Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy
Any user of Digital Crocus will need to comply with this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Digital Crocus may change this Policy to reflect any changes in the law or community standards or whenever Digital Crocus deems it necessary. Any changes will be effective upon posting to the Digital Crocus website at the following URL: http://www.digital-crocus.com/ and it will be the User's responsibility to ensure that they are fully aware of these changes. Sections 10 and 11 below detail our money back guarantee which extends our legal obligation to offer a cooling off period for purchases under UK distance selling regulations.
1. ILLEGAL USE
The Digital Crocus Services may be used for lawful purposes only and in compliance with all current and future statutes in force from time to time. The Customer agrees not to use the Service to send or receive materials or data which is in violation of any law or regulation or which is defamatory, offensive, abusive, obscene or in breach of confidence, privacy, trade secrets or in breach of any third party Intellectual Property rights (including copyright) or in breach of any other rights. Any disputes must be dealt with in the UK and under UK law.
You are prohibited from storing, distributing or transmitting any unlawful material through our services. Examples of unlawful material include: direct threats of physical harm; child pornography; and copyrighted, trademarked and other proprietary material used without proper authorisation. You may not post, upload or otherwise distribute copyrighted material on our servers without the consent of the copyright holder. The storage, distribution, or transmission of unlawful materials could lead to UK authorities alleging criminal liability, in addition to the actions we may take outlined in Clause 6 below.
2. VIOLATIONS OF SYSTEM OR NETWORK SECURITY
Any violations of systems or network security are prohibited, and may result in the User facing criminal and civil liability. Digital Crocus will investigate incidents involving such violations and will inform and co-operate with the relevant law enforcement organisations if a criminal violation is suspected. Violations may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Unauthorised access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network;
- Unauthorised monitoring of data or traffic on any network or system without express authorisation of the owner of the system or network; or
- Interfering with any user, host or network including mailbombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks; or
- Any web site or material that is transmitted over our network which results in, or encourages, any form of attack on the Digital Crocus network or servers (including but not limited to DoS attacks) may result in the immediate suspension or termination of your account as detailed in clause 6 below.
- Any activity associated with Phishing or systems designed to collect personal information (name, account numbers, usernames, passwords, etc.) under false pretense. Splash pages, phishing forms, email distribution, proxy email or any relation to phishing activities will result in immediate removal.
You may not store or distribute certain other types of prohibited material on our servers. Examples of prohibited material include, but are not limited to, programs containing viruses or Trojan horses and tools to compromise the security of other sites or users' PCs.
3. EMAIL USE
We will investigate complaints regarding e-mail and may take action based on the rules set out below. If an e-mail message is found to violate one of the policies below, or to contain unlawful material, as described in Clause 1 above, we may take action as outlined in Clause 6 below.
Unsolicited advertising mailings, whether commercial or informational, are strictly prohibited. You may send advertising material only to addresses that have specifically requested it. We will not forward mail of accounts terminated for bulk mailing or unsolicited advertising. Chain letters are unsolicited by definition and may not be propagated using our services.
You may not send, distribute, or reply to mailbombs. Mailbombing is defined as either e-mailing copies of a single message to many users, or sending large or multiple files or messages to a single user with malicious intent.
You may not use false email headers or alter the headers of e-mail messages to conceal their e-mail address or to prevent Internet users from responding to messages. You must not use any email address that you are not authorised to use.
Violations of the AUP outlined in this document can sometimes result in massive numbers of e-mail responses. If our users receive so much e-mail that our resources are affected, we may shut down a user's account.
Digital Crocus adheres to the ISPA guidelines for bulk unsolicited mail.
5. WORLD WIDE WEB USAGE
You are solely responsible for the content of Web pages owned and/or operated by you.
We reserve the right to remove any Web page on our servers at any time and for any reason.
We will investigate complaints regarding inappropriate material on Web pages within our domain and may, in our sole discretion, require that the material be removed or take action as outlined in Clause 6 below.
You may not use World Wide Web pages within or outside our domain to violate any part of the AUP, or to attempt to disrupt the pages or Internet experiences of other users.
6. INVESTIGATION
We have in place a procedure for handling your complaints about material stored and/or accessed via our service. If you wish to make such a complaint, please ensure that you make your complaint by email to abuse@digital-crocus.com. If you do not use this facility we cannot guarantee that your complaint will be dealt with promptly.
Digital Crocus reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of the AUP. When we become aware of possible violations, we may initiate an investigation, which may include gathering information from the user involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on our servers. Much of the AUP reflect acts that may constitute breaches of United Kingdom legislation or regulations and may in some cases carry criminal liability.
During an investigation, we may suspend the account involved and/or remove the material involved from our servers. Such action may include temporary or permanent removal of material from our servers, warnings to the user responsible, and the suspension or termination of the account responsible. We will determine what action will be taken in response to a violation on a case-by-case basis.
The customer acknowledges that Digital Crocus may be required by current or future law or regulation, including but not limited to the Regulatory of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, to access, monitor, store, take copies of, or otherwise deal with the Customer's data stored on or transmitted by the Service. Without limitation, you expressly authorise us to use your personal data and other account information in connection with any such investigation, including by disclosing it to any third party authority that we consider has a legitimate interest in any such investigation or its outcome.
Digital Crocus reserves the right to terminate the Service with immediate effect and without further obligation or liability to the Customers as required by any law enforcement organisation, or for breaching this AUP in any way.
7. REGULATION OF INVESTIGATORY POWERS (RIP) ACT
Digital Crocus will take action to comply with the provisions contained in the RIP Act and any regulations enacted under it and shall fully co-operate with the UK authorities empowered under the Act.
8. LIABILITY
Although our uptime is excellent, Digital Crocus will not be held responsible for any losses incurred by our server being unable to process requests for any reason and for any length of time. If you feel that the service you receive is not satisfactory, please see section 10 below.
9. DATA TRANSFER FEES
Customers shall be notified if they are close to their allocated monthly data transfer quota and advised of the current cost for an upgrade. Upgrades shall be in the form of the additional purchase of transfer quota at a variable rate defined by us. Customers may also choose to upgrade their account to one with greater features including a greater transfer quota.
Fees for extended data transfer quotas are not subject to our money back guarantee and are non-refundable.
10. MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
Under the UK distance selling regulations (2000) we are required to give all customers a cooling off period during which they may cancel their account and recieve a full refund (not including domain registration costs). We extend this guarantee for a period of 3 months during which you may notify us that you wish to cancel your account and a full refund shall be made.
Furthermore, for a period of 6 months from account creation you may cancel your account with us and recieve a partial refund to the value of your account (not including domain registration costs) less data transfer fees which shall be calculated by us based on transfer charges at the time of cancelation. After this 6 month period no refund is available on any account.
Requests for refunds shall be made to our support e-mail address at least 5 working days in advance of the 3 or 6 month deadline to allow time for processing.
11. MONEY BACK GUARANTEE (EXCEPTIONS)
No refund shall be given on an account which has been closed by us for a breach of our acceptable use policy (AUP). Should a user exceed their monthly transfer quota then request a refund, a refund to the original value of their account shall be given but they shall still be liable for the extra fees for data transfer.
Refunds are not available on domain registrations and renewals as the registry will simply not allow us to cancel them after they have been accepted.
Refunds are not available on monthly hosting account subscriptions.