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Acceptable Use Policy for OmniTel Communications Internet Service


OmniTel Communications Internet Service is provided by Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, hereafter collectively referred to as “Companies”. The OmniTel Communications Acceptable Use Policy has been formulated with the following goals in mind:



General Terms and Conditions


  1. By signing this order and agreement, you (Customer) agree to the terms and conditions of the OmniTel Communications Customer Service Agreement and the OmniTel Communications Acceptable Use Policy.
  2. Internet Accounts are assigned to individual customers only. Only one user can access each individual account at a time.
  3. All charges are billed monthly. The Companies reserve the right to change the rate schedule at any time. Failure to pay when due will result in suspension or discontinuance of service. A service fee will be required to reinstate your account.
  4. The Companies make no express or implied warranty of any kind. There is no express or implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose for the services to be provided by the Companies. The Companies’ network protocols call for end-to-end verification of the accurate receipt of a message. The Companies make no attempt to verify accurate receipt of any message and are not responsible for any loss of data or loss of use of services resulting from delays, non-deliveries, incorrect deliveries, viruses, or service interruptions, including those caused by negligence, errors or omissions of the Companies, nor will the Companies be liable to Customer for consequential damages, regardless of their cause.
  5. The Companies provide a local access telephone number and are not liable for any long distance charges the customer may incur.
  6. Customer agrees to comply with the Acceptable Use terms governing use of the Companies’ network.
  7. The Companies reserve the right to limit the size of customer’s email folder to 20 MB.
  8. This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Iowa applicable to contracts to be performed entirely within the state, and Customer agrees to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts of the State of Iowa for the purposes of resolving any disputes that may arise under this agreement.
  9. Either party may terminate this agreement at any time for any reason by giving written notice. Such notice is effective when given. Customer is obligated to pay for service through the termination date, as detailed on the final invoice.
  10. It is expressly agreed and understood that the Companies are not responsible for the information which may be accessed or received through the Internet and the Companies do not warranty the accuracy or appropriateness of any information. Customer agrees to hold harmless the Companies, directors and employees from any and all claims which might arise from Customer’s use of the Internet.
  11. Customer is executing this Customer Service Agreement solely in reliance upon customer’s own knowledge, belief and judgment and not upon any representations made by the Companies.
  12. The Companies reserve the right, but do not undertake the obligation, to monitor and review any and all information, programs, files, ect. transmitted or received by Customer for the purpose of providing services and for determining compliance with the Acceptable Use terms, and Companies agree to use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that all information, programs, files, etc. reviewed by the Companies while providing services will remain confidential and will not be disclosed to any third party by the Companies unless court ordered or subpoenaed.
  13. Customer agrees that the Companies are not responsible for providing any type of anti-virus, firewall or filtering software. Setup, maintenance and use of such programs shall be Customer’s responsibility.
  14. Customer agrees to hold harmless the Companies and its directors, officers, agent and employees from all claims, demands and causes of action of every nature or kind, arising out of or as a result of any act or failure to act, whether or not negligent, in connection with the performance of work performed on the customer’s computer or computer accessories by the Companies. This Customer Service Agreement covers all acts and damages, whether known or not, which may hereafter appear or develop, arising from such services.

Acceptable Use


The Acceptable Use Policy below defines the actions that the Companies consider to be abusive, and thus, strictly prohibited. The examples named in this list are non-exclusive and are provided solely for guidance to customers. If you are unsure whether any contemplated use or action is permitted, please send e-mail to support@omnitelcom.com and we will assist you.


Please note that the actions listed below are also not permitted from other Internet Service Providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by the Companies, or connected via the Companies’ networks. Furthermore, such services may not be advertised via deceptive marketing policies, as defined by the Federal Trade Commission Deception Policy Statement.


General Conduct


  1. Customers are prohibited from transmitting on or through any of the Companies’ services, any material that is, in the Companies’ sole discretion, unlawful, obscene, threatening, abusive, libelous, or hateful, or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law.
  2. The Companies’ services may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution, or storage of any information, data or material in violation of United States or state regulation or law, or by the common law, is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, or any other statute. The Companies reserve the right to remove such illegal material from its servers.
  3. The customer is responsible for keeping his billing data with the Companies up-to-date and accurate. Furnishing false data on the signup form, contract, or online application, including fraudulent use of credit card numbers, is grounds for immediate termination and may subject the offender to civil or criminal liability.
  4. The resale of the Companies’ products and services is not permitted, unless specifically permitted and documented in a written agreement.
  5. Activities that violate local, state, or federal statutes are prohibited.

System and Network Security


  1. Customers may not attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account ("cracking"). This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the Customer, logging into a server or account the Customer is not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other networks (such as running a SATAN scan or similar tool).
  2. Customers may not attempt to interfere with service to any user, host, or network ("denial of service attacks"). This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service, and attempts to "crash" a host.
  3. Activities that violate local, state, or federal statutes are prohibited.Customers shall not falsify or omit valid domain contact information, including the administrative, technical, zone, and billing contacts.
  4. Activities that violate local, state, or federal statutes are prohibited.tacks"). This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service, and attempts to "crash" a host.
  5. Customers may not use any kind of program/script/command, or send messages of any kind, designed to interfere with a user’s terminal session, via any means, locally or by the Internet.
  6. Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. The Companies will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations.
  7. Activities that violate local, state, or federal statutes are prohibited.

Domain Names


Keeping registry information updated and accurate is the responsibility of the domain holder and not the Companies.


  1. Customers shall not falsify or omit valid domain contact information, including the administrative, technical, zone, and billing contacts.
  2. Activities that violate local, state, or federal statutes are prohibited.

Viruses


  1. The Companies’ shall not be responsible for providing security from viruses for the protection against viruses, worms, harmful programs or items. If Companies due provide security from viruses, worms, harmful programs or items, known or unknown, the customer shall not hold Companies’ responsible for damage to any or all of the customers computer related equipment, including and not limited to, PCs, servers, routers, and networking equipment if customers equipment receives a virus, worm, harmful program, or item while using Companies’ Internet service.
  2. Customer will not intentionally release any virus, worm or other harmful programming or item. If the customer does intentionally or unintentionally release any virus, worm, or harmful program or item, is grounds for immediate termination and may subject the offender to civil or criminal liability.
  3. It is the sole responsibility of the customer to provide the customer with his/her own virus protection software/hardware, and the sole responsibility of the customer to keep updated the software/hardware with the most current definitions available.

Email


  1. Harassment, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages, is prohibited.
  2. Customers may not send email to any person who does not wish to receive it. If a recipient asks to stop receiving email, the customer must not send that person any further email.
  3. Customers are explicitly prohibited from sending unsolicited bulk mail messages ("junk mail" or "spam"). This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, and political tracts. Such material may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it.
  4. Customers may not forward or otherwise propagate chain letters, whether or not the recipient wishes to receive such mailings.
  5. Malicious email, including, but not limited to, "mailbombing" (flooding a user or site with very large or numerous pieces of email), is prohibited.
  6. Forging of header information is not permitted.
  7. The Companies’ accounts or services may not be used to collect replies to messages sent from another Internet Service Provider, where those messages violate this Acceptable Use Policy or the Acceptable Use Policy of that other provider.
  8. These rules apply to other types of Internet-based distribution mediums as well, such as RLG’s Ariel system (a system for sending FAX-like documents over the Internet). USENET postings have their own regulations; see below.
  9. Activities that violate local, state, or federal statutes are prohibited.

USENET


  1. Postings to USENET newsgroups must comply with the written charters or FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) for those newsgroups. Advertisements should only be posted in those newsgroups whose charters/FAQs explicitly permit them. The poster is responsible for determining the etiquette of a given newsgroup, prior to posting to it.
  2. Customers are prohibited from posting the same or similar message to large numbers of newsgroups (excessive cross-posting or multiple-posting, also known as "USENET spam").
  3. Customers are prohibited from posting chain letters of any type.
  4. Customers are prohibited from posting binary files to newsgroups not specifically named for that purpose.
  5. Customers are prohibited from canceling or superseding posts other than their own, with the exception of official newsgroup moderators performing their duties.
  6. Customers are prohibited from forging header information. This includes attempting to circumvent the approval process for posting to a moderated newsgroup.
  7. A customer may not solicit mail for any other address other than that of the customer’s account or service, with the intent to harass or collect replies after the Companies’ service has been terminated.
  8. Activities that violate local, state, or federal statutes are prohibited.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat)


  1. The Companies are not liable for the content of any communications made on IRC.
  2. IRC robots ("bots" or "clones") may not be run from the Companies’ shell accounts.
  3. Customers may not attempt to impersonate others or use IRC anonymously by disguising their hostname or username.
  4. Customers are prohibited from using IRC scripts or programs that interfere with or deny service to other users on any server or host. Customers are also prohibited from engaging in activities which harass other users. This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" (rapidly entering text with the intent to fill the screens of others), "flashing" (disrupting terminal emulation), "takeovers" (forcibly seizing operator privileges), attempting to send private messages to those who do not wish to see them (via "ignore"), attempting to return to a channel after being banned from it, and other disruptive behaviors.
  5. Activities that violate local, state, or federal statutes are prohibited.

Individual Accounts (Dial-up Users Only)


  1. The Companies’ dial-up accounts are intended for use by an individual. Multiple logins are prohibited. Users of ‘user mode IP’ programs (such as TIA) may use one additional login via telnet in addition to the initial login. Shell account users may not run programs which provide network services from their accounts, such as IRC or MUD servers.
  2. The Companies’ dial-up accounts are intended for interactive use. Connections that are idle for 20 minutes or longer, or connected for more than 24 hours continuously will be disconnected.
  3. Use of the Companies’ dial-up accounts as a dedicated modem connection through the use of redialers and idle-time traffic generators is prohibited.
  4. The Companies’ shell accounts operate on shared resources. Customers are prohibited from excessive consumption of resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space, and session time. The use of resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other system users or the performance of the Companies’ systems or networks is prohibited, and the Companies’ staff may take action to limit or terminate such programs.
  5. Password security is the responsibility of the individual user. Good passwords should be a minimum of six characters long, contain at least one number or symbol, and are not based on any dictionary word or common name. Customers may not share passwords or accounts with others.
  6. Activities that violate local, state or federal statutes are prohibited.

The Companies reserve the right to restrict or terminate service without a refund in the event of a violation of this Acceptable Use Policy. The Companies also reserve the right to act upon an abuse which is not specifically named in this Acceptable Use Policy at its sole discretion. Use of the Companies’ systems and networks constitutes understanding and agreement of this policy.


The Acceptable Use Policy may be revised from time to time.