ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Last modified: 09/30/2020

Important note: Sparklight, Inc., may revise this Acceptable Use Policy, as well as its Open Internet Disclosure Statement, general Terms and Conditions of service, and any other policies or disclosures, from time to time without notice through revisions posted at business.sparklight.net. Accordingly, users of the Sparklight Business services should consult this website regularly regarding their rights and obligations and to ensure that their activities conform to the most recent version. In the event of a conflict between any subscriber agreement and this policy, the terms of this policy will govern. Questions regarding this policy can be directed to [email protected]. Complaints of violations of this policy by Sparklight Business users can be directed to [email protected]. Visit business.sparklight.com/legal/open-internet to review our Network Management and Open Internet Disclosure Statement.

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Introduction

Sparklight provides a variety of Business Internet services to businesses (the “Services”) that allows subscribers to connect to the Internet through a high-speed Internet access connection. The Services use resources that are shared with many other customers and each user benefits by being able to share these resources. However, as with any resource, the benefits provided must be balanced with duties and responsibilities so that all users can rely on them for a productive experience. Use of the Services therefore is subject to the rules and guidelines set forth below. Each customer of Sparklight is responsible for ensuring that the use of all Services provided to such customer complies with this Acceptable Use Policy (the “Policy”). ANY USER WHO DOES NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS SHOULD IMMEDIATELY STOP USE OF THE SERVICES AND NOTIFY THE Sparklight CUSTOMER CARE DEPARTMENT SO THAT THE USER’S ACCOUNT MAY BE CLOSED.

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I. Prohibited uses and activities

In general, the Policy prohibits uses and activities involving the Services that are illegal, infringe the rights of others, interfere with or diminish the use and enjoyment of the Services by others, or impede Sparklight from providing the Services or operating its business, or that otherwise conflict with Sparklight’s Open Internet Disclosure Statement or any other published policies. These prohibited uses and activities include, but are not limited to, using the Services, customer-provided equipment, or equipment provided by Sparklight, either individually or in combination with one another, to:

a. Conduct and information restrictions

• Undertake or accomplish any unlawful purpose including, but not limited to, posting, storing, transmitting or disseminating information, data or material which is libelous, obscene, unlawful, threatening or defamatory, or which infringes the intellectual property rights of any person or entity, or which in any way constitutes or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, or otherwise violate any local, state, federal, or non-U.S. law, order, or regulation;
• Post, store, send, transmit, or disseminate any information or material which a reasonable person could deem to be indecent, pornographic, harassing, threatening, hateful, or intimidating;
• Upload, post, publish, transmit, reproduce, create derivative works of, or distribute in any way information, software or other material obtained through the Services or otherwise that is protected by copyright or other proprietary right, without obtaining permission of the owner;
• Transmit unsolicited bulk or commercial messages commonly known as “spam” that do not comply with the federal CAN-SPAM Act;
• Send numerous copies of the same or substantially similar messages, empty messages, or messages which contain no substantive content, or send very large messages or files that disrupts a server, account, newsgroup, or chat service;
• Initiate, perpetuate, or in any way participate in any pyramid or other illegal scheme;
• Participate in the collection of e-mail addresses, screen names, or other identifiers of others (without their prior consent), a practice sometimes known as spidering or harvesting, or participate in the use of software (including “spyware”) designed to facilitate this activity;
• Collect responses from unsolicited bulk messages;
• Falsify, alter, or remove message headers;
• Falsify references to Sparklight or its network, by name or other identifier, in messages;
• Impersonate any person or entity, engage in sender address falsification, forge anyone else’s digital or manual signature, or perform any other similar fraudulent activity (for example, “phishing”);
• Violate the rules, regulations, or policies applicable to any network, server, computer database, or Web site that you access;

b. Technical restrictions

• Access any other person’s computer or computer system, network, software, or data without his or her knowledge and consent; breach the security of another user or system; or attempt to circumvent the user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or making use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other hosts, networks, or accounts without express permission to do so;
• Use or distribute tools or devices designed or used for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, decoders, password gatherers, unauthorized keystroke loggers, analyzers, cracking tools, packet sniffers, encryption circumvention devices, or Trojan Horse programs. Unauthorized port scanning is strictly prohibited;
• Distribute programs that make unauthorized changes to software (cracks);
• Service, alter, modify, or tamper with Sparklight Equipment or Services or permit any other person to do the same who is not authorized by Sparklight;

c. Network and usage restrictions

• Restrict, inhibit, or otherwise interfere with the ability of any other person, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to use or enjoy the Services, including, without limitation, posting or transmitting any information or software which contains a worm, virus, or other harmful feature, or generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others’ ability to use, send, or retrieve information;
• Restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or otherwise disrupt or cause a performance degradation, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to the Service or any Sparklight (or Sparklight supplier) host, server, backbone network, node or service, or otherwise cause a performance degradation to any Sparklight (or Sparklight supplier) facilities used to deliver the Services;
• Resell the Services or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Premises the ability to use the Services (for example, though Wi-Fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly;
• Connect Sparklight equipment to any computer outside of your Premises;
• Interfere with computer networking or telecommunications service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, denial of service attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service, improper seizing and abusing operator privileges, and attempts to “crash” a host;
• You may not configure the Services or any related equipment to access or use a static Internet Protocol (IP) address or use any protocol other than dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) unless you are subject to a Service plan that expressly permits you to do so;
• Engage in Excessive Use, as defined below.

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II. Customer conduct and features of the service

What are your obligations under this Policy?

You are responsible for any misuse of the Services that you have contracted for, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a friend, family member, guest, employee or customer with access to your account. Therefore, you should take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access to the Services and ensure that users you have authorized do not engage in any of the “Prohibited Uses and Activities” identified above.

You are solely responsible for the security of any device you choose to connect to the Services, including any data stored on that device. Sparklight recommends that any files or services you choose to make available for remote access be protected with a strong password, personal firewall or as otherwise appropriate.

How Does Sparklight address inappropriate content and transmissions?

There may be content on the Internet or otherwise available through the Services which may be offensive to some individuals, or which may not be in compliance with all federal, state and local laws, regulations and other rules. For example, it is possible to obtain access to content which is pornographic or offensive. Sparklight does not assume any responsibility for the content contained on the Internet or otherwise available through the Services. You must assume the risk of accessing content through the Services and Sparklight shall not have any liability for any claims, losses, actions, damages, suits or proceedings arising out of or otherwise relating to access to such content. Business customers may want to use a program capable of restricting access to sexually explicit or offensive material on the Internet. Content questions or complaints should be addressed to the content provider. You are solely responsible for any information which you publish on the web or other Internet services. You must ensure that the recipient of the content is appropriate. For example, you must take appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving inappropriate content. Sparklight reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be offensive, indecent, or otherwise inappropriate regardless of whether such material or its dissemination is unlawful. Sparklight does not have any obligation to monitor transmissions made on the Services. However, Sparklight does have the right to monitor such transmissions from time to time and to disclose the same in accordance with your subscriber agreement and when required to do so by valid legal process. By using the Services to reproduce, publish, display, transmit and distribute content, a user is warranting that the content complies with this Policy and authorizing Sparklight to reproduce, publish, display, transmit and distribute such content as necessary for Sparklight to deliver the content in a timely manner.

What requirements apply to Electronic Mail?

The Services may not be used to distribute e-mail or other forms of communications in violation of the “Prohibited Uses and Activities” described above. This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, charity requests, and petitions for signatures and political or religious messages that do not comply with the federal CAN-SPAM Act. Such messages may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested them. The Services may not be used to send messages to any individual who has indicated that he/she does not wish to receive messages from you. The Services may not be used to collect responses from unsolicited email sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or email services which violates this Policy or the acceptable use policy of any other Internet service provider. Moreover, unsolicited email may not direct the recipient to any web site or other resource which violates this Policy. You may not create a username or email address that, in the sole judgment of Sparklight, is pornographic, patently offensive or misleading. You may not reference the Sparklight network in the email address or in the content of the email itself (e.g., by sending mail from a “.sparklight.net” email address, including “Organization: Sparklight “ in the subject line or in the email itself, or by listing an IP address that belongs to the Sparklight network) in any unsolicited email even if that email is not sent through the Sparklight network. In the event that Sparklight believes in its sole discretion that any subscriber name, account name, or e-mail address (collectively, an “identifier”) on the Service may be used for, or is being used for, any misleading, fraudulent, or other improper or illegal purpose, Sparklight (i) reserves the right to block access to and prevent the use of any of these identifiers, and (ii) may at any time require any customer to change his or her identifier. Sparklight may at any time reserve any identifiers on the Service for Sparklight’s own purposes. Sparklight is not responsible for the forwarding of email sent to any account which has been suspended or terminated. Such email will be returned to sender, ignored, deleted, or stored temporarily at Sparklight’s sole discretion. Sparklight is not responsible for deleting or forwarding any e-mail sent to the wrong e-mail address by you or by someone else trying to send e-mail to you. In addition, Sparklight may suspend or delete a Sparklight email address after three (3) months of inactivity or other evidence of non-use.

What requirements apply to instant, video, and audio messages?

Each user is responsible for the contents of his or her instant, video, and audio messages and the consequences of any of these messages. Sparklight assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, misdelivery, or deletion of, or any failure to store, these messages. In the event that a Service account is terminated for any reason, all instant, video, and audio messages associated with that account (and any secondary accounts) will be permanently deleted as well.

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III. Network management and limitations on bandwidth consumption and data storage

The Sparklight network is designed for typical usage by a typical business user. Computer activity resulting in excessive or sustained bandwidth consumption may burden the network and such usage may be restricted. Bandwidth on our network is a limited, shared resource among subscribers, unless you are subject to a Service plan that provides dedicated Services. Because we seek to provide the Services at a reasonable cost to the largest number of users, the use of our network is subject to fair and reasonable usage guidelines.  Users are expected to refrain from consumption that is disproportionate to the consumption of other similar users and more than the consumption for which their Service plan is designed.  With the exception of fiber customers, in all cases, consumption greater than 8 terabytes per month is considered disproportionate and excessive. Users must ensure their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, or degrade any other user’s use of the Services nor represent (in the sole but reasonable judgment of Sparklight) an unusually large burden on the network itself. In addition, users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, disrupt, degrade or impede Sparklight’s ability to deliver the Services and monitor the Services, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services. Sparklight may respond to such activities and excessive consumption by taking a variety of actions including but not limited to requiring the User to move to a fiber solution, upgrade or downgrade the User’s Plan or if the User refuses any of the above actions, terminate the User’s service. In circumstances where immediate action is necessary to protect the network, Sparklight may terminate a User’s service without prior notice. Sparklight is committed to ensuring that each customer has equal access to our network to meet its needs as indicated by its selected Service plan.

How does Sparklight track usage?

We collect data on customer traffic pattern usage through the use of traffic management software. Sparklight reserves the right to conduct tests to improve network security, to enhance the performance of our network, and to determine whether to make available new service offerings. These technical tests are performed almost continuously and without notice.  All customer traffic or other collected data shall be subject to Sparklight’s privacy policy and applicable law.

What is Excessive Use?

Excessive use means bandwidth or data usage that is consistently higher than fair and reasonable usage given the purchased Services plan for shared services (this does not apply to dedicated Services). Excessive Users consume so much data that their usage could negatively impact the Services provided to other customers. Excessive Users demonstrate sustained usage patterns at high volumes over many hours. These patterns are consistent with unattended usage and create a costly burden on the network, especially during peak usage hours.

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IV. Violation of this acceptable use policy

What happens if you violate this policy?

Sparklight reserves the right to suspend or terminate the Services and your Services Agreement if you violate the terms of this Policy or the Services Agreement.

How does Sparklight enforce this Policy?

Sparklight does not routinely monitor the activity of accounts for violation of this Policy. However, in our efforts to comply with applicable law and promote good citizenship within the Internet community, we will respond appropriately if we become aware of inappropriate use of our Services. If we receive notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. sec. 512, that you have allegedly infringed the intellectual property rights of a third party, we retain the right to take down or disable access to the allegedly infringing material. In complying with applicable law in this area, it is our policy, in appropriate circumstances, to terminate the accounts of subscribers who repeatedly infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties. We also will take such other action as appropriate under the circumstances to preserve our rights.

Although Sparklight has no obligation to monitor the Services and/or the network, Sparklight reserves the right to monitor bandwidth, usage, and content from time to time to operate the Services; to identify violations of this Policy; and/or to protect the network and Sparklight users. Sparklight prefers to advise customers of inappropriate behavior and request that customers take any necessary corrective action. However, if the Services are used in a way which Sparklight, in its sole but reasonable discretion, believes violate this Policy, Sparklight may take any responsive actions it deems appropriate. Such actions include, but are not limited to, temporary or permanent removal of content, cancellation of newsgroup posts, filtering of Internet transmissions, and the immediate suspension or termination of all or any portion of the Services. Sparklight will not have any liability for any such responsive actions.

The above described actions are not Sparklight’s exclusive remedies and Sparklight may take any other legal or technical action it deems appropriate. Sparklight reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of this Policy, including the gathering of information from the user or users involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on Sparklight’s servers and network. During an investigation, Sparklight may suspend the account or accounts involved and/or remove material which potentially violates this Policy. You hereby authorize Sparklight to cooperate with (i) law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations, and (ii) system administrators at other Internet service providers or other network or computing facilities in order to enforce this Policy. Such cooperation may include Sparklight providing the username, IP address, or other identifying information about a subscriber. Upon termination of an account, Sparklight is authorized to delete any user ID, files, programs, data and email messages associated with such account.

The failure of Sparklight to enforce this Policy, 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. This Policy shall be exclusively governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of Arizona.

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V. Miscellaneous provisions

Cable modems

Sparklight strives to produce a high level of reliability, stability and security for our Services subscribers. The cable modem is a critical network element which we constantly evaluate for compatibility and performance. Due to technical limitations, changes to our network, discontinued support by manufacturers, regulatory obligations, or defects, certain cable modem models that previously were certified may be deemed to no longer be suitable for our network. If you own your modem and in our sole but reasonable discretion it becomes unsuitable for any of these or other reasons, it will be your responsibility to obtain a new modem. Sparklight’s support web site maintains a current list of certified modems for use on its network. Sparklight reserves the right to upgrade, via software download and without subscriber notification, all cable modems currently connected to its network.

Communication

Sparklight may choose to communicate with you regarding these policies using a variety of methods including email to your Sparklight email address or in-browser notices. In-browser notices are an effective way to quickly alert you to important service-impacting issues. These notices may require you to acknowledge receipt of the message or log into your Sparklight account for more information.

Limitations of liability

Sparklight will make reasonable efforts to provide customer with uninterrupted and error-free service. Nonetheless, there are numerous factors that could affect the Service. Temporary interruptions of the Services may occur as normal events in the provision of the Services. Sparklight reserves the right to interrupt the Services usually between the hours of 1am to 5am (MST or Local) for maintenance purposes. Also understand that Sparklight has no control over the networks, facilities or services of third parties and that delays and disruptions involving them are completely beyond Sparklight’s control. As to Sparklight’s own equipment and software, failure may occur without warning due to causes ranging from our own errors to malicious attack. While Sparklight employs virus and spam checking software, the speed of new virus and spam creation is such that Sparklight does not represent or warrant that traffic on its network will be virus or spam free. In light of that, your use of the Services is at your own risk and the Services are provided without warranty or guarantee of any kind either expressed or implied, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

Without limiting the foregoing, Sparklight and its affiliates will not be liable for any interruptions in Services or failure to perform or partial performance that results in corrupted transmissions and will not be responsible for consequential damages of any sort. In any event, Sparklight’s liability to you for all potential claims will not exceed the total amount of service fees paid during the preceding three months. Nothing in this Agreement gives you any interest, title or license in the user ID, electronic mail address or IP address that is used in conjunction with the Services.