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This document is intended to clarify Lawyers Online's Acceptable
Use Policy and Terms
& Conditions. This document does not define anything which is
not already covered in the two previously mentioned documents.
You will notice that almost always our procedures are designed to prevent
any one of our users from affecting our other users. As such these procedures
protect your account more than they limit it.
We understand that having your account suspended can be irritating. If
at any point your account is suspended you will be contacted by Lawyers
Online. However we reserve the right to suspend your account without notice
and contact you after the fact.
Suspension of your account will occur under any of the following conditions.
1. Non Payment
Lawyers Online's standard procedure is to not suspend accounts when payment
is due. However, if service is used for an extended period of time after
payment is due your account will be suspended pending payment.
Payment of all Lawyers Online's fees and debt collector's fees is required
before your account can be reactivated or cancelled.
2. Usage Allocation
All ISP accounts have an upper usage limit; this is required as no computer
can handle an infinite amount of information. The limits are set high
enough that they are not noticed in general usage.
If you do approach the limit of your account Lawyers Online will contact
you and offer advice for more efficient usage of your account or suggest
a different account type.
If you are not contactable or your usage of your account stays above
the limit for more than 7 days your account will automatically be partially
suspended by our automated systems.
3. Complaints
If at any point Lawyers Online receives a complaint about your account/IP
address we shall investigate and suspend your account if it is necessary
for the issue complained about to be resolved.
The majority of complaints received are due to viruses, hacking or server
misconfiguration, all of which are explained in other parts of this document.
4. Computer Viruses or Trojans
Your account may be suspended if Lawyers Online is made aware that your
account is being used by a computer virus.
Your account will be suspended due to the risks involved with computer
viruses. By suspending the account Lawyers Online hopes to prevent the
following:
4.1 Your computer from sending confidential information over the Internet
4.2 Your computer from infecting other computers or networks
A lot of viruses will attach themselves to confidential word documents,
excel spreadsheets, etc and then send these documents via email to everyone
in your address book. Providing these people with the virus and your confidential
information.
Some viruses have the ability to record everything you type on your keyboard,
including web addresses, usernames and passwords. Lawyers Online has seen
viruses use this ability to distribute your online banking information
via email (an example of a virus that has this ability is W32/BugBear-B)
Please note that Lawyers Online do not guarantee that emails you receive
through our service are virus free. It is left up to you (the end user)
to check your computer system for viruses. You are recommended to install
and maintain Sophos
Anti-Virus on your computer.
5. Misconfiguration
Misconfiguration of a computer/server connected to a Lawyers Online account
can cause problems for other internet users and yourself. Problems arising
from misconfiguration don't tend to show up immediately and tend to cause
problems in the long term. As such these problems are often not anticipated
and overlooked when your computer/server is installed.
The following are considered as server misconfiguration:
5.1 Open Mail Relay
5.2 Open Proxy Server
5.3 Insufficient or no External Security (eg. public access to files being
shared on your computer, administration interface on your router, etc)
6. SPAM / Unsolicited Commercial Email
The sending of SPAM is considered bad by the internet community as a
whole. There are many organisations on the internet which attempt to the
limit the ability of "spammers".
Lawyers Online does not wish for its self or any of its customers to
become "blacklisted" and as such limited as it which parts of
the internet it is allowed to communicate with. As such any account that
is used to send unsolicited commercial email or junk email in general
will be suspended without notice.
If you run an email list you must ensure that everyone on your list has
requested inclusion and that you provide and advertise an easy straight
forward unsubscription method.
If you have an email server on your premises you must ensure that it
is not misconfigured as an open mail relay or an open proxy as both of
these misconfigurations can be used by a third party to send spam via
your account.
7. Hacking
If your account is used for the purpose of penetrating the security of
other computers or networks on the internet you will be automatically
suspended without notice.
This is most likely to occur if your computer is hacked and then being
used by a hacker to hack someone else.
Hacking is defined as any of the following:
7.1 Port Scanning
7.2 Controlling a Trojan
7.3 Brute Force Password Cracking
7.4 Intentionally sending corrupt or invalid data
7.5 Social Engineering through electronic communication
7.6 Exploiting known vulnerabilities in remote systems to gain unauthorized
access
Note that Lawyers Online will not suspend your account if any of the
above activities is performed against computers that you own. However
an explanation of your actions will be required if any complaint is received.
8. Under Attack
Your account shall be suspended if Lawyers Online is made aware that
your computers are under attack (being hacked) and are unable to contact
you. This is to prevent compromise of your computer systems.
Your account will be reactivated immediately upon request.
9. Other
The above is only the most common subset of reasons for suspension. Please
read Lawyers Online's Acceptable
Use Policy and Terms
& Conditions for
specific details in a legal narrative.
Lawyers Online Suspension Terms - Last Revised 30/06/2003
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