Acceptable Use Policy

1 Introduction

This Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) is intended to help protect both customers and the Internet community from the inappropriate use of the Internet. A customer’s use of any service constitutes acceptance of this AUP. CFN reserves the right to revise and update this AUP from time to time. CFN expects customers to cooperate with the company’s Service department when requested to assist in their investigations.This AUP is divided into two sections:

Section 1. Violations and Descriptions of Appropriate Use

Section 2. Reporting to the CFN’s Service department

2 Section 1: Violations and Descriptions of Acceptable Use

This section describes how the policy deals with General Violations, Network Disruptions, Email, News, Web, Excessive Bandwidth/Disk Utilisation, and Facilitating a Violation of This AUP

2.1 General Violations

Our AUP prohibits the following:

2.1.1 Impersonation/Forgery

Adding, removing, or modifying identifying network header information (“spoofing”) in an effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited. Attempting to impersonate any person by using forged headers or other identifying information is prohibited. The use of anonymous remailers and nicknames does not constitute impersonation. Using deliberately misleading headers (“munging” headers) in news postings in order to avoid spam email address collectors is allowed provided appropriate contact information is contained in the body of the posting.

2.1.2 Privacy Violations

Attempts, whether successful or unsuccessful, to gain access to any electronic systems, networks or data, without proper consent, are prohibited.

2.1.3 Threats

Threats of bodily harm or destruction of property are prohibited.

2.1.4 Harassment

Threatening or harassing activity is prohibited.

2.1.5 Illegal Use

The use of CFN Services for illegal purposes is prohibited. The Customer agrees that it will not under any circumstances use or allow use by third parties of CFN Services for making available, linking to or endorsing any of the following subject matter: a. child pornography or depictions of children and young people in an unnatural sexual pose including virtual depictions thereof; b. Nazi propaganda or incitement to racial hatred; c. denial of Holocaust; d. illegal depictions of cruelty or glorification of violence against human beings or virtual depictions thereof; e. glorification of war; or
f. depictions of people suffering in a manner that violates their human dignity. Breaches of this clause constitutes a material violation of the AUP.

2.1.6 Reselling

The resale of any service without proper authorisation from CFN is prohibited. Persons wishing to act as resellers may review details of the CFN Partner Programme, available at www.cfn.ltd

2.1.7 Copyright Infringement

All material published must be owned by the publisher or the appropriate releases must have been obtained prior to publishing. CFN will co-operate with all agencies attempting to assert their rights in these matters.

2.2 Network Disruptions and Network-Unfriendly Activity

Any activities, which adversely affect the ability of other people or systems to use CFN services or the Internet, are prohibited. This includes “denial of service” (DoS) attacks against another network host or individual user. Interference with, or disruption of, use of the network by others, network services or network equipment is prohibited.
It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that their network is configured in a secure manner. A customer may not, through action or inaction, allow others to use their network for illegal or inappropriate actions. A customer may not permit their network, through action or inaction, to be configured in such a way that it gives a third party the capability to use their network in an illegal or inappropriate manner.

2.3 Email

CFN does not tolerate, endorse or participate in email spamming. Sending unsolicited commercial email is prohibited. We cannot authorise bulk emailing although we do recognise that in some instances this is a valid and useful form of marketing for both senders and recipients.
Using a CFN email or Web site address to collect responses from unsolicited commercial email is prohibited.
Sending large volumes of unsolicited email, whether or not that email is commercial in nature is prohibited. All solicited email should have been confirmed through the use of a double opt-in list (i.e. the recipient must confirm their wish to receive that particular email twice).
Activities that have the effect of facilitating unsolicited commercial email, or large volumes of unsolicited email, whether or not that email is commercial in nature, are prohibited. Users operating mail servers must ensure that they are not open relays
Anonymous bulk emailing is not permitted and we will terminate the accounts of any customers who attempt to do this. This may happen without notice.
If we receive any complaints from recipients or other third parties, or any mailing causes technical problems on our systems, we may take further action to stop this happening again. This may involve the termination of any accounts the sender has and may occur without notice.
In the event that we are alerted to anyone sending bulk emails, we will generally attempt to make contact with the senders to discuss appropriate actions.
We recommend that anybody undertaking this kind of activity has a data protection statement on their Web site explaining how the company fulfils their obligations in terms of the Data Protection Act.
Senders must give recipients the ability to easily contact the sender and remove themselves from their mailing list. Senders must be sure that recipients are aware that they are listed on the sender’s emailing list and that they themselves provided their information or authorised a third party to do so on their behalf.
Senders must make every effort to ensure that the information they are sending is of interest to the recipient and matches the reason given for the collection of the email address in the first place (e.g. email collected from people interested in Motorcycle Products should not be sent email relating to tattoos, no matter how likely it may seem that they will be interested in the same topic).
In the event of any problems being caused by this type of activity, we will make every effort to ensure that the problem is resolved as quickly as possible. This includes full co-operation with any relevant authorities.

2.4 News

CFN customers should use their best judgment when posting to any newsgroup. Many groups have charters, published guidelines, FAQs, or ‘community standards’ describing what is and is not considered appropriate. Usenet can be a valuable resource if used properly. The continued posting of off-topic articles is prohibited. Commercial advertisements are off-topic in most newsgroups, especially non-commercial regional groups. The presence of such articles in a group is not indicative of the group’s intended use. Please familiarise yourself with basic USENET netiquette before posting to a newsgroup.
Newsgroup spamming: spam is, first and foremost, a numerical metric-posting of substantively similar articles to multiple newsgroups. This form of spam is sometimes referred to as “excessive multi-posting” (EMP). CFN considers ‘multi-posting’ to 10 or more groups within a one-week period to be excessive.
Hostile attacks or invectives (flames) aimed at a group or an individual poster are generally considered inappropriate in CFN service groups. Flames in the non-service groups are discouraged. Many newsreaders offer filtering capabilities that will bring certain messages to your attention or skip over them altogether (kill files).
CFN customers may not cancel messages other than their own messages. A customer may cancel posts forged in that customer’s name. CFN may cancel any postings that violate this AUP.

2.5 Web

Using a CFN Web site address or CFN hosted Web account for the purpose of distributing illegal material is prohibited. CFN will co-operate with authorities to remedy breaches of this policy.
Using a CFN Web site address or CFN hosted Web account to collect responses from unsolicited commercial email is also prohibited.

2.6 Excessive bandwidth or Disk Utilisation

CFN account descriptions specify current limits on bandwidth and disk utilisation. Where limits are not specifically defined the judgement of the Internet Technical Support team shall be used to define those limits. The use of bandwidth or disk space in excess of those limits is not permitted. The total number of bytes transferred from an account’s Web and FTP space determines bandwidth utilisation. The total number of bytes required to store an account’s Web, FTP, and Mail data determines disk utilisation.
If CFN determines that excessive bandwidth or disk space utilisation is adversely affecting CFN’s ability to provide service, CFN may take immediate action. CFN will attempt to notify the account owner by email as soon as possible.

2.7 Facilitating a Violation of this AUP

Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, programme, product, or service that is designed to violate this AUP, or the AUP of any other Internet Service Provider, which includes, but is not limited to, the facilitation of the means to spam.

3 Section 2: Reporting to the Service Department

CFN requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of this AUP should direct the information to our Technical Support team at this address: abuse@cambridgefibre.uk
Customers who wish to report ‘spam’ from a non-CFN source should send copies of the email they received along with full header information. Some messages may not receive a response, but CFN may use the information received at this address to aid in the development of CFN’s filter lists.
All issues involving other email abuse originating from CFN email or network addresses should also be sent to the above address.
All issues regarding USENET ‘news’ abuse issues originating from CFN customers.
Other suspicious activity such as port scans or attempts to penetrate network resources and virus distribution.
CFN may take any one or more of the following actions in response to complaints:

• Issue warnings: written or verbal
• Suspend the customer’s newsgroup posting privileges
• Suspend the customer’s account
• Terminate the customer’s account
• Invoice the customer for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges

What information should be submitted?

1. The IP address used to commit the alleged violation

2. The date and time of the alleged violation, including the time zone or offset from GMT

3. Evidence of the alleged violation

Copies of email with full header information provide all the required information, as do syslog files and firewall logs. Other situations will require different methods.