HOSTMASTER Terms of Service

Terms of Service (TOS) [January 1, 2010]

THIS AGREEMENT BETWEEN Hostmaster.com hereinafter referred to as "HOSTMASTER" and you where “you” is referred to as (“Account Holders "Users", “Members”, “Customers”, or “Subscribers”)

WHEREAS HOSTMASTER agrees to furnish IT - internet based services associated with web sites, web hosting, and domain registration to the User.

Use of HOSTMASTER Service constitutes acceptance and agreement to HOSTMASTER's policies are subject to the terms above and as follows:

Content:
At HOSTMASTER, we strongly prohibit the use of any our service for any illegal activities.

Although we are a global web hosting service provider, all our subscribers must be in accordance with U.S. Federal, State and local laws. Ultimately you, the customer, are solely responsible for the content stored on your HOSTMASTER account.

User shall not include content, or internet links to content on the Site that contain, promote or involve any of the following. Examples include but are not limited to:

1. Any copyright, patent, trademark, or other intellectual property right.

2. Child Pornography

3. Hate content

4. Threatening, racial, or otherwise abusive content.

5. Any and all content inciting, instructing, or promoting illegal activities.

6. Fraud, MLM (Multi-Level Marketing), Pyramid schemes, or any other activities deemed to be fraudulent.

7. Hacking/Phreaking, warez, cracks, spam software or any material that contains a virus or any other harmful code.

Payment:
Establishment of service is reliant upon receipt by the Company of payment of affirmed charges. Following payments are due on the anniversary date of the month for that month's service.

Payments and Fees:
Credit card charges will appear on your statement as "HOSTMASTER.COM*WEB HOSTING".
Accounts that reach 7 days past due will be suspended. Accounts that are not collectable by HOSTMASTER may be turned over to an outside collection agency for collection. If you desire to cancel your account, please follow the proper procedure to do this as outlined in this TOS.

Failure to Pay:
The Company may temporarily deny service or terminate this Agreement upon the failure of Subscriber to pay charges when due. Such termination or denial will not relieve Subscriber of responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges, plus reasonable interest and any collection fees.

Account Cancellation:
Requests for canceling accounts may be made through the helpdesk system or customer portal.
HOSTMASTER’s preferred method of cancellation is via the customer portal. Please log into customer portal where you can request to have your account cancelled.
Cancellation requests are processed within 24 hours after receipt of confirmation.

Disclosure to Law Enforcement:
At HOSTMASTER, we specifically forbid the use of our service for any unlawful activities. Therefore, User agrees that the Company may reveal any and all subscriber information including assigned IP numbers, account history, account use, etc. to any law enforcement agent who makes a written request without further consent or notification to the Subscriber. In addition HOSTMASTER shall have the right to terminate all service set forth in this Agreement.

Support Boundaries:
HOSTMASTER, provides 24 x 7 x 365 technical support to our subscribers and our staff is limited to our area of expertise.

Digital goods:

Services are delivered in electronic format. Web hosting service is considered delivered starting from the moment it was configured on HOSTMASTER's servers. Domain name registration/transfer is considered done starting from the moment that the corresponding record appeared in the domain registrar's WHOIS database. Client is sent a written confirmation once an above-mentioned action completes.

The following are our guidelines when providing support:

SPAM and Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE):
HOSTMASTER takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or SPAM over our network. Very simply this means that customers of HOSTMASTER may not use or permit others to use our network to transact in UCE. Customers of HOSTMASTER may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including termination of service.

Violation of HOSTMASTER's SPAM policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, HOSTMASTER will initiate an immediate investigation (within 48 hours of notification). During the investigation, HOSTMASTER may restrict customer access to the network to prevent further violations. If a customer is found to be in violation of our SPAM policy, HOSTMASTER may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate customer's account. Further, HOSTMASTER reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. HOSTMASTER will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offense.

As our Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the HOSTMASTER network, it is advisable that customers develop a similar, or stricter, policy for their clients.

Fair Use Policy

1. Hostmaster.com offer unlimited web space and bandwidth with some account types. By this, we mean unlimited space for legitimate web site content and bandwidth for visitors to view it.
2. Sites should not contain any material which does not comply with our content guidelines outlined in the terms of service.
3. Hostmaster.com provides unlimited, burstable bandwidth and Burstable RAM with some of the services and for these resources we require that you do not continuously use an unreasonable excess of such resources. Use of them in a temporary, burstable fashion is acceptable.
4. Hostmaster.com offer large numbers of mailboxes with some account types subject to a fair use policy.
   1. Mailboxes are intended for direct use by the package owner and should not be resold or offered for use by third parties.
   2. Should the number of active mailboxes assigned to an individual hosted website exceed 100, Hostmaster.com reserve the right to restrict the number of mailboxes included in the package price.
   3. Hostmaster.com reserve the right to delete mailboxes (including contents) that are deemed inactive, i.e. have not been accessed within the last 180 days.
5. Hosted files
   1. You may not use the Services as a file backup or exchange store. All files must be publicly accessble over the Internet.
   2. User generated backups must be immediately downloaded to client's local storage followed by immediate removal from the server in order to not occupy underlying file system.
   3. All files uploaded to a domain on our servers must be visible and accessible by visiting that domain, unless they are hidden files needed to operate the website.
   4. All files on a domain must be part of the active website hosted on our servers and linked to the site.
6. You may not offer HTTP downloads from your site, other than where the files are directly related to the subject matter of the site. We recommend you stream any multimedia content including audio and video files. Hostmaster.com reserves the right to delete any download content we do not believe to be necessary for the normal operation of the site, and the definition of this is entirely at the discretion of Hostmaster.com.

Network

Bandwidth and Disk Usage:
Customer agrees that bandwidth and disk usage shall not exceed the number of megabytes per month for the Services ordered by Customer on the Order Form (the "Agreed Usage"). HOSTMASTER will monitor Customer's bandwidth and disk usage. HOSTMASTER shall have the right to take corrective action if Customer's bandwidth or disk usage exceeds the Agreed Usage. Such corrective action may include the assessment of additional charges, disconnection or discontinuance of any and all Services, or termination of this Agreement, which actions may be taken is in HOSTMASTER's sole and absolute discretion. If HOSTMASTER takes any corrective action under this section, Customer shall not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid in advance prior to such action. In the event that a customer exceeds the included allocation, HOSTMASTER may, at its sole discretion, collect a deposit, in an amount determined by HOSTMASTER, against customer's credit card on file with HOSTMASTER.

System and Network Security:
Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the HOSTMASTER Network. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. HOSTMASTER will investigate occurrences, which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Users who are involved in such violations. These violations include, without limitation:

Accessing data not intended for such User or logging into a server or account, which such User is not authorized to access.

Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization.

Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding", "mail bombing" or "crashing".

Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting.

Taking any action in order to obtain services to which such User is not entitled.

Notification of Violation:

HOSTMASTER is under no duty to look at each customer's or user's activities to determine if a violation of the TOS has occurred, nor do we assume any responsibility through our TOS to monitor or police Internet-related activities.

Miscellaneous Provisions:
You must provide us with, and keep current, good contact information for you. E-mail, fax, and telephone contacts are used, in that order of preference.

HOSTMASTER takes no responsibility for any material input by others and not posted to the HOSTMASTER Network by HOSTMASTER. HOSTMASTER is not responsible for the content of any other web sites linked to the HOSTMASTER Network; links are provided as Internet navigation tools only. HOSTMASTER disclaims any responsibility for any such inappropriate use and any liability to any person or party for any other person or party's violation of this policy.

HOSTMASTER is not responsible for any damages your business may suffer. HOSTMASTER does not make implied or written warranties for any of our services. HOSTMASTER denies any warranty or merchantability for a specific purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by HOSTMASTER.

It is absolutely forbidden to IRC servers on. Accounts found hosting this material will be subject to immediate cancellation without refund.

REFUNDS AND GUARANTEES
Money back guarantee on all our web hosting plans and packages (not valid for dedicated servers or VPS):

• To prove to you how confident we are in our services, we will offer you a 30 day money back guarantee on web hosting plans and packages. Domain name registration and transfers are non-refundable. If for any reason you are not completely satisfied with our services and cancel your account within the initial 30 days from the initial order date of your account we will refund you all your money (excluding any setup and domain related fees).
• Customers are responsible for submitting any cancellation requests prior to the upcoming due date of the recurring charges. Failure to do so may result in charges being incurred for the subsequent billing cycle, which will be considered non-refundable beyond the agreed money-back period.
• Refunds may take up to two weeks to process.
• Domain registration/transfer fee in accordance with current pricing schedule (https://www.hostmaster.com/client/domainchecker.php) will be withheld from the refund amount if such registration/transfer was included for free with the initial purchase.
• Domain deletion fee of $10 will be charged where applicable.

Domain Names
Every domain name register at Hostmaster has an expiration cycle, if your invoice is not paid until the due date the domain will expire. You are still able to renew the domain 30 days after the due date, in this situation you are require to pay a $150 of administrative fee services to recover it.

Please note:
HOSTMASTER will not issue refunds to users who have their account terminated by HOSTMASTER, for breach of our terms of service. Refunds will not be made to users who exceed their allocated bandwidth limit. Accounts that are renewed for additional terms are also not subject to our money back guarantees.

99.5% uptime guarantee:
If for any reason (except for scheduled downtimes) our network or servers are down for longer than 0.5% in any month, you can request a 20% discount for your following month's services. For clients paying yearly, the equivalent to 20% of a monthly payment will be deducted off the next payment.

 Responsibility for Content:
You, as HOSTMASTER's customer, are solely responsible for the content stored on and served by your HOSTMASTER server.

All provisions of this contract are subject to the TOS (Terms of Service) of HOSTMASTER and AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). The AUP may be changed from time to time at the discretion of the Company. Subscriber understands that change to the AUP by the Company shall not be grounds for early contract termination or non-payment.