Acceptable Use Policy

Applies to ALL users of RhiCom Internet and Data Services.

General - This section provides a general understanding of RhiCom Networks Inc. (“RhiCom”) policy on the Acceptable Use of the RhiCom Internet Access Services (the "Service"). It is designed to help protect our Service, our customers, and the Internet community.

If a RhiCom Internet customer is involved in a violation of these policies, we reserve the right to restrict, suspend or terminate Service without notice.

In the event that an Internet account is deactivated or cancelled as a result of any activities contrary to this policy, the account may be subject to set-up fees, reactivation charges and/or deposit requirements to be determined by RhiCom, if such account is permitted to be re-activated or re-established. Users whose accounts have been cancelled for misuse or violations of the Terms and Conditions applicable to the Service or this policy are not entitled to re-register for the Service without express written approval from RhiCom outside the normal flow of the registration process. Any further registrations for the Service by or for the user whose account has been terminated for such activities may be rejected or the new account(s) may be terminated upon discovery, and such further registration or use may subject the user to additional account set-up, analysis, monthly usage and/or termination charges for each such registration in amounts to be determined by RhiCom.

RhiCom may take such action as it deems appropriate against any subscriber or account user for violations of the Terms and Conditions applicable to the Service or of this policy. However, there is no promise or obligation on our part to monitor or police any such activity and RhiCom will have no liability to any party for any other party's violation of these policies or the Terms and Conditions applicable to the Service. RhiCom has no obligation to censor or monitor use of the Service by you, any customer or any third party, including without limitation any obligation to censor or monitor any content, material or other information sent, received or accessible through the Service or the Internet. However, RhiCom has the right to, without notice, monitor use of the Service and monitor, review and retain such content, material or information if RhiCom believes in good faith that such activity is reasonably necessary to provide the Service to customers, ensure adherence to or enforce the terms of this policy, comply with any laws or regulations, respond to any allegation of illegal conduct or claimed violation of third party rights, or protect itself or others.

If at any time you become aware of any violation, by any person or entity, of the acceptable use rules set out in the above, which involves your account, you agree to immediately notify RhiCom and provide RhiCom with assistance, as requested, to stop and/or remedy such violation. RhiCom contact information may be found at www.rhicom.ca.

RhiCom prefers to advise Customers of any inappropriate behavior and any necessary corrective measures; however, RhiCom reserves the right, without limiting any of RhiCom's rights to suspend, restrict or terminate your RhiCom Internet Services account as described elsewhere in this policy, RhiCom may suspend, restrict or terminate your RhiCom Internet Services account without notice if, in RhiCom's sole and absolute discretion, you have violated any of the provisions set out in this policy. RhiCom shall not be responsible or liable to you or any third party for any suspension, restriction or termination of your account. RhiCom shall not be responsible for any damages, caused directly or indirectly, including, but not limited to loss of profits, loss of data or any loss of information as a result of the termination of your account.

In the event that RhiCom receives a complaint relating to use of the Service by a customer, RhiCom may, in its sole and absolute discretion and without notice or liability, investigate the complaint, restrict, monitor data traffic, suspend or terminate the account(s) involved and/or remove any content, information or materials from its servers.

RhiCom may, without notice or liability, disclose to third parties any customer information or any content, information or materials associated with a RhiCom Internet Services account, if RhiCom believes that such activity is reasonably necessary to provide the Service to customers, ensure adherence to or enforce the terms of this policy, comply with any laws or regulations, respond to any allegation of illegal conduct or claimed violation of third party rights, or protect itself or others.

Illegal Activity - Use of the Service for any activity that violates Local, Provincial, Federal or International law, order or regulation is a violation of this policy. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:

 
    1. Posting, storing, transmitting or disseminating unlawful material, including without  limitation, child or other pornography, any content, data or other material which is  libelous, obscene, hateful, unlawful, threatening, ethnically offensive, defamatory, or  which in any way encourages conduct that constitutes a criminal offense.
    2. Disseminating material that violates copyright or intellectual property rights. You  assume all risk regarding whether material is in the public domain
    3. Pyramid or other illegal soliciting schemes or
    4. Fraudulent activities, including but not limited to impersonating any person or entity,  or forging anyone’s digital or manual signature.

Amendments to this Policy - RhiCom reserves the right to amend this Policy at any time. RhiCom will publish this policy and any amendments on its web site at www.rhicom.ca , or otherwise electronically transmitted to users over the Service, as may be updated from time to time, before such amendments become effective. You are responsible for regularly reviewing the RhiCom web site to obtain timely notice of such amendments. If any amendment is unacceptable, you may terminate your RhiCom Internet Services account. If you do use your account five days after the effective date of the amendment, you will be conclusively deemed to have accepted the amendment.

Service, Network, and System Security - You are responsible for any misuse of the Service that originate from your account, even activities committed by any friend, family member, co-worker, employee, guest or anyone with access to your account. You must ensure that others not gain unauthorized access to the Services.

You are responsible for the security of ANY device you connect to the services, including, without limitation, data stored on that device.

You may not attempt to interfere with or compromise the operation of the RhiCom Services network in whole or part, to interfere with any of the equipment comprising RhiCom system, or to access other accounts or restricted areas of RhiCom system.

You may not use the Service in a manner that adversely affects the availability of its resources to other RhiCom Internet customers.

You may not attempt to subvert or aid others to subvert the security of any computing facility.

You may not interfere with use by any other authorized user, nor compromise the confidentiality of RhiCom or any other party's internal business practices or records.

Any attempts, whether successful or not, to gather information about or to gain access to any computer system or customer's data without consent is prohibited.

To protect the interests of the customer and the integrity of RhiCom’ network, a customer's Internet Dial-up account sessions that use the Internet Dial-up Service may be subject to idle timeouts. An Internet Dial-up account session may be determined to be idle if there appears to be no interactive, human generated data received from the remote user's computer system within a prescribed amount of time.

A customer shall not in conjunction with use of the Internet Dial-up Service artificially in any manner, such as using software to continually transmit packets of data or information, keep an Internet Dial-up circuit alive to create a continuous dedicated connection.

RhiCom allows no more than one Internet Dial-up connection from a particular Subscriber account at any given time. You are not permitted to share a Subscriber account without the express written permission of RhiCom Networks.

The Internet Dial-up Service is intended for accessing and using the Internet. It is not intended, nor may it be used, as a substitute for other services such as local area network extension except where specified.

A customer shall not use or distribute software which disrupts the use of a network, system, or service, for example, and without limitation, System Intrusion tools, Viruses, or Worms. A customer shall not permit the existence of an abusable resource, for example, and without limitation, an unsecured mail relay, an open news-server, a compromised system or a smurf amplifier. Customer shall immediately take all necessary steps to avoid any further abuse of such resource. Any abuse of an open resource that occurs after Customer has received such notification shall be considered a violation of this Acceptable Use Policy and enforced as such.

Although RhiCom may recommend possible solutions to prevent unauthorized use of RhiCom services, RhiCom does not warrant or guarantee that the recommendations will prevent unauthorized use.

RhiNet, Unlimited Usage - for subscribers to RhiNet services, you are entitled to unlimited usage of your Internet service as it would typically be measured in megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB). Customers can expect no changes or penalties to the speed of their service as a result of normal usage. However, from time to time, RhiCom's technical team may monitor heavy use customers and those who impact the network negatively due to the volume of their use will be notified that their behaviour is having a negative impact which is affecting our greater ability to deliver service to our customers. If in a two billing-cycle period two notices are issued in writing by email, RhiCom will require the customer pay an additional fee of $50 per month for the following two billing cycles OR the customer may choose a reduced service speed to the next lower plan at their current billing rate. Prior to the third billing cycle, a re-evaluation of the customer's use will occur and a decision to continue billing for heavy use or reduced service speeds will be made every second billing cycle.

RhiNet Thresholds: 
Entry level plans: 500 GB to monitor - 1 TB to notify, 1.5 TB for second notification
Greather than entry level plans: 1 TB to monitor - 2 TB to notify, 2.5 TB for second notification

Email - As the user of the Service you may receive announcements from time to time from RhiCom by email regarding various aspects of the Service, including without limitation, notices of future upgrades or changes, service affecting issues or events, or special offers from RhiCom Networks.

You may not use the Service to send threatening or harassing email. However, not every "flame" message or angry exchange of email can automatically be considered harassment. RhiCom is not responsible for the content or tone of any email or other transmissions by the You to its Service or other parties using the Internet and You or others should not expect that RhiCom would attempt to mediate or otherwise become involved in any particular disagreement or dispute between Internet users. RhiCom will co-operate with appropriate law enforcement agencies involved in investigating instances that may be reported to such authorities by users of the Service who believe they are being subject to unlawful harassment or other criminal activity.

You agree that sending unsolicited email by users of the Service whether for advertising or other purposes is prohibited. A customer shall not provide support services for unsolicited email. These services include but are not limited to: mail relay, electronic mailboxes, website hosting, transaction processing, DNS, and software distribution. RhiCom reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to make a determination whether any particular service is related to unsolicited commercial email.

If a subscriber runs a mail server, the subscriber must maintain a mailbox and read mail sent to postmaster@(yourdomain) and abuse@(yourdomain).

You acknowledge and agree that the RhiCom policy with respect to unsolicited email applicable to users of the service may change from time to time. Such changes will be reflected in revised versions of the Terms and Conditions applying to the Service and/or this policy and made available to users of the Service from time to time, including but not limited to, being made available to your system's administrator for the Service. RhiCom reserves the right to immediately suspend or terminate your Service in the event you do not comply with RhiCom policy respecting unsolicited email.

You may not attempt to send email using a name and address of someone other than yourself. Attempting to impersonate any person, using forged headers or other identifying information is prohibited. Attempts to do so that are discovered by RhiCom or reported by other parties may be reported to the proper authority immediately, and may result in the offending account being terminated immediately. The use of anonymous re-mailers and nicknames, by themselves, does not necessarily constitute impersonation if it is not being done with the intention of misleading the recipient or another party into believing that you are some other specifically identifiable user or person other than yourself.

You also may not engage in the following activities while using the Service:

 (a) intercepting, redirecting or otherwise interfering or attempting to interfere with email intended for other parties;
 (b) posting or transmitting a file that would infringe upon the rights of others including without limitation, trademarks, or service marks, confidential 
      and/or proprietary information, and copyrighted materials;
 (c) posting or transmitting a file or message through any storage medium that contains viruses, 'Trojan Horses', worms or any other destructive or 
      contaminating features;
 (d) knowingly deleting any author attributions, legal notices or proprietary designations or labels in a file that the user mails or sends;
 (e) publishing, posting, distributing or disseminating defamatory, infringing, obscene or other unlawful material or information;
 (f) using the Service or systems to threaten, harass, stalk, abuse, or otherwise violate the legal rights (including rights of privacy and publicity) of             
     others.

It may be necessary for RhiCom employees or representatives to examine system operational and accounting logs and other records to resolve Service-related problems. RhiCom reserves the right to access an account's mailbox or other features to resolve problems or mail system errors. Email accounts that are inactive for a period of six months or more may be automatically deleted from the system in order to maintain optimum system server performance. Those account addresses will be notified by email in advance of deletion.

Off-topic or Inappropriate Postings - RhiCom does not intend to censor the content of any newsgroups or other communications passing through its systems. We believe such choices should generally, be left to the individual subscriber. Software tools are available to screen a subscriber account's access to newsgroups and Web sites that might be considered offensive. It is the subscriber's responsibility to make use of such tools if desired.

Newsgroup postings and other email messages sent via the Service and the Internet are communications between the senders and consenting receivers thereof, and RhiCom has neither the authority nor the responsibility to regulate their content. The views and comments expressed by RhiCom, You or other senders of such postings or messages are solely those of their authors and do not reflect any review, approval or endorsement by RhiCom Networks. RhiCom will, however, attempt to assist You who continually receive email they deem to be objectionable and/or unsolicited email and who notify RhiCom of the problem.

Generally, there is no restriction on content or postings, except as defined by each newsgroup. However, continued posting of off-topic or inappropriate articles is prohibited. Please note that commercial advertisements are off-topic in the vast majority of newsgroups. If numerous complaints are received with respect to off topic or inappropriate postings from a particular subscriber, RhiCom reserves the right to take appropriate actions, which may include but not be limited to issuing a warning to that subscriber or terminating that subscriber’s account without notice.

Other Activities - Engaging in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that RhiCom determines to be harmful to its You, operations, reputation, goodwill, or customer relations is prohibited.

RhiCom prohibits any conduct which violates the accepted norms and expectations of the Internet community at large (whether or not detailed in this Acceptable Use Policy). RhiCom reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to make a determination whether any particular conduct violates such norms and expectations. RhiCom may attempt to contact Customer with regards to any behavior that is in violation of the accepted norms, but provides no guarantee to such contact taking place prior to commencing any action deemed appropriate in the circumstances.