Terms of service / acceptable use policy

Terms of Services
Revision date: 09/08/2009

By signing up for service, or using any of Agent Black Web Hosting's services, you hereby agree to be bound by and abide by the Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

All services provided by Agent Black Web Hosting ("Agent Black") may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any United States Federal, State or City law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, material we judge to be threatening or obscene, or material protected by trade secret and other statute. The subscriber agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Agent Black from any claims resulting from the use of service which damages the subscriber or any other party.

Prohibited are sites that promote any illegal activity or present content that may be damaging to Agent Black's servers, or any other server on the Internet. Links to such materials are also prohibited.

Examples of unacceptable content or links:
pirated software
hacker programs or archives
Warez sites or programs
Illegal Music
Child Pornography or images that may be confused for child pornography

This list is not exclusive, nor inclusive. From time to time, administrative staff may review content on servers and hosting packages to ensure compliance with TOS/AUP. Administrative staff reserves the right to add to the examples of unacceptable content as it sees fit.

NOTICE: IF YOUR ACCOUNT IS FOUND TO CONTAIN ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, ILLEGAL MP3 FILES, PIRATED SOFTWARE, HACKER PROGRAMS, WAREZ PROGRAMS, OR ANY OTHER ILLEGAL FILES, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE TERMINATED IMMEDIATELY, WITHOUT NOTICE, AND A $175.00 CANCELLATION FEE WILL APPLY. ADDITIONALLY, AGENT BLACK WILL NOTIFY THE PROPER AUTHORITIES OF YOUR ACTIONS.

Agent Black reserves the right to amend any or all of the policies, guidelines and disclaimer below without notification. We also retain the right to increase any pricing and make changes to our account plans without notification.

TRAFFIC USAGE

All account plans come with a predetermined amount of traffic allowance. We monitor all accounts and bill $15.99 for each 1 to 100 GB of traffic exceeded. This amount is not prorated, meaning that 1 mb - 100 Gb will be treated and billed as the same. Refusal to pay will result in account being terminated.

IRC

We currently do not allow IRC or IRC Bots to be operated on our servers. Users who are found to be operating IRC or IRC Bots on Agent Black's network and/or servers, will have their accounts terminated and be subject to $175.00 cancellation fee.

SERVER ABUSE & REFUSAL OF SERVICE

Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server or customer of Agent Black is strictly prohibited. As our customer you are responsible for all of your accounts. Should you violate the Terms of Services outlined within, your account will be cancelled without chance of refund.

We reserve the right to refuse, cancel or suspend service, at our sole discretion, and without just cause. All sub-networks, distributive hosting sites and dedicated servers of Agent Black must adhere to the  policies outlined in this document, with the exception of system resources in respect to dedicated servers.

BILLING

By the Account Activation Date of each month or the 15th day of each month, Agent Black shall either:

(1) debit the client's credit card (when such information has been provided by the client); or

(2) deliver, by e-mail, regular mail, or express delivery service, an invoice in accordance with the applicable Service Fees for services rendered for the current month. When an invoice is delivered to the client, payment shall be remitted to Agent Black by no later than the specified payment due date. Agent Black shall be entitled to immediately terminate this agreement for client's failure to make timely payments. You will be provided with an invoice on a monthly basis, unless you choose a different billing cycle. If client fails to pay invoice due by date noted, all accounts and servers will be deactivated. If payment has not been received by the 5th day after which the invoice is due, we reserve the right to charge a late fee of 5% or $5.00 whichever is greater. If payment has not been received by the 10th day after due date, all data will be deleted, and will be lost. Agent Black is NOT responsible for user data once it is deleted. You agree to pay invoices on time, by the due date listed, and understand that failure to do so, will result in user's data being deleted from the network.

Management reserves the right to waive the late fee as it see's fit.

SERVICE FEES

Certain services carry a setup fee charged by Agent Black to client, which must be paid by client in order to have use of said services. If client terminates this agreement, client shall be responsible for any and all outstanding fees owed to Agent Black and agrees to pay any and all fees incurred by Agent Black. Because the services are provided on a monthly basis, the client will be responsible for service fees incurred each month, regardless of when client provides notice of termination. Thus, for example, if the client provides notice of termination on the 15th day of a particular month, the client will be responsible for service fees for the entire month, and such fees will not be pro-rated or refunded.

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

We offer a 30 day money back guarantee on all shared hosting. After 30 days, no refund will be provided. NO REFUNDS WILL BE PROVIDED FOR DEDICATED SERVERS AND VIRTUAL PRIVATE SERVERS, NO EXCEPTIONS.

ACCOUNT DEACTIVATIONS

Any account deactivated due to non-payment will require a reactivation fee of $50.00 prior to reactivation. Management reserves the right to waive this fee as it sees fit.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Agent Black shall not be responsible for any claimed damages, including but not limited to, incidental and consequential damages, which may arise from Agent Black's servers going offline or being unavailable for any reason whatsoever.

Furthermore Agent Black shall not be responsible for any claimed damages, including but not limited to, incidental or consequential damages, resulting from corruption or deletion of any website from any of Agent Black's servers. All damages shall be limited to the immediate termination of service.

Agent Black cannot be held liable for system down time, crashes or data loss. We cannot be held liable for any predicated estimate of profits which a client would have gained if their site was functioning. Certain services provided by Agent Black are resold. Thus, certain equipment, routing, software and programming used by Agent Black are not directly owned or written by Agent Black. Moreover, Agent Black holds no responsibility for the use of our clients' accounts. Failure to comply with any terms or conditions will result in the automatic deactivation of the account in question. We reserve the right to remove any account, without advance notice for any reason without restitution, as Agent Black sees fit.

Agent Black does not provide automated backup services for its users. It is the end users responsibility to ensure that they have most recent back up of the data on/in your hosting account. Agent Black will not be responsible for any but not limited to Loss of profits, data, and/or corruption of data. Please ensure you maintain regular backup's of your data as a good business practice.

You agree to hold harmless and agree not to bring any legal litigation against Agent Black for any damages including but not limited to incidental or consequential damages.

VIOLATIONS

Violations of these Terms of Service and/or Acceptable Use Policy should be referred to aup (@) agentblackhosting (dot) com.

All complaints will be investigated promptly. Failure to follow any terms or conditions will be grounds for immediate account termination without a refund.

SERVER UPTIME GUARANTEE

Agent Black guarantees 99.9% service uptime on all hosting plans. For the purpose of this document, service is described as HTTP, FTP, POP, IMAP, SMTP only. Should we fail to deliver this for given calendar month, your account will be refunded a pro-rated amount for the duration of the excessive downtime. Downtime due to scheduled maintenance or scheduled downtime is exempt from this policy. This will be your ONLY recourse for downtime.

ACCOUNT ACTIVATION

By activating your account with Agent Black, you agree to the above policies and disclaimer. Upon requesting activation of an account, you are required to accept these polices, guidelines, and disclaimer.

IF YOU SIGN UP FOR AN ACCOUNT AND FAIL TO COMPLY WITH THESE TERMS, NO REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN. WE WILL, HOWEVER, ADVISE YOU BY EMAIL, PHONE, EXPRESS MAIL, OR COURIER, PRIOR TO TAKING ANY ACTION TO PROVIDE YOU WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM. If you fail to correct the problem after being notified, your account will be terminated.

Control Panels

Agent Black provides users access to industry leading control panels for their servers and shared hosting accounts. For shared hosting clients, the control panel is provided free of charge. For VPS and dedicated server clients, the control panels are billed on a per month basis and by the number of domains hosted under that server. For Windows based servers Agent Black Hosting provides Parallels Plesk Control Panels on a tiered structure for pricing. Please note, for each Windows server that a client has, each will require a separate Plesk license. You are permitted to host up to the listed number of domains stated on your Plesk license. Please note that Plesk is only available on Windows based VPS and servers. cPanel is provided on Linux shared hosting accounts. cPanel is available for lease through Agent Black if you wish to purchase the license through us.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

Agent Black makes available to customers Virtual Private Servers (hereby VPS) for use. Agent Black's sole responsibility for the VPS Service is to activate the VPS and assign AT LEAST 1 IP Addresses to that VPS. Agent Black will not under any circumstances including but not limited to, configure, install customer software, install domains on the VPS, nor will Agent Black provide any technical support except as follows:

1) Ensure the VPS is functioning properly inside of the host node (this does not mean Agent Black will configure the VPS for you.  We will provision the VPS on the host node, log into the Admin panel to ensure the Admin panel is working properly, and assign the IP address to the VPS.  We will NOT do any further testing)
2) Ensure at least 1 IP Address has been assigned to that VPS
3) Ensure proper operation of the Host Node

ALL VPS MACHINES ARE SOLD AS IS - NO TECHNICAL SUPPORT PROVIDED EXCEPT AS PROVIDED ABOVE. THESE MACHINES ARE MEANT FOR USERS WHO HAVE A VERY CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO MANAGE, CONFIGURE, SECURE, AND PROTECT THE DATA CONTAINED ON THE VPS. AGENT BLACK WILL NOT PROVIDE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION FOR YOUR VPS. IT IS THE CUSTOMERS RESPONSIBLITY TO ENSURE PROPER CONFIGURATION OF THE VPS.

IF AGENT BLACK IS REQUIRED TO CONFIGURE YOUR VPS WE WILL CHARGE $150.00 PER HOUR WITH A 2 HOUR MINIMUM. CUSTOMER WILL ALSO BE REQUIRED TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TO HAVE THE VPS CONFIGURED. CUSTOMER WILL BE REQUIRED TO MAKE PAYMENT OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED FEE PRIOR TO ANY WORK BEING DONE. IF CUSTOMER DISPUTES THE CHARGES WITH CUSTOMERS CREDIT CARD COMPANY AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN PAID, AGENT BLACK WILL PURSUE LEGAL ACTION.

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Rev Date: 09/08/2009

As a provider of web site hosting and other Internet-related services, Agent Black offers its customers (also known as "Subscribers") and their customers and users the means to acquire and disseminate a wealth of public, private, commercial and non-commercial information. Agent Black respects that the Internet provides a forum for free and open discussion and dissemination of information. However, when there are competing interests at issue, Agent Black reserves the right to take certain preventive or corrective actions. In order to protect these competing interests, Agent Black has developed an Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP"), which supplements and explains certain terms of each customer's respective service agreement, and is intended as a guide to the customer's rights and obligations when using Agent Black's services. This AUP can and will be revised from time to time without notice.

One important aspect of the Internet is that no one party owns or controls it. This fact accounts for much of the Internet's openness and value, but it also places a high premium on the judgment and responsibility of those who use it, both in the information they acquire and in the information they disseminate to others. When subscribers obtain information through the Internet, they must keep in mind that Agent Black cannot monitor, verify, warrant or vouch for the accuracy and quality of the information they acquire. For this reason, the subscriber must exercise his or her best judgment in relying on information obtained from the Internet, and also should be aware that some material posted to the Internet may be sexually explicit or otherwise offensive. Because Agent Black cannot monitor or censor the Internet, and will not attempt to do so, Agent Black cannot accept any responsibility for injury to its subscribers resulting from inaccurate, unsuitable, offensive or illegal Internet communications.

When subscribers disseminate information from the Internet, they must keep in mind that Agent Black does not review, edit, censor or take responsibility for any information its subscribers may create. When users place information on the Internet, they have the same liability as other authors for copyright infringement, defamation and other harmful speech.

Also, because the information created is carried over Agent Black's network and may reach a large number of people, including both subscribers and non-subscribers of Agent Black, subscribers' postings to the Internet may affect other subscribers and may affect Agent Black's goodwill, business, reputation or operations. For these reasons, subscribers violate Agent Black policy and the Service Agreement when they, their customers, affiliates or subsidiaries engage in the following prohibited activities:

SPAMMING:

Sending unsolicited bulk and/or commercial information over the Internet. It is not only harmful because of its negative impact on consumer attitudes toward Agent Black, but also because it can overload Agent Black's network and disrupt service to Agent Black's subscribers. Also, maintaining an open SMTP relay is prohibited. When a complaint is received, Agent Black will investigate and shutdown the account that is SPAMing. A $3500 (Thirty-Five Hundred Dollars) charge for violating this policy will be charged to the person initiating the SPAM.

Furthermore Agent Black reserves the right to prosecute for this violation. A $20.00 or maximum as allowed by law, charge will be assessed PER EMAIL sent should Agent Black choose to pursue and prosecute. Agent Black supports the United States Federal CAN-SPAM law, and we will cooperate fully with authorities with regards to shutting down spam operations.

If you're looking to spam, please find another host. Agent Black is committed in reducing the amount of spam on the World Wide Web, and in doing so, we choose NOT to host spammers, their sites, or anything related to spamming.

Audio/Video Streaming:

Audio/Video Streaming is not hosting friendly. As such, Agent Black does not allow any streaming of audio or video content on shared hosting accounts. Offending accounts will be suspended without notice and/or terminated. If you wish to stream video or audio, you will be required to obtain a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or higher hosting solution. Accounts found in violation of this, will be charged up to three (3) times the amount of their hosting account. Example: if you have a $10.00 a month hosting account, you could be charged up to $30.00 as a penalty for violation of this term, for each violation.

Adult-Oriented Content (porn):

Agent Black does not allow adult content (porn) and will suspend/terminate any offending account. Refunds will not be given for violations of this term.

Large File Policy:

Agent Black is not for file hosting and distribution - as such, customers may not host any files larger than 1024MB (1GB) in size that are observed to be available for the sole purpose of download. Such files include but are not limited to .ISO, audio/video files, .EXE files. If you are unsure whether your file is against this policy, please e-mail aup (at) @ agentblackhosting .(dot) com.

Obscene Speech or Materials:

Using Agent Black's network to advertise, transmit, store, post, display, or otherwise make available child pornography or obscene speech or material is prohibited. Agent Black is required by law to notify law enforcement agencies when it becomes aware of the presence of child pornography on or being transmitted through its network. Users who advertise, transmit, store, post, display, or otherwise make available child pornography will be assessed a penalty not less than $1,000 and up to maximum allowed by law. Failure to pay will result in legal action brought against offending user. User’s personal information including but not limited to name, address, email address, and telephone number, will also be transmitted to the nearest law enforcement agency for further investigation.

Defamatory or Abusive Language:

Using Agent Black's network as a means to transmit or post negative, defamatory, harassing, abusive or threatening language is prohibited.

Forging of Headers:

Forging or misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the originator of the message. Violation of this term can result in automatic deletion of customers account, and a $3500 (Thirty-Five Hundred Dollars) charge for violating this policy will be charged to the person initiating the SPAM.

Agent Black has a ZERO tolerance policy for spam or spammers. Please see our Spam policy listed above.

Illegal/Unauthorized Access to Other Computers/ Networks:

Accessing, illegally or without authorization, computers, accounts or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another individual's system (often known as "hacking") is strictly prohibited.

Also, any activity that may be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (i.e., port scan, stealth scan or other information-gathering activity) is strictly prohibited. If Agent Black becomes aware of these attempts, user accounts will be terminated with no refunds, and the user account information will be passed to local law enforcement authorities.

Distribution of Internet Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses or Other Destructive Activities:

Distributing information regarding the creation of and sending Internet viruses, worms, Trojan horses, pinging, flooding, mail bombing or denial of service attacks is also strictly prohibited. Also, activities that disrupt the use of or interfere with the ability of others to effectively use the network or any connected network, system, service or equipment.

Furthermore Agent Black reserves the right to prosecute for this violation. A $3,500.00 penalty will be assessed PER virus, worm, trojan, pinging, flooding, mail bombing, or denial of service attack sent should Agent Black choose to pursue and prosecute.

Facilitation a Violation of this AUP:

Advertising, transmitting or otherwise making available any software, program, product or service that is designed to violate this AUP, which includes the facilitation of the means to spam, initiation of pinging, flooding, mail bombing, denial of service attacks and piracy of software is prohibited.

Export Control Violations:

Exporting encryption software over the Internet or otherwise, to points outside the United States is prohibited.

Usenet Groups:

Agent Black reserves the right not to accept postings from newsgroups where we have actual knowledge that the content of the newsgroup violates the AUP.

Other Illegal Activities:

Engaging in activities that are determined to be illegal, including, but not limited to, advertising, transmitting or otherwise making available ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, fraudulently charging credit cards and pirating software is prohibited.  A $5000 (Thirty-Five Hundred Dollars) charge for violating this policy will be charged to the person initiating these activities.

 

Other Activities:

Engaging in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that Agent Black determines to be harmful to its subscribers, operations, and reputation, goodwill or customer relations is prohibited.

As we have pointed out, the responsibility for avoiding harmful activities just described rests primarily with the subscriber. Agent Black will not, as an ordinary practice, monitor the communications of its subscribers to ensure that they comply with Agent Black's policy or applicable law.

However, when Agent Black becomes aware of harmful activities, it may take any action to stop the harmful activity, including, but not limited to, removal of information, shutting down a web site, implementing screening software designed to block offending transmissions, denying access to the Internet, or any other action deemed appropriate by Agent Black.

Agent Black is also aware that many of its subscribers are themselves providers of Internet services and that information reaching Agent Black's facilities from those subscribers may have originated from a customer of the subscriber or from another third party. Agent Black does not require its subscribers who offer Internet services to monitor or censor transmissions or web sites created by customers of its subscribers; however it is the provider’s responsibility to ensure all clients comply with Agent Black's policies. Agent Black reserves the right to directly take action against a customer of its subscribers. However, Agent Black requires that subscriber's customers agree to Agent Black's Terms Of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy.

Also, Agent Black may take action against an Agent Black subscriber because of activities of a customer of that subscriber, even though the action may affect other customers of the subscriber. Similarly, Agent Black anticipates that subscribers who offer Internet services will cooperate with Agent Black in any corrective or preventive action that Agent Black deems necessary. Failure to cooperate with such corrective or preventive measures is a violation of Agent Black policy.

Agent Black will not intentionally monitor private electronic mail messages sent or received by its subscribers, unless required to do so by law, governmental authority or when public safety is at stake. Agent Black may, however, monitor its service electronically to determine that its facilities are operating satisfactorily. Also, Agent Black may disclose information, including, but not limited to, information concerning a subscriber, a transmission made using our network, or a web site, in order to comply with a court order, subpoena, summons, discovery request, warrant, statute, regulation or governmental request. Agent Black assumes no obligation to inform the subscriber that subscriber information has been provided and, in some cases, may be prohibited by law from giving such notice. Customer agrees to hold harmless Agent Black from any damages pertaining to such release of subscriber information.

Agent Black may disclose subscriber information or information transmitted over its network where necessary to protect Agent Black and others from harm, or where such disclosure is necessary to the proper operation of the system. However, Agent Black will never sell information to other services or outside companies.

Agent Black expects that its subscribers who provide Internet services to others will comply fully with all applicable laws concerning the privacy of online communications. A subscriber's failure to comply with those laws will violate Agent Black’s policy.

Finally, Agent Black wishes to emphasize that, in signing the Service Agreement, subscribers indemnify Agent Black for any violation of the Service Agreement, law or Agent Black policy resulting in loss to Agent Black or the bringing of any claim against Agent Black by any third party. This means that, if Agent Black is sued because of a subscriber's or customer of a subscriber's activity, the subscriber will be responsible for payment of any damages awarded against Agent Black, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees.

We hope this AUP is helpful in clarifying the obligations of Internet users, including Agent Black and its subscribers, as responsible members of the Internet. Any complaints about a subscriber's violation of this AUP should be sent to aup (at) agentblackhosting (d0t). com.

 

Privacy Policy

Rev. Date: 09/08/2009

Agent Black has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to your privacy. The following discloses the information gathering and dissemination practices for Agent Black's websites.

INFORMATION AUTOMATICALLY LOGGED

We use your IP Address to help diagnose problems with our servers, administer our website, fraud checks, and /or compliance with our TOS / AUP.

 

ORDER FORMS

Our site uses an order form for customers to request services. We collect sensitive information which is used only for our purpose. We do share VERY limited information with third parties in order to provide the services we do. This information is not sold to anyone under any circumstances. Contact information from the order forms is used to get in touch with the customer when necessary.

Billing information that is collected is used to bill the user for services. Unique identifiers are collected from Web site visitors to verify the user's identity. Demographic and profile data is also collected at our site. We use this data to tailor our visitor's experience at our site showing them content that we think they might be interested in, and displaying the content according to their preferences.

SECURITY, THIRD PARTIES AND CONTACTING THE WEBSITE

This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control. We use strong SSL encryption and ensure your privacy.

Information collected on our site may be shared with third parties in order to provide services to you the client. ONLY THE MINIMUM INFORMATION NEEDED TO PROVIDE SERVICES TO YOU WILL BE SHARED WITH THIRD PARTIES.

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this website, you may contact our Privacy Department Team at privacy (at@) agentblackhosting (d0t . ) com

 

DMCA COMPLAINTS

Rev Date: 09/20/2009

Agent Black believes that copyright holders have the sole right to defend their works and creations. With that being said, if Agent Black receives a valid DMCA complaint, Agent Black will investigate the matter thoroughly. If the DMCA complaint is found to be valid, the offending content will be removed from the servers. An email, postal letter, or telephone call will be placed to offending subscriber to inform them of the violation.

If customer is found to have violated the DMCA a second time, Agent Black reserves the right to charge subscriber up to $3,000.00 (Three Thousand Dollars) for a second violation.

If a customer is found to have violated the DMCA a third time, Agent Black will terminate all services, delete all subscribers’ data, and charge the subscriber up to $5,000.00 (Five Thousand Dollars). Failure to pay such charges will result in legal action being taken against offending subscriber.

Notice to Copyright Holders:

In order for your DMCA complaint to be valid, you must complete each of the following steps:

1. List the exact location of the offending content. Example: www.example.com could be a perfectly legal, however www.example.com/badfile.mp3 could be the offending file. Agent Black will not remove non-offending files.

2. The original or an Adobe PDF copy of the complaint must be forwarded to Agent Black including the list of offending content. Copyright holders may use dmca (at) agentblackhosting .com to forward their complaints. The complaint must list the offending website including the EXACT file or files that are in violation. Incomplete or unfounded complaints will be returned and noted as not complete, or unfounded. If the exact file is not listed, the DMCA will be returned for review. We will NOT delete non-offending content.

Please note that once the valid paperwork has been received, Agent Black will work as quickly as possible to review the complaint. This process could take up to 21 business days.

If the subscriber has been found in violation of the DMCA, Agent Black will delete the offending file or files within 3 business days.

Agent Black will in turn reply to said complaint with the action taken by Agent Black. Agent Black will not release subscriber information without court order from a court of competent jurisdiction. Agent Black will only release the minimum amount of information needed to comply with such said court order. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCE are Agent Black's user records available for review except by a court of competent jurisdiction.