particular responsibility to ensure that their Emails are solicited.

ii Bulk Emails may only be sent to Email addresses which have been verified using an address confirmation step. The confirmation Email used in this process must be concise and may not contain gratuitous promotional material.

7.5.3.2 Mail Bombing
Mail Bombing is sending more than 10 substantively similar Emails to the same recipient in any 24 hour period. Under no circumstances may Net Storm's and its Technology Provider's systems be used in mail bombing.

Usenet is a distributed hierarchy of publicly accessible forums primarily defined by RFC1036 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1036.txt).

7.6.1.1 Cross-Posting
Cross-posting is posting a single Usenet message which is marked as appearing in multiple newsgroups.

7.6.1.2 Multi-Posting
Multi-posting is repeatedly posting identical or substantively similar messages. Multi-posting is considered bad because each copy of a multi-posting must be separately distributed across Usenet, whereas a cross-posted message need only be transferred once (even though it appears in multiple newsgroups).

7.6.1.3 Briedbart Index
i In order to quantify how bad a multi-posted or cross-posted message is, the Briedbart index is used.

ii If during any 45 day period, a series of substantively similar messages are posted, the first cross-posted to n1 groups, the second to n2 groups, the third to n3 groups, etc. The Briedbart index of that series of postings is calculated as the sum of the square roots of n1, n2, n3 etc.

7.6.1.4 Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP)
Any series of substantively similar postings with a Briedbart index greater than 20 constitute an Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP).

7.6.1.5 Prohibition of EMP
i Under no circumstances may Net Storm's and its Technology Provider's systems be used to Excessively Multi-Post.

ii The posting by Customers or others acting on their behalf of EMP promoting or advertising Domain Names, URL's or Email addresses Hosted by Net Storm is also prohibited.

Many newsgroups have charters which place restrictions on what messages may be posted to them. Charters can be searched (http://www.faqs.org/usenet/gsearch.html) for at the Internet FAQ Consortium (http://www.faqs.org/) and the charters for all UK newsgroups (http://www.usenet.org.uk/hierarchy.html) can be found at The UK Usenet Committee (http://www.usenet.org.uk/).

Where a charter exists for a newsgroup, a message posted to it which violates that charter is off-topic.

i Under no circumstances may Net Storm's and its Technology Provider's systems be used to post off-topic messages.

ii The posting by Customers or others acting on their behalf of off-topic messages promoting or advertising Domain Names, URL's or Email addresses Hosted by Net Storm and its Technology Provider is also prohibited.

7.9.1 Any use of a Customer's Account will be considered to be use by the Customer. In any incidents of abuse involving an Account, the Customer will be held responsible. The security of a Customer's systems and Account details are the responsibility of the Customer.

7.9.2 Net Storm and its Technology Provider recommend that Customers take steps to ensure that all use of their Account is authorised. This includes restricting physical access to their computers and networks, logging their use and ensuring that their Account details (especially passwords) are stored securely. Connecting a computer to the Internet exposes it to millions of other computers, and it is recommended that the Customer ensures that their computer is secured against abuse from the Internet.

7.10.1 Net Storm and its Technology Provider explicitly reserve the right to suspend or terminate without notice all services to a Customer where there is evidence that they have violated these Terms and Conditions including this AUP.

7.10.2 Under normal circumstances, Net Storm or its Technology Provider will endeavour to contact that Customer (either by telephone or Email) before any action is taken. Where it is believed that the violation was accidental or will not be repeated, Net Storm or its Technology Provider may, at their discretion, choose to re-enable services. In these circumstances Net Storm or its Technology Provider may also place restrictions or further conditions on the Customer's use of the systems, require a formal undertaking from them regarding their future conduct or require payment to cover costs incurred in dealing with the abuse incident.

7.10.3 In circumstances where it is believed that an abuse is in progress, Net Storm or its Technology Provider may temporarily suspend services in the interests of preventing further abuse whilst the situation is being investigated. Typically, this would take the form of suspending an Account, restricting access to a Website or delaying Emails on the mail server.

7.11.1 Complaints about the use of Email by a Customer should, in the first instance, should be sent to abuse@net-storm.co.uk so that Net Storm may liaise with its Technology Provider to agree an appropriate course of investigation. Complaints should include as much detail as possible. Relevant Emails or Usenet postings (including all headers) and logs, together with references to charters, acceptable use policies and other supporting evidence should all be included when they are available.

7.11.2 During the investigation of the complaint, and except when required by Law, Net Storm and its Technology Provider will endeavour to ensure that any information passed on to any involved party neither identifies the Complainant nor the Customer concerned Customer.

7.11.3 Following an abuse incident, relevant information (such as details of the response) may be made available to involved parties. Again, except where required by Law, this will not normally include personal identification details.