Acceptable Use Policy

East Shore Internet Society may modify this Acceptable Use Policy at any time without notifying its users. For this reason, East Shore Internet Society users should opyonsult the East Shore Internet Society website regularly to ensure that their actions are in ontentompliance with the most recent version of the Acceptable Use Policy. In the event of any conflict between this Acceptable Use Policy and the East Shore Internet Society Terms and Conditions of Use, this Acceptable Use Policy will govern.

You agree that, if any portion of this Policy is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion will be construed consistent with applicable law as nearly as possible, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect.

East Shore Internet Society provides a variety of Internet Services (the Services) to residences and businesses (the Customer).

1.0 Introduction
1.1 This Acceptable Use Policy is designed to foster an online environment of mutual respect in which everyone is able to enjoy the benefits of East Shore Internet Society . We believe that the restrictions set out in this Acceptable Use Policy represents a fair balance between the freedom of the individual and the need for some basic rules to ensure that East Shore Internet Society’s Internet access is not used in an abusive or illegal way.

1.2 East Shore Internet Society users are responsible for ensuring that their accounts are used in accordance with this Acceptable Use Policy. If East Shore Internet Society has reason to suspect that a user, or anyone using a user’s account, is violating this Policy, then the account in question may be suspended pending an investigation. If, after an investigation, East Shore Internet Society determines that an account has been used in violation of this Policy, East Shore Internet Society may, in its discretion, terminate the user account.

If you do not agree to abide by this Acceptable Use Policy please notify East Shore Internet Society Customer Service immediately at info@eastshoreinternet.ca

1.3 East Shore Internet Society does not actively monitor its user’s use of its services. We rely on our users to govern themselves and to protect the integrity of the network by reporting any violations of this Acceptable Use Policy to info@eastshoreinternet.ca

1.4 East Shore Internet Society has the right, but not the obligation, to investigate any violation or alleged violation of this Acceptable Use Policy, including the right to examine any information or material on East Shore Internet Society’s servers.

1.5 East Shore Internet Society has the right, but not the obligation, to remove any content that it deems, in its sole discretion, to be in violation of any part of this Acceptable Use Policy.

1.6 East Shore Internet Society has the right, but not the obligation, to take any steps it deems necessary to prevent violations of this Acceptable Use Policy from occurring.

1.7 The failure of East Shore Internet Society to enforce this Policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of any right to do so at any time.

2.0 Illegal Activities
East Shore Internet Society users must not use East Shore Internet Society to encourage, facilitate or engage in any illegal activities, including, without limitation:

  • defamation: downloading, posting or transmitting any material which is defamatory under any applicable law;
  • fraud: downloading, posting or transmitting any information that you know or ought to know is false, and that you intend others to rely on;
  • unlawful material: downloading, posting or disseminating unlawful material
  • false advertising: downloading, posting or transmitting any advertising or promotional materials that contain false, deceptive or misleading statements, claims or representations;
  • copyright violation: downloading, posting or transmitting any information, software, photograph, video, graphic, music, sound and other material in violation of another person’s copyright; and
  • trade-mark violation: downloading, posting, transmitting, displaying or using any words or symbols that violate any other person’s rights in its trade-mark or trade-name.

3.0 Electronic Mail
3.1 East Shore Internet Society users must not use East Shore Internet Society e-mail to:

  • send unsolicited bulk e-mail (so-called “Spam”);
  • send, or cause to be sent, large volumes of unsolicited e-mail to a single or multiple people or entities (so-called “E-Mail Bombing”);
  • repeatedly send e-mail to any person or entity who does not wish to receive it. If a recipient asks to stop receiving e-mail from a East Shore Internet Society user, then that East Shore Internet Society user must not send that person further e-mail; and
  • subscribe to any e-mail list or service on behalf of a third party without that third party’s consent.

3.2 East Shore Internet Society users must not engage in any of the activities described in paragraph 3.1 from another provider’s e-mail service and use a East Shore Internet Society account as an e-mail return address or “drop” for responses.

3.3 East Shore Internet Society users must not forge, alter or remove any e-mail header.

Any e-mail address at the theeastshore.net domain is property of East Shore Internet Society and may be terminated or re-assigned without notice.

4.0 Security, Privacy and “Hacking”
The Customer is responsible for any misuse of the Service that originates from your account, even activities committed by any friend, family, co-worker, employee, guest or anyone with access to the account.  You must ensure that others not gain unauthorized access to the Service.  The Service may not be used to breach the security of another user, or to attempt access to anyone’s computer, software or data, without the knowledge and consent of that person.  The Service may not be used in any attempt to circumvent the user authentication or security of any host, network, or account.  This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or maESISg use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, probing the security of other networks.  Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, cracking tools, packet sniffers or network probing tools is strictly prohibited.

4.1 East Shore Internet Society users must not:

  • disrupt or interfere with the normal operation of East Shore Internet Society systems, networks, or activities in any way that adversely affects the ability of other people, or systems to use East Shore Internet Society services or the Internet, including, but not limited to:
    • denial of service attacks;
    • flooding of networks;
    • attempts to overload a service; and
    • attempts to cause system crashes,

    or attempt to do so; or

  • use any unauthorized program to connect the user to any Internet Relay Chat (“IRC”) server, including, but not limited to, IRC bots or clonebots;
  • gain access or attempt to gain access to the private systems or data of East Shore Internet Society, without the prior consent of East Shore Internet Society.
  • improperly restrict, inhibit or degrade any other customer’s use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole judgment of ESIS an unusually large burden on the network itself, such as, but not limited to, peer to peer file sharing programs, serving streaming video, mail, http, ftp, irc, dhcp servers, and multi-user interactive forums. In addition, you must ensure that your activities do not improperly restrict, disrupt, inhibit, degrade or impede ESIS’s ability to deliver the Service and monitor the Service.

4.2 East Shore Internet Society users must not use their East Shore Internet Society accounts to:

  • circumvent or attempt to circumvent security or authentication systems on any host, network hardware, or user accounts, including, but not limited to, logging into any server, account or network without authorization and electronically probing the security of any system or network; or
  • disrupt or interfere with the normal operation of any system or network operated by any third party, or attempt to do so.
  • gain access or attempt to gain access to the private systems or data of East Shore Internet Society, or any third party without the prior consent of East Shore Internet Society or the third party.

4.3 YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SECURITY OF ANY DEVICE YOU CONNECT TO THE SERVICE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DATA STORED ON THAT DEVICE.  In particular, ESIS recommends against enabling file or printer sharing of any kind.  ESIS recommends that any files or services you make available for remote access be password protected.

5.0 Usenet Newsgroups
5.1 East Shore Internet Society users must not:

  • post a single article or substantially similar articles to an excessive number of newsgroups, or cross-post to an excessive number of newsgroups;
  • post articles on a newsgroup which are off-topic according to the newsgroup charter;
  • post binary or encoded binary files to newsgroups not specifically designated for that purpose;
  • post commercial messages on a non-commercial East Shore Internet Society newsgroup without prior approval from East Shore Internet Society;
  • engage in any of (a), (b), (c) or (d) from a provider other than East Shore Internet Society and use an account on East Shore Internet Society as an e-mail return address or “drop” for responses, or
  • engage in any of (a), (b), (c) or (d) from a provider other than East Shore Internet Society for the purpose of drawing attention to a service hosted by or on East Shore Internet Society’s network.

East Shore Internet Society reserves the right to discontinue access to any Usenet newsgroup at any time and for any reason.

6.0 Censorship and Adult Materials
East Shore Internet Society believes in freedom of expression and the right of individuals to decide for themselves what they want to see and listen to. We do not believe it is the place of an ISP to censor or regulate the Internet. However, users must not use East Shore Internet Society to transmit or post any information or image that is criminally obscene or otherwise prohibited under any applicable law.

ESIS is not responsible for any content you post, store, transmit, disseminate or access through use of the Service.  Any content questions or complaints you may have regarding content you access should be addressed to the content provider.

You are responsible for information published to the Web or other Internet services, through your account.  ESIS reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that it, at its sole discretion, deems to be offensive, indecent, or otherwise inappropriate regardless of whether such material or its dissemination is unlawful.

ESIS has no obligation to monitor transmissions made on the Service.  However, ESIS has the right to monitor such transmissions and to disclose the same in accordance with ESIS’s Privacy Policy.  By using the Service to publish, transmit or distribute content, a user is warranting that the content complies with this Agreement and licenses and authorizes ESIS to reproduce, publish, distribute and display such content worldwide.

7.0 Miscellaneous

7.1 False Pretences. Users must not use East Shore Internet Society to impersonate any person or use a fictitious user name with any of East Shore Internet Society’s services, including in any e-mail, Usenet posting, or Internet Relay Chat (“IRC”) site. This restriction does not preclude the use of nicknames in IRC, the use of anonymous remailer services, or postings to any site that permits pseudonyms.

7.2 Unsolicited Advertising. Users must not use East Shore Internet Society to post or transmit any unsolicited advertising, promotional materials or other forms of solicitation to any person except in those areas and on those websites that are designated for such a purpose.

7.3 Harassment, Threats and Abuse. Users must not use East Shore Internet Society to harass, threaten, or abuse any person or group of people by any means.

7.4 Crude or Offensive Postings. Users must not use East Shore Internet Society to post offensive or crude messages or images on publicly accessible pages or sites, except where such messages or images are appropriate having regard to the nature of the site. East Shore Internet Society has the right, but not the obligation, to remove messages or images that East Shore Internet Society, in its sole discretion, determines are offensive.

7.5 Multiple access. Users must not maintain more than one simultaneous connection to East Shore Internet Society or any East Shore Internet Society service, IRC Chat group, or newsgroup.

7.6 Disruptive Conduct. Users must not use East Shore Internet Society to disrupt the normal flow of online dialogue, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users, individuals or entities.

8.0 Bandwidth/Network Traffic and Other Limitations
8.1 You must comply with the current bandwidth/network traffic, data storage and other limitations on the Services.

Users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit or degrade any other customer’s use of the Services, nor represent (in the sole judgment of East Shore Internet Society) an unusually large burden on the network itself. In addition, users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, disrupt, inhibit, degrade or impede East Shore Internet Society’s ability to deliver the Services and monitor the Services, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

Customers may not resell, share, or otherwise distribute the Services or any portion thereof to any third party without the written consent of East Shore Internet Society. For example, you cannot provide Internet access to others through a wireless or dial-up connection, host shell accounts over the Internet, provide email or news service, or send a news feed unless express permission is granted by the customer agreement.

You may not provide network services to others via the East Shore Internet Society .

9.0 Updates
9.1 This Acceptable Use Policy is subject to change without notice.

10.0 Violation of this Agreement

ESIS does not routinely monitor the activity of accounts for violation of this Agreement. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, ESIS will respond appropriately if it becomes aware of inappropriate use of the Service.  Although ESIS has no obligation to monitor the Service and/or the network, ESIS reserves the right to monitor bandwidth, usage and content from time to time, to identify violations of this Agreement; and/or to protect the network and ESIS Internet customers.

ESIS prefers to advise customers of inappropriate behavior and any necessary corrective action.  However, if you use the Service in a way which ESIS, in its sole discretion, believes violate this Agreement, ESIS may take any responsive actions they deem appropriate.  Such actions include, but are not limited to, temporary or permanent removal of content, cancellation of newsgroup posts, filtering of Internet transmissions, and the immediate suspension or termination of all or any portion of the Service.  ESIS will not have any liability for any such responsive actions.  The above-described actions are not ESIS’s exclusive remedies and ESIS may take any other legal or technical action it deems appropriate.

ESIS reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of this Agreement, including the gathering of information from you or other users involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on ESIS’s servers and network. During an investigation, ESIS may suspend the account or accounts involved and/or remove material which potentially violates this Agreement.

You hereby authorize ESIS to cooperate with (i) law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations, and/or (ii) system administrators at other Internet service providers or other network or computing facilities in order to enforce this Agreement.  Such cooperation may include ESIS providing the username, IP address, or other identifying information about a subscriber, in accordance with the guidelines set out in ESIS’s Privacy Policy.

Upon termination of your account, ESIS is authorized to delete any files, programs, data and email messages associated with such account.

This document is posted on our web site eastshoreinternet.ca, under the heading ‘Terms of Service’.  We may alter it from time to time.  Such changes will be posted to the web site, and will be effective as of the posting date.  Subscribers will be notified of any substantive changes (rate increases, for example) by email.

11.0 Questions and Complaints
11.1 Please direct any questions you may have regarding this Acceptable Use policy and complaints regarding violations of this Policy by other East Shore Internet Society users to info@eastshoreinternet.ca