Terms of Service
Rev. 02MARCH2010-1
This document (the "Agreement") sets forth the principles, guidelines and requirements of the Terms of Service of OV Web Solutions, a California sole proprietor company (the "Company") doing business as OV Web Solutions governing the use by the customer ("Customer") of Company's services and products ("Services and Products"). These Terms of Service have been created to promote the integrity, security, reliability and privacy of Company's facilities, network, and Customer data contained within. The Company provides the following policies in the best interests of the Company and the Company's clients. The Company retains the right to modify these Terms of Service at any time and from time to time and any such modification shall be automatically effective as to all customers when adopted by Company and published at http://www.ovwebsolutions.com/legal/terms-of-service.php. Company shall be the sole and final arbiter as the interpretation of the following. By utilizing the Company's services and products, the Customer agrees to be bound by the terms herein outlined.
Questions or comments regarding this document should be forwarded to the Company at the following:
address: info@ovwebsolutions.com
phone: (866) 845-8467
1. DEFINITIONS
1.1 "Customer" means the persons, entity or agents and authorized representatives accepting this agreement.1.2 "Content" means all text, pictures, sound, graphics, video, links, and other data stored by Customer on OV Web Solutions' server computers.
1.3 "Website" means pages presenting the Content stored by Customer on OV Web Solutions server computers.
1.4 "User" means users of Customer's Website.
1.5 "User Content" means all text, pictures, sound, graphics, video, links, and other data stored by Users on OV Web Solutions' server computers.
1.6 "Confidential Information" means information that Customer takes reasonable steps to maintain in confidence and identifies in writing to OV Web Solutions as confidential.
2. COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW
Customer shall not post, transmit, re-transmit or store material on or through any of Services or Products which, in the sole judgment of the Company
- (i) is in violation of any local, state, federal or non-United States law or regulation,
- (ii) is threatening, obscene, indecent, defamatory or that otherwise could adversely affect any individual, group or entity (collectively, "Persons") or,
- (iii) violates the rights of any person, including rights protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property or similar laws or regulations including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by Customer. The Customer agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Company from any claims resulting from the use of the services which damages the Customer or any other party. Customer shall be responsible for determining what laws or regulations are applicable to its use of the Services and Products.
3. WEB HOSTING
Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Company will provide Web Hosting services for Customer subject to the following terms:
3.1. Length of Service.
Customer agrees to a monthly, quarterly, or annual (12 month) contractual term of service ("Term"). The length of contract required is based on the type of service desired by Customer and shall be determined solely by Company.
3.2. Service Start Date.
The first payment plus setup charges, if any, shall be due in advance of any service provided. Service shall begin upon Company receipt of payment for such first Term of Service or upon a mutually agreed upon alternate date. If Customer signed up for a monthly payment plan, Customer's monthly billing date will be determined based on the day of the month Customer purchases the Services, unless that date falls after the 28th of the month, in which case Customer's billing date will be the 28th of each month.
3.3 Renewal by Customer.
If Customer signed up for a monthy, quarterly or annual payment plan, and Customer elected the automatic renewal option, Company will automatically renew Customer's Services when they come up for renewal and will take payment from the Payment Method Customer has on file with Company, at Company's then current rates. Customer may cancel in writing at least 30 days prior to the Term renewal date. Renewal prices are subject to change. Renewal of services by Customer indicates agreement to any Contract revisions and price changes. Renewal fees for the following terms will be automatically invoiced to Customer's account.
3.4 Payment Terms
Terms of payment are based on Customer's contractual term of service unless credit approval has been granted by Company. If credit approval has been granted, credit terms are net 10 days upon receipt of invoice. Company reserves the right to revoke any credit extended if payment is in arrears for more than 30 days. If for any reason Company is unable to charge Customer's Payment Method for the full amount owed Company for the Services provided, or if Company is charged a penalty for any fee it previously charged to Customer's Payment Method, Customer agrees that Company may pursue all available remedies in order to obtain payment. If Customer pays by credit card and if for any reason Company is unable to charge Customer's credit card with the full amount of the Services provided, or if Company is charged back for any fee it previously charged to the credit card Customer provided, Customer agrees that Company may pursue all available remedies in order to obtain payment. Customer agrees that among the remedies Company may pursue in order to effect payment, shall include but will not be limited to, immediate cancellation without notice to Customer of any domain names or Services registered or renewed on Customer's behalf. Company reserves the right to charge a reasonable administrative fee for administrative tasks outside the scope of its regular Services, including additional costs that it may incur in providing the Services and pass along to Customer. These include, but are not limited to, customer service issues that cannot be handled over email but require personal service, fees incurred by third parties Customer has elected to use as payment methods, including PayPal and Certegy, Inc., and disputes that require legal services. These charges will be billed to the Payment Method Company has on file for Customer. Customer may change Payment Methods at any time by logging into Customer's Account Manager.
3.5 Website Backup.
Company will backup the Website in a commercially reasonable manner. However, Company is not responsible for lost Content or lost User Content. Website backups will be stored by Company for no longer than 14 days. Company will provide, at Customer's expense, an electronic copy of the backup Website to Customer upon written request by Customer. Backups are intended for disaster recovery, not the restoration of individual files.
3.6 Server Logs.
Company will provide Customer Server Logs of Website activity, including per domain combined access logs and error logs.
3.7 Power Management
Company provides full network redundancy and fully redundant (N+1) power with utility power provided through diverse streams conditioned through redundant uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).
4. E-MAIL HOSTING
4.1. Type of Service
This service agreement provides a shared email server, and includes Web Mail (email accounts are accessible through a web browser) as well as POP, SMTP, or IMAP protocols for sending and receiving email from a desktop email client. Customer will share server space with other domains and not have an exclusive right or reservation of the resources and or disk space that the server may have available to it.
4.2. Limitations of Service.
4.2.1. Company is not responsible for training Customer or Customer's employees on the use of their respective email clients. Company is not responsible for troubleshooting email problems not directly related to the Shared Email Hosting Services and the Company's equipment, facilities, or servers.
4.2.2. Company is not responsible for maintaining and renewing Customer's domain name MX records or other DNS-related functions if Customer's domain name is not hosted by the Company.
4.2.4. Company is not responsible for Customer's domain being listed on any third-party blacklist or suppression list not under Company's direct control.
4.2.4. Company is not responsible for troubleshooting or correcting any problem with Customer being able to send or receive email to or from a third party due to blacklists, suppression lists, third party software or firewalls, network security settings or any other factor not directly under Company's control.
4.3 Excessive Use of Services.
Company may impose an additional charge or a restriction of services at any time that Customer's use of the Shared Email Hosting Services imposes a considerable effect on Company resources or system performance. Company shall have sole discretion as to what constitutes excessive use and what activity is considered a violation of either the Company Acceptable Use Policy, or level of service that the Customer is currently using. Company is responsible for monitoring such excessive use for the account as a whole, and has no responsibility to identify a Customer's individual end-user, employee, or other agent who may or may not be responsible for the excessive use of services.
4.4 Censorship.
Company will exercise no control whatsoever over the content of the information passing through the network or email.
4.5 Antivirus, Trojan, and Malicious Code Disclaimer.
Company email servers make use of enterprise class antivirus software in order to protect the server and detect virus-infected email messages. Infected email messages will be handled per Company policy and preferences prior to the customer receiving the messages. Additional antivirus options are available and the Customer may configure these options for inbound and outbound email antivirus scanning in their Shared Email Hosting Services control panel. Due to the nature of virus, trojan, and other malicious code dangers, Company makes no warranty that these features will detect, delete, or otherwise protect Customer from these dangers. Customer is responsible for implementing their own internal policies and procedures for opening potentially dangerous attachments, and is encouraged to install antivirus software on all access points or computers using Company Shared Email Hosting Services.
5. PROHIBITED USES
In addition to the other requirements of these Terms of Service, Customer may only use the Services and Products in a manner that, in the Company's sole judgment, is consistent with the purposes of such Services and Products. If Customer is unsure of whether any contemplated use or action is permitted, please contact the Company as provided above. By way of example, and not limitation, uses described below of the Services and Products are expressly prohibited.5.1. General
5.1.1. Pornography and pornographic related merchandising are prohibited under all the Company's services. This includes sites that include links to pornographic content elsewhere. Further examples of unacceptable content or links include pirated software, "hacker" programs, archives of "Warez Sites", game rooms or MUDs, IRC Bots, Egg Drop programs, any kind of illegal software or shareware. In addition, sites offering online gambling, casino functionality, sportsbook betting (including offshore), and internet lotteries are prohibited.
5.1.2. Violations of the rights of any Person protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property or similar laws or regulations, including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by Customer.
5.1.3. Actions that restrict or inhibit any Person, whether a customer of Company or otherwise, in its use or enjoyment of any of the Company's Services or Products.
5.2. System and Network
5.2.1. Introduction of malicious programs into the Company's network or server (e.g., viruses and worms).
5.2.2. Effecting security breaches or disruptions of Internet communication. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which Customer is not an intended recipient or logging into a server or account that Customer is not expressly authorized to access. For purposes of this Section 3.2.2., "disruption" includes, but is not limited to, port scans, flood pings, packet spoofing and forged routing information.
5.2.3. Executing any form of network monitoring which will intercept data not intended for the Customer's server.
5.2.4. Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account.
5.2.5. Interfering with or denying service to any user other than Customer's host (for example, denial of service attack).
5.2.6. Using any program/script/command, or sending messages of any kind, designed to interfere with, or to disable, a user's terminal session, via any means, locally or via the Internet.
5.2.7. Creating an quot;activequot; full time connection on a Company-provided account by using artificial means involving software, programming or any other method.
5.2.8. Any attempt to circumvent or alter monitoring, bandwidth tracking or utilization reporting, or other actions which have the effect of complicating the normal operational procedures of the Company, including but not limited to altering, removing or in any way modifying or tampering with Company created log files.
5.2.9. Any action which the Company determines, in its own judgment, will reflect poorly on the Company or negatively impact its operations.
5.2.10. Any action which the Company deems to be an unacceptable use of resources, business practice or otherwise unacceptable to the Company.
5.3. Billing
5.3.1. Furnishing false or incorrect data on the order form, contract or online application, including fraudulent use of credit card numbers.
5.3.2. Attempting to circumvent or alter the processes any billing procedures or procedures to measure time, bandwidth utilization, or other methods to document "use" of the Company's Services and Products.
5.4. Mail
5.4.1. Non Compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act.
5.4.2. Sending unsolicited commercial email messages (UCE), including the sending of "junk mail" or other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material, who were not previous customers of Customer or with whom Customer has never had an existing business relationship.
5.4.3. Sending UCE referencing an email address for any domain hosted by the Company.
5.4.4. Sending UCE referencing a domain hosted by the Company.
5.4.5. Sending UCE referencing an IP address hosted by the Company.
5.4.6. Posting advertisements on IRC, ICQ, or any other public chat system containing an email address hosted by the Company, a domain hosted by the Company, an IP address belonging to the Company.
5.4.7. The Company will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of these provisions.
5.4.8. Harassment, whether through language, frequency or size of messages.
5.4.9. Unauthorized use, or forging, of mail header information.
5.4.10. Solicitations of mail for any other E-mail address other than that of the poster's account or service with the intent to harass or to collect replies.
5.4.10. Creating or forwarding "chain letters" or other "pyramid schemes" of any type.
5.4.11. Activities deemed to be unsolicited marketing efforts or otherwise harassing in any way.
5.4.12. Customer will be charged a minimum $300.00 service charge for each instance of a verifiable UCE that is reported to the Company and faces immediate account suspension and/or termination, as well as further penalties.
5.5. Technical Support Services
5.5.1. The Company promotes a mutually-professional relationship with its customers. Abusive, threatening, obscene or otherwise harassing communications with agents of the Company, via telephone, email, online chat or other means will result in immediate account termination not withstanding any other terms of this agreement. Violation of this or any section of this Agreement will result in refund ineligibility.
6. BANDWIDTH & UTILIZATION
In addition to the other terms of this agreement, which apply to all plans, bandwidth and utilization, by its nature, is subject to a number of differing and/or additional terms.
6.1 The Company provides the space and unlimited transfer in good faith to our Customers so that they may create their WebSites without the fear of running over their Web traffic allocation. While most Customers will use the space and traffic for their legitimate WebSite needs, we recognize that others may try to take advantage of our offer and use the space and traffic in ways for which it is not intended. In the best interests of our Customers and in an effort to maintain the integrity of our service, the following common sense rules will apply:
- 6.1.1. Customer's site must use and store only the information and data that relates to the WebSite, at the IP address provided by the Company.
- 6.1.2. Customer may not resell or give away Web space under a domain name, nor may Customer build WebSites that house "sub domain" WebSites on behalf of other companies, groups or individuals. Customers who wish to resell the Company's Web space should utilize the Company's Reseller Program.
- 6.1.3. Customer may not use Customer's WebSite to store Web pages, files or data for other IP addresses or domain names, nor may Customer use its WebSite as a repository for file, data or "Warez group" download transfers. The Company reserves the right to make this determination, in its sole and absolute discretion.
- 6.1.4. The Company's "unlimited traffic" and "storage" offer is to provide the Company's customers with storage space and bandwidth for active Web pages and cannot be used as a "storage space" for electronic files. An example of sites that fall under "electronic storage" are large archives of images, compressed files, movies, or sound files. The Company permits up to 15 megabytes of archive storage, e.g. avi or wav files, images, compressed files, shareware, games, programs, etc.. All HTML pages MUST be linked to files (HTML, .jpg, .gif, etc.) stored on Company's server and vice versa.
- 6.1.5. The storage and distribution of MP3 format files via the Company network is prohibited.
- 6.1.6. The Company does not permit sites where 20% or more of the monthly traffic is from file downloads, or sites that use more than 10% of system resources, or sites which in the Company's view are detrimental to the enjoyment of the Company services by the Company's other clients, or are in the sole and final judgment of the Company, detrimental to network or business operations.
7. TERMS AND TERMINATION
For the purposes of Section 7 of this agreement, the term "Thirty Day Guarantee Period" shall be defined as the period extending from the date a Customer signs up his or her first domain with the Company through the thirtieth (30) day following the initial signup of the first domain enrolled.7.1. All cancellations must be received by the Company a minimum of five (5) days prior to the next billing date of the domain being cancelled.
7.1.1. If the Customer notifies the Company less than five (5) days before the next billing date of the domain being cancelled, the charges incurred as a result of that renewal will not be refunded.
7.1.2. Cancellations requested within the Thirty Day Guarantee Period are eligible for a full refund, less setup fees and add-on-service fees which are non-refundable. Cancellations requested outside the Thirty Day Guarantee Period are not eligible for a refund in part or in full.
7.1.3. Cancellation requests will only be accepted in writing by Customer at least 30 days prior to the end of term renewal date. Any other form of cancellation request is not acceptable. Client will receive an email evidencing cancellation immediately after receiving Customer's Cancellation request.
7.2. Customer will not receive a refund for any other reason, including but not limited to: late cancellation, slow connection caused by Customer's ISP/network, Customer's ignorance, InterNIC delays, account termination for violation of policies.
7.3. By submitting a credit card or ACH information on the order form, Customer agrees to authorize all recurring charges to the account and any other balances incurred due to overages of limits, additions of extras to the account, service charges and/or any other fees, and to be bound to the terms of this Agreement.
7.4. Customer will not receive a refund for any setup fees or any fees other than the monthly recurring hosting fees.
7.5. Customer will be charged a $35 domain reactivation fee for each site suspended due to a billing-related issue.
7.6. Customer shall pay the fees and other charges for Products and Services ordered from Company as published on the Hosting Agreement at time of order. Company reserves the right to change rates without notice; any changes in price will take effect upon renewal of the existing hosting account, immediately for new purchases.
7.6.1. Customer agrees that the Company reserves the right to change its fees, features, and discount offerings and the Customer agrees to be bound by any changes of fee, feature, and/or discount.
7.7. The Company reserves the right to terminate this agreement, and to delete the WebSite from its hardware, immediately upon the occurrence of any of the following events:
- 7.7.1. Non payment of any charges due from Customer
- 7.7.2. Breach of any term or condition of this agreement by Customer
- 7.7.3. Commencement of any lawsuit or proceeding against Customer arising from or relating to its use of the WebSite, whether or not such suit names the Company as a party or seeks any recovery from the Company.
- 7.7.4. Payment for any charges is due at the time of signup and renewal respectively. All payments must be in U.S. Dollars. Accounts which have balances outstanding shall be deemed to be in default and subject to termination of service. Customer shall be responsible for all costs of collection, including reasonable attorney's fees and court costs, in event of a default for nonpayment of any amounts due the Company.
8. INDEMNIFICATION
8.1. Customer agrees to indemnify and hold the Company harmless from any lawsuit, claim, charge, or expense, including reasonable attorney fees and costs of defense, for any matter arising from or relating to Customer's WebSite provided hereunder.
8.2. Nothing contained herein shall be deemed to create a relationship between the Company and Customer in the nature of a partnership, joint venture, editor/publisher or otherwise. Both parties acknowledge and agree that the Company has no interaction with the data or substance of Customer's WebSite, except as necessary to maintain the WebSite.
9. SECURITY / SOFTWARE
9.1. Customer agrees to take all steps reasonable, necessary, and prudent to protect Customer's login ID and password.
9.2. Customer agrees not to attempt to undermine or cause harm to any server, software, system or client of the Company.
9.3. Customer agrees to maintain Customers' computing equipment responsibly, including running virus software.
9.4. Uploading a virus to a Company server will result in account termination, service charges and/or prosecution.
9.5. Customer acknowledges that the Company cannot provide technical support for any software and/or script that the Customer installs, other than variable name changes. Customer also acknowledges that the Company does not supply technical support for Microsoft FrontPage. The Company supplies technical support for Web hosting issues only. The Company shall be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a "Web host" issue.
9.6. Company acknowledges that web threats are a serious business! And although Customer may not be aware of them, hackers and malicious internet bots (software applications that run automated tasks over the internet) are constantly testing web sites for vulnerabilities. They look for vulnerabilities that can lie within HTML, Javascript, CSS or plug-in technology (e.g. Flash, QuickTime, Java, etc).
Company understands that these types of attacks can be crucial to Customer's organization. Company is committed to providing a reliable, high-quality network to support web hosting services, and is part of the reason Company makes commitments to Customer by offering SecureHost IntelliShield for free!
SecureHost IntelliShield offers live actionable security intelligence, providing in-depth vulnerability analysis and defense websites needs to identify, prevent and mitigate website attacks.
When analyzing and identifying unusual activity on Customer's site(s), Company's automated security analyst systems assist in pro-actively stopping the attacks at the source, stopping hackers and/or malicious bots from reaching Company's networks ever again.
Customer acknowledges that SecureHost IntelliShield services are an extra step taken by Company in commitment to providing a reliable, high-quality network. Customer acknowledges and agrees that under no circumstance will Company be liable in any way for any acts or omissions of Customer or any User including damages of any kind incurred as a result of such web threat acts or omissions from SecureHost IntelliShield.
10. TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES
Customer is responsible for responding to any questions and complaints by Users or other third parties relating to Customer or its Users' use of Company's service, with such support services to be provided at Customer's own expense. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Company shall provide technical support services to Customer's designated administrator in accordance with Company's support guidelines then in effect for the Service. Prior to making any support request to Company, Customer shall first use reasonable efforts to fix any error, bug, malfunction, or network connectivity defect on its own without any escalation to Company. Thereafter, Customer's designated administrator may submit a written request for technical support through the online help center which is accessible at http:/www.ovwebsolutions.com/support/ or such URL as Company may provide.
11. VIOLATION
Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to the Company server or another customer's Web presence is strictly prohibited. Any violation of the above Terms of Service will result in grounds for account termination, with no refunds given; the Company reserves the right to remove any account without prior notice. Violation of these Terms of Service may result in legal action, service charges or a combination thereof.
12. CONFIDENTIALITY
Customer acknowledges that by reason of their relationship, both the Customer and the Company may have access to certain products, information and materials relating to the other part's business, which may include business plans, customers, software technology, and marketing plans that are confidential and of substantial value to either party, respectively, and which value would be impaired if such information were disclosed to third parties. Consequently, both the Company and the Customer agree that it will not use in any way for its own account or for the account of any third part, nor disclose to any third part, any such information revealed to it by either part, as the case may be.
The Customer and the Company further agrees that each will take every appropriate precaution to protect the confidentiality of such information. In the vent of termination of this agreement, there shall be no use or disclosure by either party of any such confidential information in its possession, and all confidential documents shall be returned to the rightful owner, or destroyed. The provisions of this section shall survive the termination of the agreement for any reason. Upon any breach or threatened breach of this section, either party shall be entitled to injunctive relief, which relief will not be contested by the Customer or the Company.
13. REFUSAL OF SERVICE
13.1. The Company reserves the right to refuse or cancel service in its sole discretion with no refunds.
13.2. If any of these Terms of Service are failed to be followed it will result in grounds for immediate account deactivation.
14. DISCLAIMER
14.1. USE OF THE COMPANY'S SERVICES AND PRODUCTS IS AT CUSTOMER'S SOLE RISK. NEITHER THE COMPANY NOR ITS EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, RESELLERS THIRD PARTY INFORMATION PROVIDERS, MERCHANTS LICENSERS OR THE LIKE, MAKE ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, THAT THE COMPANY'S SERVICES AND PRODUCTS WILL NOT BE INTERRUPTED OR BE ERROR FREE; NOR DO THEY MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO THE RESULTS THAT MIGHT BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE COMPANY'S SERVICES AND PRODUCTS OR AS TO THE ACCURACY, OR RELIABILITY OF ANY INFORMATION SERVICE OR MERCHANDISE CONTAINED OR PROVIDED THROUGH THE COMPANY'S SERVICE, UNLESS OTHERWISE EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT. THIS INCLUDES LOSS OF DATA, WHETHER RESULTING FROM DELAYS, ON DELIVERIES, WRONG DELIVERY, AND ANY AND ALL SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY THE COMPANY AND ITS EMPLOYEES OR OTHER CAUSES.
14.2. THE SOLE CUMULATIVE LIABILITY OF THE COMPANY FOR ALL CLAIMS MADE BY THE CUSTOMER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY, REGARDLESS OF FORM, INCLUDING ANY CAUSE OF ACTION BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT OR STRICT LIABILITY, SHALL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF ALL FEES AND CHARGES PAID TO THE COMPANY BY THE CUSTOMER.
14.3. The Company reserves the right to revise or change these Terms of Service at any time.
14.4. This Agreement shall be governed in all respects under the laws of the Commonwealth of California applicable to contracts made, accepted and performed wholly in California, without application to principles of conflict of laws, and the Customer and the Company agree that the sole venue and jurisdiction for any disputes arising from this Agreement shall be the appropriate federal or state court located in the Commonwealth of California.
