Terms of Use
RWS Web Solutions Ltd (RWS) is a provider of website and internet marketing services trading under the name Mintcake Digital. This Terms of Use relates to the regulation of activities by clients and their customers in relation to the use of RWS services.
Introduction
RWS has created this Terms of Use (TOU) for hosting customers to protect our resources, and the resources of our customers and peering networks in order to provide a high speed network, high availability services and to ensure that RWS comply with all relevant UK laws. This TOU must be read in conjunction with our Terms and Conditions.
It is the responsibility of all customers of the RWS network and services to ensure that they comply with the latest edition of the TOU at any given time.
This TOU may be revised, without notice, at any time, at the sole discretion of RWS. Completion of the relevant application form, or connection to the service for the first time, is deemed to be an agreement to our Terms and Conditions and this TOU.
In the event of a breach of this policy, RWS reserve the right to terminate all or part of any service with immediate effect, without recompense, and delete any files held on our servers.
Compliance with UK Law
It is an offence under UK law to transmit, receive or store certain types of files.
Customers may not use our services to engage in activities, or store, transfer or receive material of an indecent, offensive or otherwise illegal nature. Any such activities may result in prosecution by the UK authorities under the relevant Criminal Acts including but not limited to the Computer Misuse Act 1990, the Protection of Children Act 1978, the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Prevention of Harassment Act 1997.
It is also a criminal offence under UK law to knowingly infringe intellectual property rights, such as copyright, patents, database rights and registered trade marks. Customers are reminded that sharing copyright material through the use of peer to peer software may consequently constitute a criminal offence if done without permission of the right owner in question. RWS will co-operate with any agency or rights holder wishing to assert their rights in these matters and RWS reserve the right to withdraw service under such circumstances.
The Data Protection Act 1998 imposes numerous duties on any organisation that processes personal data relating to third parties. Failure to comply with many of these duties constitutes a criminal offence. Customers who are not merely processing personal data for domestic (including recreational) reasons are reminded of their likely duty to register with the Information Commissioner.
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced to unify all EU member states’ approaches to data regulation, ensuring all data protection laws are applied identically in every country within the EU. It will protect EU citizens from organisations using their data irresponsibly and puts them in charge of what information is shared, where and how it’s shared.
The GDPR is due to come into force on 25 May – and even though the UK is due to leave Europe in the next 12 months, it will still apply to all businesses handling EU residents’ data, effectively replacing the Data Protection Act 1998.
Under the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, RWS is in general not liable to any criminal or pecuniary penalty for any unlawful acts carried out using our service unless we have actual knowledge of those unlawful acts. Accordingly, if we become aware of credible evidence that a customer has carried out any unlawful acts we will take preventative measures to bring those acts to an end.
Compliance with Foreign Law
The Internet is global in reach. Consequently it is possible for anyone using the internet to break the laws of foreign countries. Customers are therefore advised to take all reasonable steps to avoid breaching relevant foreign laws.
Warranties and Disclaimers
Our service warranties and the extent of our liability are explained fully in our Terms and Conditions.
By connecting to the RWS network, Customers agree to hold RWS harmless in the event of any legal claim regarding our services.
Irresponsible Usage
Customer acknowledges that they have a responsibility to ensure that their connection is not used in an irresponsible manner. RWS deem irresponsible use of the services to include, but not be limited to, sending unsolicited e-mail (“spamming”), attempting to breach the security of a 3rd party machine, and flooding Usenet by placing a single post in a large number of newsgroups.
In the event that a customer’s services are used for any purpose that RWS deem irresponsible then RWS reserve the right to suspend service while the usage is investigated in consultation with the customer. Should investigation determine that the service has been used irresponsibly, RWS reserve the right to terminate the customer’s account with immediate effect. Wherever possible the customer will be notified in advance of any termination.
Security and Privacy
Login names and passwords must be kept secret and not be communicated to any third party. RWS must be notified immediately if they are compromised. If a customer forgets or loses their password, they will need to contact support to have it changed.
Customers are responsible for all traffic that is sent from their server. It is therefore the customer’s responsibility to ensure that all software is virus-free and up-to-date with all relevant security patches. In particular, server software running on public-facing ports, such as mail servers and proxy servers, must not be remotely exploitable.
If RWS find malicious traffic emanating from a customer’s server, RWS have an obligation to our other customers and peering networks to take urgent measures to block that traffic. In many cases, this can be achieved by selective port blocking, but in other cases, this will involve disconnecting and suspending the account until the issue has been resolved. RWS understand that in many cases a customer may not be responsible for or aware of the problem, and therefore RWS will work with the customer to resolve the issue as efficiently as possible to restore normal service.
Customers may not use RWS services to send unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE, also known as ‘Spam’). RWS will block the mail services of any customer found to be sending such mail.
Customers may not have “open mail relays”. RWS will close the relay or connection of any customer found with an open mail relay.
Opt-in mailing lists are allowed, where it can be proved that subscribers did opt-in and that a suitable opt-out mechanism is available.
RWS reserve the right to remove any mail older than 60 days from shared mail servers. It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that mail is regularly collected and removed from RWS’s POP3 server. RWS strongly advise against the use of the POP3 option to keep mail on the server. If a POP3 mailbox contains an excessive amount of mail, RWS reserve the right to remove older mails from the mailbox to reduce its size.
Hosting
By uploading to the services, the customer will be deemed to have accepted and agreed to the Terms and Conditions of use of the Web space service.
The Customer will be responsible for the content of their website, including obtaining the legal permission for any works they include and ensuring that the contents of these pages do not violate UK law. RWS reserve the right, without notice or explanation, to remove material which does not comply with this TOU or our Terms and Conditions, such as material of an adult nature or pirated software.
RWS reserve the right to suspend any or all of the service at any time, without prior notice, explanation, or recompense.
Customers will be held solely responsible for any defamatory, confidential, secret or other proprietary material made available via their website. RWS reserve the right to suspend any sites containing such material. Customers must be careful when using peer to peer networking software to ensure that they do not download or transfer material which they do not have the right to download or transfer.
Login names and passwords must be kept secret and not communicated to any third party, except for agencies, such as RWS developers, working on the customer’s behalf. RWS must be notified immediately if they are compromised. If someone were to gain access to a customer’s account password, they could tamper with files held on the customer’s website.
The customer has sole responsibility for ensuring that any data is suitably backed-up. RWS will not keep backups of customers’ websites. RWS will accept no responsibility whatsoever for loss of data or information resulting from the use of this service.
If the account is suspended for any reason, such as non-payment, access to the customer’s website, both for viewing and uploading, may also be suspended.
On closing an account, the relevant data on this Web space will be deleted.
The Internet is a powerful information and entertainment tool, we would expect our customers to use the Internet with respect, courtesy, and responsibility, giving due regard to the rights of other Internet users.
Our Terms of Use (“TOU”) is actively and strictly enforced. Offending content or users are removed from our network, usually as soon as they are discovered, although we will always inform you when and why any action has been taken.
Common sense is the best guide as to what is considered acceptable use, however the following are unacceptable uses.
Illegality
In any form, including but not limited to the unauthorised distribution or copying of copyrighted software or other data, harassment, fraud, or trafficking in obscene material.
Undesirable Content
Certain types of content are not permitted on our network. We do not host adult content of any description. Content relating to Hacking, Cracking, Warez and IRC is not allowed. Software downloads may only be hosted if you are the writer and copyright owner of the software, all other software including freeware, shareware and trial software is forbidden. Audio and video downloads may only be hosted if you are the creator and copyright owner of the work.
Bulk Email
The use of our network to send bulk email whether opt-in or otherwise, and the use of bulk email to promote a site on our network is strictly forbidden.
Misuse of Resources
Including but not limited to employing applications which consume excessive CPU time, memory or storage space. Chat/IRC, web proxy and mailing list scripts are not allowed on our network under any circumstances. Streaming media can be a drain on web server resources and as such is not allowed. CGI based message forums which use flat file databases are often found to use excessive system resources, to avoid disappointment please use a PHP/ASP message forum. The use of web cam applications which maintain a constant FTP connection uploading an image at regular intervals is forbidden.
If you are unsure about content you intend to place on our network, please check with us before you do. We reserve the right to determine what constitutes acceptable use.
By uploading to a RWS dedicated server, the customer will be deemed to have accepted and agreed to the Terms and Conditions of use of the Web space service.
The customer will be responsible for the content on their server, including obtaining the legal permission for any works they include and ensuring that the content on the server does not violate UK law. RWS reserve the right, without notice or explanation, to remove from the network a server which does not comply with this TOU or our Terms and Conditions, such as one storing material of an adult nature or pirated software.
RWS reserve the right to remove a server from the network, if it is deemed to be causing excessive load or traffic, is adversely affecting the performance of other servers on the network, or is being abused by an external entity. It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that their scripts are not vulnerable to these problems.
The customer agrees not to advertise their Website via unsolicited commercial e-mail. RWS reserve the right to suspend a site which has been ‘spamvertised’ at any time.
RWS do not impose quotas for data transfer on dedicated servers. However if a customer is using an excessively high volume of bandwidth for data transfer RWS reserve the right to revert to its terms and conditions and impose a charge for high usage. We ask customers who intend to use high volumes of bandwidth for data transfer to first discuss their requirement with their dedicated Account Manager.
Customers will be held solely responsible for any defamatory, confidential, secret or other proprietary material made available via their dedicated server. RWS reserve the right to remove from the network any server containing such material. Customers must be careful when using peer to peer networking software to ensure that they do not download or transfer material which they do not have the right to download or transfer.
Login names and passwords must be kept secret and not communicated to any third party, except for agencies, such as RWS developers, working on the customer’s behalf. RWS must be notified immediately if they are compromised. If someone were to gain access to a customer’s account password, they could tamper with files held on the customer’s server.
The customer is ultimately responsible for ensuring that their site is suitably backed-up.
If the account is suspended for any reason, such as non-payment, access to the server may be suspended.
On closing an account, the data on the server will be deleted.
Attempted Security Breaches
Any attempt to breach the security of any machine is forbidden. Attempting to do so will result in immediate account termination and possible further legal action. Users may not run any program that monitors network packet data or any program that compromises the privacy of network traffic.
It should be noted that attempting to breach security may lead to prosecution under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 or any other relevant criminal legislation.
Attempts to circumvent copy protection technology and encryption are also likely to be illegal under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended).
Non-Specific
Customers may not mount an attack, by whatever means, against our system, or any other systems. Customers may not run unauthorised mailing lists from or through any of our machines or mail servers.
Any IP addresses assigned to customers are owned by RWS.
When using a quota-based service, it is the customer’s responsibility to remain within their usage quota. RWS reserve the right to delete files for over-quota users if disk space is affecting the normal running of the server.
Customers may not use RWS services to send unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE, also known as ‘Spam’). RWS will block the mail services of any customer found to be sending such mail.
Customers may not have “open mail relays”. RWS will close the relay or connection of any customer found with an open mail relay.
Opt-in mailing lists are allowed, where it can be proved that subscribers did opt-in and that a suitable opt-out mechanism is available.
RWS reserve the right to remove any mail older than 60 days from shared mail servers. It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that mail is regularly collected and removed from RWS’s POP3 server. RWS strongly advise against the use of the POP3 option to keep mail on the server. If a POP3 mailbox contains an excessive amount of mail, RWS reserve the right to remove older mails from the mailbox to reduce its size.
RWS Web Solutions Ltd (RWS) is a provider of website and internet marketing services trading under the name Mintcake Digital. This Terms of Use relates to the regulation of activities by clients and their customers in relation to the use of RWS services.
