Terms of Service/Acceptable Use Policy for Website Hosting

Updated: June 23, 2022

By using our services, you are agreeing to the following terms of service:

The Terms of Services/Acceptable Use Policy for Website Hosting is an agreement between Ness Web Solutions, LLC, of N9560 Buchert Lane, Watertown, WI 53904 here as known by “Host”, and the client who signed the General Contract for Web Services, here as known by “Client”. The “Host” will also be used to refer to its employees, agents, or representatives.

“Service(s)” is described in the General Contract for Web Services.
“Agreement” refers to this document.

“Website” refers to the Client’s website

By using our services, the Client agrees to the following terms of service:

1. CUSTOMER SERVICE. The Host shall consult with the Client via telephone or electronic mail about how to use of the system on the terms set forth in the Agreement, but will not assist with any services not maintained or controlled by the Host as part of this Agreement. Third-party applications, mail-enabled printers/scanners, web services, and custom transport rules may be supported but will be scoped and billed separately.

2.1. UNMETERED STORAGE AND BANDWIDTH. While Ness Web Solutions, LLC may not measure the amount of storage or bandwidth used, the purpose of the hosting is for hosting websites, and not for archive or storage space. Accounts that are using their hosting account for other purposes besides website hosting may have their account suspended, unless other arrangements are made. This is a share hosting environment, so accounts that are using a majority of resources available may degrade service for all other accounts. Those accounts using a majority of resources, may be asked to move their account to a different hosting solution or be asked to pay a premium cost. Some hosting plans may have limits on storage and bandwidth. Please consult the Web Hosting Plan attachment for your plan specifics.

2.2. WEB HOSTING QUOTA. Please see Web Hosting Plan attachment for plan specifics.

3.1. CONTENT. The Client represents that it is the owner or valid licensee of all data or content it will upload in connection with the Services (collectively, the “Content“) and that it has secured all necessary licenses, consents, permissions, waivers, and releases for the use of the Content.

3.2. HOST USE OF CONTENT. The Host may use the intellectual property of the Client to do the following, to the extent necessary to perform the Services:

1. digitize, convert, install, upload, select, order, arrange, compile and synchronize, use, reproduce, store, process, retrieve, transmit, and hyperlink the Content; and
2. make archival or back-up copies of the Content.

4.1. NATURE OF WEBSITE CONTENT: The Client shall not do any of the following:

1. use the Services under this Agreement to transmit or post any material that contains or contains links to discriminate against anyone based on race, color, creed, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex, national origin, religion/faith/spirituality, marital status, ancestry, age, disability, or any other protected class at the federal, state, or local levels;
2. use the Services to transmit or post any material that contains or links to content that is promoted by any hate group, including but not limited to Neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan, Anti-LGBTQ+, White Nationalism, Proud Boys, etc…;
3. use the Services to transmit or post any material that contains or links to content that promotes the overthrowing, insurrection, coup, or attempted coup of the US Federal Government, US States or Territories Governments, or local governments that are located within the United States or its territories, or promotes non-factual information surrounding elections and voting;
4. use the Services to transmit or post any material that contains or links to content that promotes domestic or international terrorism, domestic or international terrorist groups/organizations, or acts perpetrated by domestic or international terrorist activities;
5. use the Services to transmit or post any material that contains or contains links to nudity, pornography, or adult content;
6. the Services to transmit or post any material that contains or contains links to promoting, advertising/marketing, or facilitating prostitution, sex trafficking, or sex slavery;
7. use the Services to transmit or post any material that contains or contains links to promoting, advertising/marketing, or facilitating enslavement of anyone or any race;
8. use the Services under this Agreement that contains or contains links to child pornography, harm, attempt to harm, conspire to harm, or be unethical to minors in any way;
9. use the Services under this Agreement to transmit or post any material that harasses, threatens, or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property, or extreme violence;
10. use the Services under this Agreement to make fraudulent misrepresentations or offers, including offers relating to “pyramid schemes” and “Ponzi schemes”, or deceptive or unlawful marketing;
11. use the Services under this Agreement to transmit or post any material that contains or contains links for distribution of illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, controlled substances, or prescription medication (including but not limited to advertising/promotion or the sale of prescription medications without valid licenses for operating as a pharmacy);
12. use the Services to transmit or post any material that contains storing personal or sensitive information, including but not limited to “Protected Health Information” as defined under the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), or payment information IF NOT signed up for PCI (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) Compliant website hosting;
13. use the Services to transmit or post any material that contains U.S. Social Security Number IF NOT signed up for PCI (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) Compliant website hosting with minimum monthly website vulnerability scanning from an external Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) by the PCI Security Standards;
14. use the Services under this Agreement to access, or attempt to access, the accounts of others, or to penetrate, or attempt to penetrate, security measures of the Host or another entity’s computer software or hardware, electronic communications system or telecommunications system, whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption or loss of data;
15. use the Services under this Agreement to transmit or post any material that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other proprietary rights of any third party, including the unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted material, the digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, music, video or other copyrighted sources, and the unauthorized transmittal of copyrighted software;
16. use the Services under this Agreement to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent;
17. use the Services under this Agreement for any activity that adversely affects the ability of other people or systems to use the Services or the Internet. This includes “denial of service” attacks against another network host or individual user. Interference with or disruption of other network users, network services, or network equipment is prohibited.

4.2. USER GENERATED CONTENT: The Client is required to have adequate and sufficient policies and procedures to manage and moderate user generated content. The Client is required to have enough user generated content moderators to be able to effectively enforce the rules and policies of the service/website.

4.3. CONTENT RULING: Ness Web Solutions, LLC will be the sole judge of content on whether it violates this agreement.

5. ELECTRONIC MAIL ABUSE: Harassment by e-mail, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages, is prohibited. Client may not send e-mail to any person who does not wish to receive it. If a recipient asks to stop receiving e-mail, Client must not send that person any further e-mail. Clients are explicitly prohibited from sending unsolicited bulk e-mail messages (“junk mail” or “spam”). This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, and political tracts. Such material may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it. Clients may not forward or otherwise propagate chain letters, whether or not the recipient wishes to receive such mailings. Malicious e-mail, including but not limited to “mail bombing” (flooding a user or site with very large or numerous pieces of e-mail) and “trolling” (posting outrageous messages to generate numerous responses) is prohibited. Forging of header or any other information is not permitted. Subscribing someone else to an e-mail list or removing someone else from a mail list without that person’s permission is prohibited. Host’s accounts or services may not be used to collect replies to messages sent from another Internet Service Provider if those messages violate this Agreement or any usage policy of that other provider. Violations of this Agreement will result in immediate account termination and provider reserves the right to charge an administrative clean-up fee of up to $45 and a deactivation fee of $10. The Host will also assess of fee of $2.00 per electronic mail sent that is in violation of this agreement.

6. VIOLATIONS OF NETWORK SECURITY. Client is prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the network. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability in addition to immediate termination of Client’s agreement. Host will investigate occurrences, which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Clients who are involved in such violations. These violations include, without limitation:

1. Accessing data not intended for the Client or logging into a server or account that the Client is not authorized to access.
2. Attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of a system or network, or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization.
3. Attempting to interfere with service to any Client, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, “flooding,” “mail bombing,” or “crashing”.
4. Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting.
5. Taking any action in order to obtain services to which the Client is not entitled.

7. WARRANTY AGAINST UNLAWFUL USE. Host warrants and represents that Client shall use Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with all valid federal, state, and local laws and regulations governing use of e-mail and the Internet, whether or not specifically prohibited elsewhere in this Agreement. Failure to abide by the terms of this paragraph shall be grounds for immediate termination of Client’s account for cause.

8.1. VIOLATION NOTIFICATION. If the Client violates this agreement, they will typically have 24 hours to cure the violation. The Client will be notified via email. If the Client does not respond to the email or contact the Host within the allotted time specified in the violation email, the Client’s account or Service may be canceled. If canceled, the Client or Registrant are not subject to any refund or loss of use.

8.2. FEES FOR VIOLATIONS. If the Client violates this agreement, they will typically have 24 hours to cure the violation. If they do not cure the violation within the allotted time, the website hosting and other services will be suspended until the violation is cleared up by the Host and the Client will be billed at $100/hour worked, billed in 15 minute increments, or the Host may terminate the Client’s account or Service without refund and/or at regular billing for that time period. The Client is responsible for all fees assessed by the Host for violating this Agreement.

8.2. FEES PASSED ALONG. If the Host is assessed any fee by any service partner, agency, or governmental entity, or other source for the content of the Clients website or for violating any 3^rd party service agreement as listed above, the Client will be responsible for those fees.

8.3. FEE AMOUNTS. The Client will be charged the exact fees charged to the Host, along with a Host fee for the violation of $100.00 per violation.

8.4. CHILD ENDANGERMENT. If a website violates this agreement in regards to harming, conspiring to harm, or anything related to child endangerment, the account will be terminated immediately without notification, and the Client, website, and all individuals affiliated with the will be reported to law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).  There will be no refunds given in this instance, and the Client will be billed for the entire month of services.

9.1. HOST SERVICES AVAILABILITY.

The Host shall always use reasonable efforts to provide the Services during the Term. However, from

time to time Host services may be inaccessible or inoperable for any reason, including:

1. equipment malfunctions;
2. periodic maintenance procedures or repairs that the Host may undertake
3. causes beyond the Host’s control or that are not reasonably foreseeable by the Host. The Host shall provide as much advance notice as customary and reasonable for any unscheduled or emergency maintenance.

9.2. 99.9% NETWORK UPTIME. The Host guarantees 99.9% availability of its network, excluding Excusable Downtime (as defined below).

1. Network uptime includes functioning of all Host network infrastructure including VPN, routers, switches, and cabling.
2. Network uptime does not apply to services or software running on a Host server or other Host hardware components.

9.3. DOWNTIME. Network downtime exists when the Host cannot forward packets on the Client’s behalf and

is measured from the time the Client opens a trouble ticket with the Host until the server network is

available to the Client.

9.4. CREDITS. In the event the uptime falls below 99.9% in any month, the client will receive a $5 credit applied to their future invoice. This credit shall be Client’s sole and exclusive compensation for any downtime or other unavailability of Host’s services under this Agreement. Host shall have no liability of any kind for any damages or loss arising as a consequence of such downtime or unavailability.

9.5. SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE. During Scheduled Maintenance, the Host server might be

available, but the Client might not be able to access it. Normal scheduled maintenance (“Normal Maintenance Window“) occurs at least once a month. Scheduled maintenance may not always include downtime and the Host will use best efforts to communicate and minimize any downtime associated with any maintenance window to four hours or less. Any maintenance requiring downtime will be communicated in advance if at all possible. The Normal Maintenance Window is subject to change at Host’s reasonable discretion, and the new Normal Maintenance Window will become effective upon posting to Host’s web interface(s) or email notification. The Host will try to limit any maintenance occurring between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Central Time.

9.6. INFRASTRUCTURE MAINTENANCE. Includes all Host components, including the server(s). During

Infrastructure Maintenance, the Host server and other Services may not be available. Scheduled maintenance does not count as downtime and is not included in the calculation of the uptime guarantees. If the Host intends to perform scheduled maintenance outside of the Normal Maintenance Window, the Host shall post a notice to the Host’s web interface(s) or email notification to the Client with at least 48 hours’ notice if possible.

9.7. EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE. The Host may perform emergency maintenance if there is an immediate, material threat to Host servers or the Host services. The Host will attempt to notify the Client by email before emergency maintenance, but notice depends upon the severity and critical nature of the emergency maintenance. Emergency maintenance does not count as downtime and is not included in the uptime guarantee calculations.

9.8. DOWNTIME EXCLUSIONS. The unavailability of Host services due to the following will not be considered to be downtime (and credits will not be issued) (“Excusable Downtime“):

1. The Client’s applications and content, and errors from the Client’s own custom scripting or coding;
2. The Client’s configuration(s) outside of the Host infrastructure that affects Host services;
3. The Client’s acts or omissions;
4. Force majeure;
5. Services provided by a third party outside of the Host’s control;
6. Maintenance during the Normal Maintenance Window or emergency maintenance;
7. Downtime to install services Client requests;
8. Internet traffic exchange points external to Host, including without limitation Network Access Points (“NAPs“) and Metropolitan Area Exchanges (“MAEs“), and Internet networks controlled by others;
9. Or Suspension of services (for example, if the Client doesn’t pay the Host).
10. Large scale attacks against WordPress websites including but not limited to DDoS, and brute force attacks

9.9. CREDIT REQUEST AND LIMITATIONS. To receive a credit, the Client must open a trouble ticket for the problem, and contact a Host Service Representative via support@kurtisness.com within 30 days of the outage or failure and request a credit.

9.10. HOST WILL ONLY PAY CREDITS FOR DOWNTIME OR OUTAGES. The Host is not liable for any damages the Client claims to have suffered because of Host downtime or outages, including the unavailability of software, operating systems, applications, and data.

10. NO WARRANTY; LIMITATION OF DAMAGES:

1. Client expressly agrees that use of Services provided by Host is at Client’s sole risk.
2. Host, its agents, affiliates, licensors or the like, do not represent or warrant, expressly or impliedly, that their services will not be interrupted or error free; nor do they make any warranty as to the results that may be obtained from the use of their services or as to the accuracy, reliability, or content of any information service or merchandise contained in or provided through their services, unless otherwise expressly stated in this Agreement.
3. Host, its officers, agents, or anyone else involved in providing services shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages that result from the use or inability to use services; or for any damages that result from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, errors, defects, delays in operation, or transmission, or any failure of performance, whether or not limited to acts of god, communication failure, theft, destruction, or unauthorized access to Host’s records, programs, or services.
4. Host will exercise no control over the content of the information passing through Host’s network except those controls expressly provided herein.
5. Host makes no warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied, for the services it is providing. Host also disclaims any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose and will not be responsible for any damages that may be suffered by Client, including loss of data resulting from delays or non-deliveries.

11. SECURITY. The Host shall locate all content on secure servers with limited access and required access authentication. The Host shall handle all content in accordance with industry best practices and the terms of this agreement. Client is responsible for ensuring their website is secure, and is responsible for using secure passwords.

12. BACK-UP. The Host will keep a weekly backup of the Host’s hosting account, including website, databases, files, and email hosting. The Host will maintain a copy of the past month content. Upon request, the host can restore a backup. The Host will provide 1 free restore of data per month. Any additional data restore will have a $10 content restore fee associated with it.

13. PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS, AND OTHER INTELLECTUAL AND PROPRIETARY RIGHTS. Except for rights expressly granted herein, this Agreement does not transfer any intellectual or other property or proprietary right to Client. Client agrees that all right, title, and interest in any product or service provided to Client belongs to Host. These products and services are only for Client’s use in connection with Services provided to Client as outlined in this Agreement.

14.1. HOST PROPERTY RIGHTS. All tools, know-how, and technology leased or licensed to the Host with respect to the hosting of the Website are the sole property of the Host, and the Client has no ownership or other intellectual property rights in or to such items

14.2. CLIENT PROPERTY RIGHTS. All text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, hyperlinks, or other content on the Website are the property of the Client, and the Host has no ownership or other intellectual property rights in or to such items.

15. HARDWARE, EQUIPMENT, AND SOFTWARE. Client is responsible for and must provide all phones, phone services, computers, software, hardware, and other services necessary to access Host servers. Host makes no representations, warranties, or assurances that Client’s equipment will be compatible with Host Services.

16. CHANGES TO THIS STATEMENT. Ness Web Solutions, LLC reserves the right to change this Terms of Service/Acceptable Use Policy from time to time. We will notify about significant changes to this policy by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account 30-days prior to the changes affecting you account. Your continued use of our services after such modifications will constitute your: (a) acknowledgment of the modified Terms of Service/Acceptable Use Policy; and (b) agreement to abide and be bound by that Terms of Service/Acceptable Use Policy.