Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP” or “Policy”) describes actions by Users that are prohibited by TNC Communications Inc. and its affiliates and subsidiaries (“TNC”). “Users” or “User” means any user or Customer of any and all TNC provided services (“Service” and/or “Services”) that are provided by TNC pursuant to any applicable customer AGREEMENT, including, without limitation, any applicable terms of service and/or supplements to any applicable AGREEMENT(s) (which Users must accept as a condition to receiving any Services from TNC).

TNC’s AUP for TNC Services is designed to help protect TNC, TNC’s customers and the Internet community in general from irresponsible or, in some cases, illegal activity. The Policy is a non-exclusive list of the actions prohibited by TNC. By using Services, User(s) agrees to comply with this Acceptable Use Policy and to remain responsible for its users. TNC reserves the right to change or modify the terms of the AUP at any time, effective when posted on TNC’s web site at www.tncconnected.com/aup. User’s use of the Services after changes to the AUP are posted shall constitute acceptance of any changed or additional terms. TNC encourages Users to review this Policy regularly.

· Services may be used only for lawful, proper, and appropriate purposes.

· Users must use any Services only in a manner that, in TNC’s sole discretion, is consistent with the purposes of such Services. Users will not engage in any legal or illegal activity that either (i) harms TNC, the network operated by TNC, the Services and/or any User, or (ii) interferes with the network operated by TNC and/or the provision or use of the Services by TNC or any User.

· Transmission, distribution, or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, 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.

· Services may not be used for illegal, improper, and/or inappropriate purposes.

Illegal purposes include, but are not limited to:

using any Service to violate any law, rule, or regulation; or
engaging in threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, or fraudulent behavior.
improper and/or inappropriate uses include, but are not limited to:
posting multiple messages similar in content to Usenet or other newsgroups, listservs, forums, e-mail mailing lists or other similar groups or lists;
Sending Unsolicited Bulk Email (“UBE”, “spam”). The sending of any form of Unsolicited Bulk Email through TNC’s Servers or network is prohibited. Likewise, the sending of UBE from another service provider advertising a website, email address, or utilizing any resource hosted on TNC’s servers, is prohibited. TNC accounts or services may not be used to solicit customers from, or collect replies to, messages sent from another Internet Service Provider where those messages violate this Policy or that of the other provider;
Running Unconfirmed Mailing Lists. Subscribing email addresses to any mailing list without the express and verifiable permission of the email address owner is prohibited. All mailing listed run by TNC customers must be Closed Loop (“Confirmed Opt-in”). The subscription confirmation message received from each address owner must be kept on file for the duration of the existence of the mailing list. Purchasing lists of email addresses from 3^rd parties for mailing to or from any TNC-hosted domain or referencing any TNC account, is prohibited;
Child Pornography. Services shall not be used to publish, submit/receive, upload/download, post, use, copy or otherwise product, transmit, distribute or store child pornography. Suspected violations of this prohibition may be reported to TNC at the following e-mail address: [email protected]. TNC will report any discovered violations of this prohibition to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and take steps to remove child pornography (or otherwise block access to the content determined to contain child pornography) from its servers.
calling, messaging, storing, posting or transmitting harassing, threatening or abusive materials, e-mail or information;
Operating an account on behalf of, or in connection with, or reselling any service to, persons or firms listed in the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database at www.spamhaus.org/rokso;
Unauthorized attempts by a user to gain access to any account or computer resource not belonging to that user (e.g., “cracking”);
posting or transmitting any information or software that contains a virus worm, cancelbot, or other harmful component;
Obtaining or attempting to obtain service by any means or device with intent to avoid payment;
Unauthorized access, alteration, destruction, or any attempt thereof, of any information of any TNC Customers or end-users by any means or device;
without permission from the owner of a system or network, doing any of the following: (a) accessing the system or network, (b) monitoring data or traffic, (c) probing, scanning, and/or testing firewalls, (d) testing the vulnerability of a system or network or (e) breaching the security or authentication routines of a system or network;
conducting or forwarding surveys, contests, pyramid schemes, charity requests or chain letters;
relaying e-mail in an anonymous fashion or forging any TCP-IP packet header;
mailbombing, flooding, overloading, attacking or otherwise interfering with a system or network;
sending unsolicited calls, messaging, e-mailings (including, without limitation, commercial advertising and informational announcements) if such unsolicited activities could reasonably be expected to or do in fact provoke complaints;
operating a server in connection with the Services in an “open relay” configuration (a configuration whereby a mail server processes email messages where neither the sender nor the recipient is a local user);
falsifying User or other identifying information provided to TNC or to other Users of the Services;
use of any Services in violation of any trademark, copyright, or any other intellectual property protection law or provision, or AUP policy of any third party provider;
Using TNC’s Services to interfere with the use of the TNC network by other customers or authorized users;
Knowingly engage in any activities designed to harass, or that will cause a denial-of-service (e.g., synchronized number sequence attacks) to any other user whether on the TNC network or on another provider’s network;
use of any Services for the purposes of engaging in an activity in connection or in conjunction with any pornographic and/or adult entertainment industry purpose, regardless of whether such activity is lawfully permitted;
auto-dialing or predictive-dialing (sometimes referred to as “robo-dialing”);
continuous or extensive chat line or conference call participation,
use of free conference calling or similar services that TNC in its sole discretion deems to participate in traffic stimulation practices or schemes that result in excessive charges;
use of an open telephone line as a monitoring, intercom or similar service;
repetitive and/or continuous messaging or calling to the same destination or number if such activity could reasonably be expected to or in fact does provoke complaints;
long duration calls (defined as calls to the same number in excess of four continuous or cumulative hours within a 24 hour period) and/or calls placed to specific numbers / destinations for the purpose of generating charges or fees for or with a third party;
use of call Services which do not consist of uninterrupted live human voice dialog by and between natural human beings;
restricting or inhibiting any other User or any other person from using and enjoying the Services and/or the Internet; or
engaging in any of the foregoing activities by using the services of another provider or third party and channeling such activities through an account provided by TNC, or otherwise involving the Services or any TNC account in any way with or without another provider or third party for the purpose of facilitating the foregoing.

Remedies:

TNC reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to determine if a Service is being used for any of the foregoing purposes or activities.

Violation of this Policy may result in civil or criminal liability, and TNC in its sole discretion, in addition to any remedy that it may have at law or in equity, may immediately terminate permission for the User to use the Services or any portion of the Services, and may charge User any applicable rates and cancellation or termination fees. In addition, TNC may investigate incidents that are contrary to this Policy and provide requested information to third parties who have provided notice to TNC stating that they have been harmed by a User’s failure to abide by this Policy or the policies listed above. TNC may bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or collect damages caused by any violation of any part of this Policy.

Any violations or attempted violations of this Policy by any User (or any third party on behalf of any User) will constitute a violation of this Policy by the User and a material breach of any applicable customer AGREEMENT, including, without limitation, any applicable terms of service and/or supplements to any applicable AGREEMENT(s).

TNC’s failure to enforce this policy in every instance in which it might have application does not amount to a waiver of TNC’s rights.

IN NO EVENT WILL TNC BE LIABLE TO ANY USER OR THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES FOR ACTIONS TAKEN OR NOT TAKEN PURSUANT TO THIS POLICY, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY LOST PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF PROGRAMS OR DATA, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF TNC WAS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IN FAVOR OF TNC IS IN ADDITION TO ANY LIMITATIONS SET FORTH IN ANY WRITTEN AGREEMENT BETWEEN TNC AND ANY APPLICABLE USER AND WILL APPLY WHETHER THE ACTION IN WHICH RECOVERY IS SOUGHT IS BASED IN CONTRACT OR TORT (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, NEGLIGENCE OR STRICT LIABILITY), OR ANY APPLICABLE LAWS.

Customer AGREEMENTs:

Nothing in this Policy will limit or be deemed a waiver of any rights or protections of TNC pursuant to any written AGREEMENT between TNC and any applicable User. This Policy will be read in connection with any such written AGREEMENT and not in conflict with any such AGREEMENT. This Policy, in connection with any such AGREEMENT, supersedes any other oral or written representations or AGREEMENTs made by TNC and/or its representatives regarding the Services.
Subject to any arbitration, forum or choice of law provisions of any written AGREEMENT between TNC and any applicable User, (i) this Policy will be governed by, construed under and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina without reference to its choice of law principles or the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods; and (ii) in the event any party brings a civil action or initiates judicial proceedings of any kind related to this Policy (except for actions to enter or collect on judgments), Users consent to the exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue of the federal and state courts located in Wake County, North Carolina.
If any provision of this Policy is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions of this Policy will not be affected thereby.

Customer Responsibility for Customer’s Users

Each TNC customer is responsible for the activities of its users and, by accepting service from TNC, agrees to ensure that its customers/representatives or end-users abide by this Policy. Complaints about customers/representatives or end-users of a TNC customer will forward to the TNC customer’s postmaster for action. If violations of the TNC Acceptable Use Policy occur, TNC reserves the right to terminate services with or take action to stop the offending customer from violating TNC’s AUP as TNC deems appropriate, without notice.

Copyright Infringement & Digital Millennium Copyright Act

TNC respects the intellectual property rights of others. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA” found at 17 U.S.C § 512) provides that owners of copyrighted works who believe that their rights under U.S. copyright law have been infringed may report alleged infringements to service providers like TNC. In accordance with the DMCA and other applicable laws, TNC maintains a policy that provides for the termination of Services, under appropriate circumstances, if Users are found to be a repeat infringer and/or if User’s Services are used repeatedly for infringement (the “Repeat Infringer Policy”) TNC may terminate Services at any time with or without notice to Users.

TNC has no obligation to investigate possible copyright infringements with respect to materials transmitted by Customer or any other users of the Services. However, TNC will process valid notifications of claimed infringement under the DMCA, and continued receipt of infringement notifications for Customer’s account will be used as a factor in determining whether Customer is a repeat infringer. In addition, TNC may voluntarily participate, on terms acceptable to TNC, in copyright alert and graduated response programs.

Incident Reporting

Any complaints (other than claims of copyright infringement) regarding violations of this AUP by a TNC Customer (or its user) should be directed to [email protected]. Where possible, include details that would assist TNC in investigating and resolving such complaint (e.g. expanded headers, IP address(s), a copy of the offending transmission and any log files).

DMCA Copyright Notifications

Pursuant to 17 U.S.C §§ 512(b)-(d), a copyright holder may send TNC a valid notification of claimed copyright infringement under the DMCA. For further information regarding such notifications, see tncconnected.com/terms/dmca. TNC’s designated agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement as described in DMCA subsection 512(c)(3) is:

Registered Copyright Agent

624 HOLLY SPRINGS RD., SUITE 409

HOLLY SPRINGS, NC 27540

EMAIL: [email protected]

Due to the volume of notifications of claimed infringement that TNC receives and processes, we are unable to accept notices of alleged copyright infringement via this designated agent or email address other than notifications of claimed infringement sent pursuant to Sections 512(b)-(d).

Contact Information: Any notification that TNC sends to its Customers pursuant to this AUP will be sent via e-mail to the e-mail address on file with TNC, or may be in writing to Customer’s address of record. It is Customer’s responsibility to promptly notify TNC of any change of contact information.