Acceptable Use Policy of Cypress Communications
This Acceptable Use Policy (the “Policy”) and your service agreement set forth the terms and conditions under which you are permitted to use Cypress’s services, equipment and facilities (the “Services”). By using the Services, you signify your agreement to this Policy. “You” when used in this Policy shall mean Cypress’s customer of record and your end users. If you violate this Policy, Cypress may immediately suspend or terminate your right to use the Services without notice. Cypress reserves the right, at our discretion, to update or revise this Policy or any other policy or statement on any Cypress website. Please check back periodically to review any changes to this Policy.
Compliance with Law
You must use the Services in accordance with all applicable federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations. You are not permitted to store, disseminate or transmit any unlawful messages or material by or through Cypress’s Services. You are not permitted to use the Services for the purposes of: (i) theft or infringement of copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets or other types of intellectual property; (ii) fraud; forgery, theft, or misappropriation of funds, credit cards or personal information; (iii) threats of physical harm or harassment; (iv) distribution of obscene, pornographic, indecent or hateful materials; (v) distribution of defamatory or libelous materials; or (vi) activities that cause harm to minors.
Additional Prohibited Uses
- Scams. You are not permitted to use Cypress’s Services to make fraudulent offers to buy or sell products or services, or engage in any type of consumer or financial scam, e.g., “pyramid” schemes, “ponzi” schemes or chain letters. You shall not add, remove or modify network, email or SMTP identifiers in an effort to impersonate, deceive or mislead others.
- Security Violations. You are not permitted to use the Services to store, disseminate or transmit material or programs that are designed to compromise, or do compromise, the integrity or security of Cypress’s Services or other websites, networks or computer systems. Examples of such programs include, but are not limited to, hacking programs, password guessing programs, packet sniffers, cracking tools, network probing tools, port scanning tools, and programs that distribute viruses, worms and other harmful software. You are not permitted to use the Services to engage in any activity that is designed or intended to make unauthorized entry to any other machine, information or material that is accessible via the Services. Any attempt to access any of Cypress’s corporate assets is strictly prohibited. You shall not share passwords or account information with other individuals or corporate users. Cypress may monitor the use or security of customer passwords, and Cypress may require you to change your passwords at any time.
- System Misuse or Abuse. You shall not engage in any use of the Services which debilitates, interrupts or disrupts the normal use of Cypress’s Services by others. Examples of prohibited system abuse include, but are not limited to, consuming excessive amounts of time, memory or bandwidth; propagation of computer worms and viruses; and flooding, mail bombing and spamming. You shall not copy, modify, adapt, reproduce, translate, distribute, misappropriate, reverse engineer or disassemble any aspect of the Services.
- Misuse of E-mail. You shall not: (i) send, forward or otherwise disseminate unsolicited messages or advertising to other users, (ii) send, forward or otherwise disseminate unlawful, threatening, harassing, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, profane, or otherwise objectionable material of any kind to other users, (iii) forge e-mail addresses in order to disguise the place of email origin or sender or (iv) engage in any form of spamming including without limitation any activities that would violate the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. For purposes of this Policy, “spamming” includes transmitting large volumes of unsolicited email messages; sending very large attachments to one or more recipients; posting messages to online forums or newsgroups that violate the rules or charter of such groups; sending any unsolicited email that could be expected, in Cypress’s discretion, to provoke complaints; sending email with solicitations for money, petitions for signatures, or any chain mail; and sending email that does not accurately identify the sender, the sender’s return address or the email address of origin. Cypress reserves the right to take all legal and technical steps available to prevent unsolicited bulk e-mail or other unauthorized e-mail from being sent from or transmitted through Cypress’s network. You may be required to correct any system vulnerability upon notification and/or suspend or terminate operations of a known compromised system.
- Copyright Violations. The unauthorized use, installation, copying or distribution of copyrighted, trademarked or patented material on the Internet is strictly prohibited. You shall not retrieve, download, upload, disseminate or exchange copyright protected music, video, software or information via the Internet for purposes of avoiding the lawful purchase or license of same.
- Resale of Services or Equipment. In subscribing for any Services, you acknowledge that such Services are provided only for your personal and individual use, and not for resale, barter, exchange or similar commercial transactions. You shall not (i) resell, transfer or assign all or any portion of the Services to others or (ii) allow your account to be used by any third parties (other than Cypress employees) without Cypress’s prior written consent.
- Collection of Personal Data. You shall not use the Services to collect or retrieve personal information about third parties, or that is maintained by third parties, without their knowledge and consent.
- Other Harmful Activities. You shall not engage in any other activities that Cypress reasonably determines to be harmful to its Services, equipment, network, operations, customers or reputation, including any activities that interfere with any other user’s use or enjoyment of any of Cypress’s Services.
Supervision and Investigation
Cypress has no obligation to monitor any content transmitted using the Services. Cypress reserves the right to monitor and investigate suspected violations of this Policy, including gathering information from customers or complaining parties, monitoring Internet usage and traffic, and retrieving and examining the data, content or material that is transmitted through Cypress’s facilities or network. If Cypress believes, in its discretion, that you are violating this Policy, Cypress may suspend or terminate your use of the Services, block transmissions, or remove any offensive content from its servers. Cypress reserves the right to release the names of customers involved in violations of this Policy to other communications carriers, service providers, website administrators and law enforcement authorities in order to prevent, resolve or report violations of this Policy.
Governing Law
Unless otherwise agreed in writing in your service agreement, your use of the Services and all disputes arising from or relating to this Policy shall be construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the state of Ohio without regard to its choice of law principles, and any disputes hereunder shall be brought exclusively in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas; provided, however, that any such claim or cause of action may be brought in, or removed to, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, to the extent that such court would have jurisdiction over such action.
Disclaimer; Indemnity
Cypress has no control over sites, data and information that is available through or transmitted across the Internet, and Cypress has no obligation to review, edit or censor information or transmissions that are disseminated by or across Cypress’s facilities or network. Cypress disclaims, to the maximum extent permitted by law, all warranties, representations or other endorsements, express or implied, with regard to the information accessed from, or through, the Services and the Internet, including all warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use, or non-infringement of any third-party rights. Cypress does not assume any liability for the completeness, accuracy or usefulness of any information disclosed or materials accessed. In no event shall Cypress (or any persons or entities related thereto) be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages associated with or arising from use of the Services in any way, including any loss of use, data or profits, regardless of the form of action. Any failure by Cypress to enforce this policy in every instance in which it might have application does not amount to a waiver of Cypress´s rights.
