Copyright

All site design, text, graphics, interfaces, and the selection and arrangements thereof are © 2004 Dougal Internet all rights reserved. Permission is granted to electronically copy and to print hard copy portions of this site for the sole purpose of placing an order with Dougal Internet or using this site as a shopping resource. Any other use of materials on this site, including reproduction for purposes other than those noted above, modification, distribution, or republication, without prior written permission of Dougal Internet is strictly prohibited.  All trademarks, service marks, and trade names (collectively the "marks") are proprietary to Dougal Internet or other respective owners that have granted Dougal Internet the right and license to use such marks.

Terms of Use

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS OF USE AND DISCLAIMER CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEB SITE (this "site"). By using this site, you agree to these terms of use. If you do not agree to these terms, you may not use this site. Dougal Internet reserves the right, at any time, to modify, alter, or update these Terms of Use, and you agree to be bound by such modifications, alterations, or updates.

All site design, text, graphics, interfaces, and the selection and arrangements thereof are © 2004 Dougal Internet all rights reserved. Permission is granted to electronically copy and to print hard copy portions of this site for the sole purpose of placing an order with Dougal Internet or using this site as a shopping resource. Any other use of materials on this site, including reproduction for purposes other than those noted above, modification, distribution, or republication, without prior written permission of Dougal Internet is strictly prohibited.

All trademarks, service marks, and trade names (collectively the "marks") are proprietary to Dougal Internet or other respective owners that have granted Dougal Internet the right and license to use such marks.

The information, services, products, and materials contained in this site, including, without limitation, text, graphics, and links, are provided on an "as is" basis with no warranty. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Dougal Internet disclaims all representations and warranties, express or implied, with respect to such information, services, products, and materials, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, noninfringement, freedom from computer virus, and implied warranties arising from course of dealing or course of performance. In addition, Dougal Internet does not represent or warrant that the information accessible via this site is accurate, complete or current. Price and availability information is subject to change without notice.

The receipt of an e-mail order confirmation does not constitute the acceptance of an order or a confirmation of an offer to sell. Dougal Internet reserves the right, without prior notification, to limit the order quantity on any item and/or refuse service to any customer. Verification of information will be required prior to the acceptance of any order.

In no event shall Dougal Internet be liable for any direct, indirect, special, punitive, incidental, exemplary or consequential damages, or any damages whatsoever, even if Dougal Internet has been previously advised of the possibility of such damages, whether in an action under contract, negligence, or any other theory, arising out of or in connection with the use, inability to use, or performance of the information, services, products, and materials available from this site. These limitations shall apply notwithstanding to any failure of essential purpose of any limited remedy. Because some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on how long an implied warranty lasts, or the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitations may not apply to you.

This site may include links to other sites on the Internet that are owned and operated by third party vendors and other third parties (the "external sites"). You acknowledge that Dougal Internet is not responsible for the availability of, or the content located on or through, any external site. You should contact the site administrator or Webmaster for those external sites if you have any concerns regarding such links or the content located on such external sites.

http://www.dougal.net/

Standard Terms and Conditions

1. Application

1.1 These Conditions shall govern and be incorporated into the contract for the supply of the Services by Dougal Internet Limited ("Dougal" or "we") to you (the "Contract").

1.2 These Conditions will apply jointly and severally to all those agreeing to receive the Services under the Contract and the word "you" shall be understood accordingly.

2. The Services

2.1 Dougal will provide the Services and (if applicable) the Equipment subject to these Conditions. We will provide the Services to you from the date we activate them and will continue to do so unless the Contract is brought to an end as set out below.

2.2 The Services are only available to consumers in the United Kingdom for personal home use. If you use the Services in breach of this condition for business purposes, Dougal shall have no liability to you for any losses incurred in connection with the Services (except death or personal injury caused by Dougal's negligence).

2.3 The Services can only be provided via a BT telephone line. You are responsible for obtaining and maintaining the necessary line. You must also ensure that the necessary DSL router is in place. Dougal can supply an appropriate router, as detailed in the On-line Order Form. If you do not purchase the router from Dougal, then you are wholly responsible for selecting a router that is suitable for use in connection with the Services and complies with all applicable regulations. In any event, you are responsible for installing the router.

2.4 By completing and submitting the On-line Order Form to Dougal, you are instructing Dougal to start the provision of the Services as soon as Dougal is reasonably able to do so. Accordingly, the Contract will come into force once Dougal has started to provide the Services (the "Start Date") and you will not have the right to cancel your order.

2.5 You must use the Services according to any reasonable instructions that Dougal gives you from time to time and in accordance with the AUP. Any other use is prohibited. You will be responsible for any claims, losses, damages or costs incurred by Dougal arising out of or in any way connected with your breach of these Conditions or the AUP.

2.6 You must promptly provide Dougal with all information that we request in order to enable us to provide the Services to you. You must also inform us immediately of any change to any details that you have provided to Dougal.

2.7 The Services will be provided to you at the address you notified to Dougal in the On-line Order Form. If you move house during the term of the Contract and wish Dougal to provide the Services at your new address then (provided that the new address is within an area in which Dougal provides broadband services) and subject to you giving Dougal one month's prior written notice and paying to Dougal the additional Charges notified to you by Dougal, the Contract can be transferred to your new address.

2.8 Dougal may need to interrupt the Services from time to time. Dougal will give you as much notice as reasonably possible of any interruption and will use reasonable endeavours to minimise the number and duration of such interruptions.

2.9 You acknowledge and agree that the Services are provided on a contended basis, which means that up to 50 customers (including non-Dougal customers) share the same infrastructure and capacity. The use that other customers may make of their services can affect your experience of the Services, including the speed at which you can access and download material from the internet. Dougal cannot control the use that other customers make of their services, in particular the use made by non-Dougal customers, so shall have no liability for any degradation of the Services caused by such use.

3. Payment

3.1 You must pay all the Charges together with VAT in full within twenty-five (25) days of the date of each of Dougal's invoices by the method agreed between Dougal and you. Dougal reserves the right to suspend the provision or continued operation of the Services to you where any amounts are overdue until all such amounts have been paid in full.

3.2 If Dougal does not receive payment in full of any Charges by the 30th day following the date of Dougal's invoice, Dougal reserves the right to terminate the provision of the Services. If you request Dougal to reinstate the Services following such termination, then a re-instatement fee shall be payable by you.

3.3 You shall not be entitled to withhold payment of any amount due to Dougal by reason of any set-off, counterclaim, abatement or any other deduction.

3.4 Interest shall be payable on overdue accounts at a rate of 4% per annum over the base rate of Natwest Bank Plc from time to time from the due date for payment until receipt by Dougal of the full amount and shall accrue at such rate after as well as before any judgement.

4. IP addresses

The IP address allocated to you by Dougal is for your use for the duration of the Contract and ownership of the IP address remains with Dougal. You accept that no rights whatsoever in such IP address are transferred and use of the IP address shall revert to Dougal on termination of the Contract. Dougal shall be entitled, for commercial, operational, technical reasons and/or legal reasons to withdraw or change any IP address allocated to you provided that reasonable notice is given.

5. Support

5.1 Dougal operates a helpdesk to deal with queries relating to the Services. You can contact the helpdesk by telephone or email, or you can post a message on the bulletin board on the Dougal Website. Following Dougal's acceptance of your order, Dougal will send you an email containing a password that will enable you to access the members' area of the Website. This will set out the contact details for Dougal's helpdesk.

5.2 You agree to give Dougal, its agents and contractors access to your property if necessary in order to investigate a problem with the Services.

5.3 Any complaints about the Services should be addressed to Dougal Internet at the address given in the members' area of the Website (see Condition 5.1 for details).

6. Warranties and Liabilities

6.1 Dougal warrants that the Services shall be provided with reasonable care and skill.

6.2 Dougal cannot guarantee that the Services will be fault free, continuously available or available at any given time. Dougal shall not be liable to you if you are unable to access the internet for any given period of time. The fault repair service is operated by BT, therefore Dougal cannot guarantee that any faults will be repaired within any given period of time.

6.3 The Services allow you to use the internet. You agree that use of the internet is at your own risk and that you must comply with all relevant laws. Dougal has no responsibility for any material, information, goods, services or other materials that you view or obtain when using the internet (including email). You agree that you are responsible for ensuring that your computer is adequately protected against viruses.

6.4 The warranty given in Condition 6.1 is in lieu of all other warranties representations and conditions, express or implied, which are expressly excluded so far as is permitted by law.

6.5 In no event shall Dougal be liable for any form of special, indirect or consequential damages, loss of data, loss of goodwill, loss of profits, loss of turnover, costs or expenses even if the same was contemplated by the parties at the time the Contract was made.

6.6 Subject to Condition 6.7, in no event shall Dougal's cumulative liability to you from all causes of action of any kind whether in contract or in tort in connection with the Services and/or the Equipment exceed 125% of the Charges (excluding VAT) paid in full by you for the Services and/or the Equipment in any preceding 12 month period.

6.7 Nothing in these Conditions shall be constructed as limiting or excluding Dougal's liability for death or personal injury caused by its or its employees' negligence.

6.8 You acknowledge and agree that the allocation of risk contained in this Condition 6 is reflected in the Charges and is also a recognition of the fact that it is not within Dougal's control how and for what purpose you use the Services.

6.9 Each provision of this Condition 6 excluding or limiting liability shall be construed separately and shall survive the expiry or termination of this Agreement.

7. Assignment and Third Party Rights

7.1 You must not assign, sub-license, sub-contract, delegate or transfer in whole or in part any of your rights or obligations under the Contract without the prior written consent of Dougal.

7.2 For business reasons Dougal has the right to assign or sub-contract the Contract to any person.

7.3 Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in these Conditions, nothing in the Contract shall confer any rights or benefits on any third parties who are not parties to the Contract.

8. Term and Termination

8.1 The Contract will last for at least the contract period specified in the On-line Order Form (the "Minimum Period") from the Start Date. If you end the Contract or Dougal terminates the provision of the Services in accordance with these Conditions during the Minimum Period, you will have to pay the Charges for the remainder of the Minimum Period.

8.2 Following the expiry of the Minimum Period, you or Dougal will have the right to terminate the Contract by giving at least six weeks' prior written notice to the other party, such notice expiring on the last day of a Service Period.

8.3 Dougal can end the Contract in accordance with Condition 3.2.

8.4 Dougal can end the Contract by giving you one month's written notice if you do not meet your obligations under the Contract. If you commit a serious breach of the Contract, Dougal can end the Contract immediately.

8.5 You can end the Contract at any time by giving Dougal 21 days' written notice of serious defects in the Services which are under the control of Dougal to rectify and for which satisfactory arrangements to rectify have not been made.

8.6 Termination of the Agreement shall not prejudice any rights or remedies of either party against the other which have arisen on or before the date of termination.

9. Events beyond Dougal's control

Neither you nor Dougal is liable for any breach of the Contract caused by something beyond their reasonable control including Acts of God, fire, lightning, severe weather, flood, national or local emergency, explosion, war, military operations, civil disorder, terrorism, vandalism, industrial disputes, failure or unavailability of the BT network or acts of local or central government or other competent authorities.

10. Changes

Dougal may need to vary the Charges and/or these Conditions from time to time. We will try to publish details of all changes on the Website before they take effect. This may not always be possible, for example if the changes are necessary to reflect changes in the law or BT's terms and conditions.

11. Compliance with Laws

Each party will at all times during the term of the Contract comply with the provisions of all laws applicable to the performance of that party's obligations under the Contract, including without limitation the Data Protection Act 1998.

12. General

12.1 If any part of these Conditions or the Contract is held to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable in any respect whether in whole or in part then such part shall be severed from the remainder of the Conditions which will continue to be valid and enforceable to the fullest extent permitted by Law and such invalidity, illegality or unenforceability shall not prejudice the effectiveness of the rest of these Conditions or the remainder of any part of the Condition affected.

12.2 Failure by Dougal to exercise or delay in exercising any right or remedy under the Contract shall not constitute a waiver of the right or any other rights or remedies and no single or partial exercise of any right or remedy shall prevent any further exercise of the right or remedy or the exercise of any other right or remedy.

12.3 Any contract to which these Conditions apply shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the United Kingdom.

12.4 Any notice required or permitted to be given by either party to the other under these Conditions or this Agreement shall be in writing addressed to the other party at its registered office or principal place of business or such other address as may at the relevant time have been notified pursuant to this Condition to the party giving the notice.

12.5 You acknowledge that in entering into the Contract you have not relied on any warranty, representation, undertaking or agreement other than those contained or referred to in this Agreement. You waive any right or remedy you may have to claim damages or rescission for any misrepresentation in respect of any representation not contained in this Agreement or for breach of any warranty not contained in this Agreement and acknowledge that your only remedies against Dougal are for breach of contract provided always that nothing in this Condition 12 shall exclude or limit Dougal’s liability to you in respect of any fraudulent misrepresentation or warranty fraudulently given and upon which you can prove that you have placed reliance. Subject to the foregoing, these Conditions and the documents referred to in these Conditions constitute the entire agreement and understanding between the parties with respect to all the matters which are referred to in this Agreement.

13. Interpretation

13.1 In these Conditions the following terms and expressions shall have the following meanings:

"AUP" Dougal's Acceptable Use Policy, as set out on the Website at the URL www.dougal.net/main.htm#aup;

"BT" British Telecommunications plc;

"Charges" Dougal's charges for the Services from time to time in force;

"Conditions" these terms and conditions or any of them;

"Contract" the contract between Dougal and you for the provision of the Services comprising these Conditions, the AUP and all other documents referred to in these Conditions;

"Equipment" any equipment that Dougal agrees to supply to you in connection with the Services;

"On-line Order Form" the order form in electronic format accessed at the URL www.dougal.net/orderdsl.htm completed by you and submitted to Dougal;

"Service Period" a period of three months, the first Service Period commencing on the Start Date;

"Services" all services provided by Dougal to you pursuant to the Contract as described on the Website and more particularly in the On-line Order Form;

"Start Date" the date on which Dougal notifies you that it has started to provide the Services;

"Website" Dougal's website located at www.dougal.net.

13.2 Reference to a statute or statutory provision includes a reference to it as from time to time amended, extended or re-enacted.

13.3 Words denoting the singular number only include the plural and vice versa.

13.4 The headings in these Conditions are inserted for convenience only and do not affect their meaning.

13.5 Any reference to any of the parties hereunder includes their successors in title and permitted assigns.

Acceptable Use Policy

To use Dougal Internet products and services, you must comply with the provisions of this ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY ("AUP") at all times.

Please note that in this AUP, "we"/"us"/"our" denotes Dougal Internet, company number 123456, registered office Agent, Off shore, Tax Haven, Sacheels, and "you"/"your" denotes you the customer.

This AUP applies to every Dougal Internet product and service and your use of them. For some products and services there are particular points to which you must conform when you are using that product or service. Appendices A through F of this document give further guidance as to how this AUP is applied to specific Products and services.

It is your responsibility to ensure your compliance with all applicable provisions of this AUP. If you have any comments or queries, or there is any provision that you do not understand, please feel free to email any enquiry to us at abuse@dougal.net.

You must not use your Dougal Internet product/service for any illegal purpose. Your traffic over the Internet may traverse other networks, or use other services which are not owned or operated by Dougal Internet. You must abide by the acceptable use policies and other terms and conditions imposed by the operators of those networks and services.

Dougal Internet may, at its sole discretion, run manual or automatic systems to determine compliance with this AUP (e.g. scanning for open mail relays or smurf amplifiers). By accessing the Internet via Dougal Internet services such as a leased line or Standard Dialup Account, you are deemed to have granted permission for this limited intrusion onto your networks or machines.

You are required to accept email addressed to "postmaster" at your address. For example, if you have the hostname "domain" or the domain "example.co.uk", then you should accept email addressed to postmaster@domain.com or postmaster@example.co.uk respectively. You will be deemed to have read any and all such postmaster-addressed email. Dougal Internet may take action on the basis of this assumption.

Your usage of the Internet must conform to community standards.

It is not possible to codify exactly what constitutes "acceptable use" and "unacceptable use" or abuse of the Internet. These terms depend upon the many informal understandings which have arisen between the administrators, owners and operators of the computers and networks that together constitute the Internet, and of which Dougal Internet is only one participant among many.

However, Dougal Internet's relationship with other networks, and ultimately its connectivity to the rest of the Internet, depends largely upon proper behaviour by its customers. Dougal Internet cannot tolerate any behaviour by customers which negatively impacts upon its own equipment or network, or upon the use by other customers of the Internet, or which damages Dougal Internet's standing in the wider Internet community.

Therefore, it is important that when activity that might constitute abuse occurs, that Dougal Internet takes appropriate action - if it did not, and such abuse was permitted to continue, Dougal Internet would lose the confidence of the wider Internet community, which in turn would significantly impair Dougal Internet's customers freedom to use the Internet.

This AUP and its day-to-day application by Dougal Internet are a result of Dougal Internet's consideration of both the formal and informal practices of the Internet community.

The Appendices to this AUP are intended to assist customers in understanding the types of issues that can arise and what Dougal Internet will consider to be unacceptable behaviour that does not conform to community standards.

We will investigate suspected or alleged breaches of this AUP and in doing so we will endeavour to act reasonably and fairly at all times. If you are found to have breached this AUP or the Conditions of Use or Terms and Conditions that apply to your service, we reserve the right in our sole discretion to take whatever measures we deem appropriate and proportionate to the breach. These measures may include a formal warning, suspending or terminating one or more of your Dougal Internet accounts, making an additional charge for our reasonable costs of investigating and dealing with the misuse, and/or blocking access to any relevant component(s) of our service to you. If we suspend your access then this suspension may be lifted, at Dougal Internet's sole discretion, when the reason for suspension has been rectified and upon receipt of a formal written undertaking from you not to commit any future "abuse". All cases are, however, considered individually upon their merits.

Without limitation, you expressly authorise us to use your personal data and other account information in connection with any such investigation, including by disclosing it to any third party whom we consider has a legitimate interest in any such investigation or its outcome.

We have in place a procedure for handling your complaints about material stored and/or accessed via our service. If you wish to make such a complaint, please ensure that you make your complaint by email to abuse@dougal.net. If you do not use this facility we cannot guarantee that your complaint will be dealt with promptly.

The appendices refer in some cases to external web sites. Dougal Internet is not responsible for the content of these web sites.

If you need any further information regarding this AUP, then please contact us on:

email: abuse@dougal.net

For the complex network of networks which we call 'the Internet' to function correctly it is essential that all of those who connect to it do so in accordance with generally accepted standards.

Most customers of Dougal Internet will be using commercial software which implements the technical aspects of connection for them, but there are some configuration issues, and some matters of simple politeness and common sense which everyone must take note of.

Dougal Internet's relationship with other networks, and ultimately its connectivity to the rest of the Internet depends largely upon proper behaviour by its customers. Dougal Internet cannot tolerate any behaviour by customers which negatively impacts upon its own equipment or network, or upon the use by other customers of the Internet, or which damages Dougal Internet's standing in the wider community.

Dougal Internet will therefore enforce appropriate sanctions against any of its customers who are responsible for serious abuse of the Internet. Such sanctions include, but are not limited to, a formal warning, suspension of one or more of the customer's services, suspension of all Internet access through Dougal Internet or termination of the customer's account(s).

For the guidance of customers on what Dougal Internet considers to be unacceptable, some general issues are addressed below.

Please note that Dougal Internet is not responsible for the content of external sites which are referenced by this AUP.

1) You must not use your Internet connection for any illegal purpose.

You should be aware that some material is illegal to possess or transmit. You should also note that unauthorised access to computer systems can be an offence; although many machines connected to the Internet are placed there so that you may access them, it does not follow that you may access any computer you come across.

2) Your traffic over the Internet may traverse other networks, or use other services, which are not owned or operated by Dougal Internet. You must abide by the AUPs and other terms and conditions imposed by the operators of those networks and services.

3) Whilst connected to the Internet your system must conform to all relevant IETF standards. The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standards are a subset of the RFC (Request for Comments) collection and can be found at: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/

4) You must not send packets onto the Internet which have forged addresses or which are deliberately constructed so as to adversely affect remote machines.

5) Your machine or network must not be configured in such a way that others can exploit it to disrupt the Internet.

This includes but is not limited to ensuring that your network cannot be exploited as a "smurf amplifier". Note that traffic from simple dialup accounts is already filtered by Dougal Internet to prevent this. For more information about "smurf" attacks see:

http://users.quadrunner.com/chuegen/smurf.cgi

and

http://netscan.org/

6) You may not run "scanning" software which accesses remote machines or networks, except with the explicit permission of those remote machines or networks.

7) You must ensure that you do not further the sending of unsolicited bulk email or any other form of email or Usenet "abuse". This applies to both material which originates on your system and also third party material which passes through it.

8) You must not run an "open mail relay", viz a machine which accepts mail from unauthorised or unknown senders and forwards it onward to a destination outside of your machine or network. If your machine does relay mail, on an authorized basis, then it must record its passing through your system by means of an appropriate "received" line.

Users of "WinGate" should take special note that this software is capable of providing a wide range of relaying services. Default configurations can cause a problem, so that special care must be taken to configure it to prevent unauthorised use. More information is currently available at:

http://www.deerfield.com/wingate/secure-wingate.htm

and

http://www.cert.org/vul_notes/VN-98.03.WinGate.html

As an exception to the ban on relaying, you may run an "anonymous" relay service provided that you monitor it in such a way as to detect unauthorised or excessive use. However, you may not relay traffic from such an anonymous system via Dougal Internet's servers, ie: you can only pass email from such a system to Dougal Internet where this is the correct destination for final delivery.

9) All customers are required to accept email addressed to "postmaster" at their address (ie: postmaster@domain.com for the hostname "domain").

Customers will be deemed to have read any and all such email. Dougal Internet may take action on the basis of this assumption.

10) Dougal Internet, at its discretion, may run manual or automatic systems to determine compliance with this AUP (eg scanning for open mail relays or smurf amplifiers). Customers are deemed to have granted permission for this limited intrusion onto their networks or machines.

11) Dougal Internet provides access to the Internet as part of a package of services. Dougal Internet reserves the right to change this AUP for Internet Access at its sole discretion and without prior notice.

12) Any decision Dougal Internet makes in relation to its services will be final on all matters.

Some material is illegal to possess or transmit. You should also be aware that unauthorised access to computer systems could be an offence. Although many machines are connected to the Internet for general access, it does not follow that you may access any computer system you come across. Whilst connected to the Internet your system must conform to all relevant IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standards.

The IETF standards are a subset of the RFC (Request for Comments) collection and can be found at:

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/

You must not send information packets onto the Internet that have forged addresses or which are deliberately constructed so as to adversely affect remote machines.

You may not run "scanning" software which accesses remote machines or networks, except with the explicit permission of the operators of those remote machines or networks.

You must ensure that you do not further the sending of unsolicited bulk email or any other form of email or Usenet "abuse". This applies to both material that originates on your system and also third party material that may pass through it.

Your machine or network must not be configured in such a way that others can exploit it to disrupt the Internet. This includes but is not limited to ensuring that your network cannot be exploited as a "smurf amplifier". Note that traffic from simple dialup accounts is already filtered by Dougal Internet to prevent this. For more information about "smurf" attacks see: Denial of Service Attack Information

You must not run an "open mail relay", that is, a machine which accepts mail from unauthorised or unknown senders and forwards it onward to a destination outside of your machine or network. If your machine performs relay mail on an authorised basis, then it must record this mail passing through your system by means of an appropriate "Received:" line.

Please note that users of "WinGate" should take special note that this software is capable of providing a wide range of relaying services. Default configurations can lead to unauthorised use, so that special care must be taken to configure it to prevent such use. More information is currently available at:

http://wingate.deerfield.com/helpdesk/version3/secure-wingate.cfm

and

www.cert.org/vul_notes/VN-98.03.WinGate.html

As an exception to the ban on relaying, you may run an "anonymous" relay service provided that you monitor it in such a way as to detect unauthorised or excessive use. However, you may not relay traffic from such an anonymous system via Dougal Internet's servers, i.e.: you can only pass email from such a system to Dougal Internet where this is the correct destination for final delivery.

Exchanging email with other Internet users is generally a matter of common sense and courtesy to others. The vast majority of Dougal Internet customers will be able to use their own sense of what is appropriate to guide their behaviour when sending email and will have no problem in conforming to this AUP.

Regrettably, from time to time, some email is sent or actions taken which are considered to be unacceptable by the Internet community. This is usually described by the generic term of "abuse".

Much of what is deemed to be the proper use or the abuse of the email system cannot be found codified into a single set of documents, but is based on contracts and understandings that have arisen between the administrators and owners of those computers and networks which exchange email. This AUP and its day to day application is based on consideration of both the formal and informal practices of this community where Dougal Internet is but one participant amongst many.

It is not always obvious whether such activity is innocent, inadvertent, or intentional. However, certain activities will result in action being taken by Dougal Internet as described below.

It is most important that when abuse occurs Dougal Internet takes appropriate action. If abuse was to continue unchecked Dougal Internet could lose the confidence of the Internet community, which could significantly affect the ability of Dougal Internet's customers to freely send and receive email.

Dougal Internet provides email services as part of the package of Internet access services. Dougal Internet reserves the right to change this AUP for email services at its sole discretion and without prior notice. Any decision made by Dougal Internet in relation to this service will be final on all matters.

Dougal Internet will enforce appropriate sanctions against any of its customers who are responsible for serious "abuse". Such sanctions may include, but are not limited to, a formal warning, suspension of email access through Dougal Internet's machines, suspension of access to the Internet through Dougal Internet, or termination of the customer's account(s).

If a suspension of access is imposed, then this may be lifted, at Dougal Internet's discretion, upon receipt of a formal written undertaking not to commit any future "abuse". All cases are, however, considered individually upon their merits. There are many forms of email abuse. This appendix discusses the more common forms in an informal manner, but is by no means an exhaustive list

It is usual to describe "abuse" as being abuse of Internet facilities, rather than vulgar abuse sent via the Internet. To qualify as "abuse", an act must significantly interfere with the use of the network by an individual or group of individuals in some specific way, for example by consuming resources or wasting others time. The term "abuse" also includes activities that are illegal or dishonest.

Generalities aside, due to the practical problems caused by "spamming" Dougal Internet wishes to make it clear that it considers the sending of bulk unsolicited email, of any kind, to be unacceptable behaviour. Dougal Internet will always act when such behaviour is brought to its notice. Education, in the form of an email warning, can be the most appropriate response to a first offence, since customers can be unaware of contemporary standards. However, it is Dougal Internet's policy to terminate the accounts of any customer who continues to send bulk unsolicited email.

Chain letters, "make money fast" and other ponzi pyramid-selling schemes These articles are similar to paper versions, where you add your name at the end of a list and send the message to lots of your friends. The person at the head of the list is typically sent some small amount of money and hopes to become rich. Simple mathematics shows why they do not work in theory, and a little thought about human nature will show you why they do not work in practice either.

These schemes, even where they offer no financial or material reward are unacceptable abuse. They waste resources for Internet service providers and for the users who download them. If they do involve money they are also illegal in many countries - despite common claims to the contrary within their text.

Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) Unsolicited Commercial Email is advertising material sent and received by email without the recipient either requesting such information or otherwise explicitly expressing an interest in the material advertised.

Since many Internet users use a dial-up connection and pay for their online time, it costs them money to receive email. Receipt of unsolicited commercial advertising therefore costs them money and is often therefore particularly unwelcome.

It should be noted that a user has not expressed an interest by the mere act of posting a news article in any particular newsgroup, or by visiting a web site, unless of course they have made a specific request for information to be emailed to them.

Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE) UBE is similar to the above UCE but is not attempting to sell anything.

Forged Headers and / or Addresses Forging headers or messages means sending email such that its origin appears to be another user or machine, or a non-existent machine.

It is also forgery to arrange for any replies to the email to be sent to some other user or machine.

However, in either case, if prior permission has been granted to you by the other user or the administrators of the other machine, then there is no problem, and of course "null" reverse paths can be used as defined in the relevant email standards.

Mail Bombing Mail bombing is the sending of multiple emails, or one large email, with the sole intent of annoying and / or seeking revenge on a fellow Internet user. It is wasteful of shared Internet resource as well as serving no value to the recipient.

Due to the time taken to download it, sending a long email to sites without prior agreement can amount to denial of service, or denial of access to email at the receiving site. Note that adding binary attachments to email may increase its size considerably. If prior arrangement has not been made, the email may be extremely unwelcome.

Denial of Service Attacks Denial of Service is any activity designed to prevent a specific host on the Internet making full and effective use of its facilities. This includes, but is not limited to:

Mail bombing an address in such a way to make their Internet access impossible, difficult, or costly. Opening an excessive number of email connections to the same host. Intentionally sending email designed to damage the receiver's systems when interpreted; for example, sending malicious programs or viruses attached to an email. sing a smarthost or email relay without authorisation to do so.

Mailing List Subscriptions Mailing lists are schemes for distributing copies of the same email to many different people. It is not acceptable to subscribe anyone, other than a user on your own host, to any mailing list or similar service, unless their explicit permission has been given.

List owners are encouraged to confirm all subscription requests by requesting confirmation from the apparent subscriber before starting to send any list email. They must ensure that unsubscribe requests are handled efficiently. Good emailing list software is available that will automate both these processes.

Many reports of unsolicited bulk email turn out to be from people who were unaware that they had joined a mailing list. It is not acceptable to subscribe people to a list merely because they have visited your web site or used one of your products; the person must make an explicit request to be listed.

However, some reports occur because people have genuinely forgotten that they had made such a request. If you run a mailing list you are strongly advised to keep copies of administrative requests (web logs, or emails including headers) so that you may demonstrate that subscription requests were genuine.

Illegal Content Various Acts of Parliament make it illegal to possess or transmit certain material on a public telecommunications network, such as the telephone system. It is not acceptable to send such material by email.

Breach of Copyright or Intellectual Property If you send copyright material or other intellectual property via email you must have permission to do so from the owner of that intellectual property.

Participating successfully in the various newsgroups that make up the Usenet news system is generally a matter of common sense and courtesy to others. The vast majority of Dougal Internet customers use their own sense of what is appropriate to guide their behaviour and will have no problem in conforming to this AUP.

Regrettably, from time to time, some articles are posted which are considered to be unacceptable by the Usenet community. This is usually described by the generic term of "abuse".

Much of what is deemed to be the proper use or the abuse of Usenet cannot be found codified into a single set of documents, but is based on the many informal understandings that have arisen between the administrators and owners of those computers which exchange Usenet articles. This AUP and its day to day application is based on consideration of both the formal and informal practices of this Usenet community where Dougal Internet is but one participant amongst many.

It is not always obvious whether abuse is innocent, inadvertent or intentional. Regardless of this, if Dougal Internet considers that "abusive" articles have been posted it is important for the protection of other Internet users that Dougal Internet takes firm action to prevent any recurrence.

If such articles were to continue to be posted unchecked, then the Usenet community could lose confidence that Dougal Internet will take appropriate sanctions. This could impact newsfeed peering arrangements and significantly affect the number of newsgroups and articles which Dougal Internet can offer to its customers.

Thus, Dougal Internet will not tolerate any action by its customers which could jeopardise its position within the Usenet community and Dougal Internet will enforce appropriate sanctions against any of its customers who are responsible for serious abuse of Usenet. Such sanctions include, but are not limited to, a formal warning, suspension of Usenet access through Dougal Internet's machines, suspension of access to the Internet, or termination of the customer's account(s).

If a suspension of access is imposed, then this may be lifted, at Dougal Internet's sole discretion, upon receipt of a formal written undertaking by the relevant customer not to post any further abusive articles. All cases are, however, considered individually by Dougal Internet upon their merits.

Dougal Internet provides access to Usenet as part of the package of Internet Access services. Dougal Internet reserves the right to change this Usenet AUP at its sole discretion and without prior notice. Any decision made by Dougal Internet in relation to this service shall be final on all matters.

There are many forms of Usenet abuse. This appendix discusses the more common forms in an informal manner, but is by no means an exhaustive list.

Chain Letters, "Make Money Fast" and other Ponzi Pyramid-Selling Schemes These articles are similar to paper versions, where you add your name at the end of a list and send the message to lots of your friends. The person at the head of the list is typically sent some small amount of money and hopes to become rich. Simple mathematics shows why they do not work in theory, and a little thought about human nature will show you why they do not work in practice either.

These schemes, even where they offer no financial or material reward are unacceptable abuse. They waste resources for Internet service providers and for the users who download them. If they do involve money they are also illegal in many countries despite common claims to the contrary within their text.

Dougal Internet will immediately suspend a customer's Usenet access for this type of abuse, even if a single such article is posted.

Excessive posting Excessive posting, commonly referred to as "spamming", means the posting of lots of substantively similar news articles, usually to a large number of newsgroups.

It is irrelevant whether the articles can be considered "on-topic" within the newsgroups or not. The problem caused by spamming is that Usenet resources are needed to store the articles and the cost to readers of the newsgroups to download duplicates of the same message.

The Usenet community determines whether an article has been duplicated too often using the Breidbart Index (BI). This index measures the breadth of any multi-posting, cross-posting, or combinations of the two by calculating the sum of the square roots of the number of newsgroups each article was posted to. If that number reaches 20, then the postings are extremely likely to be cancelled by automatic systems that detect this type of abuse.

Binary articles in Non-Binary Newsgroups Binary articles contain information that is in a form not directly readable by humans, usually in "base64" or "UUENCODE" sections. These are usually "attachments" of images; executable files, sounds, or proprietary format documents such as Microsoft Word or Excel. Even if the attachment within the article was originally simple text or a web page (HTML), if it has been encoded before posting it is still considered to be a "binary".

Articles posted to "non-binary" newsgroups should contain only simple text that is immediately readable without special tools. The size of any encoded section is irrelevant, the fact it is encoded is what makes it unacceptable. The only exception allowed to this blanket ban is the use of cryptographic authentication signatures, such as PGP.

Binaries are only allowed in special binary newsgroups because this allows them to be specially handled by the "newsmasters" who run Usenet's servers. The size of binaries, in particular, means that many systems will not wish to use their bandwidth to receive them, or will expire articles more quickly to prevent them from using excessive space.

In order to make things straightforward for newsmasters the binary newsgroups are all grouped together into hierarchies. Almost all binary newsgroups are to be found in alt.binaries.*, alt.sex.pictures and comp.binaries.* hierarchies.

There are also a small number of local binary hierarchies such as de.alt.binaries.*, as well as a handful of newsgroups with special rules for particular types of binaries such as rec.games.bolo. This handful of groups is specially treated because they have gone through recognised processes to gain their limited exemptions. You should not assume that binaries are acceptable in other groups because "everyone posts them" or "nobody objects". In particular you should note that binaries are not acceptable in any alt.fan.*, uk.* or demon.* newsgroup.

Ensuring that binary articles only appear in binary newsgroups is not just a matter of convenience for the newsmasters but is also important for individual Usenet readers. The appearance of a binary in a text-only newsgroup is usually extremely unwelcome. Besides the size of the article, which will take extra time to download, special tools will be needed to decode and handle the contents.

Forged Headers There are several types of unacceptable behaviour involving the forgery of article headers or article addresses.

It is abuse to post articles with headers that would mislead recipients into believing that some other system or user had created the articles. Dougal Internet's systems will add header lines to try and foil such forgery, but articles will still be treated as abuse even if Dougal Internet actions make the attempted forgery apparent.

It is abuse to post articles with headers which would cause responses to these articles, solicited or otherwise, to be delivered to unwilling third parties, or to inappropriate or unreasonable newsgroups. In particular, it is abuse to arrange for email replies to be delivered to an email address that you do not have permission to use.

Illegal content Some material is illegal to possess or is made illegal to transmit by various Acts of Parliament dealing with material sent over a public telecommunications network such as the telephone system that Dougal Internet uses to provide its services.

It is abuse to post illegal material to Usenet. If you post copyright material or other intellectual property to Usenet you must have permission to do so. In particular it can be illegal to publish 'hacks' or 'cracks' of software products.

Objectionable content Usenet is a robust medium that is intended for use by adults. Dougal Internet's customers may post articles that offend or annoy other users. These may contain foul language or controversial viewpoints.

Dougal Internet does not consider this sort of article to be "abuse" and actionable under the Usenet AUP.

This is because the Internet community does not generally consider it appropriate for content-based decisions to be made by anyone except by an individual on their own behalf. Therefore, if you are offended by articles made by a Dougal Internet customer then you should arrange not to read them in the future, by using facilities provided within your newsreading software such as "killfiles".

However, none of the above is to be taken as any suggestion that you may publish material that is prohibited under local obscenity or indecency laws. For example, it is a criminal offence to even possess child pornography in the U.K. and other content may give rise to civil actions. Dougal Internet does not condone the presence of this type of content anywhere on the Internet.

This Appendix is applicable to all web-hosting services provided by Dougal Internet. There are some further Appendices applicable to particular services below.

You are responsible in all respects for the content of your web site and must ensure that no applicable law is violated.

You must obtain any necessary legal permission for any works that your web site may include.

You will be held responsible for and accept responsibility for any defamatory, confidential, secret or other proprietary material available via your web site.

Dougal Internet reserves the right to remove any material from a web site at our sole discretion, without prior notice and without explanation.

A web site may not be used to offer, advertise or distribute any of the following types of material:

software for sending 'spam' (bulk emails, excessive news postings, etc.); illegal material lists of email addresses, except where all the owners of the addresses have given you explicit permission; any collection of personal data other than in accordance with the Data Protection Acts 1984 and 1998.

You must comply with the Data Protection Acts 1984 and 1998 (and any amendments or re-enactments of them) regarding all information received, stored or communicated through the use of your web site.

If your web site contains material that may cause general offence, a clearly readable warning page must be shown before any such offensive material is displayed.

To avoid doubt, this means that your top-level web page (usually index.htm or index.html) must not contain any adult material or other material that may generally offend. Where part of a web site forms an independent area that is not linked to by a topmost page, it will be considered as a site in its own right when considering whether appropriate warnings are present. Warnings are also required where the material is referenced directly from a web site, with no intervening pages, or where the use of frames makes the material appear to be part of a web site.

All of the web pages on a web site are considered to be publicly visible and may be downloaded by any person, whether or not they are linked from any central contents or home page. However, specific mechanisms are available as part of some services to prevent unauthorised access. Pages protected in such a manner will not be considered to be public.

Web sites may not be advertised by you, or by another person, using techniques that would be classified as "abuse" if they were carried out from a Dougal Internet account including, but not limited to, bulk emailing and excessive news posting. Such action will be treated under the Dougal Internet AUP as if it had been done from the Dougal Internet account.

Web sites must display a valid, up-to-date email contact address for the person responsible for the site. The use of the generic address of "webmaster" is acceptable for this purpose. This address must appear on the top-level page or be easily locatable from the top-level page.

Appendix D, above, sets out guidance for the use of all web-hosting services. This Appendix gives further guidance about the use of the "Shared Hosting" service.

The Shared Hosting service is a web site hosting service provided as part of other services. Termination or suspension of that other service will automatically result in termination or suspension of the corresponding Shared Hosting service.

By uploading to the Shared Hosting host, you will be deemed to have agreed to and accepted the ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY, Conditions of Use and Technical Restrictions of the Shared Hosting service. You are required to accept email addressed to "webmaster" at your address. For example, if you have the hostname "domain" then you should accept email addressed to webmaster@domain.com. You will be deemed to have read any and all such webmaster-addressed email. Dougal Internet may take action on the basis of this assumption.

You must maintain an index page called "index.htm" or "index.html" in the root directory of your Shared Hosting space.

Commercial use of your Shared Hosting space is permitted. This is an explicit exemption to the general Conditions of Use referring to selling on or sharing use of the service.

The Conditions of Use for the Standard Dial-Up account relating to disclosure of your passwords apply. Specifically your passwords are your responsibility and must not be disclosed to any third party. You must not cause your pages to be accessed by any means other than in the form "www.domain.com" (for the hostname "domain") nor register your web pages anywhere using any form of URL except in the form beginning: http://www.domain.com/

Specifically, you must not reference or cause your Shared Hosting to be referenced by dotted IP address (e.g. [213.170.128.254]).

Should the automated enforcement of any Condition of Use or Technical Restriction fail to operate for any reason, Dougal Internet reserves the right to remove files from your site to apply the requirement or to require you to immediately correct the situation.

Dougal Internet will require sites that are considered to show excessive use to be modified or be moved to a different server.

Dougal Internet reserves the right to make a charge for any assessment of suspended sites.

Dougal Internet reserves the right to vary the definition of 'excessive use' at their sole discretion at any time without prior notice.

Support from the helpdesk is only available for uploading, downloading and viewing pages. No support will be given for HTML authoring or page design.

You will be responsible for retaining copies of your own data. Dougal Internet will not keep backups of your pages.

Dougal Internet accepts no responsibility for loss of data, information in any form or other matters whatsoever that result from the use of this service.

Dougal Internet shall not be held liable for any loss however occasioned as a result of the suspension, removal or unavailability of a Shared Hosting site or material stored within it.

Credit Control Policy

The following policy will be applied without prejudice in respect of monies owed to Dougal Internet. Dougal Internet reserve the right to apply this policy at their discretion and vary its details in the future. We draw you attention to section 6 Warranties and Liabilities.

• All Invoices are on twenty-five days terms from the date of invoice

• If an invoice remains un-paid after twenty-five days all telephone support will be withdrawn, Dougal reserves the right to suspend the provision or continued operation of the Services.

• If an invoice remains un-paid after thirty days the DSL service will be cancelled and legal action will commence.  You will be liable for any re-connection charges

Additionally I would also like to draw your attention to the recent EC Directive on Late Payment, which came into effect in the UK on 8 August 2002. You can find detail about the directive here:

http://www.payontime.co.uk/news/ec_directive_managers.html