Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policies (AUP)

The Basics (but not limited to) in plain English:
1. Nothing illegal! - No spamming, illegal pornography, warez, serial numbers, cracks, codes, stolen MP3's etc...
2. No Server abuse.
3. If you violate any of the above policies, CastlingIT will cancel your account (we always contact you first).
4. No refunds.
5. No IRC on the CastlingIT networks.

The Legal Version

Acceptable Use Policies (AUP)
(for all accounts) CastlingIT has certain ethical, legal and moral responsibilities consisting with the use of its servers and equipment involved in the services of web site hosting, marketing and design. CastlingIT reserves the right to suspend, deny or cancel a subscriber's access to any or all services provided by CastlingIT whenever CastlingIT decides the services it has rendered have been inappropriately used. Use of CastlingIT 's service constitutes acceptance and agreement to our policies.


Web Site, Server, and Network Content/Use Provisions

(for all accounts) All services provided by CastlingIT and its underlying service providers 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, material protected by trade secret and other statutes, material that would cause harm to minors, threats and harassment, forgery, fraud, unfriendly network disruptions, and distribution of viruses. The subscriber agrees to indemnify and hold harmless CastlingIT from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the subscriber or any other party. The subscriber also agrees that CastlingIT may disclose, without subscribers consent, any and all information related to the subscriber and their service with CastlingIT to any law enforcement agent who makes a written request.

CastlingIT is not responsible for any material input by anyone other then CastlingIT and/or posted to the CastlingIT network by anyone other then CastlingIT . This includes the content and links on websites hosted by CastlingIT. CastlingIT disclaims any liability and responsibility relating to inappropriate use or inappropriate content of anything hosted by CastlingIT that CastlingIT did not solely create and post to the CastlingIT network.

Spamming:
CastlingIT prohibits its users from sending unsolicited e-mail messages (“spamming”), including, but not limited to: Posting the same, or similar, messages to one or more Usenet or other newsgroups, forums, e-mail mailing lists or other similar groups or lists; Posting any Usenet or other newsgroup, forum, e-mail mailing list or other similar group, or list articles which are off-topic or otherwise violate the rules of the charter or other owner-published FAQ or description of the group or list; Sending unsolicited e-mail, including commercial advertisements and informational announcements to Internet users, or any unsolicited e-mail that could reasonably be expected to provoke complaints; Using e-mail to engage in harassment, whether through language, frequency or messages. Continuing to send someone e-mail after being asked to stop is considered harassment; Sending e-mail with falsified or obscured header or information designed to hinder the identification of the location of what is advertised; Collecting replies to either (i) unsolicited e-mail messages or (ii) messages that were either sent through another provider which violate these rules or those of the other provider. CastlingIT allows only COI (Closed-Loop Opt-In) mailing lists. More information on COI can be found here. Users who send bulk e-mail to “opt-in” list must have a method of confirming or verifying subscriptions and be able to show evidence of subscriptions for users who complain about unsolicited e-mail. The Company’s receipt of complaints from Internet users related to e-mails received due to users use of “opt in” list shall be a violation of this AUP.

Any user that gets any of CastlingIT's IPs listed on any legitimate Spam Block or Black hole list such as but not limited to SpamCop or Spamhaus will be billed a $100 charge to subscribers account and additionally a $100 per hour administrative charge to remove the block and protect our IP ranges and mail servers.

Pornography:
Pornography is prohibited on any CastlingIT server. CastlingIT will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision but in general if its legal for all ages to see, its ok, if you have to be 18 or 21 to view, then its not ok. CastlingIT also reserves the right not to host sites that it considers, in its sole discretion, to be religiously or racially offensive or inflammatory. CastlingIT will not host warez sites or anything related to, promoting, or offering warez, serial numbers, cracks, illegal mp3's or anything else that would considered illegal by the laws governing the citizens of the United States and the state of Arizona and the city of Phoenix, Arizona.

With the few exceptions listed above and below, we support the uncensored flow of information and ideas over the internet. We do not actively monitor the information that our subscribers transmit and receive, however, we do react immediately to any alleged violations of any of our policies in which case we reserve the right to monitor anything on our network and any packet of information that traverses our network.

Bandwidth usage for dedicated and co-located servers: (for dedicated and co-location accounts) Subscriber agrees to pay for all bandwidth they use that is above the amount included in their package, at the current rate which is listed on CastlingIT 's dedicated server page. Subscriber may elect to have their bandwidth capped at any amount at their choice, or they may elect to have no cap and simply pay for the additional bandwidth used above what is included in subscribers package.

Background-running Programs: (for virtual accounts) We may allow programs to run continuously in the background. These are considered on an individual basis and an extra charge may be incurred based on system resources used and operational maintenance needed.

IP addresses:

(Applies to dedicated and co-location subscribers only, does not apply to virtual accounts.) All IPs that are assigned to CastlingIT's subscribers must be used under the authorized use stipulations within 24 hours of being assigned the IP. Authorized use stipulations are taken from ARIN, the organization that manages IPs in the United States. There are to be no unused IP's on CastlingIT's networks, except those in reserve for CastlingIT to assign its subscribers on an as needed basis. Subscribers are only allocated IPs that they will use within 24 hours.


Server Abuse Issues: (for all accounts) Any attempts to undermine or cause harm to CastlingIT servers or the servers of its underlying service providers or a subscriber of CastlingIT or its underlying service providers is strictly prohibited.

Network Security: (for all accounts) Subscribers are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the CastlingIT network or any of its other subscribers, and should a violation take place, civil or criminal liability may result. CastlingIT will investigate any alleged violations and cooperate fully with law enforcement. Violations include but are not limited to the attempt to login to any machine which the subscriber is not exclusively paying for, interfering with any service by DDos attacking, mail bombing or anything else that would be detrimental to the services that CastlingIT provides, attempting to probe or scan or test the vulnerability of any machine on the CastlingIT network, forging any IP address, and taking any action in an attempt to receive services that the subscriber is not paying for. A violation of any of the above may result in immediate removal from the network.

Any sub-networks or re-seller networks of CastlingIT must adhere to all of these policies.


Terms of Service (TOS)

Right To Refuse Service and Cancel Accounts:
(for all accounts) CastlingIT reserves the right not to accept accounts for hosting for any reason it deems appropriate. We also reserve the right to cancel an account at anytime, for any reason, other than those stated specifically in this policy statement, with 10 days notice. Accounts that violate any of the policies specifically stated herein, including late payment or non-payment of fees owed, may be canceled with no notice.

Communication
(for all accounts) Our primary means of communications with clients, including for billing purposes and technical support is by e-mail. You must supply us with your current e-mail address so that we may contact you at any time. We cannot be held responsible for not notifying you of account cancellation if you do not supply us with your correct and current e-mail address. You should check your e-mail regularly to make sure you do not miss an important notice.

Technical Support
(for all accounts) Technical Support thru email is available 24/7/365. Priority is given to the issues raised thru email. Free included support category tickets are limited to a quantity of 40 per month. All other categories including network or server down are unlimited. For dedicated accounts, tech support is limited to initial setup, and thereafter only network related issues - the dedicated account holder must be or have someone be the system administrator for their computer. CastlingIT can support and administrate your computer but that service is not included in the price of the dedicated server.

Note: In actual practice, and as time permits, we do assist in technical support beyond what is stated above and we even offer one-on-one personalized training.

Deactivation
(for all accounts) If any of these terms or conditions are not followed it will result in grounds for account deactivation. We reserve the right to remove any account without notice if any of the terms or conditions stated herein is violated. If such an occurrence takes place, the fees is not refundable.

If we deem it necessary to cancel an account for any reason other than those specifically stated in this document, we will give you a 10-day notice of cancellation by e-mail.

CastlingIT reserves the right to make any changes to its policies and Hosting plans, pricing, bandwidth providers, IP's, and features offered at any time as necessary and in no way implies fitness of purpose warranties. CastlingIT reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. CastlingIT reserves the right to determine what violates any of CastlingIT 's policies.

Payment Policies
(for all accounts) All charges are in Singapore Dollars. All accounts are set up on a pre-pay basis. Setup fees are charged for all new accounts and major account changes and are non-refundable. All pricing is guaranteed for the term of pre-payment. The subscriber is responsible for all money owed on the account from the time it was established to the time that the subscriber notifies CastlingIT in writing for a request for termination of services (see cancellation by subscriber section below for details on how to cancel). All payment is in Singapore dollar currency and must be prepaid thru cash, paypal, wire transfer one week in advance of due date. A subscriber who prepays and then wants to downgrade their hosting package can do so, but will not be eligible for a refund of any prepaid monies, or a reduction in monthly charges until the prepaid period is up.

There is a S$5 late fee for all payments that are not on time. This includes all credit card payments that do not go through as of the due date of the monthly payment because of the card being declined, expired, no longer good, or any other problem. It is the subscribers responsibility to update CastlingIT for any changes in their credit card information including expiration dates. This is done through the customers access to our billing system S.A.M. The subscriber authorizes CastlingIT to use whatever means necessary to effect payment for overdue accounts or cancellation fees, if any. This includes making the charge to the subscribers credit card, even if the subscriber does not usually pay by credit card. If a subscriber is late 3 times consecutively, the late fee will be S$50 and will increment by S$50 for each consecutive month subscriber is late thereafter, indefinitely.

For subscribers who pay by paypal / wire / cash, once a service is 10 days overdue for payment, service will be interrupted if prior arrangements with CastlingIT have not been made. For subscribers who pay by Pay Pal, once a service is 3 days overdue for payment, service will be interrupted if prior arrangements with CastlingIT have not been made. For subscribers who pay by wire transfer, there will be a S$5 fee for all wire transfers under U$200 and once a service is 3 days overdue for payment, service will be interrupted if prior arrangements with CastlingIT have not been made. For subscribers who pay by check, once a service is 2 days overdue for payment, service will be interrupted if prior arrangements with CastlingIT have not been made.

If subscribers service has been disconnected for lack of payment as per our payment policies and subscriber wishes to reconnect service, there will be a S$100 reconnect fee.

CastlingIT reserves the right to turn over any debts owed to CastlingIT to a collection agency or to attorneys in that order.

Refunds and Disputes
(for all accounts) All payments to CastlingIT are non-refundable and non pro-rateable. This includes the setup-fees and all subsequent recurring charges and any one time fees. If you dispute a charge made to your credit card by CastlingIT and it is found that the charge was valid, you agree to pay CastlingIT a S$100 administration fee.

Transfer of Service
(for all accounts) Subscriber shall not transfer ownership of their service with CastlingIT to any other person or entity without prior written consent from CastlingIT. If CastlingIT agrees to allow the transfer of service, the new subscriber must agree to the CastlingIT TOS and AUP.

Hacked Server Policy
(for all accounts) When a server gets hacked, any recent backups that have been made will very likely contain the hack. It is generally not known when a hack was made to the server, and therefore any nightly or weekly backups will likely contain the hack. For this reason CastlingIT does not generally permit subscribers to restore data from backups once a server has been known to be hacked. It is neither in the best interest of the client, nor CastlingIT and the network to use the suspect data. If the data from the backup is needed, the standard procedure is for the subscriber to purchase the old hard drive and have it shipped to the subscriber. If for some reason any of the backed up data is allowed to be used, and the server is hacked again (within one week of the data being used), the subscriber will be billed hourly for all work to redo the server again. If the subscribers server has initiated a DDos attack on the CastlingIT network, and the subscriber uses any of the backed up data after the server has been restored, and the subscribers server initiates another ddos attack within one weeks time, the subscriber agrees to pay an immediate S$500 fine in addition to all hourly fees associated with restoring the network and all of the credits that CastlingIT might have to pay its subscribers in order to meet its SLA. This is generally not a risk that a subscriber will want to take.

Service Rates
(for all accounts) Subscriber acknowledges that the initial costs and specifications of the service that the subscriber is subscribing to have been disclosed to the subscriber. CastlingIT reserves the right to change pricing and specifications of its service at any time due to market fluctuations, cost to provide service, changes in cost of hardware etc... When changes are made to pricing or specifications of the service CastlingIT is providing that result in lower pricing or in better specifications, CastlingIT will make every effort to pass those changes on to the subscriber, however, in some circumstances additional fees will apply. When changes are made to pricing or specifications of the service CastlingIT is providing that result in higher pricing or in lower specifications, CastlingIT will make every effort NOT to pass those changes on to the subscriber. CastlingIT is not obligated to change the rates and specifications of subscribers existing service for any reason at any time, and it will be at the sole discretion of CastlingIT and based on financial evaluations of what is required to keep CastlingIT a profitable operating company, able to provide the highest quality services to the subscribers.

Cancellation initiated by subscriber
(for all accounts) Subscribers must notify CastlingIT in writing when they wish to cancel their accounts and must include in that ticket the date they wish to cancel. Cancellation must be initiated at least 2 days before the cancellation date and this must be at least 2 days prior to the client's next invoice date or the client will be billed for the next month. Subscriber is responsible for and must pay in full all fees which may have accrued including any recurring fees and third party software fees. CastlingIT will not pro-rate any charges. Notification to CastlingIT of the transfer of the subscribers domain name from internic or associated organization to another hosting provider does not constitute a cancellation as these are often forged without the subscribers knowledge. Email is not acceptable for the written notice of cancellation to CastlingIT as email and its sources may be forged.

Service Level Agreement
(for all accounts) CastlingIT guarantees 99.5% network uptime as a general rule excluding scheduled maintenance and internet wide vulnerabilities (things like linux slapper, sql sapphire and others that have taken large parts of the internet down due to thing far beyond the control of CastlingIT), although we average 99.98% uptime. Some clients may have different uptime agreements based on their packages. In the event the network uptime guarantee is not met CastlingIT will refund 5% of the clients package amount for every 2 hours of downtime after the guarantee is not met, up to and not to exceed the full amount. Network is considered unreachable if there is 100% packet lost between CastlingIT and its backbone providers. CastlingIT cannot provide any guarantees beyond its backbone providers.


Subscriber acknowledges that the service provided is of such a nature that service can be interrupted for many reasons other than the negligence of the company and that damages resulting from any interruption of service are difficult to ascertain. Therefore, subscriber agrees that the company shall not be liable for any damages arising from such causes beyond the direct and exclusive control of CastlingIT. Subscriber further acknowledges that the company's liability for its own negligence may not in any event ever exceed an amount equivalent to charges payable by subscriber for services during the period damages occurred. In no event shall the company be liable for any special or consequential damages, loss or injury.

Indemnification
(for all accounts) Subscribers agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold CastlingIT harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorney's fees asserted against CastlingIT, its agents, its subscribers, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by subscriber, it's agents, employees or assigns. Subscribers agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless CastlingIT against liabilities arising out of; (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with CastlingIT’s server; (2) any material supplied by subscriber infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party; (3) copyright infringement and (4) any defective products sold to subscriber from CastlingIT’s server. This means if CastlingIT is sued because of a subscriber or a subscriber of a CastlingIT’s subscriber's activity, the subscriber will pay for any and all damages and associated court costs and attorneys fees that CastlingIT incurs. The failure of CastlingIT or its suppliers to enforce this AUP, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of any right to do so at any time. You agree that if any portion of this Policy is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion will be construed consistent with applicable law as nearly as possible, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect

Disclaimer
(for all accounts) CastlingIT will not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. CastlingIT makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for any service we provide. CastlingIT disclaims any warranty or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, lack of customer backups, lack of data integrity and any and all service interruptions caused by CastlingIT and its employees. Subscriber acknowledges that the service that is provided can be interrupted for reasons other then the negligence of CastlingIT. Subscriber agrees that CastlingIT cannot be held liable for any damages arising from any disruption of service that is outside the direct and exclusive control of CastlingIT. Subscriber also acknowledges that the absolute limit of any liability for anything for any reason to any subscriber at all can never exceed an amount equivalent to the charges payable by the subscriber to CastlingIT during the period in which damages are alleged to have occurred. CastlingIT reserves the right to revise its policies at any time and will send an email to subscriber's email address when changes are made. Subscribers must adhere to the policies and changes as they are made. Subscriber agrees that continuance of business and/or lack of any response regarding policy changes will constitute agreement and adherence to CastlingIT's revised policies by subscriber.


Operations: The security procedures applied to your server are often intended to restrict access to or usability of certain system functions which are commonly used to compromise servers. These procedures may alter the way the server behaves in certain instances. CastlingIT has made every effort to ensure that its security procedures provide the maximum level of security while minimizing the impact to server usability however CastlingIT accepts no responsibility for any complications associated with our security procedures.

Liability: CastlingIT publishing accepts no responsibility for the continued security of your server. By accepting the terms of this agreement you acknowledge that you understand that no server is ever immune to being compromised and furthermore agree that CastlingIT will not be held responsible for data-loss, financial damages, server down-time or any other ramification resulting from your server being compromised or abused. If client agrees to purchase recovery services from us, The ability of CastlingIT to restore customers’ data is limited to the integrity of the customers’ data and the participation of the customer is assisting CastlingIT with customers setup and proprietary information. Although CastlingIT agrees to make its best effort to restore all of the customer’s data exactly as it was, CastlingIT makes no guarantee or warranty that all of the customers’ data will be able to be restored exactly as it was before the need for recovery.


DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND GOVERNING LAW
(for all accounts) This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the City of Hyderabad, AP, India, and to the extent such courts have jurisdiction, by the State of AP or the India District Courts located in Hyderabad. The parties hereby agree that the appropriate forum for any disputes arising out of this Agreement or the transactions contemplated hereby shall be the city court of Hyderabad, AP, India, the state courts of the State of AP, and the India District Courts located in Hyderabad, and the parties hereby irrevocably consent to the exclusive and personal jurisdiction of such courts.