Terms of Service

1. Don't use our service to do illegal things.
2. Bandwidth is a limited commodity, and other people have the right to use the Internet (and provide Internet service) in peace - let them do so.
3. The Internet is a powerful tool, and we give you full access to it. Use it wisely.

I. General Overview

SGW's policy is to offer unlimited, unrestricted Internet access to all it collocation users. However, freedom of access is not a license for chaos, and certain rules are necessary to protect our own rights and the rights of our users, and to ensure that all of our Subscribers are able to enjoy their services to the fullest. SGW therefore requires its Subscribers to follow the rules in this document.

The Internet is a vast resource which is incapable of being completely monitored or controlled by any one entity. SGW cannot and will not control or warrant the validity, usefulness or suitability of any information on the Internet which is accessed through SGW's service. SGW does not willfully censor or monitor any information available on the Internet. Subscriber alone is responsible for monitoring any information that children may access on the Internet through Subscriber's SGW account.

II. Subscriber Consent To Rules

Before signing up with SGW, or continuing to use our service, please read these rules. By using SGW services, you agree to comply with these Acceptable Use rules, and with the terms of service of our ISPs and other service providers used in conjunction with the services SGW provides. Clients may request a list of these service providers and their website addresses by writing their SGW contact. SGW may terminate your account if you fail to comply with these rules. If you do not agree to follow these rules, please notify your SGW contact immediately. NO VARIATION FROM OR EXEMPTION TO THESE RULES IS VALID UNLESS APPROVED IN WRITING BY AN SGW PRINCIPAL.

A. USE OF SERVICES

1. The Subscriber agrees to use SGW's services for lawful purposes, in compliance with all applicable laws.
2. SGW reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of the rules. When SGW becomes aware of possible violations, SGW may initiate an investigation, which may include gathering information from the Subscriber or Subscribers involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on SGW's servers.
3. During an investigation, SGW may suspend the account or accounts involved and/or remove the material involved from its servers, and SGW is not responsible in any way for any damages resulting therefrom. If SGW believes a violation of these rules has occurred, it may take responsive action at its sole discretion. Such action may include, but is not limited to, temporary or permanent removal of material from SGW's servers, disconnection of client’s hardware using SGW facilities, the cancellation of news group posts, warnings to the Subscriber or Subscribers responsible, and the suspension or termination of the account or accounts responsible. SGW, at its sole discretion, will determine what action will be taken in response to a violation on a case-by-case basis. Violations of these rules could also subject the Subscriber to criminal or civil liability.

B. USE OF MATERIALS

1. Materials in the public domain (e.g., images, text, and programs) may be downloaded or uploaded using SGW's services. Subscribers may also re-distribute materials in the public domain. The Subscriber assumes all risks regarding the determination of whether material is in the public domain.
2. The Subscriber is prohibited from storing, distributing or transmitting any unlawful material through SGW services. Examples of unlawful material include, but are not limited to, direct threats of physical harm, child pornography, and copyrighted, trademarked and other proprietary material used without proper authorization. The Subscriber may not post, upload or otherwise distribute copyrighted material on SGW's servers without the consent of the copyright holder. The storage, distribution, or transmission of unlawful materials could subject the Subscriber to criminal as well as civil liability, in addition to the actions outlined in Section II.A. above.
3. The Subscriber may not store or distribute certain other types of material on SGW's servers or facilities. Examples of prohibited material include, but are not limited to, programs containing viruses or trojans and tools to compromise the security of other sites, and any other material or content that may be detrimental to SGW or it’s clients. SGW is the sole judge of content and material propriety, and SGW’s judgment is final.

C. PASSWORDS

1. SGW may provide passwords to equipment and service controls. These passwords are for specific individual use only. Subscribers may not share passwords or accounts with other individuals.
2. In the event that the security of a Subscriber is compromised, SGW may require the Subscriber to use a new password.
3. SGW staff may check the security of a Subscriber's passwords at any time. A Subscriber with an insecure password may be asked to change the password to one which complies with the above rules. Subscribers who repeatedly choose insecure passwords may be assigned a password by SGW; continued failure to maintain password security may be grounds for account termination.

D. SYSTEM SECURITY

1. The Subscriber is prohibited from utilizing SGW services or facilities to compromise the security of, or tamper with, SGW's system resources or accounts on any of SGW's computers, routers, terminal servers, modems, or any other equipment at SGW or at any other site, or those of any SGW client. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security is prohibited. Examples of the tools include, but are not limited to, password guessing programs, cracking tools or network probing tools. Any attempt to access any of SGW's corporate assets is strictly prohibited.
2. SGW reserves the right to release the user names of Subscribers involved in violation of system security to system administrators at other sites, in order to assist them in resolving security incidents. SGW will also fully cooperate with law enforcement authorities in investigating suspected lawbreakers.

E. SYSTEM RESOURCES

1. SGW will allocate system resources to provide all Subscribers with the best service possible. As part of resource allocation, SGW may limit, restrict or prioritize access to system resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space, session length, bandwidth, and number of sessions.
2. Additionally, SGW may institute services and fees for Subscribers who are interested in accessing system resources above and beyond acceptable usage. See below, Section III.
3. SGW may log instances of abuse of system resources, including but not limited to those outlined below, and take action as outlined in Section II.A. above.
4. System abuse is defined as any use of SGW resources which disrupts the normal use of system or Internet services for others. Examples of system abuse include, but are not limited to, attempting to disrupt the sessions of other Internet users, consuming excessive amounts of memory, disk space, or bandwidth, or otherwise affecting the performance of SGW's servers or networks.

III. Acceptable Usage

Acceptable usage is hereby defined as the normal activities associated with the usage of the Internet, including, but not limited to, usage of SGW's systems and facilities for accessing the WWW, Usenet News, E-Mail, and other Internet features. Depending on the account type, this may include file storage on SGW's servers and facilities for Subscriber's own web site, file access area (FTP), and possibly utilities used in a shell account. Shell users may be permitted to use their own software on SGW's servers, subject to SGW's examination and approval, provided such software does not use excessive system resources or in any way compromise system integrity and does not fall under any of the prohibited activities listed within this document.

This policy is subject to any and all laws and regulations set forth by the Federal, State, or any other governmental authority.

IV. Prohibited Activities

Activities specifically prohibited by SGW administration include but are not limited to the following:

1. Background and/or server-type applications: Including but not limited to IRC bots, HTTP servers, MUDs, and any other process which were initiated by the user that continues execution on the system upon user logout.
2. Long-term storage of data: Long-term storage of data is referred to as the storage of files which are not used regularly in an account for an extended period of time. This specifically includes but is not limited to programs such as shareware programs which the user may download to their account for purposes of transferring to their home computer. Such programs should be removed at such time as they are successfully transferred to the user's personal system.
3. Flooding or abuse of other users: Flooding is a fairly common occurrence on the Internet, and one which is dealt with strictly at SGW. Flooding takes place in numerous ways, including but not limited to ICMP flooding, mail bombing (sending large amounts of e-mail repeatedly to a person for purposes of harassment), mass mailings to multiple addressees, msg/CTCP flooding on IRC, as well as other, less common methods.
4. Attempts to compromise system and/or network security: Programs such as packet sniffers, password crack programs, and similar utilities found to be running from a user's account are prohibited. This also includes attempts to hack into non-SGW systems.
5. Attempts to bypass resource usage limitations: In order to provide fair service to all SGW users, SGW has implemented certain resource limitations, the two most common being disk quotas on the servers, and idle time-outs on dial-ups. Attempts to bypass disk usage quotas by any means may result in immediate loss of system privileges. Attempts to bypass the idle time-outs are also prohibited.
6. Excessive use of system resources: For system purposes, this can be defined as the continued use of programs or commands which take a large amount of system resources, be that processor time, network bandwidth, and/or drive space on the host system.
7. E-mail Abuse: E-mail abuse typically comes in one of three forms, the transfer of an unsolicited message to individuals (spamming), the sending of harassing and/or threatening messages to other users, and the forging of e-mail addresses so as to make the e-mail appear to be from another user, or any activity that causes SGW’s facilities to be “blacklisted”. Any outgoing unsolicited e-mail found not to meet all the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act (regardless of purpose or origin) is both abuse and illegal, and will be dealt with accordingly.
8. Usenet order News Abuse: Similar to e-mail abuse, includes forging of addresses, harassment/threats, the posting of the same message to multiple news groups (spamming), as well as the posting of information in groups where it is not relevant and unwanted.
9. Pyramid/Money-Making schemes (MMF, or Make Money Fast Scams): Such activities as the transfer of information or solicitation of persons via the Internet in an attempt to extort money or other valuables or the use of pyramid/chain letters are all illegal, are all prohibited.
10. Pirated Software: Pirated software is defined as the illegal exchange of software for purposes of avoiding the purchase of said software by the individuals involved. This includes most commercial applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Such activities are prohibited by Federal law and are thus not allowed in any form on SGW facilities. Such prohibition also includes the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material including, but not limited to, digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources and copyrighted materials. The exportation of software or technical information in violation of U.S. export control laws is strictly prohibited.
11. High-Traffic Web sites: Individual accounts on SGW machines are intended to provide access to individuals only. However, some individuals occasionally choose to put content on their website pages which draws a large number of hits to their pages and thus degrade performance for other users' sites. Due to this, SGW may implement certain limitations on the amount of traffic an individual user's site can receive.

V. Penalties for Abuse

1. Penalties for account abuse include termination of a client's account and any applicable legal penalties. The penalties imposed on a user for abuse will vary based on the level of the offense. SGW will usually give a warning on the first offense, but will terminate the account immediately and without warning if the offense is severe enough. Accounts closed due to subscriber abuse will not be reopened. It is vital for SGW to provide a quality service for all users, and SGW will not tolerate users who through their actions hinder us in that endeavor. It is also important for SGW to have a non-intrusive presence to the rest of the net, and thus prohibited activities which adversely affect users on other service providers and their associated networks. To this end, SGW reserves the right to modify and/or disable user service at any such time abuse occurs.
2. SGW will not reimburse users whose service was suspended or disabled due to any of the reasons listed above.
3. All SGW Internet Users agree to indemnify and hold SGW, its officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents, subsidiaries, and affiliates harmless from any and all claims and expenses related to the user's violation of this Agreement, including any abusive or unlawful behavior on the part of the User or the user's dependents, or the infringement of any intellectual property or privacy right of any person or entity.

VI. Additional Policies

1. Due to the explosive growth of the Internet and the constant addition of new services and thus the new possibilities of abuse, SGW reserves the right to add and enforce new policies.
2. The staff of SGW treats both its customers and employees with respect, we expect the same in return. SGW reserves the right to terminate any customer engaging in, or using threatening or harassing language towards our employees.
3. SGW will not be responsible for lost data in the event that an account was suspended/terminated due to an outstanding balance.

VII. Limitation of Liability

SGW's liability under any circumstances is limited to the current month's service charge.

VIII. Service Interruption

1. If in any given calendar month, should accessibility to the Internet or other SGW provided services become unavailable for more than 130 minutes is caused solely by either SGW’s service providers’ (“ISP”) data center local area network, defined herein as the connections, components and facilities that provide a path from the Data Center Gateway routers to the SGW demarcation point within the Data Center; or, ISP’s backbone network, defined herein as the circuitry, components and facilities that provide a path from the Data Center Gateway routers, including the Data Center Gate routers, themselves, to the peering points of the ISP’s network. (exclusive of (i) scheduled maintenance windows, (ii) local loop, or (iii) customer enabled faults), then ISP will credit SGW’s account an equivalent to one thirtieth (1/30) of the recurring Monthly Fees for that month who in turn will credit the SGW’s client accordingly. The SLA credits granted herein shall represent the sole and exclusive remedy for XO’s failure to perform under this section.
2. In the event online access to the SGW’s collocation facilities are interrupted for more the four (4) hours SGW may provide alternate online facilities to which DNS can be temporarily repointed to return the client’s online presence to partial or full availability, until such time a remedy for the access problem has been identified and resolved. If the client’s presence is not accessible for 24 consecutive hours, SGW will credit the client one-month’s Hosting/recurring charges.
3. The above agreement does not cover outages caused by equipment and/or events not under the direct control of SGW or caused by individuals not directly employed by SGW. This Service Level Agreement does not cover outages due to scheduled or emergency network and/or facility maintenance, which will be broadcast to all customers in advance whenever reasonable.

IX. Warranties

1. SGW's service is provided on an as is, as available basis. No warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to those of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, are made with respect to SGW's service or any information or software therein. Under no circumstances, including negligence, shall SGW be liable for any incidental, special, or consequential damages that result from the use of or inability to use SGW's service. Nor shall SGW be responsible for any damages whatsoever that result from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, errors, defects, delays in operation or transmission, or any failure of performance whether or not caused by events beyond SGW's reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of God, communications line failure, theft, destruction, or unauthorized access to SGW records, programs, or services. In no event shall SGW's total liability for all damages, losses, and causes of action exceed the aggregate dollar amount paid under the agreement.

X. BILLING POLICIES

1. Subscriber acknowledges, agrees and assumes full responsibility for making timely payments for each SGW Internet account. Timely payment includes keeping account and billing information current for all of subscriber's accounts.
2. SGW reserves the right to cancel any Subscriber account without notice due to non-payment. In the event that Subscriber fails to timely make full payment of each invoice, SGW reserves the right to charge interest, late fees and/or reactivation charges on the delinquent Subscriber's account.
3. Any billing discrepancies shall be presented to SGW in reasonable detail, in writing, within twenty (20) days of the date of the charge. Such notification shall not relieve Subscriber of the obligation to make all payments including the amounts disputed by the due date. SGW shall not be obligated to consider any Subscriber notice of billing discrepancies which are received by SGW more than twenty (20) days following the date of the invoice in question. If a Subscriber fails to dispute any charge after twenty (20) days from the date of the charge, Subscriber waives its rights to thereafter make any such dispute and all such charges will be deemed valid.

XI. Subscriber/Technical Support.

1. SGW makes no Warranties as to the availability or right to use of any Login name, E-mail Address, or Domain Name. Login names, E-mail Addresses, and domain Addresses are NOT confirmed at the time of sign-up of any Subscriber. SGW will not refund any charges for reprinting of stationary or any other losses incurred.
2. SGW MAKES NO WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED AS TO THE ACCURACY OF BILLING, OR THE QUALITY OF SERVICES PROVIDED OR TO THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
3. Subscriber agrees that at the end of the term of the Internet Account initially agreed to by Subscriber or any term thereafter, SGW may, at its sole discretion, automatically renew such Internet Account for an additional term. Subscriber further agrees that upon renewal of such Internet Account, SGW may continue to charge Subscriber's credit card or seek other form of payment from Subscriber, for which Subscriber shall be responsible for. In the event that Subscriber does not wish SGW to automatically renew such Internet Account, it is Subscriber's sole responsibility to notify SGW of such intent prior to the expiration of such term.
4. In the event the customer has an invoice older than 30 days, the account is subject to suspension. Full payment of all outstanding invoices and applicable reinstatement fees are required to reinstate the account. After suspension, SGW must receive a written or verbal response or payment in full within 21 days or the account will be terminated and placed into collections.
5. In the event that an account was placed into collections, the entire balance plus reinstatement fees must be paid prior to account re-activation.
6. All returned checks are subject to a $35 fee.
7. All policies stated herein are subject to change at SGW's sole discretion. Subscriber shall be responsible for adhering to any new policies implemented by SGW.
8. The use of any form of Audio, Video, or Photographic recording device is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of SGW. Any violation of this policy will be considered a breach of contract, and will result in a permanent ban of access to the data center facility and termination of services.

XII. Hold Harmless:

1. Subscriber agrees to hold SGW harmless from any law suits or legal actions and will assume all reasonable, documented legal expenses and financial responsibility on behalf of SGW for publicized product or service claims approved by Subscriber, unless such suit or legal action is due to the negligence or intentional misconduct of SGW.

XIII. Termination of Agreement:

1. Either party may terminate related contracted services by notice in writing, and sent by certified or registered mail to the SGW at least 90 days prior to termination.
2. Upon termination of this contract and payment in full of any outstanding charges, SGW shall transfer, assign and make available to Subscriber, or its representative, all property and materials in SGW's possession or control exclusively belonging to and paid for by Subscriber.