Acceptable Use Policy

1. Acknowledgement And Acceptance Of Aup

By your use (and continued use) of the services made available by Decisive Group, a Calian company, (the “Services”), you agree to be bound by all of the terms and conditions of this Acceptable Use Policy (the “AUP”).

If you do not agree with the terms of the AUP, you should not use the Services.

Capitalized terms used in this AUP have the meaning given to them in your customer or reseller agreement with Decisive Group. Inquiries regarding the AUP should be directed to legal@decisivegroup.com.

2. Modifications To Acceptable Use Policy

Decisive Group reserves the right, at any time and without notice, to change the terms and conditions of the AUP. You are therefore encouraged to regularly check for updates to the AUP.

3. Your Conduct

You may not use Decisive Group’s network or Services to engage in, foster, or promote illegal, abusive, or irresponsible behaviour, including:

  • Use of an internet account or computer without the owner’s authorization;
  • Unauthorized access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without express authorization of the owner of the system or network;
  • Collecting or using email addresses, screen names or other identifiers without the consent of the person identified (including, without limitation, phishing, Internet scamming, password robbery, spidering, and harvesting);
  • Collecting or using information without the consent of the owner of the information;
  • Use of any false, misleading, or deceptive TCP-IP packet header information in an email or a newsgroup posting;
  • Use of the Services to distribute software that covertly gathers information about a user or covertly transmits information about the user;

Use of the Services for distribution of advertisement delivery software unless: (i) the user affirmatively consents to the download and installation of such software based on a clear and conspicuous notice of the nature of the software, and (ii) the software is easily removable by use of standard tools for such purpose included on major operating systems (such as Microsoft’s “add/remove” tool);

Any conduct that is likely to result in retaliation against the Decisive Group network or website, or Decisive Group’s employees, officers or other agents, including engaging in behaviour that results in any server being the target of a denial of service attack (DoS); – Monitoring data or traffic on any network or system without the express authorization of the owner of the system or network; – Interference with service to any user of the Decisive Group or other network including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks. Decisive Group reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to determine whether or not Your conduct is consistent with the AUP and to terminate or suspend the Services if it deems Your conduct to be inconsistent the AUP.

4. Your Use Of Decisive Group System Resources

With the exception of the VCPU and Ram usage entitlements that Decisive Group is provisioning to You, You may not use any shared system provided by Decisive Group in a way that unnecessarily interferes with the normal operation of the shared system, or that consumes a disproportionate share of the resources of the system. Decisive Group reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to take whatever action it deems reasonably necessary to ensure the normal operation of the shared system. For example, We may prohibit the automated or scripted use of Decisive Group Mail Services if it has a negative impact on the mail system, or We may require You to repair coding abnormalities in Your cloud-hosted code if it unnecessarily conflicts with other cloud customers’ use of the cloud. You agree that We may quarantine or delete any data stored on a shared system if the data is infected with a virus, or is otherwise corrupted, and has the potential to infect or corrupt the system or other customers’ data that is stored on the same system. In such event, unless the risk is critical and immediate, “deletion” will be the last resort taken and will only be done with Your agreement. In the event of any quarantine, deletion, or other action that We are required to take, We will advise You of the specific data affected along with the reasons for the actions taken by Us (or required to be taken by You). Such reasons shall include, at a minimum, the name of the infection or malware and the risk to Decisive Group’s system.

5. Mail Requirements

You must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and other laws and regulations applicable to bulk or commercial email. In addition, Your bulk and commercial email must meet the following requirements:

  • Your intended recipients have given their consent to receive e-mail via some affirmative means, such as an opt-in procedure and otherwise in accordance with the Canadian Anti-Spam Law;
  • Your procedures for soliciting consent include reasonable means to ensure that the person giving consent is the owner of the e-mail address for which the consent is given;
  • You retain evidence of the recipient’s consent in a form that may be promptly produced on request, and You honour the recipient’s and Decisive Group’s requests to produce consent evidence within 72 hours of receipt of the request;
  • You have procedures in place that allow a recipient to revoke their consent – such as a link in the body of the email, or instructions to reply with the word “Remove” in the subject line; You honor revocations of consent within 48 hours, and You notify recipients that the revocation of their consent will be implemented in 48 hours;
  • You post an email address for complaints (such as abuse@yourdomain.com) in a conspicuous place on any website associated with the email; You register that address at net, and You promptly respond to messages sent to that address;
  • You have a Privacy Policy posted for each domain associated with the mailing;
  • You have the means to track anonymous complaints;
  • You do not obscure the source of Your e-mail in any Your e-mail must include the recipient’s e-mail address in the body of the message or in the “TO” line of the e-mail;
  • You do not attempt to send any message to an email address if 3 consecutive delivery rejections have occurred and the time between the third rejection and the first rejection is longer than fifteen days.

The above requirements apply to messages sent using the Services, or to messages sent from any network by You or any person on Your behalf that directly or indirectly refer the recipient to a site hosted via the Services. In addition, You may not use a third party e-mail service that does not practice similar procedures for all its customers. The above requirements apply to distribution lists created by third parties to the same extent as if You created the list. Decisive Group may test and otherwise monitor Your compliance with the above requirements, including requesting opt-in information from a random sample of Your list at any time. In addition, Decisive Group may block the transmission of e-mail that violates these provisions. Decisive Group may, at its discretion, require certain customers to seek advance approval for bulk and commercial email, which approval will not be granted unless the customer can demonstrate that all of the requirements stated above will be met.

6. Vulnerability Testing

During all use of the Services, You may not attempt to probe, scan, penetrate or test the vulnerability of a Decisive Group system or network, or to breach the Decisive Group security or authentication measures, whether by passive or intrusive techniques, without Decisive Group’s express written consent.

7. Newsgroup, Chat Forums, Other Networks

During all use of the Services, You must comply with the rules and conventions for postings to any bulletin board, chat group or other forum in which You participate, such as IRC and USENET groups including their rules for content and commercial postings. These groups usually prohibit the posting of off-topic commercial messages, or mass postings to multiple forums.

8. Offensive Content

You may not publish, transmit or store on or via the Decisive Group network or equipment or via the use of the Services, any content or links to any content that Decisive Group reasonably believes:

  • Constitutes, depicts, fosters, promotes or relates in any manner to child pornography, bestiality, or non-consensual sex acts;
  • Is excessively violent, incites violence, threatens violence or contains harassing content or hate speech;
  • Is unfair or deceptive under the consumer protection laws of any jurisdiction, including chain letters and pyramid schemes;
  • Is defamatory or violates a person’s privacy;
  • Creates a risk to a person’s safety or health, creates a risk to public safety or health, compromises national security or interferes with an investigation by law enforcement;
  • Improperly exposes trade secrets or other confidential or proprietary information of another person;
  • Is intended to assist others in defeating technical copyright protections;
  • Infringes on another person’s copyright, trade or service mark, patent or other property right;
  • Promotes illegal drugs, violates export control laws, relates to illegal gambling or illegal arms trafficking;
  • Is otherwise illegal or solicits conduct that is illegal under laws applicable to You or to Decisive Group; or
  • Is otherwise malicious, fraudulent or may result in retaliation against Decisive Group by offended viewers.

9. Live Events

You may not use the Services to stream live sex acts of any kind, even if the content would otherwise comply with the AUP. Decisive Group may prohibit You from streaming other live events where there is a special risk, in Decisive Groups’s reasonable discretion, that the event may violate the Offensive Content section above.

10. Copywritten Material And Intellectual Property

You may not use Decisive Group’s network or the Services to violate the intellectual property rights of a third party. For clarity and without limiting the foregoing, you may not use Decisive Group’s network or the Services to download, publish, distribute, or otherwise copy or use in any manner any text, music, software, art, image, or other work protected by copyright law unless: (i) You have been expressly authorized by the owner of the copyright for the work to copy the work in that manner; or (ii) You are otherwise permitted by established copyright law to copy the work in that manner.

11. Other

You must have valid and current information on file with Your domain name registrar for any domain hosted on the Decisive Group network. You may only use IP addresses assigned to You by Decisive Group in connection with the Services. You agree that if the Decisive Group IP numbers assigned to Your account are listed on an abuse database like Spamhaus, You will be in violation of this AUP, and Decisive Group may take reasonable action to protect its IP addresses, including suspension and/or termination of the Services, regardless of whether the IP addresses were listed as a result of Your actions. You agree that if You register a DNS record or zone on Decisive Group managed or operated DNS servers or Services for a domain of which You are not the registrant or administrative contact according to the registrars WHOIS system, that, upon request from the registrant or administrative contact according to the registrars WHOIS system, Decisive Group may modify, transfer, or delete such records or zones. You may not register to use any Services under a false name, or use an invalid or unauthorized credit card in connection with any Services.

12. SLA

No credit will be available under the Decisive Group Service Level Agreement(s) for interruptions of service resulting from any AUP violation.

13. No Resale Or Rebranding Of Decisive Group

Your right to use the Services is personal to You. You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, or resell, whether by itself or in concert with one or more additional services: (a) any portion of the Services (including Your username); (b) use of the Services; or (c) access to the Services.

14. Privacy Policy

Please see the Privacy Policy for information on Decisive Group’s policies regarding Your personal information.