Artslink.co.za Acceptable User Policy (AUP)

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) specifies the actions prohibited to users of the network and systems (“infrastructure”) of Artslink.co.za ISP, and is intended to enhance the use of the Internet by preventing unacceptable use. Users are required to adhere to all the policies specified in this AUP without exception

LAWS AND REGULATIONS

1. Artslink.co.za ISP infrastructure may be used only for lawful purposes. Users may not violate any applicable laws or regulations of South Africa within the territory of South Africa. Should the user reside outside of South Africa, the laws of the country in which the user resides shall apply.
2. Transmission, distribution or storage of any material on or through the infrastructure in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorisation, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws.
1. The user acknowledges that Artslink.co.za ISP is unable to exercise control over the content of the information passing over the infrastructure and the Internet, including any websites, electronic mail transmissions, news groups or other material created or accessible over its infrastructure. Therefore, Artslink.co.za ISP is not responsible for the content of any messages or other information transmitted over its infrastructure.
2. Artslink.co.za ISP infrastructure may be used to link into other networks worldwide and the user agrees to conform to the acceptable use policies of these networks.
3. The user may obtain and download any materials marked as available for download off the Internet but is not permitted to use its Internet access to distribute any copyrighted materials unless permission for such distribution is granted to the user by the owner of the materials.
4. The user is prohibited from obtaining and/or disseminating on-line any unlawful materials, including but not limited to stolen intellectual property, child pornography, and/or any unlawful hate-speech materials.

SYSTEM AND NETWORK SECURITY

1. The user may not circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account (referred to as “cracking” or “hacking”), nor interfere with service to any user, host, or network (referred to as “denial of service attacks”).
2. Violations of system or network security by the user are prohibited, and may result in civil or criminal liability. Artslink.co.za ISP together with The Internet Solution (IS) will investigate incidents involving such violations and will involve and will co-operate with law enforcement officials if a criminal violation is suspected.
Examples of system or network security violations include, without limitation, the following :
* Unauthorised access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without the express authorisation of Artslink.co.za ISP;
* Unauthorised monitoring of data or traffic on the network or systems without express authorisation of Artslink.co.za ISP;
* Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mailbombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks;
* Forging of any TCP-IP packet header (spoofing) or any part of the header information in an email or a newsgroup posting.
3. All references to systems and networks under this section includes the Internet (and all those systems and/or networks to which user is granted access through Artslink.co.za ISP) and includes but is not limited to the infrastructure of Artslink.co.za ISP itself.

E-MAIL USE

1. It is explicitly prohibited to send unsolicited bulk mail messages (“junk mail” or “spam”) of any kind (commercial advertising, political tracts, announcements, etc). This is strongly objected to by most Internet users and the repercussions against the offending party and Artslink.co.za ISP can often result in disruption of service to other users connected to Artslink.co.za ISP.
2. Maintaining of mailing lists by users of Artslink.co.za ISP is accepted only with the permission and approval of the list members, and at the members’ sole discretion. Should mailing lists contain invalid or undeliverable addresses or addresses of unwilling recipients those addresses must be promptly removed.
3. Users may not forward or propagate chain letters nor malicious e-mail.
4. Public relay occurs when a mail server is accessed by a third party from another domain and utilised to deliver mails, without the authority or consent of the owner of the mail-server. Users’ mail servers must be secure against public relay as a protection to both themselves and the Internet at large. Mail servers that are unsecured against public relay often become abused by unscrupulous operators for spam delivery and upon detection such delivery must be disallowed.
5. Artslink.co.za ISP reserves the right to examine users’ mail servers to confirm that no mails are being sent from the mail server through public relay and the results of such checks can be made available to the user. Artslink.co.za ISP also reserves the right to examine the mail servers of any users using Artslink.co.za ISP mail servers for “smarthosting” (when the user relays its mail off an Artslink.co.za ISP mail server to a mail server of its own) or similar services at any time to ensure that the servers are properly secured against public relay. All relay checks will be done in strict accordance with Artslink.co.za ISP policy of preserving customer privacy.
USENET NEWS
1. Users should, before using the service, familiarise themselves with the contents of the following newsgroups :
* news.newusers.questions;
* news.announce.newusers;
* news.answers
2. Excessive cross-posting (ie, posting the same article to a large numbers of newsgroups) is forbidden.
3. Posting of irrelevant (off-topic) material to newsgroups (also known as USENET spam) is forbidden.
4. Posting binaries to a non-binary newsgroup is forbidden.
5. Artslink.co.za ISP reserves the right to delete and/or cancel posts which violate the above conditions.

COMPLAINTS

1. Upon receipt of a complaint, or having become aware of an incident, Artslink.co.za ISP reserves the right to:
* inform the user’s network administrator of the incident and require the network administrator or network owner to deal with the incident according to this AUP;
* In the case of individual users suspend the user’s account and withdraw the user’s network access privileges completely;
* charge the offending parties for administrative costs as well as for machine and human time lost due to the incident;
* in severe cases suspend access of the user’s entire network until abuse can be prevented by appropriate means;
* share information concerning the incident with other Internet access providers, or publish the information, and/or make available the users’ details to law enforcement agencies.
2. Any one or more of the steps listed above, insofar as they are deemed necessary by Artslink.co.za ISP in its absolute and sole discretion, may be taken by Artslink.co.za ISP against the offending party.
All cases of violation of the above Acceptable Use Policy should be reported to abuse@artslink.co.za.

Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting our web site and reviewing our privacy policy. The purpose of this policy is to explain how we handle information we collect from you during your visit to our web site. It is important to keep in mind that we do not collect personally-identifiable information (name, address, e-mail address or other unique identifiers).

Privacy Policy for All Visitors

Information Collected and Stored Automatically:
When you visit our web site to read pages or download information, we automatically collect and store the following non-identifying information:

* The Internet protocol (IP) address from which you access our web site. An IP address is a unique number that is automatically assigned to the computer you are using whenever you are surfing the web.
* The type of browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, and operating system, such as Windows 98 or Linux, used to access our site.
* The date and time our site is accessed, for the purpose of monitoring demand.
* The pages visited, for the purpose of improving the usefulness of our web site by providing helpful links and removing pages that are not read.
* This information does not identify you personally. We maintain the above information in system logs. We use this information to make our site more useful to visitors by learning the number of visitors to our site, the number of pages served, and the level of demand for specific pages. We do not track or record information about identifiable individuals and their visits.

Information Collected from E-mail:
When you send us personally-identifying information in an e-mail, we use the information you provide only to help us gather the information you might request. In an effort to respond to your request, information you submit may be viewed by various people within Internet Solutions. Once received, the information to your e-mail is protected in accordance with law, (e.g. the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act).

Security, Intrusion, and Detection:
For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, our computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.

Privacy Policy for Subscribers

The following additional policies apply to subscribers of our services:

* To register for our services you will have to provide us with personally-identifiable information to enable us to provide you with our services. The information you provide will be entered into our database.
* If you register as a subscriber, we do not make your personally-identifiable information available to anyone unless required by law to do so.

Agent Listing

In terms of section 75 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (“the Act”) Artslink.co.za ISP has designated the Internet Service Providers’ Association as an agent to receive notifications of infringements as defined in Section 77 of the Act.

For further details contact the Internet Service Providers’ Association
– Postal address: PO Box 518, Noordwyk, 1687, Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
– Voice: +27 010 500 1200
– E-mail: takedown@ispa.org.za

Disclaimer

This web site is intended solely to provide information on Artslink.co.za and may not be publicly disseminated or used other than for information purposes without the prior written consent of Artslink.co.za.

Caution should be observed in placing any reliance upon any information contained in this web site, which is not intended to be a representation or inducement to make any decision in relation to Artslink.co.za. Any decision taken based on the information provided in this web site, should only be made after consultation with appropriate legal, regulatory, tax, business, investment, financial, and accounting advisors.

Artslink.co.za encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of users published on Artslink.co.za are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Artslink.co.za.