Abuse Policy

WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT?

In a nutshell, the following list details all the uses of Our Rural Internet’s (ORI) Internet services that we consider unacceptable – in other words, unfair usage. ORI maintains and promotes a policy of fair and acceptable usage at all times, so please ensure that any use of ORI’s services, by yourself or anyone in your household or office, doesn’t in any way contradict the restrictions listed below. You will also find your responsibilities to help keep our network secure listed at the end of this Fair and acceptable usage policy (the ‘Policy’).

Please ensure that anyone using your account to access ORI’s Internet services agrees with this Policy and is aware of their obligations under it. This extends to your children or subscribers of your household (for residential subscribers) or your employees or office workers (for business subscribers) or any one accessing the network through your home or office.

SO WHAT CAN OUR RURAL INTERNET’S SERVICES NOT BE USED FOR?

1. Unlawful, fraudulent, criminal or otherwise illegal activities
2. Sending, receiving, publishing, posting, distributing, disseminating, encouraging the receipt of, uploading, downloading, recording, reviewing, streaming or using any material which is offensive, abusive, defamatory, indecent, obscene, unlawful, harassing or menacing or a breach of the copyright, trademark, intellectual property, confidence, privacy or any other rights of any person
3. Commercial purposes (unless you are working from home as a sole trader in business on your own account or a Business subscriber in which case see below for limits on certain types of commercial use)
4. Sending or uploading unsolicited emails, advertising or promotional materials, offering to sell any goods or services, or conducting or forwarding surveys, contests or chain letters except that subscribers working from home as a sole trader in business on their own account or business subscribers are permitted to send marketing communications in accordance with the — if sent in batches of no more than fifty (50) emails at any time, each individual campaign being sent to no more than five hundred (500) recipients, with no more than five (5) campaigns per month
5. Knowingly or negligently transmitting or uploading any electronic material (including, without limit, files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs) which is known or likely to cause, interrupt, damage, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software, hardware or telecommunications equipment owned by ORI or any other Internet user or person
6. Activities that invade another’s privacy, cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to any person
7. Activities that are in breach of any other third party’s rights, including downloading, installation or distribution of pirated software or other inappropriately licensed software, deletion of any author attributions, legal notices or proprietary designations or labels in any file that is uploaded, falsification of the origin or source of any software or other material
8. Anything that may disrupt or interfere with ORI’s network or services or cause a host or the network to crash
9. Launching “denial of service” attacks; “mailbombing” attacks; or “flooding” attacks against a host or network
10. Granting access to your ORI services to others not residing at or located at the premises at which these Internet services are provided Making excessive use of, or placing unusual burdens on, the network, for example by sending or receiving large volumes of email or excessively large email attachments
11. Circumventing the user authentication or security process of a host or network
12. Creating, transmitting, storing or publishing any virus, Trojan, corrupting program or corrupted data
13. Monitoring or recording the actions of any person entitled to be in your home or business premises without their knowledge or any person or thing outside of your home or premises including, without limitation, any public highway or roadway or another person’s home or business premises
14. Collecting, streaming, distributing or accessing any material that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally collected, streamed, distributed or accessed.

WHAT ABOUT SECURITY?

You are responsible for ensuring that any member ID and/or password selected by you remain confidential so that the network cannot be used by any unauthorized person.

The member ID and/or password referred to include, but are not limited to, those controlling access to (a) any computer hardware systems or networks; (b) any computer software or applications; or (c) any other services accessed by you in the use of either of the above.

You shall not disclose any member ID or password to any third party, or use the same for any purpose connected with the improper use of the network including accessing or attempting to access other parts of the services for which you do not have access rights.

You are responsible for taking all reasonable steps necessary to prevent a third party obtaining access to the network.

You must immediately advise us if you become aware of any violation or suspected violation of these Security provisions.

WHAT ABOUT USAGE BY KIDS AND OTHERS WITHOUT YOU KNOWING?

No excuse. You are responsible for all uses made of ORI’s Internet services through your account (whether authorized or unauthorized) and for any breach of this Policy whether an unacceptable use occurs or is attempted, whether you knew or should have known about it, whether or not you carried out or attempted the unacceptable use alone, contributed to or acted with others or allowed any unacceptable use to occur by omission. You agree that Our Rural Internet is not responsible for any of your activities in using the network. Although the Internet is designed to appeal to a broad audience, it’s your responsibility to determine whether any of the content accessed via ORI’s Internet service is appropriate for children or others in your household or office to view or use.

ANYTHING ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW?

Spam is evil. ORI reserves the right to block any emails that have the characteristics of spam. You’ll be contacted by ORI if any emails sent by you are blocked for this reason. Any spamming activity may result in suspension or termination of your service at ORI’s option and sole discretion.

 

To report any illegal or unacceptable use of Our Rural Internet services, please submit a ticket.