Terms of Service

Please review our acceptable use policies and terms of service:

Introduction
Smile Internet Network's goal is to provide as unrestricted and satisfying an Internet experience as possible for our customers, consistent with legal requirements and the rights and privacy of others. This AUP is designed to satisfy what the law demands, to protect Smile, and to protect you, our customers.

Enforcement
Depending on the specific nature and circumstances of any given violation of this AUP, we may:

• issue a warning;
• suspend your service temporarily;
• terminate your service.

We will attempt to contact you before suspending or terminating service, so that you may have an opportunity to remedy the violation. Under some circumstances we may need to act without prior notification to you. Suspension or termination of service for violation of this AUP, with or without notice, is ineligible for any refund of any service fees. In some circumstances, Smile may bill you at the rate of $350 per hour, per incident, plus any associated expenses, for our costs in repairing or mitigating any harm or damage a customer's actions or inactions may cause, and will pursue all legal means of recovering such expenses.

Policies

• Illegal activity
  We are required by law to report to the appropriate authorities and/or agencies any criminal activity that we become aware of or that is brought to our attention.
• Protected Speech
  We strongly support our customers' right to free speech. Harassment, slander, libel, and abusiveness are not protected speech, and Smile will not support the use of our service to that end.
• Privacy
  Your account and business with us is private - we will not share your private information with anyone.
• Unsolicited/Bulk Email Activity
  Spamming is not tolerated under any circumstances. "Spamming" is sending unsolicited email - whether commercial or noncommercial, targeted or untargeted - to people who have not explicitly asked to receive such email.
  
  Spam sent via other networks, regardless of means of transport, referencing email addresses or sites hosted by Smile, is similarly prohibited. You may not use Smile's services as a "drop-off" address for replies to spam mail, spam posts, or spam websites sent or hosted by our or other networks.
  
  Open-Relay is forbidden within Smile's network. An Open Relay is a mail server that will allow a third-party on the Internet to send email through that server to yet other third-parties on the Internet. This is a common mail server misconfiguration; please consult your documentation in order to correct this.
  
  Smile encourages the appropriate use of email, and we do not censor for content. Smile will censor customers who annoy, attempt to annoy, or cause to be annoyed third-parties on the Internet who do not wish to receive communication from you.
  
  Use of our networks and/or services in service to spam, spammers, or spamming will not be tolerated.
  
  Smile filters spam and viruses on a best-effort basis. We do not, and cannot, promise that we will always tag all spam messages you receive, or that we will always catch every virus that may be sent to you. Receipt of untagged spam, or viruses, does not constitute a failure on our part to provide spam and virus filtering on a best-effort basis. There may be times - due to maintenance, ongoing attack on our systems, etc. - when we may need to temporarily turn off spam and virus filtering. This again does not constitute a failure to provide these services on a best-effort basis. Due to the inherently imprecise nature of spam filtering, there exists the possibility that at times legitimate email may be incorrectly tagged as spam, may be delayed, or may even be deleted before delivery. We work very hard to ensure that our spam filters are tuned carefully and as accurately as possible, and our false-positive rates are extremely low. However, we cannot guarantee that legitimate email will never be tagged, delayed, or deleted by our spam filters.
  
  See also "Mass Mailings" under "Denial of Service, immediately following.
  
  
• Denial of Service
  You may not commit or be party to the commission of any attack against our networks, systems, and/or services, or any other networks, systems, and/or services on the Internet. This includes, for example:
  • Mail bombing (sending or receiving large numbers of messages or sending or receiving extremely large messages, with the intention of disrupting the normal use/operation of the recipient's email account or service);
  • Mass-mailings. While these may not necessarily be intentional Denial of Service attacks or spam, they may have the same effect on Smile's systems and/or those of other providers. Reasonably-sized mass-mailings - 300 messages or fewer per 24 hour interval - are acceptable under these Terms of Service. Larger mass mailings must receive approval from postmaster@smileglobal.com. Mass mailings that are sent without such approval may be blocked. Smile provides a specific service designed for legitimate mass mailings - Smile's XMX™ Service. More information may be found on our XMX page. Please review "Unsolicited Email Activity" above for further caveats.
  • attempting to gain unauthorized access to our networks, systems and/or services, or other networks, systems, and/or services via our networks, to which you are not authorized for such access.
  • flooding with traffic our networks, systems, and/or services, or other networks, systems, and/or services with the intention of disrupting those networks, systems and/or services.

  This is by no means an inclusive list. The determination of what constitutes a Denial of Service attack shall remain wholly within the discretion of Smile.

• Technical Support
  Smile is proud of the quality of the technical and customer support we provide. To maintain that quality, we must limit the availability of technical support to the primary account holder only. We cannot provide technical support for other persons who may have access to use your account or connection, such as your business partners, employees, relatives, etc. You may designate one additional person - typically your IT person - as an authorized person to specify changes to your accounts.

  Similarly, we must limit our Internet technical support to issues related to the services we provide only. We cannot teach you how to design web pages, how to use your computer's software, how to access specific sites on the net, etc. We can only offer such help on a consulting basis, or we may refer you to other specialists. We may (and frequently do) at our discretion and time permitting, assist customer with other issues. Providing such additional support shall not be construed as an obligation for Smile to provide such support.
• Abandoned Addresses
  Smile reserves within its right to delete addresses that have been abandoned by the owner, and to block further incoming email to those addresses. An address shall be deemed abandoned if it has not been accessed in more than 60 days.
• Abandoned Accounts
  Abandoning an account does not constitute cancelling service. Service cancellation is the responsibility of the account holder, and is accomplished via email, telephone, or fax of your intention to cancel service. Abandoning your account will not stop automatic charges for service, nor is any refund of fees due if service has not been formally canceled.

Limitation of Service and Disclaimers
This AUP applies to all Smile customers.

Smile reserves the right to modify this AUP without prior notice, and at any time. We will attempt to notify customers if our AUP changes, however, all policies remain applicable regardless of whether any such notification is provided.

Use of Smile's networks and/or services constitutes unconditional agreement to the terms of this AUP, and by such use you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Smile from any and all costs or damages you may incur consequent to Smile's enforcement, or lack thereof, of this AUP, as outlined in the Enforcement clause of this document.

We reserve the right to refuse access and/or service to anyone, at any time, for any reason.

SMILE'S INTERNET SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN AS IS, AS AVAILABLE BASIS. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL SMILE BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE SMILE'S INTERNET SERVICES. NOR SHALL SMILE BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER THAT RESULT FROM MISTAKES, OMISSIONS, INTERRUPTIONS, DELETION OF FILES, ERRORS, DEFECTS, DELAYS IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION, OR ANY FAILURE OF PERFORMANCE WHETHER OR NOT CAUSED BY EVENTS BEYOND SMILE'S REASONABLE CONTROL, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ACTS OF GOD, COMMUNICATION LINE OR POWER FAILURE, THEFT, DESTRUCTION, OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO SMILE'S RECORDS, PROGRAMS, OR SERVICES. SMILE SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY AND ALL RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR THE LOSS OF; OR DAMAGE TO; OR UNAVAILABILITY OF; ANY DATA STORED OR TRANSPORTED VIA OUR NETWORKS, SYSTEMS, AND/OR SERVICES, OR FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RELATED TO SUCH LOSS, DAMAGE, OR UNAVAILABILITY. SMILE'S SERVICES ARE PROVIDED WITH NO WARRANTIES OR ANY KIND, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL SMILE BE LIABLE FOR INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR SPECIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF DATA OR PROFITS, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER SMILE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF OR KNOWS OR SHOULD KNOW THE RISK OF SUCH DAMAGES IN ADVANCE. SMILE'S ENTIRE LIABILITY AND YOUR EXCLUSIVE REMEDY SHALL BE, AT SMILE'S ELECTION, THE RETURN OF SERVICE FEES PAID WITHIN THE PRECEDING THIRTY DAYS.