Acceptable Use Policy & Terms of Service

Annex provides Internet software development, hosting, and internet business consulting. We have certain legal and ethical responsibilities when it comes to the use of our servers and equipment involved in these services. We have established some very simple rules that govern the content and use of our web services. They are all based on economic reality, legal standards, Internet responsibility and common sense. Customers agree that a violation of any of the provisions of this document constitutes sufficient cause for immediate termination of service without notice or further obligation on the part of Annex.

Users of Annex network resources agree to the following provisions:

Lawful Purpose - Customers may only use our servers for lawful purpose. Transmission of any material in violation of any Federal, State or Local regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to copyrighted material, proprietary information and other intellectual property rights, libel or defamation of character, invasion of privacy, tortious interference, export of technical or military data to prohibited countries, material legally judged to be threatening or obscene, pornography, and material protected by trade secrets. The hosting, storage or transmittal of any sexually explicit material that is in violation of any applicable federal, state or local law, such as material that involves the depiction or use of underage persons, is strictly prohibited.

The designation of any materials as such described above is left entirely to the discretion of Annex management.

The launching or facilitating the launch of a denial of service (DoS) attack on any host or computer on the Annex network for any reason whatsoever, or the use of any Annex network resource to interfere with the legitimate use by customers or other authorized users of resources of the Annex network or any other network is strictly prohibited.

The scanning of the service ports of any host or computer on the Annex network or any other network, or the sniffing of packet traffic on the Annex network is strictly prohibited. The placing of any network interface into promiscuous mode is similarly prohibited.

Any unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration of the files or operating system or other content of any host or network, or any unauthorized attempt to obtain login credentials, such as username and/or password, of any host on the Annex network or any other network is strictly prohibited.

Violations of this provision will be referred to appropriate legal authorities.

Unauthorized use of other people's accounts or computers - Annex will strongly react to any use or attempted use of an Internet account or computer without the owner's authorization. Such attempts include "internet scamming" (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password robbery, security hole scanning etc. Any unauthorized use of accounts or computers by an Annex customer, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to Annex, will result in action against the attacker. Possible actions include warnings, account suspension or cancellation, and civil or criminal legal action, depending on the seriousness of the attack.

Abuse of Traffic and Storage - Our web accounts have finite storage and bandwidth limits on them. Your arrangement with us will define the amount of storage space and bandwidth utilization on your site. Our intent is to provide space to serve web sites, not an offsite storage area for electronic files. Unless specifically contracted, Customers are not allowed to have large archives of files which would be downloaded freely by others, i.e. shareware archives. Any customer who violates our policies in abuse of either space or site transfer will be billed for the additional charges. This policy applies to ALL organizations, including non-profit and religious organizations.

UCE/Spam - The sending or facilitation of the sending of unsolicited commercial email (spamming), bulk email, so-called opt-out email, or any type of commercial email other than verifiable, double opt-in email is strictly prohibited. Double Opt-in means that when the user enters their email address on your website, they are sent an email CONFIRMING the opt-in, requiring them to click a LINK to verify that they opted in for your mailing. You may not mail to that email address unless they have confirmed the opt-in.

Annex, upon receiving a complaint revolving around UCE/SPAM issues, will require that you can verify that the email address was opted in. You must be able to provide documented proof that the end-user CONFIRMED an opt-in. This can be done by storing the IP address, a date-timestamp, and a unique ID for the confirmation.

Landing Sites - The hosting of any web site or other content in any form intended to be intentionally or unintentionally retrieved or viewed by any recipient of any unsolicited email sent in violation of the spirit or letter of the terms defined in this document, whether sent from our network or any other network, is strictly prohibited.

Newsgroup Spamming - The posting of commercial messages to any newsgroup or discussion forum not chartered or organized for that specific purpose is similarly prohibited.

Validation of Information - The Customer is responsible for validating the integrity of the information and data it receives or transmits over the Internet.

Security - The Customer is required to protect the security of its Internet accounts (ftp, email, etc.) and usage thereof.

Discretion and Judgment - The Customer is expected to use discretion in the treatment and handling of Internet information and data and to take particular care to insure that adult information is not transmitted to juvenile users of the Internet.

Excessive CPU usages - Customers will not be allowed to use excessive amounts of CPU processing on any of our servers or face immediate suspension. We ask our customers to provide us with a copy of their CGI programs so that we may test them in-house for integrity, security and usability on our servers before they are authorized for use.

Resale of services - Unless specifically contracted with us, Customers may NOT resell web space within their own account. Customers may not resell mail services including, but not limited to mail forwarding capabilities, POP accounts and autoresponders. The customer may not at any time resell access to, or use of, our preinstalled cgi's as well as any custom or personally owned scripts for use by a third party while installed on the web server.

Payment - Unless specifically contracted for, all accounts are set up on a pre-pay basis. Customer will be billed in advance for each term of pre-payment on NET 10 terms or Credit Card auto-debit as negotiated. Setup fees are charged for all new accounts and major account changes and are non-refundable. All pricing is guaranteed for the term of pre-payment or contract (if applicable). Annex reserves the right to change prices at any time, unless specifically contracted for with an individual customer.

The obtaining of, or attempt to obtain, any fee-based service by any means with the intent of avoiding payment for such service is strictly prohibited.

Any account not brought current within a week of e-mail notice that payment is overdue is subject to suspension. The customer is responsible for all money owed on the account from the time it was established to the time that the customer notifies Annex in writing for a request for termination of services. All payment is in U.S. currency.

Cancellation - Annex reserves the right to cancel service at any time. All fees paid in advance of cancellation will be pro-rated and paid by Annex if Annex institutes it's right of cancellation. If cancellation is caused by customers violation of our policies, then no refund is due. Any violation of policies which results in extra costs to Annex will be billed to the customer (i.e. transfer, space etc.)

Depending on the contract/arrangement with Annex, Customer will be either monthly, quarterly or yearly in term, and may cancel before the beginning of each term/billing. Due to security concerns, all account cancellations must be done in writing via US mail or fax with a valid signature of the primary contact of the account, account name and reason for cancellation.

Indemnification - Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold Annex harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorney’s fees asserted against Annex, its agents, its customers, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by customer, it’s agents, employees or assigns. Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Annex against liabilities arising out of; (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with Annex's server; (2) any material supplied by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party; (3) copyright infringement and (4) any defective products sold to customer from Annex's server.

Disclaimers - Annex will not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. Annex makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for services we provide. Annex disclaims any warranty or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The includes loss of data resulting from delays, nondeliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by Annex and its employees. Annex reserves the right to revise its policies at any time

Annex reserves the right to refuse service to anyone.

Any complaint that may be received regarding an Annex customer or its customers or users will be promptly forwarded to the Annex customer for resolution. Annex customers are expected to terminate verified violators of these policies or face termination themselves. This strict policy is for the protection of the network and the interests of Annex and its users.

For clarification of terms or to report a violation, please email abuse@annex.com.