Acceptable Use Policy

Scope of the Policy

This policy applies to users of the Vistua Network ("users"). You are a user if:

• You have an @vistua.com or @vistua.net email address.
• You have login credentials (regular user only) for any host (machine) in the domain vistua.net or any sub-domain thereof.
• You are connected, by wires or over-the-air, to a Vistua LAN or access point
• Usership is explicitly conferred upon you by agreement between you and The Vistua Network organization.

This policy only applies to your interaction with The Network as defined below. This policy does not apply to your actions using third party systems which do not in any way interact with The Network. Accounts

You are allowed to log into or access email service, servers, groupware, LAN, machines, routers, UNIX accounts and all other services provided for your access ("The Network", "Network"), by the Vistua Network System, using the authentication credentials (such as user-names and passwords) designated for your use only. You are not permitted to use any account other than the one designated for your use without special authorization from the Administration Office ("Administration").

You shall not permit anyone other than yourself to log into or access The Network—or any portion thereof—using your credentials nor are you allowed to reveal your credentials to any other person except as authorized on a case-by-case basis by Administration.

Administration reserves the right to disable, limit or modify your credentials, as it sees fit, should you violate these provisions.

Nothing in this section should be construed as restricting you from publicizing your email address or any publicly accessible web-site URL.

Prohibited Modes of Access

You are permitted to access only those services, areas, privileges, capabilities and systems which are designated for your access. All regular user accounts are restricted from accessing core system areas, this is to preserve Network self-integrity and security, some accounts may have additional restrictions. You may not attempt to circumvent, abridge, disable or avoid this or other restrictions placed on your account, either explicitly imposed or placed by an automatic function of The Network or as a natural operating method.

You are permitted to log into and/or access The Network only in a reasonable manner, you may not access The Network, or any portion thereof, in an artificially high volume manner which strains system capacity. You are not permitted to gain access via automatic software programs or techniques, except programs or techniques that access legitimate email or messaging using the provided functions and addresses, this exception does not abrogate any other reason why that access might be prohibited under another portion of this policy.

You may not use The Network to intercept any confidential communication that was not intended for you.

You are not permitted to access, log into or use any function in an unexpected or perverse manner; nor to add or remove, damage or alter in any way: data, code, information or computer records stored in any portions of The Network which are not provided for your access. This restriction includes the prohibition of the unauthorized alteration of configuration parameters of any portion of The Network which are not provided for your alteration.

Software and Hardware

You are not permitted to add or remove hardware or software, except for your account to The Network.

This restriction does not prevent you from using commonplace removable devices such as thumb-drives, MP3 players, digital cameras and so-forth, or head-phones and microphones at any machine in The Network where connectors are provided for your use.

If you would like new hardware or software to be installed please contact Administration to perform this task for you. Administration reserves the right to refuse to install new hardware or software.

You should not buy new hardware or software for The Network without consulting Administration as some hardware or software may be unsuitable for use with or technically incompatible with Network systems.

No portion of this section should be construed as prohibiting you from using hardware and software provided to you or made available for your use. However this does not abrogate any other reason why such use would be prohibited.

E-Mail

Any use of the ingoing or outgoing email systems which is commonly held to be abusive is considered an assault. You may be blocked, penalized or fined.

You shall not send nuisance email. Nuisance email shall be defined as any email which causes harm, distress or annoyance to the recipient or is illegal or strains or harms technical capacity of the network. Such email includes but is not limited to:

• Unsolicited bulk email, commercial or not (commonly called spam or UCBE?).
• Emails with formatting codes such as HTML that are of artificial complexity.
• Emails with Microsoft RTF formatting codes, or similar.
• Emails which contain formatting codes that cause external resources to load. This includes images.
• Emails with attachments that are of excessive size.
• Emails with active or "scripted" elements.
• Emails which contain executable files in any way.
• Emails which do not have subject lines.
• Emails which are grossly incorrectly spelled or which have odious grammar failures.
• Obscene or lascivious emails.

Emails whose sole purpose is to be retransmitted verbatim, or only with trifling changes are strictly prohibited, whether or not the recipients wish to receive them. This prohibition holds even in the presence of appeals to superstition or other threats.

You are explicitly barred from gaining unauthorized access to other users emails and from relaying external email messages through our servers without permission.

You are not allowed to block emails from Administration.

Prohibited Content

The use of The Network to invade the privacy of any person or organization; to violate the laws of the United States; to provoke violence, riots or civil strife at home or abroad; to defraud, libel or willfully deceive or to send or receive copyrighted materials without proper authorization is strictly prohibited.

Lewd, obscene, or pornographic viewing is strictly prohibited and in some cases illegal. Content involving lewd acts with "minor" children is against the law.

Administration reserves the right to put into place technological or other measures designed to restrict content which violates this policy. A site blocking scheme is currently in effect and may influence your ability to access some Internet resources. For more information please visit the Vistua web-page about this scheme at this URI: http://www.vistua.com/Support/SiteBlocking, or such other URI as shall be designated by Administration.

The failure of such a measure to block content does not imply that the content does not violate this policy. It is your sole responsibility to refrain from accessing prohibited content. DO NOT RELY ON THE SITE BLOCKING SCHEME AS AN INDICATOR OF POLICY CONFORMANCE. Other Security and Confidentiality Provisions

Network system configuration parameters are proprietary and sensitive information and may not be distributed outside The Network. You are not permitted to publicize this or any other information about The Network which is not cleared for public release. As a user, you may be informed of information about The Network which is secret and confidential.

You may not forward emails from Administration to non-users without permission, or disclose to others web-site address that are not intended for public disclosure.

Intellectual Property

The Vistua Network, except your files created by you and stored in the areas provided for you is protected by copyrights and trademarks of The Vistua Network and its licensors, except where indicated. You may not publish, redistribute, syndicate, publicize or put in information storage and retrieval systems of any kind in any medium without permission except in the context of short quotations in critical reviews (or other situations) as permitted by "Fair Use" law. Disclaimer & Miscellaneous

THE NETWORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF "MERCHANTABILITY" OR "FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE" The public Internet is not a secure medium by default, your access could be intercepted by third parties. System availability not guaranteed. Void where prohibited.

This policy is governed by the laws of the State of New York.

Anyone is permitted to distribute this policy in any medium, world-wide, verbatim. Changing it is not allowed.