Acceptable Use

Back Office Mechanics LLC, Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Back Office Mechanics’s Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) is designed to provide a clear understanding of regulations and restrictions regarding the use of Back Office Mechanics’s services.

Back Office Mechanics reserves the right to modify the Acceptable Use Policy from time to time, effective on the date of posting. Back Office Mechanics may not notify the customer of the change, however, it is the customers responsibility to frequently check back to ensure they are up to date with the policy.

General Prohibitions. You (also referred to as “subscriber” or “customer”) may use our Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with our Terms of Service (including this Acceptable Use Policy or AUP). You are responsible at all times for ensuring that your use of our Services, including by your customers/end users, complies with our AUP.

By using our services, and agreeing to the Terms of Service (“TOS”), you agree to abide by the AUPs as modified from time to time. Any violation of the AUP may result in the suspension or termination of your service without notice and without refund. An activity that is unlisted may also be a violation of the AUP if it is illegal, irresponsible, or disruptive to the use of the Internet.

THE VIOLATION OF ANY AUP OR ANY OTHER POLICY IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND MAY RESULT IN THE IMMEDIATE SUSPENSION OR TERMINATION FROM THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY BACK OFFICE MECHANICS. YOU SHALL REMAIN SOLELY LIABLE AND RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES AND ANY AND ALL CONTENT THAT YOU DISPLAY, UPLOAD, DOWNLOAD OR TRANSMIT THROUGH THE USE OF BACK OFFICE MECHANICS’S SERVERS. “CONTENT” INCLUDES, BUT NOT LIMITED TO; E-MAIL, WEB PAGES, PERSONAL HOME PAGES, AND DOMAIN NAMES. IT IS BACK OFFICE MECHANICS’S POLICY TO TERMINATE REPEAT OFFENDERS; BACK OFFICE MECHANICS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE AT ANY TIME, WITHOUT REASON.

System and Network Security

Violations of system or network security is strictly prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability. Back Office Mechanics may investigate incidents involving such violations and may involve and will co-operate with law enforcement if a criminal violation is suspected. The following are some examples of network or system violations:

High-risk services, which are services which tend to attract denial of service attacks, are strictly prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, torrents and IRC related services.
Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks
Forging of any TCP-IP packet header or any part of the header information in an e-mail or newsgroup posting.
Unauthorized monitoring of data or traffic on any network or system without express authorization of the owner of the system or network.
Unauthorized access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or breach security or authentication measures without express authorization of the owner of the system or network.
If your account, or a sub-account (resold), is responsible for an AUP violation by an upstream provider, a one time fee of $50 will be charged to your account for cleanup and reactivation. If your account is responsible for a second AUP violation by an upstream provider for the same issue your account is subject to termination.
Violators of the policy are responsible, without limitations, for the cost of labor to clean up and correct any damage done to the operation of the network and business operations supported by the network, and to respond to complaints incurred by Back Office Mechanics. Such labor is categorized as emergency security breach recovery and is currently charged at $200 per hour.
You may not engage in any penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, or other similar testing without our prior written authorization, in our sole discretion. Any testing without our prior consent will result in immediate termination, with no refund, of the applicable account.

Password Protection

The customer is responsible for protecting customer’s password and for any authorized or unauthorized use made of customer’s password. The customer will not use or permit anyone to use Back Office Mechanics’s service to guess passwords or to access other systems or networks without authorization. Back Office Mechanics will fully cooperate with law enforcement authorities in the detection and prosecution of illegal activity.

Contact Information

Customers are responsible for maintaining their contact information in the ticketing system such that the email address is always reachable even in the event of their Back Office Mechanics account(s) or server(s) being shut down. All Back Office Mechanics customers are required to have valid full contact information on file. Accounts with false information will be suspended until valid information is placed on file.

Internet Etiquette

The customer is expected to be familiar with and to practice good Internet etiquette (Netiquette). The customer will comply with the rules appropriate to any network to which Back Office Mechanics may provide access. The customer should not post, transmit, or permit Internet access to information the customer desires to keep confidential. The customer is not permitted to post any material that is illegal, libelous, tortuous, or indecently depicts children, or is likely to result in retaliation against Back Office Mechanics by offended users. Back Office Mechanics reserves the right to refuse or terminate service at any time for violation of this section. This includes advertising services or sites via IRC or USENET in clear violation of the policies of the IRC channel or USENET group.

Copyright Infringement – Software Piracy Policy

The Back Office Mechanics network may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution, or storage of any information, data or material in violation of United States or province 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 other intellectual property rights.

Making unauthorized copies of software is a violation of the law, no matter how many copies you are making. If you copy, distribute or install the software in ways that the license does not allow, you are violating federal copyright law. If caught with pirated software, you or your company may be liable under both civil and criminal law, and you may be fined up to $250,000 and/or receive up to 5 years in jail. In compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”), please send DMCA notifications of claimed copyright infringements to [email protected] will cooperate fully with any civil and/or criminal litigation arising from the violation of this policy.

Network Responsibility

Customers have a responsibility to use the Back Office Mechanics network responsibly. This includes respecting the other customers of Back Office Mechanics. Back Office Mechanics reserves the right to suspend and or cancel service with any Customer who uses the Back Office Mechanics network in such a way that adversely affects other Back Office Mechanics customers. This includes but is not limited to:

Attacking or attempting to gain unauthorized access to servers and services that belong to Back Office Mechanics or its customers (i.e. computer hacking), and/or
Participating in behavior which results in reprisals that adversely affect the Back Office Mechanics network or other customers’ access to the Back Office Mechanics network.

Back Office Mechanics will react strongly to any use or attempted use of an Internet account or computer without the owner’s authorization. Such attempts include, but are not limited to, “Internet Scanning” (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password robbery, security hole scanning, port scanning, etc. Any unauthorized use of accounts or computers by a Back Office Mechanics customer, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to Back Office Mechanics, will result in severe action taken against the attacker. Possible actions include warnings, account suspension or cancellation, and civil or criminal legal action, depending on the seriousness of the attack. Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server, or customer, of Back Office Mechanics is strictly prohibited.

Violations of this policy may be reported directly to the FBI (http://www.fbi.gov). Back Office Mechanics will cooperate fully with any civil and/or criminal litigation arising from the violation of this policy.

Abuse related issues resulting in blacklisting of our IP space will be subject to a $49.99 non-refundable blacklist removal and cleanup fee. This fee applies to websites/accounts with repeated abuse related issues, failure to comply with security policies, and/or continuous related Spam issues. Note: this also applies to repeat and/or failure to resolve security issues resulting in our IP space becoming blacklisted. This fee is not in lieu of other rights and remedies.

Lawful Purpose

All services may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any applicable law, regulation, or AUP is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to:

Copyrighted material or material protected by trade secret and other statute or dissemination of harmful or fraudulent content.
Using any Back Office Mechanics service or product for the purpose of participating in any activity dealing with subject matters that are prohibited under applicable law is prohibited.
Content that contains any malware, including, but not limited to, software viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs or any other computer codes; files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, impair or limit the functionality of any computer software, hardware, telecommunications equipment or other device or equipment;
Content that infringes on any right of any person or party, including, but not limited to a person’s or party’s right to privacy or intellectual property rights or that otherwise may be in conflict with these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.
“Snowshoe spamming” (which, generally, is an abusive technique used to send SPAM from a variety of IP addresses in an effort to spread out the SPAM load);
Unsolicited or bulk email (SPAM), including, but not limited to, using Back Office Mechanic’s SMTP service or mail script to send out SPAM over our networks or other
Content that is setup to function as an open http proxy;systems with a message referencing their website. You agree to comply fully with the CAN-SPAM Act and any amendments thereto;
Content that is designed or used to commit or facilitate any “phishing” attack;
Content that, in our sole judgment, is designed to function as a torrent, pirated software website or illegal or unlicensed software or “warez” website;
Content that, in our sole judgment, is designed to function as a “Tor relay” service or website;
Content that, in our sole judgment, is designed or used to reverse engineer, hack into, invade or otherwise gain unauthorized access into any of our systems, communications devices or resources, or any other systems, communications devices or resources (including, but not limited to security probing activities or other attempts to evaluate the security integrity of a network or host system without permission);
Content or services that violate any applicable export and re-export control laws and regulations;
Content that is used to run any process that makes use of “unused” CPU. This includes, but is not limited to, bitcoin mining, SETI@Home, Folding@Home, etc. and
Content that contains private or confidential information, including, but not limited to, your or any other person’s or party’s credit card information, social security number or other national identity number, non-public telephone number, address or email address;

Any conduct that constitutes harassment, fraud, stalking, abuse, or a violation of federal export restriction in connection with use of Back Office Mechanics services or products is prohibited. Using the Back Office Mechanics network to solicit the performance of any illegal activity is also prohibited, even if the activity itself is not performed. In addition, knowingly receiving or downloading a file that cannot be legally distributed, even without the act of distribution, is prohibited.

Servers hosted within Back Office Mechanics’s network are open to the public. You are solely responsible for your usage of the Back Office Mechanics network and servers and any statement you make on servers hosted within the Back Office Mechanics network may be deemed “publication” of the information entered. Acknowledging the foregoing, you specifically agree not to use our service in any manner that is illegal or libelous.

Child Pornography on the Internet

Our policy on child pornography is zero tolerance. Back Office Mechanics will cooperate fully with any criminal investigation into a Customer’s violation of the Child Protection Act of 1984 concerning child pornography. Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the Back Office Mechanics network, and will be liable for illegal material posted by their clients.

According to the Child Protection Act, child pornography includes photographs, films, video or any other type of visual presentation that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years or any written material or visual representation that advocates or counsels sexual activity with a person under the age of eighteen years.

Adult Content on the Internet

Back Office Mechanics will provide notification and will inform any customers in writing of improper materials on our servers. Content that is or promotes sexually explicit or pornographic material, violence, or discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age. This includes, but is not limited to, content that, in our judgment, includes videos or photographs depicting nudity or sexual activity or that is child pornography, child erotica, indecently depicts children, or, that poses any harm or potential harm to any child, or content that is directed at a child and is objectively reasonably inappropriate for that child.However, Back Office Mechanics reserves the right to disconnect any customers immediately.

Example of allowable content: Lingerie storefront

Example of prohibited content: Sexually explicit images/videos or links/advertisements;

Commercial Advertisements with E-mail

Back Office Mechanics takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) or SPAM over our network. Very simply, this means that customers of Back Office Mechanics may not use or permit others to use our network to transact in UCE. Customers of Back Office Mechanics may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including termination of service.

Sending a message, especially an advertisement, to more than five recipients, is by itself spamming unless the individuals have specifically requested to be added to a mailing list on that topic. This includes commercial advertisements and informational messages sent to recipients via electronic mail (email) as well as off-topic messages posted in Usenet discussion groups where the recipient has not requested or invited the message. Mailing lists must be true opt-in mailing lists. Before sending any email to a listed user, a confirmation email, with a tracking number, must be sent to the new subscriber, to which they must respond with a confirmation that they wish to be added to the list. You must keep these confirmations on file, so that in the case that a spam complaint is made against you, you have proof that the user did indeed opt-in. In addition, you must provide at least one easy way to opt out; see the MAPS guidelines (http://mail-abuse.org/rbl/manage.html) for details. Opt-out requests must be honored immediately.

E-mail is a person-to-person medium, not a broadcast medium.

Customers of Back Office Mechanics are strictly prohibited from using or permitting others to use UCE or SPAM over our network. As our Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the Back Office Mechanics network, it is advisable that Customers develop a similar, or stricter, policy for their clients.

Violation of Back Office Mechanics’s SPAM policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, Back Office Mechanics will initiate an immediate investigation (within 48 hours of notification). During the investigation, Back Office Mechanics may restrict customer access to the network to prevent further violations. If a customer is found to be in violation of our SPAM policy, Back Office Mechanics may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate customer’s account. Further, Back Office Mechanics reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. Back Office Mechanics will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offense.

Violation of Back Office Mechanics’s SPAM policy may be reported to [email protected].

IRC

Back Office Mechanics does not allow the use of IRC on the Back Office Mechanics network. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of IRC clients, server software, bots or anything related to IRC. Violators’ servers or shared accounts will be suspended.

Billing

The customer understands that the customer is responsible for paying for any network resources that are used to connect the customer’s server or hosting plan to the Internet. The customer may request that the customer’s server be disconnected from the Internet, but the customer will still be responsible for paying for any network resources used up to the point of suspension or cancellation.

Suspension

Back Office Mechanics reserves the right to suspend network access to any customer if, in the judgment of the Back Office Mechanics network administrators, the customer’s server is the source or target of the violation of any of the other terms of the AUPs or for any other reason which Back Office Mechanics chooses. If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of the Customer in question will be deactivated until an investigation is complete. Prior notification to the Customer is not assured. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. The customer will not be credited for the time the customer’s machines were suspended.

Cancellation

Back Office Mechanics reserves the right to cancel service at any time. If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of the customer in question will be deactivated until an investigation is complete. Prior notification to the Customer is not assured. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. All fees paid in advance of cancellation are non-refundable if Back Office Mechanics institutes its right of cancellation. Any violation of policies, which results in extra costs, will be billed to the customer (i.e. transfer, space etc.).

Indemnification

Back Office Mechanics wishes to emphasize that in signing the Master Services Agreement or its equivalent, customer indemnifies Back Office Mechanics for any violation of the Master Services Agreement or its equivalent, law or AUP that results in loss to Back Office Mechanics or the bringing of any claim against Back Office Mechanics by any third-party. This means that if Back Office Mechanics is sued because of a customer’s or a customer of a customer’s activity, the customer will pay any damages awarded against Back Office Mechanics, plus costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.

Disclaimer of Responsibility

Back Office Mechanics is under no duty to look at each customer’s or user’s activities to determine if a violation of the AUPs has occurred, nor do we assume any responsibility through our AUPs to monitor or police Internet-related activities. Back Office Mechanics disclaims any responsibility for any such inappropriate use and any liability to any person or party for any other person’s or party’s violation of this policy.

However, we cannot and do not undertake to review material before it is posted on or through the Services, and cannot ensure prompt removal of objectionable material after it has been posted. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications or content provided by any customer or third party. We have no liability or responsibility to anyone for performance or nonperformance of the activities described in this section.

All Sub-Networks, resellers, shared users and managed servers of Back Office Mechanics must adhere to the above policies. Failure to follow any term or condition will be grounds for immediate Cancellation.

INDIRECT OR ATTEMPTED VIOLATIONS OF THE AUPs AND ACTUAL OR ATTEMPTED VIOLATIONS BY A THIRD PARTY ON YOUR BEHALF SHALL BE CONSIDERED VIOLATIONS OF THESE AUPs BY YOU.

Last Updated: Oct 15, 2022

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