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Definitions
Account means a Logon ID and Password allowing Users to access the service.
Newsmaster is a FunnelWeb Internet employee(s), collectively responsible for the administration of FunnelWeb Internet’s
Newsgroups.
Poster is the author of any unacceptable article(s). This may or may not be the same as the USER, however, Users are ultimately responsible for all POSTER(s) using their Accounts.
Unacceptable Use means any and all Newsgroups article(s) that are in breach of the FunnelWeb Internet Newsgroups Terms & Conditions.
User means the person or group which contracts with FunnelWeb Internet pursuant to the Internet Connection Service Agreement for the Service.
Usage Rules
The majority of FunnelWeb Internet Users are able to use their own sense of what is appropriate to guide their behaviour.
Unfortunately, postings, which are considered unacceptable by the Internet community, will at times occur. The intentions of these postings are not always obvious; however, regardless of this, FunnelWeb Internet will take action against the originator of any unacceptable postings as described in this document.
FunnelWeb Internet provides newsgroups as a free service to our Users and to the Internet community at large. Our decision is final on all matters relating thereto.
What is considered unacceptable?
Unacceptable behaviour is considered a serious abuse of Newsgroups. To qualify as unacceptable, an act must interfere with the use and/or enjoyment of a significant number of people rather than one or two individuals.
Under the terms of this Agreement, unacceptable use includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Chain Letters and Ponzi Pyramid-Selling Schemes
Such articles work (or rather, don't work) in much the same way as their paper-based cousins. The most common example of this on Usenet is MAKE-MONEY-FAST. In addition to being a waste of resources, such posts are illegal in certain countries (including Australia).
The vast majority of newsgroups are of a non-commercial nature, and readers of those newsgroups will object most strongly to commercial traffic.
Commercial traffic is accepted as being any posting that solicits payment, in money or otherwise, for the provision of goods or services of some kind.
Whilst FunnelWeb Internet have a policy of not acting on the content of news articles, most commercial articles will fall foul of one of the other clauses of this Agreement. For example, by being cross-posted or multiple posted and will therefore be judged accordingly and subject to the ACTIONS contained in this Agreement.
- Binary Postings to non-Binary Groups
Outside of the alt.binaries... and alt.pictures... newsgroup hierarchies, the posting of encoded binary data is considered most unwelcome. The majority of Newsgroups and readers do not have the capability for selective transmission of articles (kill filing) and such posts can result in a significant amount of resources being tied up and wasted in the transmission process. And as such can be considered as a denial of service attack on multiple recipients.
This form of unacceptable behaviour occurs when the same article is cross-posted to a large number of unrelated newsgroups.
This form of unacceptable behaviour occurs when a substantively similar (perhaps differing only in Subject header) article is posted to a large number of unrelated newsgroups.
- Forged Headers / Addresses
There are several types of unacceptable behaviour involving the forgery of article headers or posting addresses.
It is abuse to post articles with headers, which would mislead recipients into believing that some other system or User, had created the articles.
FunnelWeb Internet's systems will add header lines to try and foil such forgery. Articles will still be treated as abuse even if
FunnelWeb Internet's actions make the attempted forgery apparent.
It is abuse to post articles with headers which would cause responses to these articles, solicited or otherwise, to be delivered to unwilling third parties, or to inappropriate or unreasonable newsgroups. In particular, it is abuse to arrange for email replies to be delivered to an email address, which you do not have permission to use.
- Other Unwelcome Activities
Unacceptable Use of the FunnelWeb Newsgroups is not limited to the above, but may include any activity reported to FunnelWeb Internet which is considered, in the sole opinion of FunnelWeb Internet, to be a serious abuse of the News Service.
Actions
Unacceptable behaviour via FunnelWeb Internet ACCOUNTs may result in the offending article(s) being cancelled and further action as follows:
First offence:
- All privileges through any of the machines and/or facilities comprising FunnelWeb Internet's Newsgroup service will be revoked for the ACCOUNT in question (and any other ACCOUNT identified as belonging to the same USER).
- The USER will be given seven days to present, in writing, to FunnelWeb Internet, PO Box 125, Braddon ACT 2612, an apology from the POSTER and an undertaking not to repeat the offence. The apology will be held on file for an indefinite period, and at the discretion of FunnelWeb Internet, both the apology and the undertaking may be posted to the appropriate Newsgroup Administrator, or be made otherwise available to the Internet community at large.
- Newsgroup privileges will be restored only after both items have been received by FunnelWeb Internet and deemed to be of an acceptable nature
- Failure of the POSTER to present such an apology and undertaking after seven days will result in Newsgroup privileges being permanently revoked for the ACCOUNT in question and may result in the USER's account being terminated in its entirety.
- Serious breaches of this Agreement may be referred to the Australian Federal Police for further investigation.
Second offence:
- The USER account will be terminated immediately (as may any other ACCOUNT identified as belonging to the same USER).
- No refund of monies paid for the account will be made, except at the discretion of FunnelWeb Internet.
- Serious breaches of this Agreement may be referred to the Australian Federal Police for further investigation.
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