OA5 Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

OA5 is a member of ISPA-uk and fully endorses their Code of Practice.

Introduction

This document sets the policy for fair and reasonable use of the services provided by OA5, and what steps OA5 may take with customers who abuse these services or other users of the net.

Basic policy

OA5 customers may use OA5 services in furtherance of their own legal purposes as they wish so long as they do not abuse or damage other net users or services.

Misuse of Services

OA5 customers may maintain mailing lists and send mail to those who have requested it.
They may not:

mail bomb or harass other net users;
send unsolicited mail ("spam"), chain letters or pyramid selling schemes from or via OA5 facilities;
send inappropriate or repeated messages (Usenet spam) to news groups;
use OA5 to provide drop-box mail addresses for spam;
advertise OA5 web sites using spam;
offer spamming services or software using OA5 facilities;
modify mail headers so as to impersonate other net users with intent to mislead or deceive.

OA5 customers may not use OA5 facilities to break into or to interfere with the operation of other computer systems, break OA5 system security, or alter or delete the data of other OA5 users.

OA5 customers may not use OA5 facilities to store or display obscene material.

OA5 customers may not use OA5 facilities for any purposes which are illegal under English law.

OA5 customers may not sell on OA5 services to third parties without the prior written agreement of OA5.

Copyright

OA5 customers must ensure that they hold the copyright, or have permission of the copyright holder, for all material on their web pages. Any material for which the copyright status is in doubt may be removed by OA5 until its status has been clarified.

CGI scripts

OA5 will provide a range of CGI scripts to their customers, to enable them to make effective use of the net. In addition each customer has their own cgi-bin directory in which they may install their own scripts.

Actions OA5 may take

OA5 may take whatever action they see fit to prevent abuse of OA5 facilities, including suspension or deletion of the abusing customers' account and services. No refund of fees already paid will be given in such cases. OA5 reserves the right to make an additional charge of £500, or actual cost if greater, to cover the work done in identifying and recovering from such abuse.

Customers' personal details

OA5 publishes the contact details for each domain registered as a TXT record within the DNS, as these registrations are matters of public record. DNS ownership is frequently a matter of dispute, and OA5 will not obscure registrants.

OA5 will not otherwise reveal personal details of our customers to any other party except where required to do so by law, or if requested to do so by police or other government authorities investigating illegal activities.

OA5 may also provide information needed by other service providers investigating abuse of their services, but this will only include information essential to this task.

Domain Names

OA5 does not track which domains are investigated by customers through OA5's server, nor reveal them to any third party.

Transfer of Domain Names

OA5 will facilitate the transfer of a domain name registered through OA5 to another ISP on request, so long as all registration and related fees have been paid. Where fees are outstanding, OA5 may hold and block the domain name until payment is received.

Changes to this policy

OA5 reserves the right to make changes to this policy. We will notify our customers when we make such changes.