1. Goals

PSINet's goals are to protect network resources, preserve the privacy and security of PSINet and our customers' networks, and maximise the utility of PSINet and the Internet, while recognising PSINet's position in the Internet community as a whole.

2. Interpretation

The provisions of this Policy are intended as guidelines and are not meant to be exhaustive. Generally, conduct that violates law, regulation, or the accepted netiquette of the Internet community, whether or not expressly mentioned in this Policy, is prohibited. PSINet reserves the right at all times to prohibit activities that damage its commercial reputation and goodwill.

3. Security

Any "denial of service" attack, any attempt to breach authentication or security measures, or any unauthorised attempt to gain access to any other account, host or network is prohibited, and will result in immediate service termination, which may be without notice.

4. E-mail and Usenet News

Using any PSINet account or server to send duplicative, unsolicited e-mail messages (commercial or otherwise), or to collect the responses from unsolicited e-mail, is prohibited.

Similarly, using any PSINet account or server to post advertisements or messages that violate the charter of any newsgroup or mailing list is prohibited.

Excessive cross-posting, posting of irrelevant material to newsgroups and posting binaries to non-binary newsgroups is prohibited.

Advertising any site or service by means of duplicative, unsolicited e-mail or news posting is prohibited, irrespective of whether the messages were sent using a PSINet service.

PSINet reserves the right to make the determination whether a given message violates the newsgroup or mailing list charter. In most cases PSINet will defer to the judgement of the newsgroup or mailing list moderator or administrator.

Commercial messages that are appropriate under the charter of a newsgroup or mailing list, or that are expressly solicited by the recipients, are permitted.

Conduct in connection with e-mail or Usenet news that is an obvious nuisance (such as "mail bombing") or that would be unlawful in other contexts (for example, threats, harassment, defamation, obscenity, or software piracy) is prohibited.

Note: PSINet requires all of its customers to ensure that their own systems are not used for any form of network abuse. This includes ensuring that your mail server is correctly configured to reject attempts to relay third party email. For more information, see What To Do When Your Service Is Stolen By Junk-Mailers. In order to maintain the integrity of PSINet systems, and for the protection of other PSINet customers, PSINet reserves the right to block open relays from feeding mail or news to PSINet servers. Any such action may be carried out without notice.

5. FTP

Customers must ensure that their FTP sites, hosted by themselves or on PSINet servers, are controlled so that such areas that allow uploading of content do not contravene this Policy.

6. IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

Using programs that interfere with others' use, or running an IRC robot, on any IRC server is prohibited. When logged into any IRC server, users are expected to comply with the rules and policies established by the server's administrator.

7. Forgery of Identity

Falsifying addressing information or otherwise modifying headers to conceal the sender's or recipient's identity, for the purpose of circumventing this Policy, is prohibited. This provision is not intended to disallow the use of aliases for any legitimate purpose.

8. Copyright, Privacy, and Intellectual Property

Using a PSINet connection to commit, aid or abet any violation of copyright or intellectual property law is prohibited. This prohibition includes publishing a private e-mail message to third parties, by any means, without the express prior consent of the author. The e-mail addresses of PSINet subscribers are not for sale or commercial distribution to third parties without the express prior consent of the subscriber.

9. Broadcast Echo Requests (e.g. "Smurf Attacks")

PSINet does not permit its infrastructure, or that of customers, to be used for broadcast amplification attacks, e.g. the ICMP/ping flood known as "smurf attacks." PSINet customers must ensure their equipment is configured to prevent amplification of broadcasts, and co-operate with PSINet in identifying the causes of such incidents, for example by providing logs.

10. Miscellaneous

Use of IP Multicast or Internet telephony is prohibited unless expressly authorised by PSINet. Also any usage which overloads the PSINet network is prohibited.

11. Cooperation with Other Providers

Using PSINet's facilities to engage in activities that violate the Terms of Service of any other network access provider is prohibited.

12. Consequences of Violation

Violation of this Policy by a PSINet customer may result in temporary suspension or permanent termination of service, possibly without notice, at PSINet's sole discretion.

PSINet does not issue service credits for any outages incurred through service disablement resulting from Policy violations.

13. Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)

PSINet abides by any "notice and take down" recommendations communicated to PSINet by IWF. Please see http://www.iwf.org.uk/ for further information about the IWF.

14. Modification

PSINet reserves the right to add, delete, or modify any provision of this Policy at any time without notice.

Please send reports of any activity in violation of this Policy to: abuse@uk.psi.com

Net Abuse is a general term that covers any anti-social use of the Internet. This includes sending unwanted commercial email and news postings ("spamming"), deliberate breaches of security, use of the Internet to distribute illegal material, and "denial of service" attacks.

PSINet's response to net abuse

PSINet will investigate any complaint of net abuse, both complaints against our customers and from our customers. If a complaint is upheld against one of our customers, then a warning will be issued, and subsequent complaints may lead to termination of service.

If our customers are suffering from net abuse originating outside our network, we will investigate and, as far as possible, cooperate with other ISPs in tracing the perpetrators. In certain circumstances (eg, continual spam attacks), we may be able to block the source from the PSINet network altogether. We can also give advice on configuring your own network to reject unwanted traffic.