EastLink Internet Acceptable Use Policy

Introduction

The provisions of this Acceptable Use Policy apply to residential and business EastLink High Speed Internet Customers, except where specifically stated otherwise. References to "Customer" and "You/your" include both residential and business customers. Where a provision is intended to apply only to a residential customer the provision will specifically refer to 'residential customers'. If a provision is intended only to apply to business customers, the provision will specifically refer to 'business customers'. If you have any questions concerning this policy please contact EastLink.

EastLink provides a variety of Internet services to customers (the "Services"). The EastLink High Speed Internet service allows customers to connect to the Company's high-speed backbone network and the Internet. The Services provide access to the Internet, which is used by millions of other users. Each user benefits by being able to share resources and communicate almost effortlessly with other members of the user community. However, as with any community, the benefits and privileges available from the Services and the Internet in general, must be balanced with duties and responsibilities so that other users can also have a productive experience.

Use of the Services is subject to this Acceptable Use Policy (the "Policy" or "AUP") and the applicable EastLink Terms of Service for High Speed Internet. Each customer is responsible for ensuring that the use of all Services provided to such customer complies with this AUP. ANY USER WHO DOES NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS SHOULD IMMEDIATELY STOP USE OF THE SERVICES AND NOTIFY THE EASTLINK CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT SO THAT THE USER'S ACCOUNT MAY BE CLOSED. EastLink has the right to terminate or suspend service for non-compliance with this Policy. EastLink reserves the right to make changes to these Terms without notice. Current updates of EastLink's Terms will be posted on EastLink's website at www.eastlink.ca. Accordingly, EastLink customers should access the website to ensure that their activities conform to the most recent version.

Illegal Activity

The use of the Services for any activity that violates any local, provincial, federal or international law, order or regulation is a violation of this Policy. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:

Posting or disseminating material which is unlawful (such as child pornography or obscene material).
Disseminating material that violates the copyright or other intellectual property rights of others. You assume all risks regarding the determination of whether material is in the public domain.
Pyramid or other illegal soliciting schemes.
Any fraudulent activities, including impersonating any person or entity or forging anyone else's digital or manual signature.

Security

You are responsible for any misuse of the Services that you have contracted for, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a friend, family member, guest, employee or customer with access to your account. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access to the Services. The Services may not be used to breach the security of another user or to attempt to gain access to any other person's computer, software or data, without the knowledge and consent of such person. They also may not be used in any attempt to circumvent the user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or making use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other networks. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, cracking tools, packet sniffers or network probing tools, is prohibited.

You may not disrupt the Services. The Services also may not be used to interfere with computer networking or telecommunications services to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, denial of service attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service, improper seizing and abuse of operator privileges and attempts to "crash" a host. The transmission or dissemination of any information or software that contains a virus or other harmful feature is also prohibited. You are solely responsible for the security of any device you choose to connect to the Services, including any data stored on that device. EastLink recommends that any files or services you do choose to make available for remote access be protected with a password or as otherwise appropriate. /p>

Inappropriate Content

There may be content on the Internet or otherwise available through the Services which may be offensive to some individuals, or which may not be in compliance with all local laws, regulations and other rules. For example, it is possible to obtain access to content that is pornographic or offensive, particularly for minors. EastLink does not assume any responsibility for the content contained on the Internet or otherwise available through the Services. You must assume the risk of accessing content through the Service, and EastLink shall not have any liability for any claims, losses, actions, damages, suits or proceedings arising out of or otherwise relating to access to such content. Customers may want to use a program capable of restricting access to sexually explicit material, or any other content that the customer wishes to restrict on the Internet. Content questions or complaints should be addressed to the content provider. /p>

You are solely responsible for any information that you publish on the web or other Internet services. You must ensure that the recipient of the content is appropriate. For example, you must take appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving inappropriate content. EastLink reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be offensive, indecent, or otherwise inappropriate regardless of whether such material or its dissemination is unlawful. /p>

EastLink has no obligation to monitor transmissions made on the Services. However, EastLink has the right to monitor such transmissions from time to time and to disclose the same in accordance with your subscriber agreement or as necessary to satisfy applicable laws and regulations.

By using the Services to reproduce, publish, display, transmit and distribute content, a user is warranting that the content complies with this Policy and authorizing EastLink to reproduce, publish, display, transmit and distribute such content as necessary for EastLink to deliver the content in a timely manner.

Electronic Mail

The Services may not be used to send unsolicited bulk or commercial messages. This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, charity requests, petitions for signatures and political or religious messages. Such messages may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it. The Services may not be used to send messages to any individual who has indicated that he/she does not wish to receive messages from you.

The Services may not be used to collect responses from unsolicited email sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or email services which violates this Policy or the acceptable use policy of any other Internet service provider. Moreover, unsolicited email may not direct the recipient to any web site or other resource that uses the Services. Forging, altering or removing electronic mail headers is prohibited.

You may not reference the EastLink network (e.g. by including "Organization: EastLink" in the header or by listing an IP address that belongs to the EastLink network) in any unsolicited email even if that email is not sent through the EastLink network.

"Mail bombing" is prohibited. That is, you may not send numerous copies of the same or substantially similar messages, nor may you send very large messages or files to a recipient with the intent to disrupt a server or account. The propagation of chain letters is similarly prohibited, whether or not the recipient wishes to receive such mailings.

The EastLink network is not responsible for the forwarding of email sent to any account that has been suspended or terminated. Such email will either be returned to sender, ignored, deleted, or stored temporarily at the EastLink network's sole discretion.

Newsgroups

Messages posted to newsgroups must comply with the written charters or FAQs for those newsgroups. Advertisements, solicitations, or other commercial messages should be posted only in those newsgroups whose charters or FAQs explicitly permit them. You are responsible for determining the policies of a given newsgroup before posting to it.

Forging, altering or removing header information is prohibited. This includes attempting to circumvent the approval process for posting to a moderated newsgroup. EastLink reserves the right to discontinue access to any Usenet newsgroup at any time for any reason.

You may not attempt to "flood" or disrupt Usenet newsgroups. Disruption is defined as posting a large number of messages to a newsgroup which contain no substantive content, to the extent that normal discussion in the group is significantly hindered. Examples of disruptive activities include, but are not limited to, posting multiple messages with no text in the body, or posting many follow-ups to messages with no new text. Messages may not be canceled, except by the author or by official newsgroup moderators performing their duties.

Internet Relay Chat

The Services may be used to participate in "chat" discussions. These discussions may be hosted by EastLink network servers, by third party servers, or may not involve any servers at all. In all cases, EastLink does not normally monitor the contents of the discussion and is not liable for the contents of any communications made via Internet chat.

The services may not be used to perform chat "flooding." Flooding is defined as deliberately repeating actions in quick succession in order to fill the screens of other Internet users with text.

Any computer or other device connected through the Services may not maintain more than 2 simultaneous chat connections. This includes the use of automated programs, such as "bots" or "clones". Automated programs may not be used when the account holder is not physically present at the device.

The Services may not be used to send messages which disrupt another Internet user's equipment, including software, hardware, and user display.

The Services may not be used to access any chat server in violation of the acceptable use policy of that server. The Services may not be used to manipulate any chat server in order to harass or disconnect other Internet users, or to gain privileges that have not been authorized. A customer may not use the Services to connect to chat servers or channels from which they have been previously banned.

The Services may not be used to continue to send chat messages to an Internet user who has indicated their desire to not receive such messages.

Forging, altering, or obscuring your identity (other than using a nickname from which EastLink could if necessary determine your real name) while participating in chat sessions is forbidden.

WebSpace

Certain EastLink Internet service packages provide storage space and access for web pages through its WebSpace service. You are solely responsible for any information that you publish on your WebSpace. You must ensure that the intended recipient of the content is appropriate. For example, you must take appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving inappropriate content. EastLink reserves the right to remove or refuse to post any information or materials, in whole or in part, that they, in their sole discretion, deem to be offensive, indecent, or otherwise inappropriate regardless of whether such material or its dissemination is unlawful. This includes, but is not limited to: obscene material; defamatory, fraudulent or deceptive statements; threatening, intimidating or harassing statements, or material which violates the privacy rights or property rights of others (copyrights or trademarks, for example). For purposes of this policy, "material" refers to all forms of communications including narrative descriptions, graphics (including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs, video recordings, and audio recordings.

EastLink will not routinely monitor the contents of your WebSpace; however, EastLink has the right to monitor such and if complaints are received regarding language, content or graphics contained on your web pages, EastLink may remove the web page hosted on EastLink servers and terminate your WebSpace service if EastLink determines that you have violated the terms of the AUP.

Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitations

Users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, or degrade any other user's use of the Services, nor represent (in the sole judgment of EastLink) an unusually large burden on the network itself, such as, but not limited to peer to peer file sharing programs, serving streaming video or audio, mail, http, ftp, irc, dhcp servers, and multi-user interactive forums. EastLink reserves the right to set specific limits for Bandwidth Usage and other elements of service at any time.

For information regarding Internet service packages that include WebSpace please contact EastLink.

Customers of all types are expected to use appropriate net etiquette when using or accessing various services within and outside the network. In addition, users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, disrupt, degrade or impede EastLink's ability to deliver the Services and monitor the Services, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

Internet Traffic Management Policies (ITMP)

EastLink uses traffic management policies to ensure proportional access to its network for all EastLink Internet customers. Some Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications used for non real-time file sharing can consume a disproportionate amount of bandwidth causing disruption to other customers on EastLink’s network. These policies have been introduced to address any congestion caused by these P2P applications while standard network expansion activities are undertaken to increase the bandwidth availability for all users.

EastLink's traffic management policies are time-of-day sensitive to accommodate the fluctuating network traffic levels, and reduce the amount of bandwidth available for non real-time P2P applications.

These policies do not affect real-time interactive activities such as on-line gaming, banking, e-mail or VoIP services. For the majority of EastLink customers the Internet experience is unaffected and both upstream and downstream bandwidth will be available to optimize our customer's Internet experience.

EastLink applies the following to Peer-to-Peer traffic:

Service Area	Time of Day*	Download	Upload
All other areas	0000-0700	N/A	512Kbps
	0700-1800	6Mbps	300Kbps
	1800-0000	5Mbps	240Kbps

* Local Time

Like other communications companies, EastLink uses Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology in conjunction with the IP address assigned to you, for the purposes of applying the policies described above. Since IP addresses have the potential to be linked to an individual’s customer account, IP addresses could be considered personal information.

Resale, Sharing, Distribution, Servers

(a) Residential Customers

EastLink residential customers may not resell, share, or otherwise distribute the Services or any portion thereof to any third party without the written consent of EastLink. For example, you cannot provide Internet access to others through a dial up connection, host shell accounts over the Internet, provide email or news service, or send a news feed. The EastLink residential service offering is a consumer product designed for your personal use of the Internet. For example, the service does not provide the type of security, upstream performance and total downstream throughput capability typically associated with commercial use.

You may not run a server in connection with the EastLink residential service, nor may you provide network services to others via the EastLink residential service. The EastLink residential service includes personal Webspace accounts for publishing personal Web pages. Examples of prohibited uses include, but are not limited to, running servers for mail, http, ftp, irc, and dhcp, and multi-user interactive forums.

(b) Business Customers

The above restrictions regarding resale, sharing, distribution and use of servers also apply to all business customers, except to those business customers who have high speed Internet packages that expressly allow for this activity as defined by their chosen Internet Service package. Where a business customer is not certain about whether their Internet Service package permits this activity please contact EastLink.

Violation of Acceptable Use Policy

EastLink does not routinely monitor the activity of accounts for violation of this Policy. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, we will respond appropriately if we become aware of inappropriate use of our Services. Although EastLink has no obligation to monitor the Services and/or the network, EastLink reserves the right to monitor bandwidth, usage, and content from time to time to operate the Services; to identify violations of this Policy; and/or to protect the network and EastLink users.

EastLink prefers to advise customers of inappropriate behavior and any necessary corrective action. However, if the Services are used in a way that EastLink believes violates this Policy, EastLink may take any responsive actions it deems appropriate. Such actions include, but are not limited to, temporary or permanent removal of content, cancellation of newsgroup posts, filtering of Internet transmissions, and the immediate suspension or termination of all or any portion of the Services. EastLink will not have any liability for any such responsive actions. The above-described actions are not EastLink's exclusive remedies and EastLink may take any other legal or technical action it deems appropriate.

EastLink reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of this Policy, including the gathering of information from the user or users involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on EastLink's servers and network. During an investigation, EastLink may suspend the account or accounts involved and/or remove material that potentially violates this Policy. You hereby authorize EastLink to cooperate with (i) law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations, and (ii) and system administrators at other Internet service providers or other network or computing facilities in order to enforce this Policy. Such cooperation may include EastLink providing the username, IP address, or other identifying information about a subscriber. Upon termination of an account, EastLink is authorized to delete any files, programs, data and email messages associated with such account.

The failure of EastLink to enforce this Policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of any right to do so at any time. You agree that, if any portion of this Policy is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion will be construed consistent with applicable law as nearly as possible, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. This Policy shall be exclusively governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the province in which your billing address is located and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, but if your billing address is outside of Canada, this Policy shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the province of Nova Scotia and you submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of Nova Scotia, and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Nova Scotia.