Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

For continued use of QZIP.net's services, acceptance of these policies is required. Your continued use of QZIP.net's services constitutes your agreement to comply with this Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP").  QZIP.net may terminate your Internet account if you fail to comply with the AUP. If you do not agree to be bound by the AUP and its supplements, you should immediately end your use of QZIP.net's services, remove any QZIP.net software from your system and notify the Billing department so that we may close your account.

In this AUP, "you," "your," "yours," "User," and "account holder" refer to you, our customer.  "We," "ours," "our," "us," "its," and "Qzip.net" refer to Qzip.net, Inc. 

To contact Qzip.net, click here.

Questions about this AUP? Specific questions about this AUP should be directed to admin@qzip.net

Use your primary Qzip.net email account.  You are reminded that all communications with Qzip.net, including important messages concerning billing, system updates and company information will occur via your primary Qzip.net email address. You should therefore configure your email software to access your primary Qzip.net email address, even if you are otherwise aliasing your email through a different domain name. If you need help with configuring your email program to access your primary email account, contact our Technical Support staff.

Qzip.net does not waive its rights in this AUP.  Any failure by Qzip.net to exercise its rights and remedies as described in this AUP does not constitute a waiver by Qzip.net of its rights and remedies at any future time or to exercise the same at the occurrence of any future violation or ongoing investigation of a violation.

Use of Qzip.net's services limited by applicable laws and regulations

These statements represent a guide to the acceptable use of Qzip.net's facilities and services. Qzip.net recognizes as acceptable all forms of data communications across its network, except where Federally subsidized facilities of transport (such as national backbones) may require limitations, or where State/Federal/International Law prohibits. In those cases, use of the network should adhere to the general principle of advancing science and education through interchange of information among research and educational institutions except where specific policy statement exist. 

In cases where data communications are addressed to recipients outside of the Qzip.net supplied Network and are carried over the regional networks or the Internet, Qzip.net users are advised that acceptable use polices of those other networks apply and may, in fact, limit use. If Qzip.net is informed by Federal/State/International authorities of inappropriate or illegal use of Qzip.net's facilities and/or other networks these determinations will be binding on the Customer. 

Acceptable Use Policy

1. Users must obey the law. You agree to use Qzip.net's services only for lawful purposes, in compliance with all applicable laws.

2. Qzip.net may investigate suspected violations and cancel the accounts of violators. Qzip.net reserves the right to conduct investigations of suspected violations of the AUP.  Such investigations may involve gathering information from the account holder(s) involved (including information from their email account or any other means used by the account holder for Internet communication), information from the complaining party, as well as examination of material on Qzip.net servers. If Qzip.net believes, in its sole and absolute discretion, that a violation of these guidelines has occurred, it may take actions which may include without limitation temporary or permanent removal of material uploaded by the account holder to Qzip.net's servers, the cancellation of newsgroup posts, warnings to the account holder or holders responsible, and the suspension or termination of Internet-related services, including access and e-mail, to the account holder(s) responsible. Qzip.net, in its sole and absolute discretion, will determine what action or actions will be taken. Violations of these guidelines could also subject the account holder(s) to criminal or civil liability, and Qzip.net reserves the right to initiate, prosecute or file such legal actions where it deems appropriate.  If an account is suspended or terminated for violation of this agreement the account holder(s) involved will still be held responsible for any early termination penalties as agreed to in their contract.

3. Customer Responsibility for Customer's Users.
   Each Qzip.net, Inc. customer is responsible for the activities of its users and, by accepting service from Qzip.net, Inc., is agreeing to ensure that its customers/representatives or end-users abide by this Policy. Complaints about customers/representatives or end-users of an Qzip.net, Inc. customer will be forwarded to the Qzip.net, Inc. customer's postmaster for action. If violations of the Qzip.net, Inc. Acceptable Use Policy occur, Qzip.net, Inc. reserves the right to terminate services with or take action to stop the offending customer from violating Qzip.net, Inc.'s AUP as Qzip.net, Inc. deems appropriate, without notice.

4. Unlimited Dial-up. You may manually dial into our access numbers as many times as you wish for as long as you like.  

5. System abuse (as defined here) will not be tolerated. System abuse is defined as any use of Qzip.net resources which disrupts the normal use of the system or the Internet services of others. Examples of abuse include, but are not limited to: 

   • Transmission, distribution or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws.

   • Sending Unsolicited Bulk Email ("UBE", "spam"). The sending of any form of Unsolicited Bulk Email through Qzip.net, Inc.'s servers is prohibited. Likewise, the sending of UBE from another service provider advertising a web site, email address or utilizing any resource hosted on Qzip.net, Inc.'s servers, is prohibited. Qzip.net, Inc. accounts or services may not be used to solicit customers from, or collect replies to, messages sent from another Internet Service Provider where those messages violate this Policy or that of the other provider.

   • Running Unconfirmed Mailing Lists. Subscribing email addresses to any mailing list without the express and verifiable permission of the email address owner is prohibited. All mailing lists run by Qzip.net, Inc. customers must be Closed-loop ("Confirmed Opt-in"). The subscription confirmation message received from each address owner must be kept on file for the duration of the existence of the mailing list. Purchasing lists of email addresses from 3rd parties for mailing to from any Qzip.net, Inc.-hosted domain, or referencing any Qzip.net, Inc. account, is prohibited.

   • Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to violate this AUP or the AUP of any other Internet Service Provider, which includes, but is not limited to, the facilitation of the means to send Unsolicited Bulk Email, initiation of pinging, flooding, mail-bombing, denial of service attacks.

   • Peer to Peer Software (File Sharing): The use of Peer to Peer or file sharing software to permit the sharing, copying or distribution of unauthorized copyrighted material over the Qzip.net network is prohibited. Use of such software could result in suspension of service.

   • Operating an account on behalf of, or in connection with, or reselling any service to, persons or firms listed in the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database at www.spamhaus.org.

   • Unauthorized attempts by a user to gain access to any account or computer resource not belonging to that user (e.g., "cracking").

   • Obtaining or attempting to obtain service by any means or device with intent to avoid payment.

   • Unauthorized access, alteration, destruction, or any attempt thereof, of any information of any Qzip.net, Inc. customers or end-users by any means or device.

   • Knowingly engage in any activities designed to harass, or that will cause a denial-of-service (e.g., synchronized number sequence attacks) to any other user whether on the Qzip.net, Inc. network or on another provider's network.

   • Using Qzip.net, Inc.'s Services to interfere with the use of the Qzip.net, Inc. network by other customers or authorized users.

   • Posting or transmitting any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, offensive, indecent, pornographic, profane, or otherwise objectionable information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any, local, state, federal or international law, including without limitation the U.S. export control laws and regulations, and laws protecting intellectual property including copyright, trademark, trade secret, misappropriation and anti-dilution laws. 

   • Storing, distributing or transmitting any unlawful material on Qzip.net servers of unlawful material including but not limited to direct threats of personal harm, child pornography, and copyrighted, trademarked, trade secret and other proprietary material used without proper authorization. Account holder(s) may not post, upload or otherwise distribute copyrighted material on Qzip.net's servers without the consent of the copyright holder. Failure to abide by these guidelines may subject the account holder to criminal as well as civil liability in addition to actions outlined in Use of Services Guidelines above.

   • Using Qzip.net services and servers to store or distribute programs containing viruses, Trojans and tools to damage or compromise the security of other sites.

   • Providing network services from dial-up accounts including, but not limited to, mail, http, IRC servers and multi-user interactive forums.

   • Hosting of Adult-Oriented sites, designed for entertainment or commercial purposes, are not allowed on Qzip.net's servers. Forbidden sites include those that provide access to pornographic materials, whether for free or for payment, regardless of whether adult verification is used or not. Banners or links to adult oriented sites are not allowed on Qzip.net's servers. IF ANY of the above mentioned are found on your website, you agree to have Qzip.net terminate your account(s) without notice.

   • Interfering with the proper operation of Qzip.net's systems, including but not limited to, defeating identification/authentication procedures, obtaining access beyond that for which you are authorized, and impairing the availability, reliability, or quality of service of other customers.

Passwords and Identification

1. Only one login at a time - no simultaneous usage, no sharing of passwords. Qzip.net dial-up accounts are for individual use only. The account holders(s) may not share passwords or accounts with other individuals. Account holder(s) of Business accounts, or of accounts that expressly permit multiple users, and pay the enhanced rates for these services, may share passwords and access with individuals associated with the account. Please note that sharing an account password and username (login ID) does not allow for concurrent connections to our servers. Users may not login using the same account for more than one online session at a time.

2. Protect your password. Each Qzip.net Internet account holder is responsible for the security of his or her password. It is suggested that passwords be at least 6 characters long and contain letters of mixed case and numbers and can not be found in whole or in part, in normal or reverse order, in any dictionary of words in any language. 

3. We may change your password if security appears compromised to us. Qzip.net staff may monitor the security of your password at any time and may opt to change your password at our discretion if we deem such actions are necessary to maintain the integrity of our network.

4. Password compromised? Contact us ASAP! You agree that if you feel that your password has been compromised in any way, you will notify Qzip.net immediately by contacting us.

5. Accounts suspended for apparent security violations. If any security violations are believed to have occurred in connection with your account, Qzip.net has the right to suspend your Internet access pending an investigation and resolution.

6. We cooperate with legal investigations. Qzip.net will fully cooperate with any government or legal investigation regarding any aspect of your account.

7. You agree to provide us with valid ID and address information when you sign up with us. You agree that you are the person legally responsible for the use of the account, are at least 18 years of age, to supply us with your current and truthful name, postal address and telephone number for our records, and you agree that you have a continued obligation to keep this information current. You also agree that you are an authorized user of any credit card that you supply to us and agree that we have the right and obligation to fully investigate any possible fraudulent credit card use by you or anyone using your credit card to pay for our services.

Systems Resources

1. System access and resources will be allocated to provide the best service. Qzip.net will allocate resources to provide all account holders with the best service possible. Qzip.net may limit, restrict or prioritize access to system resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space, session length, and number of sessions. In addition, Qzip.net may charge additional fees for account holders who are interested in accessing system resources beyond the time limitations previously described in this AUP.

2. System abuse is logged. Qzip.net may log instances of abuse of system resources and take appropriate actions as outlined in Use of Service guidelines.

Backup of Data

1. BACK UP your web pages and other data on your own media. Use Qzip.net's services at your own risk. Qzip.net is not responsible for the files residing on your account, or for files you have uploaded to Qzip.net's servers. You agree to take full responsibility for files and data transferred and to maintain all appropriate backup files and data stored on Qzip.net's servers.

2. Qzip.net does not back up your data for you. Although Qzip.net does make backups of files on our servers, such backups do not constitute the acceptance of any duty on our part to protect or back up any data uploaded to our servers by you. You should always have and maintain backups of your data, whether it be web pages, picture files, program files or other data, on your own local PC or by any other means of media backup available to you.

3. Any access to any programs that reside on our servers is to be used at your own risk. Allowing access to our programs do not constitute the acceptance of any duty on our part to protect or back up those programs.

Time & Login Restrictions

1. We reserve the right to perform a disconnect if your connection is idle for more than 2 Hours. If a dial-up line connection is idle for more than 2 Hours, we may disconnect that line without notice. You can reconnect as many times as you like.

2. We reserve the right to perform a disconnect after 24 hours' continuous use. If a dial-up line connection is active for more than 24 hours, we may disconnect that line without notice. If there is a need to connect for more than 24 hours, we recommend taking a break before resuming connection.

3. Only one login per account at any given time. As mentioned earlier, each login account entitles the account holder to only one connection to our network at any given time unless your account is one that allows multiple connections.

4. Broadband connections are always on and not subject to Time or Login Restrictions.

For Billing and Invoicing

1. We bill according to anniversary or "start" date. We will start billing our customers on their registration date, also known as the Anniversary date. However, under some circumstances, we may adjust the billing date. 

2. We deactivate unpaid accounts. For check-paying customers, we will mail an invoice a minimum of 15 days before the due date. If the bill is 5 days past the due date, the account may be deactivated without further notice and a reactivation fee of $5.00 will be imposed to the account. In this case, monthly charges still apply to any usage after the due date and before termination. If the subscriber calls us and requests for his account to be reactivated, we can reactivate at Qzip.net's discretion but will require payment to be received within 15 days of the anniversary date. We may not reactivate the account if it is 15 days past due unless we receive payment in full. 

3. To reactivate a suspended account, use credit card or sign up for multiple months. For reactivated accounts, we will only accept payments through credit cards or by our 3 or 12 month contracts. 

4. Credit cards charged on anniversary date. For credit card paying customers, we will charge on the Anniversary date. 

5. Refunds for full unused months only after non-discounted used months are deducted. Refunds or prorated refunds are applicable only to unused full months. A deduction for the non-discounted price of used or partially used months will be deducted from your total payment to Qzip.net prior to making your refund.  Partial months will not be refunded. Setup fees, if any were charged, will not be refunded. 

6. You must check your primary Qzip.net email account. We will communicate with our customers through email. We therefore require our users to expect all important correspondence with Qzip.net to be through your Qzip.net e-mail account.

7. There is a $25.00 charge for insufficient funds on returned checks. Collections will be made by Qzip.net or an agent of Qzip.net.

Canceling the Account

There are 2 ways to cancel your account. 

The first way is to call us at (713) 681-9861. Ask for the Billing department.

The second is to email us a request at billing@qzip.net.

In any communication to us (by mail, email or otherwise) please give us your username, password, and personal information you gave us when you originally signed up the account Also, please note whether you prefer that the account be terminated immediately, at end of your billing period, or at a specific date. Please check back with us in a few days to make sure your account has been canceled.

Regulatory Compliance and Reimbursement Fee

All accounts and services provided by Qzip.net are subject to a "Regulatory Compliance and Reimbursement Fee" of currently 8.25%. This fee is subject to change at our discretion and is not a tax and not accessed by or remitted to any governmental body. The fee is designed to defray and re-coop taxes, FCC approved customer line charges, and non-governmental fees, miscellaneous charges, and telecom charges assessed by our telecom providers. The fee is in place to re-coop and defray our internal costs and resources spent monitoring and complying with the regulations and policies of our customers and the Internet community (SPAM and abuse complaints); and to defray and re-coop the costs resulting from our compliance with regulatory burdens, including, but not limited to, investigation and research at the request of governmental bodies such as the FBI and responding to requests and subpoenas from such agencies.