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Large providers who can do several million e-mails
per day can cause hundreds of dollars in bandwidth charges a day
to local Internet Service Providers (ISP's). This cost can cause
incredible damage to a small company. Especially when it is taken
into account that conservative estimates state that approximately
20% of all e-mail sent across the Internet is unsolicited.
This does not include the cost of additional
mail servers, staff handling the problems this additional e-mail
causes, or on-line time taken up to download and read all the
e-mail messages. These costs ultimately get passed on to the consumer,
who never requested the e-mail in the first place. Many other
problems are generated when the UCE senders try to avoid the hassles
of bounced e-mail and complaints by spoofing and forging header
information. The bounced e-mail is often sent to an unsuspecting,
innocent user, who often has to bear the brunt of angry victims.
In a further attempt to hide their identity, some "spammers" hijack
third party servers, sometimes causing server crashes and system
damage, as well as the additional data transfer cost.
This sort of unsolicited advertising is also against
the policies of our upstream providers. By allowing our customers
to violate our policy we would be violating our contract with
our providers and risking disruption of service.
Complaints Procedures
The Abuse Team investigates all complaints about
the Web sites Pacific Online hosts. In order for an unsolicited
e-mail or newsgroup abuse complaint to be considered, however,
it must have the full header information for verification purposes.
We are currently operating under a "three strikes"
procedure in which we warn, suspend, then delete accounts which
violate our policy.
It is very important to remember that often times
unsolicited e-mailings forge header information and innocent domains
are caught in the angry crossfire that follows. Please remember
that just because a domain name we host may show up in several
unsolicited e-mailings they do not necessarily have anything to
do with them.
Allegations of trademark/copyright infringement
and intellectual property disputes are handled under another policy.
Domains found to have engaged in "mailbombing" or other serious
or damaging breaches of policy can be suspended or deleted with
no warning.
Policy Violations and Refunds
Any customer who has been suspended for a violation
of our policy will no longer be eligible for the 30 day money
back guarantee.
Bulk E-Mail
Our Accepted Uses Policy forbids the transmission
of certain types of e-mail. Bulk e-mail can be acceptable under
the circumstances outlined below:
You should have a prior relationship with the
person receiving the e-mail, and they should be aware that they
will be receiving e-mail from your domain.
If you have a subscription list, there should be a confirmation
e-mail sent to the address before that address is added.
There should always be a way to quickly and easily unsubscribe
from the list included in each e-mail, and all unsubscription
requests should be quickly honored.
A valid "From:" and "Reply to" address must be included with each
message.
The following items would violate our policy:
Any kind of forged header information.
Lists which include "harvested" addresses.
"Targeted" e-mail lists.
Using a script on your site to send bulk or unsolicited
e-mail.
Using an autoresponder at your site to send bulk
or unsolicited e-mail.
Please note that this includes all domain names,
IP addresses, and e-mail addresses at a site.
Received Bulk E-Mail
Occasionally our customers run into a particular
bulk e-mailing company, or particular message that comes in repeatedly.
Since we do track all incoming unsolicited e-mail complaints and
block repeat offenders, we ask that you forward these complaints
to postmaster@inovadev.com
as well as complaining to the sender.
When sending a complaint to the Abuse Team, please
make sure to include the full header information ("Received From:"
lines) so that we can trace the source of the message.
Other Providers
It is important to remember that unsolicited
e-mail is often found very offensive, and the fact that we host
a domain can easily be traced. Almost all ISP's and IPP's block
e-mail from domains associated with unsolicited e-mail, and more
importantly it is against the policies of our upstream providers
to allow hosting of web sites or e-mail addresses of customers
who spam.
"Targeted" Lists
One of the many types of e-mail address lists
for sale today is the "targeted" e-mail list. These lists are
compiled using various methods in an attempt to reach a specific
audience who, in theory, would be more interested in the product
of service being offered.
Unfortunately these lists are still unsolicited
and therefore violate our policy. We do not allow these lists
to be used to promote domains, IP addresses, or e-mail addresses
that are hosted on our servers.
Disputes and Allegations
We are very sensitive to the Internet related
issues often raised about web sites we host. These include trademark/copyright
infringement, improper advertising, and a few others. We are willing
to help resolve these issues between the complainant and our customers,
but cannot act as judge and jury or delete every account accused
of violating the law.
We suggest the following:
If our client does not respond to your cease-and-desist
demand by your deadline, please forward our name, address, email,
etc. to your counsel so we may cooperate in resolving the matter
without litigation.
Through your counsel, or the legal branch of the
appropriate local, state, or country authorities, please inform
us as to how our client responds to your demand. Although our
client may express an opinion to Innovative Data Transfer regarding
your claim(s), the only response that counts is the one our client
sends to you--and Innovative Data Transfer will not necessarily
receive a copy of it.
If the response from our client is unsatisfactory
to you, we will work with your counsel or the legal branch of
the appropriate local, state, or country authorities -- if he
or she is willing -- to agree upon the wording of an injunction
which will legally require Innovative Data Transfer to remove
the offending web site. If we can agree on the wording of the
injunction,Innovative Data Transfer will not oppose your motion
requesting it.
These are guidelines and suggestions, each case
is always handled on an individual basis. Any questions regarding
e-mail service or support can be directed to postmaster@inovadev.com
E-mail interactions are guided by general nettiquette conventions.
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