This corner of our web server discusses the policies, terms, and conditions (hereinafter generally referred to by any of those words) that go with your account at MV Communications.

Use of MV services comes by way of a bargain between you and MV. Part of this bargain is understanding the kinds of things that constitute appropriate and proper use of our services, and on the other hand the kinds of things that are improper.

This policies section is subject to periodic and continuing revision. Thus, we expect that you will consult this page from time to time to keep informed about MV's usage policies. If you have comments please email them to webmaster@mv.mv.com .

Why?

Why have usage policies, terms, and conditions?
While we think that no one is likely to really ask that question, we'd like to outline some of the factors that contribute to the necessity of having guidelines. Perhaps there are some that you hadn't considered.

Policies set by vendors

MV obtains services from a number of third parties who, according to the nature of those services, set guidelines for the use of those services. Where we bring you online news, the originators of that news insist that their copyrights are honored. Where we send data through data channels belonging to other organizations, those organizations will demand that their channels not be abused.

Policies set by MV

We offer a variety of services to a wide community of users. As such:

We run a business.

The prices we set and the offerings we make are predicated on certain expectations of use. Usage in ways that are not offered as part of the price are naturally not covered in the agreement. In other words, some policies are designed so that we can offer you a certain level of service and expect to remain in business doing so.

We serve a community.

Certain policies are designed to prevent abuse of the customers that we serve. This includes obvious sorts of abuse such as harrassment or annoyance, but also other kinds such as overconsumption of resources or directly or indirectly causing denial of service to the general user community at MV.

We are part of a larger community.

Part of the benefit of the Internet derives from the fact that it is a shared resource. The value of the Internet is enhanced by the participation of its members. The members of the Internet are not targets for exploitation or other abuse, and it is the philosophy of MV that our services not be used towards those ends.

Policies set by society at large.

We are subject to the laws of the real world. We can not permit illegal use of our facilities, and we will cooperate with any legal processes.

MV's Policies, Terms, and Conditions

The remainder of this section describes the kinds of uses that are inappropriate. Any of these can be grounds for immediate termination of your account without refund of any deposits, setup fees, or other amounts paid on the account. Further, you may be liable for any damages caused either directly or indirectly as a result of such action.

Abuse of the community

You may not use your acount, or involve your account in any way, for a purpose that causes abuse of the Internet community or any portion of it even if the abuse does not originate from your account at MV . There are kinds of Internet uses that are generally recognized as abusive. Remember that on the Internet you are dealing with a community of individuals, and you should interact with them, much as in other areas of society, either as individuals or as specific groups of individuals in which you have a participatory interest. Any attempt to treat any part of this community as a target is almost certainly abuse. Such abuse includes (but is not necessarily limited to):

Harrassment

including abusive email, unwanted email, or other forms of harrassment.

Forgery

including representing yourself as another person or network entity.

Unsolicited and unwanted correspondence

Any email or other direct correspondence to any recipient where such correspondence is unsolicited, targeted to the recipient without their request, and so forth. This includes but is not limited to bulk email.

Risk to the community

When you are connected to the Internet you must take adequate steps to ensure that you are not presenting a risk to the community. Even though you yourself may not be directly abusing the community, you must prevent potential abusers from using your facilities in abusive ways. Such prevention includes (but is not necessarily limited to):

Open mail relays

If you run a mail server (e.g. an SMTP mail server), you must ensure that this server can not be used to relay mail between one third party and another. All mail handled by your server should either originate at your network or terminate at your network.

Smurf amplifiers

If MV routes an IP subnet to you, you must ensure that the broadcast addresses of this IP subnet are filtered before they reach your subnet, or use some other mechanism to guarantee that a replies from your subnet are not sent in response to messages from the outside sent to those broadcast addresses.

Security attack participation

You must also ensure that any facilities connected to the Internet can not be used as an agent in denial of service attacks, or as agents in any other kinds of security attack.

Inappropriate use of USENET newsgroups

There can be various kinds of abuse of newsgroups, many of which derive from a failure to understand the nature of communication that takes place in newsgroups. In general, each newsgroup exists primarily for the community of participants in that newsgroups and for the topic covered by that newsgroup. Before posting to any newsgroups you should familiarize yourself with the nature of USENET news. Before posting to a specific newsgroup you should read that group for a period of weeks in order to study the community before participating in it. That community shall not be targeted for any purpose that conflicts with the newsgroup's purpose. This includes:

SPAM

SPAM is the posting of a message to an excessive number of multiple newsgroups. On the face of it you can not both appropriately participate in a newsgroup community and post SPAM, since you would not legitimately engage a large number of communities with your message.

Off-topic postings and trolling

It is an error to use a newsgroup for discussions that are not part of that newsgroup's charter. Trolling is the posting of a message or messages merely to cause conflict in that newsgroup. i.e., trolling for a reaction.

Moderation

You may not interfere with the moderation of a moderated newsgroup.

Operation of the news

You may not interfere with the proper operation of the news system. This includes moderated newsgroup as mentioned above, but also generation or interception of control messages or any other operational mechanism.

Tampering with service

You may not attempt to interfere with any service provided by MV or any other portion of the Internet.

Unauthorized access

You may not attempt to access any systems or portions of systems to which you are not authorized, files you do not own, or programs that are not user programs, whether those items are at MV or elsewhere on the net.

Denial of service

Including denial of service directly or indirectly caused by your action whether or not that action occured as part of your account at MV

Sharing of accounts

Dialup accounts are intended for use by a single person or a single family. Accounts may not be shared with other users. An account may use no more than one dialin access line at any time.

Third Party Terms

Domain registration agreements

ICANN Dispute Policy

All registrations follow the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (often referred to as the "UDRP"). See ICANN Dispute Policy.

The following list sets out the registration agreement for each of the top level domains that we provide registrations for. When you register a name through our services, you are bound by the agreement for the top level domain as follows.

.COM

gTLD Agreement

.NET

gTLD Agreement

.ORG

gTLD Agreement

.BIZ

BIZ Agreement

.INFO

INFO Agreement

.NAME

NAME Agreement

.TV

TV Agreement

.CC

CC Agreement

.US

US Agreement