Terms & Conditions - General Acceptable Use Policy

1: DEFINITIONS

“Linknet” means Linknet Communications NSW Pty. Ltd. (ACN 105 220 399) and it’s successors in business, agents, administrators, substitutes and permitted assigns. “Linknet ” also means Linknet and its related bodies corporate.

This is the Linknet Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). It applies to you if you are a Linknet subscriber, customer or user ("you"). It is intended to ensure that your use of Linknet's service is trouble free and that you have due regard to the law and the needs of other users. Please read it carefully. It is a condition of your use of our service that you comply with the terms of this Policy. Please look out for any amendments to the Policy that Linknet ("we") might make in the future. From time to time we will make amendments to it by giving you notice of the change under “General Notices” on the Linknet Website at http://www.linknet.com.au and you will then be obliged to comply with the policy as amended.

2: SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES

2.1 Linknet is not responsible for the content of user originated traffic. We exercise no direct supervision or control whatsoever over the content of the information passing through our network. We do not assume any responsibility for information not sent or authorised by us. The responsibility for traffic that does not conform to this policy and all possible consequences lie with the sender of the traffic.
2.2 You are responsible for use of your account. If you permit others to use our service, you are responsible for making users of the service aware of this policy and obtaining compliance of your users with this policy.
2.3 You are responsible for complying with conditions of use of other networks. If we provide you with access to a network outside our service you must comply with any acceptable use conditions applying to that network.
2.4 Use of the service constitutes acceptance of these Terms and conditions by You. If in Disagreeance with the following Terms and conditions, It is your responsibility to contact Linknet and cancel the service immediately.

3: ACCEPTABLE USES

3.1 You have responsibilities. It is your responsibility to; use our service and services in a manner which does not violate any applicable laws or regulations; respect the conventions of the newsgroups, lists and networks that you use; respect the legal protection afforded by copyright, trade marks, license rights and other laws to materials accessible via our service; respect the privacy of others; use the service in a manner which does not interfere with or disrupt other network users, services or equipment; and refrain from acts that waste resources or prevent other users from receiving the full benefit of our services.
3.2 Use must be ethical. Your use of our services should be ethical and in accordance with accepted community standards.

4: UNACCEPTABLE USES

4.1 You must comply with the Law. It is not acceptable to use our service for any purpose which violates local, State, Federal or international laws.
4.2 Specific kinds of use are not allowed. It is not acceptable to use our service to, amongst other things; violate copyright or other intellectual property rights; illegally store, use or distribute software; to transmit threatening, obscene or offensive materials; engage in electronic `stalking' or other forms of harassment such as using abusive or aggressive language; misrepresent or defame others; commit fraud; gain unauthorised access to any computing, information, or communications devices or resources, including but not limited to any machines accessible via the Internet; damage, modify or destroy the files, data, passwords, devices or resources of Linknet, other users or third parties; engage in misleading or deceptive on-line marketing practices; conduct any business or activity or solicit the performance of any activity that is prohibited by law; make an unauthorised transmission of confidential information or material protected by trade secrets; or attempt to do any of these things.
4.3 Disruption of the network is not allowed. You may not use the service to interfere with or disrupt other network users, services or equipment. In particular, for example, you must not: distribute messages to inappropriate or unrelated forums, newsgroups or mailing lists (`spamming'); send unsolicited commercial messages; propagate computer worms, viruses and other types of malicious programs; make transmissions of any type or quantity which adversely affect our operation or jeopardise the use of our service, or its performance for other subscribers; and harass or impersonate Linknet or other users.
4.4 If Your activities unreasonably restrict, inhibit, or degrade any other Customer's use of the Services, or represent an unusually large burden on Linknet's staff or the Linknet network resources, namely large amounts of bandwidth used, data sent or received, and/or processor utilisation you may be in breach of Linknet’s acceptable use policy.
4.4.1 If your activities consume more than four times the average (per customer type) amount of bandwidth used, data sent or received, or if a hosted website, processor utilisation on a ongoing basis we will deem that your activities potentially restrict, inhibit, or degrade other Customer's use of the Services therefore you are in breach of Linknet’s acceptable use policy.
4.4.2 Linknet may delete e-mail sent to or from You where; individual messages are greater than a specified limit or mailboxes exceed the specified quota; messages remain on Linknet servers for more than 90 days or; individual message attachments contain viruses or have been mass emailed (spam)
4.4.3 If your Linknet Wireless broadband account upload (data from your computer to the internet) ratio exceeds the same amount of Your Monthly download allowance within the monthly billing period, (caused particularly by peer to peer file sharing as described in Section 6) we will deem that your activities potentially restrict, inhibit, or degrade other Customer's use of the Services and therefore you are in breach of Linknet’s acceptable use policy.
4.4.4 When a Co-located server, hosted website or Internet access account is found to be using excessive resources, we reserve the right to suspend that server, website or access account immediately. This policy is only implemented in extreme circumstances and is intended to prevent the misuse of our services. Clients may be offered an option whereby we continue hosting the website or providing Internet access for an additional fee otherwise we may terminate or suspend this your service at our discretion.
4.5 Soliciting subscribers to other services is not allowed. It is also not acceptable to use our service to solicit subscribers to become subscribers of other competitive information services.
4.6 Resale of our services is not allowed. Resale of our services to others is strictly forbidden under all circumstances. The Linknet Reseller agreement provides for the resale of services.

5: WHAT WE MAY DO TO ENSURE THIS POLICY IS BEING FOLLOWED

5.1 We may monitor your account but will respect your privacy. We may monitor the conduct of your account to determine whether this policy is being followed. If we monitor the conduct of your account we will safeguard your privacy unless to do so would involve us in concealment of a criminal offence or inhibit the enforcement of this policy.
5.2 We will make an effort to contact you. If we become concerned that your use of our service may break the law or that you have not complied with this policy we will attempt to contact you before taking action.
5.3 We may terminate your account and notify the authorities if we believe that your use of the service may break the law or that you have not complied with this policy we may; warn you by email; suspend your access to the service; terminate your account without notice; and notify and provide relevant information to the authorities, as appears appropriate in the circumstances.
5.4 In the event of taking action under 4.3 we reserve the right to delete any or all of your information, material, software or other content stored on our system in our sole discretion.

6: A WARNING “PEER-TO-PEER” FILE SHARING SOFTWARE

Peer-to-peer file sharing software (also known as P2P Software), is a very attractive way for Internet users to obtain a wealth of material from the Internet. It enables users to share content on their hard drives with others connected to the Internet at the same time. Probably the most famous and widely used file-sharing application to date has been “Napster”. While at face value, the concept of file sharing sounds a harmless and enticing practice, users need to be aware of some hidden dangers.
A great deal of material available for download over the Internet is illegally obtained or bound by intellectual property right laws. That it is offered freely for download does not make it legal to do so. As such, extreme care should always be taken to ensure that any content you choose to download is legal.
Secondly, the default settings of most P2P software automatically offer content you have downloaded onto your hard drive for re-share whenever you are logged onto the Internet and using the software. Potentially, if you have inadvertently downloaded something that is illegal, you are perpetuating and compounding the crime by storing and re-distributing this illegal content to others. This makes you not only personally liable but causes reckless endangerment to other Internet users using the same P2P software.
A further problem to be aware of concerns the fact that many file-sharing programs come bundled with “spyware” or “adware” which not only slows your internet connection significantly but compromises your personal privacy. In some cases it may also infect and cause damage to personal computers.
How does P2P software work?
As the name implies, file-sharing software allows you to share content on your computer’s hard drive with other computers connected to the Internet. Essentially, it makes contact with a centralised server and uploads your list of available files. This list is made available to others who are also logged into that server. If someone wants one of those files, the server provides them with your computer’s address, so that their computer can connect directly to yours through the Internet, peer-to-peer.
Some P2P software, rather than employing a single central server, simply seeks out other computers on the Internet using the same software, and informs them of your presence online. In this way, a network of computers is built up, which can make many thousands of files freely available to everyone running the same P2P software.
The most common P2P programs are Direct Connect, KaZaA, iMesh, WinMX, BearShare, eDonkey, I-Share, Morpheus and Grokster. The most common file types shared are music (.mp3, .wma files), pictures (.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp files) and films (.mpg, .mpeg, .divx, .mov, .ra, .avi files).
Recently, there have been reports of users having downloaded files through P2P software without realising that the files were protected by copyright laws. These files were illegally obtained initially, and as such, contained no warning to others that they were subject to copyright. Ignorance of the law, however, has been no defence. The owners of the material subject to copyright have aggressively pursued all recipients of their material, not just those responsible for obtaining them in the first place.

Sharing material subject to copyright without permission from the rightful owner is a violation of a number of international treaties to which Australia is a party. It also violates the Linknet Terms & Conditions of use under clause 3.1 & 4.2. If we receive sufficient evidence of a copyright infringement perpetrated by one of our members, action will be taken as per our this our AUP and Breach of Policy procedures. Additionally, any individual who is found guilty in a court of law of a copyright infringement faces a fine of up to $60,500.00, imprisonment for up to five years or both.
It is important to understand that the absence of a copyright notice does not imply that a file is freely available for copy. The warning notice may have been modified or removed. In fact, there are many who believe that traps now exist on the Internet where material subject to copyright is deliberately offered in order to track IP addresses and catch users who unwittingly download and share this material.
While it is true that a large number of creative works have been authorised to be freely copied by the original artists, a cautious stance for members is to assume that all works available through file sharing programs are subject to copyright except those that specifically state otherwise.
Remember, you, alone, have full responsibility for the manner in which your account is used, including any P2P file-sharing software that you run. You are also solely responsible for everything that is downloaded and offered for re-share through your account, whether this be through choice or ignorance. If you choose to use P2P software, please do so with extreme caution.

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