- General:
ASERTY Internet services are intended for your personal or business use; these services are not transferable and their use is expressly limited to you, your household, or your employees. Account sharing is not permitted. In the case of educational institutes, "employees" shall be understood to include the students and faculty of the subscribing institution. Furthermore, your subscription to ASERTY does not permit you to resell or otherwise provide Internet access or email service to others not defined by this Agreement or prior contract with ASERTY.
Multiple simultaneous connections to any of the ASERTY access services is not permitted using a single aserty Client ID. The use of multiple connections will incur a charge for each connection at the current monthly rate for the service being accessed. These can be considered as possible security breaches and may result in the connections being terminated and the suspension of the suspect Client account. A fee may be charged to reinstate the account.
- Privacy:
Your communications with and through ASERTY Internet services will, in most cases, be viewed only by you and by anyone to whom you address such communications, including, without limitation, electronic mail and bulletin boards. When reasonably practicable, ASERTY will attempt to preserve the confidentiality of such communications in accordance with our Privacy Statement. However, you agree that ASERTY has the right to monitor the Service electronically from time to time and to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or other government request, to operate the Service properly, or to protect itself or its subscribers.
ASERTY has no obligation to monitor ASERTY Internet. However, ASERTY reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or part, that, in its sole discretion, are unacceptable or in violation of this Agreement.
See the ASERTY Privacy Statement.
- Notifications:
The primary ASERTY email address will be the destination of your service invoices and any announcements, service bulletins, and other correspondence from ASERTY. You may assign any other email address to receive this mail by using the forwarding feature of your account. However, we cannot be responsible for mail that is undeliverable to an address that is not a part of the ASERTY service domain. You are ultimately responsible for retrieving and acting upon invoices and information delivered to your ASERTY mailbox.
- Disclosure to Law Enforcement:
The AUP
specifically prohibits the use of our service for illegal
activities. The Client agrees that ASERTY may disclose
any and all client information including assigned IP numbers,
account history, account use, or any such client information as requested to any law enforcement agent
who makes a written request without further consent or
notification to The Client. In addition ASERTY shall have the
right to terminate all service set forth in this
Agreement.
- Service
Rates: The Client acknowledges that the
nature of the service furnished and the initial rates and charges
have been communicated to the Client. The Client is aware that ASERTY
may prospectively change the specified rates and charges from time
to time. Any promotional offers are contingent upon ASERTY
achieving and maintaining its cost of service goals including but
not limited to rates charged to ASERTY by its
suppliers.
- Payment: Establishment of
this service is dependent upon receipt by ASERTY of payment
of stated charges. All payments are in advance.
If service activation occurs prior to 15th of the month the service anniversary date will be the first day of the month on which service was activated; otherwise, the anniversary date will be the first day of the month following service activation. For HyperSpeed ADSL the cost of the first month of service will charged pro rata accordingly; dial-up services are charged at their full rate. Subsequent payments are due on the first day of the
month for the forthcoming month's service when monthly, quarterly, or half yearly billing has been selected. Likewise, payment for yearly billing is due on the first day of the month when yearly billing came into effect.
Upon sign up clients will be required to remit the amount for their first billing cycle plus the final service month. E.g., if your billing cycle is quarterly, or every three months, your first invoice will be for four months (3+1) of service.
Invoicing will be by email to your ASERTY email address.
The above applies to all accounts and services provided by ASERTY.
- Fees for Non-Payment: Credit cards that are declined
for any reason are subject to a $25.00 declination fee.
Likewise, a $25.00 fee will be applied where bank cheques are returned as unnegotiable.
Service
will be suspended on accounts that become 15 days past due. Service will be disconnected 25 days after the due date.
Service which has been suspended for nonpayment is subject to a $50 reconnect
charge for dial-up service and $100 for ADSL service. Overdue balances will be subject to late payment charge of 2% compounded monthly (26.82% per annum).
Accounts that are not collectable by ASERTY may be turned
over to an outside collection agency for collection. If your
account is turned over for collection, you agree to pay ASERTY a "Processing and Collection" fee of not less than $100
nor more than $500. If you wish to cancel your account, please
follow the proper procedure as outlined in this
TOS.
- Refund and
Disputes: All payments to TGS Solutions Innovators,
Inc. are non-refundable. This includes the one time setup fee and
subsequent charges regardless of usage. All overcharges or billing
disputes must be reported within 60 days of the time the dispute
occurred. If you dispute a charge to your credit card issuer that,
in ASERTY's sole discretion is a valid charge under the
provisions of the TOS and/or AUP, you agree to pay ASERTY an
"Administrative Fee" of not less than $50 and not more than
$150.
Early cancellation of service which was obtained under special pricing will result in reassessment of fees based on the regular monthly rate from the beginning of the service to the date of cancellation.
Any waived installation charges will become due upon cancellation of service within the first year of that service.
- Failure to
Pay: ASERTY may temporarily deny
service or terminate this Agreement upon the failure of the Client to
pay charges when due. Such termination or denial will not relieve
the Client of responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges,
plus reasonable interest and any collection
fees.
- Cancellation: All requests for
service cancellation must be made in writing with at least 30 days
notice but not more than 60 days prior written notice and sent to
TGS Solutions Innovators, Attn: Cancellations, P.O.Box 27119,
Ottawa, ON K1J 9L9. You must provide all account information to
cancel.
Cancellation within the first three months of service may be subject to a cancellation fee of $100.
Special reduced rates for service is dependant on your agreeing to a minimum of one year of services with ASERTY. Should you choose to cancel or reduce your service at any time during that first year you will be required to pay the full regular rate for the service, plus GST, for the months that you received service at the reduced rate. Similarly, should you cancel pre-paid year of service prior to the end of the one year term, you will be required to pay the full regular monthly rate, plus GST, for services received during that year. An early cancellation fee may also be assessed.
Your order for the Service will be confirmed and you will have entered into a binding contract with ASERTY when (i) you submit your online order and it is accepted by ASERTY, or (ii) your phone order is confirmed by postal mail or email. If you subsequently cancel your order prior to activation of the Service you will be charged a $150 cancellation fee as liquidated damages for preparatory services as rendered by ASERTY.
- The Client
acknowledges that the service provided is of such a nature that
service can be interrupted for many reasons other than the
negligence of ASERTY and that damages resulting from any
interruption of service are difficult to ascertain. Therefore,
the Client agrees that ASERTY shall not be liable for any damages
arising from such causes beyond the direct and exclusive control
of ASERTY. The Client further acknowledges that ASERTY's
liability for its own negligence may not in any event exceed an
amount equivalent to charges payable by the Client for services during
the period damages occurred. In no event shall ASERTY be
liable for any special or consequential damages, loss or
injury.
- New Domain
Accounts: All new web hosting accounts
involving new domains will be set up and entered into our DNS
servers within 3 to 5 business days. Due to unforeseen
complications, however, this process may sometimes require up to 7
business days. If the new domain is registered by the account
holder, there will be no handling fee. If the domain is registered
by TGS Solutions Innovators Inc. on behalf of the account holder a handling fee
will be incurred.
-
Transfer of
Domains: New web hosting accounts which
involve the transfer of a domain from another provider to
TGS Solutions Innovators Inc. will require a minimum of seven (7) days to be
set up and entered into our DNS servers. In some cases, such
transfers may take up to sixty (60) days. Due to the unpredictable
nature of the transfer process, no guarantees are made regarding
the amount of time a specific transfer may take. If the transfer
of the domain is done by TGS Solutions Innovators Inc. on behalf of the account
holder a handling fee will be incurred. If The Client cancels
service during the transfer period for any reason, all charges are
considered earned and are immediately payable.
- Service Availability:
- Many factors effect the connection speed, not the least of which are the bottlenecks encountered on the wider network
architecture of the Internet itself. As such, ASERTY does not guarantee the
maximum service performance (throughput speeds) levels stated.
Nevertheless, ASERTY
continuously monitors network activity and will ensure that those
components of the network it controls will be maintained in such a way as to
offer the highest possible quality of service to the Client.
-
ASERTY will not be responsible for any corrupted files or viruses,
which may affect the user of the service. It is the responsibility of the Client to safeguard their systems, through appropriate means (e.g., using commercially
available software), from theft, unauthorized use, or system corruption. Due to the
"always connected" nature of the HyperSpeed service technology,
any harm caused to the Client
computer system as a result of the failure of the Client to properly secure their system
will be the sole responsibility of the Client. Any harm caused to the network as a result of
the failure of the Client to properly secure their system may result in the immediate termination of
their HyperSpeed service.
- ASERTY recommends the use of a firewall equipped device such as a router or a firewall product to protect your connection from intrusion.
-
ASERTY does not warrant that the functions of the Internet connection will meet
any specific requirements that the Client may have, nor that their connection to the Internet
will be free of errors or that the service will not be interrupted from time to time. ASERTY will not be held liable for any
indirect, incidental or consequential damages (including lost data, information, or
profits) sustained or incurred in connection with the use of, operation of, or inability
to use the Internet connection.
- The Client is responsible for ensuring that web hosting the telephone number being used to access the Internet through ASERTY dial-up services is a local access number. Any telephone charges associated with access to the Internet through ASERTY are solely the responsibility of the Client. ASERTY will not reimburse, or pay, and will not be responsible for any of the Client's telephone charges for any reason including any work performed by the Client's telephone service provider or third party company.
- Support
Boundaries:
ASERTY, provides 24 x 7 email and 9am-5pm Monday through Friday telephone technical support to our clients. This support excludes all civic and statuary holidays. We limit our technical support to our area of
expertise: support is provided to issues related to our service only and does not extend to operating system configuration or application specific issues (viz. CGI programming, HTML coding). ASERTY does not provide technical support
to your clients. If you can email, we encourage you to email
for assistance.
Moreover, the help facility of the program you are
using may have the answer to your question so please do
investigate these resources before calling technical
support.
Calls or email to technical support which are determined to be not related to our service may incur a service charge.
- Spam and
Unsolicited Commercial email (UCE):
ASERTY does not permit the use of its facilities to send
Unsolicited Commercial email (UCE), or spam. Clients of
ASERTY may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or
information that is advertised by UCE from other networks.
Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including
termination of service.
- Violation of
ASERTY's UCE policy will result in severe penalties. Upon
notification of an alleged violation of our UCE policy,
ASERTY will initiate an immediate investigation (within 48
hours of notification). During the investigation, ASERTY may
restrict the Client access to the network to prevent further
violations. If the Client is found to be in violation of our UCE
policy, ASERTY may, at its sole discretion, restrict,
suspend or terminate the Client's account. Further, ASERTY
reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs
associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy
violation. ASERTY will notify law enforcement officials if
the violation is believed to be a criminal
offense.
- First violations of
this policy will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $250 and
your account will be reviewed for possible immediate
termination. A second violation will result in an
"Administrative Fee" of $500 and immediate termination of your
account. Users who violate this policy agree that in addition to
these "Administrative" penalties, they will pay "Research Fees"
not to exceed $175 per hour that ASERTY personnel must spend
to investigate the matter. PLEASE, DO NOT SPAM from your
account.
- As our clients are
ultimately responsible for the actions of their own clients over the
ASERTY network, it is advisable that the Client develop a
similar, or stricter, policy for their clients.
- Network
- IP Address
Ownership: If ASERTY assigns
the Client an Internet Protocol address for the Client's use, the right
to use that Internet Protocol address shall belong only to
ASERTY, and the Client shall have no right to use that Internet
Protocol address except as permitted by ASERTY in its sole
discretion in connection with the Services, during the term of
this Agreement. ASERTY shall maintain and control ownership
of all Internet Protocol numbers and addresses that may be
assigned to the Client by ASERTY, and ASERTY reserves the
right to change or remove any and all such Internet Protocol
numbers and addresses, in its sole and absolute discretion. Our
allocation of IP addresses is limited by ARIN's new policies.
These new policies state that use of IP addresses for IP based
virtual hosts will not be accepted as justification for new IP
addresses. What this means to you is that you MUST use
name-based hosting where possible. We will periodically
review IP address usage, and if we find that Clients are using
IP addresses where name-based hosting could be used, we will
revoke authorization to use those IP addresses that could be
used with name-based hosting.
- Bandwidth
and Disk Usage:
ASERTY does not limit bandwidth usage.
Nevertheless, ASERTY, at its sole discretion, may cause the Client's connection to be set at a reduced capacity ("speed throttling") where it is determined that the Client connection may be the cause of throughput congestion. These capacity reductions typically are of short duration and are applied during peak activity periods only.
The Client agrees that disk usage shall not exceed the number of megabytes per
month for the Services ordered ("Agreed Usage") by the Client on the Request for Service order form or by limits which may be assessed from time to time. ASERTY will monitor
the Client's disk usage. ASERTY shall have the right to take
corrective action if the Client's disk usage exceeds the Agreed Usage. Such corrective action may
include the assessment of additional charges, disconnection or
discontinuance of any and all Services, or termination of this
Agreement, which actions may be taken is in ASERTY's sole
and absolute discretion. If ASERTY takes any corrective
action under this section, the Client shall not be entitled to a
refund of any fees paid in advance prior to such
action.
- System and
Network Security: Users are
prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security
of the ASERTY Network. Violations of system or network
security may result in civil or criminal liability. ASERTY
will investigate occurrences, which may involve such violations
and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities
in prosecuting Users who are involved in such violations. These
violations include, without limitation:
- Accessing data not
intended for such User or logging into a server or account,
which such User is not authorized to access.
- Attempting to probe,
scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to
breach security or authentication measures without proper
authorization.
- Attempting to
interfere with service to any user, host or network,
including, without limitation, via means of overloading,
"flooding", "mail bombing" or "crashing".
- Forging any TCP/IP
packet header or any part of the header information in any
email or newsgroup posting.
- Taking any action in
order to obtain services to which such User is not
entitled.
- Notification of
Violation:
- ASERTY is
under no obligation to monitor activities its clients or users to
determine if a violation of the AUP has occurred, nor do we assume any responsibility
through our AUP to monitor or
police Internet-related activities.
- First Violation:
Any User, which ASERTY determines to have violated any
element of its AUP, shall receive an email at their ASERTY email address, warning
them of the violation. At ASERTY's discretion, the service may be subject to a temporary suspension pending an
agreement, in writing, from the Client that they will refrain from any further
violations.
- Second Violation:
Users that ASERTY determines to have committed a second
violation of any element of its AUP shall be
subject to immediate suspension or termination of service
without further notice.
- We reserve the right,
to drop the section of IP space involved in Spam or
Denial-of-Service complaints if it is clear that the offending
activity
is causing harm to parties on the Internet. In particular,
if open relays are on your network or a client's network, or if
denial of service attacks are originating from your network. In
certain instances, it may be necessary for ASERTY to drop the IP space
before attempting to
contact you.
-
Service suspensions may be subject to a reconnect fee.
- Suspension of Service or
Cancellation: ASERTY reserves the right to suspend network
access to any of its clients if in the judgment of the ASERTY network
administrators that Client's server is the source or target of the
violation of any of the other terms of the AUP
or for any other reason which ASERTY chooses. If inappropriate
activity is
detected, all accounts of the Client in question will be
deactivated until an investigation is complete. Prior notification
to the Client is not assured. In extreme cases, law enforcement
may be contacted regarding the activity. The Client will not
be credited for the time the services to the Client
were suspended.
- Proprietary Rights:
By posting messages, uploading files, inputting data, or engaging in any form of communication (collectively, "Communications") in or through ASERTY Internet, you are granting to ASERTY a perpetual, worldwide license (the "License") to use, copy, modify, adapt or document such Communications. ASERTY shall use the Communications solely in conjunction with providing, promoting, distributing or otherwise exploiting the Service. The Licenses does not, however, grant ASERTY any ownership rights in or to your Communications. You shall have no recourse against ASERTY for any alleged or actual infringement of any proprietary rights to which you may claim ownership. ASERTY or our suppliers own all rights, title and interest in and to all components of the Service, but expressly excluding content owned by third parties which may be accessible through the Service and/or the Internet generally. ASERTY's ownership rights in the Service include, but are not limited to, the look and feel of the end-user interfaces associated with the Service, the name of the Service, and the collective works consisting of all public messages on the Service. You may not reproduce any sequence of messages from our Service without our permission. In addition, you may not copy, modify, adapt, reproduce, translate, distribute, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble (i) any aspect of the Service which we or our suppliers own, or (ii) any service, information or materials supplied by a third-party content provider and which you may access through ASERTY Internet.
- Right to Amend: ASERTY reserves the
right to amend its policies at any time. All Sub-Networks,
resellers and managed servers of ASERTY must adhere to the
above policies. Failure to follow any term or condition will be
grounds for immediate Cancellation. You will be held responsible
for the actions of your own users in the matter described on these
Terms and conditions. Therefore, it is in your best interest to
implement a similar or stricter terms and conditions or otherwise
called acceptable terms of use policy.
- Indemnification: ASERTY wishes to emphasize
that in agreeing to the ASERTY AUP and TOS, the Client
indemnifies ASERTY for any violation of its AUP and TOS that
results in loss to ASERTY or the bringing of any claim against
ASERTY by any third-party. This means that if ASERTY is
sued because of an action of the Client, or a client of the Client, the
Client will pay any damages awarded against ASERTY, plus all
costs and attorney's fees.
- Servers:
You may not use ASERTY service to operate an Internet service. This prohibition includes, but is not limited to, Web servers, email servers, IRC servers, Gopher servers, FTP servers, or News servers. This includes Peer-to-Peer file sharing. If it has been discovered that you have been using your ASERTY service in violation of this prohibition: For Residential plans, ASERTY is entitled to re-invoice you for all services at the current full Commercial rate for the entire past use of this service. For both Residential and Business plans, ASERTY is entitled to impose a bandwidth surcharge based on current bandwidth charges.
- Gateway Limitation: Except for those designated as being "Commercial", aserty service plans may not be used to undertake commercial enterprises. This includes selling advertising. Non-profit organizations may display banner advertising of their sponsors and provide links to their sponsor Web sites. Sponsor Web sites must conform to the restrictions of the ASERTY AUP.
- Miscellaneous
Provisions: You must provide us with,
and keep current, correct contact information for you. email,
telephone contacts, and postal mail are used, in that order of
preference.
- A waiver by
ASERTY of any breach of any provision of this Agreement by
the Client shall not operate as or be construed as a continuing or
subsequent waiver thereof or as a waiver of any breach of any
other provision thereof.
- The Client shall not
transfer or assign this Agreement without the prior written
consent of ASERTY. ASERTY may assign Agreement at anytime
without consent from or notice to the Client. ASERTY reserves right
to cancel the Client's rights under this contract at anytime without
further obligation.
- ASERTY takes no
responsibility for any material input by others and not posted
to the ASERTY Network by ASERTY. ASERTY is not
responsible for the content of any other Web sites linked to the
ASERTY Network; links are provided as Internet navigation
tools only. ASERTY disclaims any responsibility for any such
inappropriate use and any liability to any person or party for
any other person or party's violation of this
policy.
- ASERTY is not
responsible for any damages your business may suffer. ASERTY
does not make implied or written warranties for any of our
services. ASERTY denies any warranty or merchantability for
a specific purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from
delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service
interruptions caused by ASERTY.
- Applicable Laws:
- This agreement shall be governed by and construed according to the laws in force
in the Province of Ontario.
- The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this Services Agreement or
any covenant herein contained shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any
other provision or covenant herein contained and any such invalid or unenforceable
provision or covenant shall be deemed to be severable.
