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Acceptable Use Policy - Prior to 6/2/08

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") as amended from time to time applies as follows: Mailtrust Customers (to the extent they use Email Hosting Services and/or Email Marketing Services) agree to comply with this AUP and Resellers agree to be responsible to Mailtrust, LLC for assuring that each Reseller Account and their Users will be similarly bound as if the Reseller Accounts were Customers of Mailtrust under this AUP. Customer acknowledges and agrees that it is responsible for continual compliance with this policy, in order to ensure the integrity, security and reliability of the Email Hosting Services, the Email Marketing Services, and its networks, systems, facilities and data. A breach of the AUP by Reseller Account will be deemed to be a breach by the Reseller.

Definitions

In this AUP the following terms will be used and have the subsequent definitions assigned to them:

  • Mailtrust Network: the network infrastructure, hardware, and software used to provide the Email Hosting Services and Email Marketing Services.
  • Email Hosting Services: the capability acquired from Mailtrust to send and receive email through the Internet, via SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, and HTTP protocols.
  • Email Marketing Services: the capability acquired from Mailtrust to send permission-based Bulk Email.
  • Bulk Email: the simultaneous transmission of a single email message to a list of contacts.
  • Mailtrust: the company providing Email Hosting Services and Email Marketing Services pursuant to this Agreement.
  • Customer(s): purchaser(s) of Email Hosting Services and/or Email Marketing Services directly from Mailtrust, including Resellers.
  • Reseller(s): purchaser(s) of Email Hosting Services and/or Email Marketing Services from Mailtrust for the purpose of reselling the services to their respective customers. Provisions pertaining specifically to Resellers override conflicting provisions applicable generally to Customers.
  • Reseller Account(s): purchaser(s) of Email Hosting Services and/or Email Marketing Services from Resellers.
  • User(s): user(s) of Email Hosting Services, whether purchased directly from Mailtrust or from a Reseller.

Sending Spam

No Customer may send, or attempt to send, unsolicited email messages ("Spam"). Spam is not only annoying to Internet users; it violates federal and state laws and seriously affects the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the Email Hosting Services and Email Marketing Services. Sending Spam can lead to industry blacklisting of Customer's business and mail servers, resulting in interruption and/or termination of Customer's Email Hosting Services and/or Email Marketing Services.

Specifically, Customer shall not:

  1. Send, or attempt to send, Spam of any kind from the Mailtrust Network;
  2. Send, or attempt to send, Spam of any kind from third-party networks using a return email address that is hosted on the Mailtrust Network, or referencing an email address hosted on the Mailtrust Network;
  3. Send email messages which result in complaints from the recipient or from the recipient's email provider, or which result in blacklisting of the sender's email address or mail server;
  4. Send email messages which are excessive and/or intended to harass or annoy others;
  5. Continue to send email to a recipient that has indicated that he/she does not wish to receive it;
  6. Take any actions intended to cloak the Customer's identity or contact information, including but not limited to intentionally omitting, deleting, forging or misrepresenting message headers or return addresses; or
  7. Take any other action that results in blacklisting of the sender's email address or mail server, or negatively impacts other Customers who use the Email Hosting Services.

In the absence of positive, verifiable proof to the contrary by a Customer, Mailtrust will consider complaints by recipients of emails to be conclusive that the recipient did not subscribe or otherwise request the email(s) about which a complaint was generated.

Security

Customer is prohibited from violating, or attempting to violate, the security of Mailtrust Network. Any violations may result in criminal and civil liabilities to the Customer. Mailtrust will investigate any alleged violations and will cooperate with law enforcement agencies if a criminal violation is suspected. Examples of violations of the security of the Mailtrust Network include, but are not limited to: (i) accessing data not intended for Customer, (ii) logging into a server or account which the Customer is not authorized to access, (iii) attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system, (iv) breach of security or authentication measures, (v) attempting to interfere with service to any User, host or network, or (vi) taking any action in order to obtain services to which the Customer is not entitled.

Illegal Use

The Email Hosting Services and Email Marketing Services may only be used for lawful purposes. For example, Customer may not use the Mailtrust Network to create, transmit, distribute, or store content that: (i) violates a trademark, copyright, trade secret or other intellectual property rights of others, (ii) violates export control laws or regulations, (iii) violates the privacy, publicity or other personal rights of others, (iv) impairs the privacy of communications, (v) contains obscene, offensive, unlawful, defamatory, harassing, abusive, fraudulent, or otherwise objectionable content as reasonably determined by Mailtrust, (vi) encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense or give rise to civil liability, (vii) constitutes deceptive online marketing, (viii) violates reasonable regulations of Mailtrust, (ix) causes technical disturbances to the Mailtrust Network, its affiliated networks, or the network used by Customer to access the Email Hosting Services or Email Marketing Services, or violate the policies of such networks, including, but not limited to, intentional introduction of any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancel bots or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system or data, or (x) assists, encourages or permits any persons in engaging in any of the activities described in this section. If Customer becomes aware of any such activities, Customer is obligated to immediately notify Mailtrust and take all other appropriate actions to cause such activities to cease.

Content

Customer is responsible for all content that is transmitted, received and stored by Mailtrust through Customer's use of the Email Hosting Services and Email Marketing Services. Mailtrust takes no responsibility for content passing through or stored on the Mailtrust Network, including but not limited to, viruses, mail floods or other disabling features, or content provided on third party websites that are linked to by content passing through or stored on the Mailtrust Network. Mailtrust does not adopt, nor warrant the accuracy of, the content of any linked website and undertakes no responsibility to update the content. Use of any information obtained via the Mailtrust Network is at Customer's own risk.

Consequences of Unacceptable Use

Mailtrust reserves the right to suspend or terminate Customer's access to the Email Hosting Services and/or Email Marketing Services upon notice of a violation of this policy as well as, in the case of a Reseller, such right of the Reseller and the Reseller Accounts of such Reseller upon violation of this policy by the Reseller or its Reseller Accounts. Indirect or attempted violations of this policy, and actual or attempted violations by a third party on behalf of Customer, shall be considered violations of this policy by Customer.

Potential Materials

Customer agrees that it shall not violate any copyright or trademark right of Mailtrust or other intellectual property right of Mailtrust with respect to any material provided to Customer by Mailtrust, including any promotional or marketing material.

Administration of Policy

Customer understands that the administration of this policy requires the exercise of discretion and judgment by Mailtrust. Mailtrust agrees to exercise good faith in its administration of this policy and in making determinations under the policy. However, Customer agrees that any and all determinations by Mailtrust in connection with the administration and enforcement of this policy shall be final and binding.

Requirements for Using Email Hosting Services

The following requirements apply only for Customer's use of the Email Hosting Services. It does not apply to Customer's use of the Email Marketing Services.

  1. Sending Bulk Mail: Customers may not use the Email Hosting Services to send "Opt-in" Bulk Email. Mailtrust defines "Opt-in" Bulk Email ("Bulk Email") as email messages of similar content that are sent to more than 250 recipients within a relatively short period of time. The term .Opt-in. means that the recipients have signed up to receive the emails voluntarily, and implies that the Bulk Email is not Spam. This restriction does not apply when sending mail to Customer's mailboxes hosted on the Mailtrust Network. Mailtrust has measures in place to prevent Bulk Email from being sent through its servers, and any attempt to do so may not be delivered and may result in interruption and/or termination of Customer's Email Hosting Services. Attempts to circumvent this Bulk Email restriction by breaking up bulk mailings over a period of time or by sending from multiple email accounts will itself be considered a violation of this policy.
  2. Receiving Bulk Email: Customer may not use the Email Hosting Services for the purpose of receiving Bulk Email. Submitting any email address that is hosted on the Mailtrust Network to Bulk Mail organizations such as Safelists, FFAs and spam databases is expressly prohibited. Customer shall permit Mailtrust to block Bulk Mail from such organizations.
  3. Bounces: The Mailtrust Network is not set up to process bounce messages for Bulk Email. Therefore, a Customer may not send Bulk Email from third-party networks using a return address that is hosted on the Mailtrust Network, unless it assures that not more than 100 bounce emails will arrive to the Mailtrust Network as the result of sending Bulk Email from a third-party network.
  4. Shared Mailboxes: Mailboxes are intended for single-user use, by a natural person. Attempting to log into a single mailbox simultaneously from more than one computer, or using automated tools such as Fetchmail or Microsoft Exchange Connector to virtualize one mailbox into multiple mailboxes is expressly prohibited.
  5. Automated Use: Mailboxes are not intended for automated use such as sending emails from web servers, or receiving emails by automated programs. Such use is permitted provided Customer does not violate any conditions of this AUP; however Mailtrust does not provide technical support for this type of use.

Requirements for Using Email Marketing Services

The following requirements apply only for Customer's use of the Email Marketing Services. It does not apply to Customer's use of the Email Hosting Services.

  1. Opt-In: Customer may only send Bulk Email to recipients who have knowingly requested to receive Bulk Email communications from Customer.
  2. Unsubscribe: Each email must contain an unsubscribe link to provide the recipient with the ability to opt-out of future emails. If the opt-out election is made, the recipient's address will be automatically removed from Customer's mailing list, and Customer may not subsequently add the recipient back to any list.
  3. Valid Content and Contact Information: All Bulk Email messages must contain an email subject line that clearly describes the subject matter contained in the email and a "From" address that accurately identifies Customer as the sender. All messages must also contain valid contact information, including Customer's physical address.
  4. Throttling: Customer agrees to any throttling or monitoring actions implemented by Mailtrust in the event of a Bulk Email attempt resulting in excess bounced messages.
  5. Message Inspection: Bulk Email messages are subject to the review and approval by Mailtrust before transmission.