bitstreamworks:::::::::hosting and services
Hosting with a twist

....the twist being that you pay us instead of someone else.

Terms of Service

Bitstreamworks, owned by POE Web Services, Inc ("The Company"), agrees to furnish services to the Subscriber, subject to the following TOS (Terms of Service). Use of Bitstreamworks service constitutes acceptance and agreement to Bitstreamworks Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) as well as this TOS.

All provisions of this contract are subject to the Bitstreamworks AUP. The AUP may be changed from time to time at the discretion of the Company. Subscriber understands that changes to the AUP by the Company shall not be grounds for early contract termination or non-payment.

This Agreement shall be construed in all respects in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, County of Allegheny applicable to contracts enforceable in that state. Venue will be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

I. Disclosure to Law Enforcement:

The AUP specifically prohibits the use of our service for illegal activities. Therefore, Subscriber agrees that the Company may disclose any and all subscriber information including assigned IP numbers, account history, account use, etc. to any law enforcement agent who makes a written request without further consent or notification to the Subscriber. In addition, Bitstreamworks shall have the right to terminate all service set forth in this Agreement.

II. Service Rates:

Subscriber acknowledges that the nature of the service furnished and the initial rates and charges have been communicated to Subscriber. Subscriber is aware that the Company may change the specified rates and charges from time to time. The promotional offer is contingent upon Company achieving and maintaining its cost of service goals — including but not limited to rates charged to Company by its suppliers.

III. Payment:

Establishment of this service is dependent upon receipt by the Company of payment of stated charges. Subsequent payments are due on the anniversary date of the month/year for that month's/year's service. All accounts and services provided by Bitstreamworks are subject to any tax rate applied by the Country of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or Federal Government. Currently we provide a service and the service is not taxable.

IV. Payments and Fees:

Payments that are declined for any reason may subject to a $10.00 declination fee. Service may be interrupted on accounts that are past due. Service interrupted for nonpayment may be subject to a $20.00 reconnect charge. Accounts not paid by due date may be subject to a $5.00 late fee. Accounts that are not collectable by Bitstreamworks may be turned over to an outside collection agency for collection. If your account is turned over for collection, you agree to pay the Company a "Processing and Collection" Fee of $50.00. If you desire to cancel your account, please follow the proper procedure to do this as outlined in this TOS.

V. Refund and Disputes:

All payments to Bitstreamworks are nonrefundable after 5 days. This includes the one time setup fee and subsequent charges regardless of usage. All overcharges or billing disputes must be reported within 60 days of the time the dispute occurred.

VI. Failure to Pay:

The Company may temporarily deny service or terminate this Agreement upon the failure of Subscriber to pay charges when due. Such termination or denial will not relieve Subscriber of responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges, plus reasonable interest and any collection fees.

VII. Account Cancellation:

All requests for cancellation must be made in writing with at least 30 days prior notice to:
POE Web Services
ATTN: POE Web Services
PO Box 41096
Pittsburgh, PA 15202
or you may email support@bitstreamworks.com with your request. You must provide all account information to cancel.

Subscriber acknowledges that the service provided is of such a nature that service can be interrupted for many reasons other than the negligence of the Company and that damages resulting from any interruption of service are difficult to ascertain. Therefore, Subscriber agrees that the Company shall not be liable for any damages arising from such causes beyond the direct and exclusive control of the Company. Subscriber further acknowledges that the Company's liability for its own negligence may not in any event exceed an amount equivalent to charges payable by subscriber for services during the period damages occurred. In no event shall the Company be liable for any special or consequential damages, loss or injury.

VIII. New Domain Accounts:

All new web hosting accounts involving new domains will be set up and entered into our DNS servers within 3 to 5 business days. Due to unforeseen complications, however, this process may sometimes require up to 7 business days. If the new domain is registered by the account holder, there will be no handling fee. If the domain is registered by Bitstreamworks on behalf of the account holder a handling fee will be incurred.

IX. Transfer of Domains:

New web hosting accounts which involve the transfer of a domain from another provider to Bitstreamworks. will require a minimum of seven (7) days to be set up and entered into our DNS servers. In some cases, such transfers may take up to sixty (60) days. Due to the unpredictable nature of the transfer process, no guarantees are made regarding the amount of time a specific transfer may take. If the transfer of the domain is done by Bitstreamworks on behalf of the account holder, a handling fee will be incurred. If the Customer cancels service during the transfer period for any reason, all charges are considered earned.

X. Support Boundaries:

Bitstreamworks provides 24 hour response time technical support to our subscribers (except for a few holidays and announced periods). We limit our technical support to our area(s) of expertise. The following are our guidelines when providing support:

If you can, we encourage you to email support@bitstreamworks.com for assistance. If you are able to get online and have other questions, the answers may be on our home page at http://www.bitstreamworks.com. We encourage you to check there first. In addition, the Help files in the program you are using may have the answer to your question, so please do investigate these resources before contacting tech support. If you do have questions on php, mysql etc, you may use the support@bitstreamworks.com address for questions and problems (we will help if we can but cannot guarantee the support).

XI. SPAM and Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE):

Bitstreamworks takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or SPAM over our network or for sites hosted on our network. Very simply, this means that Customers of Bitstreamworks may not use or permit others to use our network to transact in UCE. Customers of Bitstreamworks may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including termination of service.

  1. Violation of Bitstreamworks SPAM policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, Bitstreamworks will initiate an immediate investigation (within 48 hours of notification). During the investigation, Bitstreamworks may restrict Customer access to the network to prevent further violations. If a Customer is found to be in violation of our SPAM policy, Bitstreamworks may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate Customer's account. Further, Bitstreamworks reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. Bitstreamworks will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offense.
  2. First violations of this policy will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $250.00 and your account will be reviewed for possible immediate termination. A second violation will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $500.00 and immediate termination of your account. Users who violate this policy agree that in addition to these "Administrative" penalties, they will pay "Research Fees" not to exceed $175.00 per hour that Bitstreamworks personnel must spend to investigate the matter. PLEASE, DO NOT SPAM from your account.
  3. As our Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the Bitstreamworks network, it is advisable that Customers develop a similar, or stricter, policy for their clients or users with access to their systems.
  4. Open relays are not allowed on the Bitstreamworks network. Your mail server must be secure and only accessible by you or your logged in users.
  5. New Customers who are registering a new domain will not have their smtp servers activated until their domain name is activated.
XII. Network
  1. IP Address Ownership: If Bitstreamworks assigns Customer an Internet Protocol address for Customer's use, the right to use that Internet Protocol address shall belong only to Bitstreamworks or our suppliers, and Customer shall have no right to use that Internet Protocol address except as permitted by Bitstreamworks in its sole discretion in connection with the Services outlined during the term of this Agreement. Bitstreamworks or its suppliers shall maintain and control ownership of all Internet Protocol numbers and addresses that may be assigned to Customer by Bitstreamworks, and Bitstreamworks reserves the right to change or remove any and all such Internet Protocol numbers and addresses in its sole and absolute discretion. Our allocation of IP addresses is limited by ARIN's new policies and our suppliers interpretation of those rules. These new policies state that use of IP addresses for IP based virtual hosts will not be accepted as justification for new IP addresses. What this means to you is that you MUST use name-based hosting where possible. We will periodically review IP address usage, and if we find that clients are using IP addresses where name-based hosting could be used, we will revoke authorization to use those IP addresses that could be used with name-based hosting.
  2. Bandwidth and Disk Usage: Customer agrees that bandwidth and disk usage shall not exceed the number of megabytes per month for the Services ordered by Customer on the Order Form (the "Agreed Usage"). Bitstreamworks will monitor Customer's bandwidth and disk usage. Bitstreamworks shall have the right to take corrective action if Customer's bandwidth or disk usage exceeds the Agreed Usage. Such corrective action may include the assessment of additional charges, disconnection or discontinuance of any and all Services, or termination of this Agreement. Which actions may be taken is in Bitstreamworks sole and absolute discretion. If Bitstreamworks takes any corrective action under this section, Customer shall not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid in advance prior to such action. Please monitor your usage and inform us prior to going over. We reserve the right to waive any overage charges as we understand sites will occasionally have surges in traffic. If there is any waiving of fees, it is a one time dismissal and should not be construed as a new contract or a promise of dismissal for any future fees.
  3. System and Network Security: Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Bitstreamworks Network or our suppliers' network. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. Bitstreamworks will investigate occurrences which may involve law enforcement authorities prosecuting Users who are involved in such violations. These violations include, without limitation:

    1. Accessing data not intended for such User or logging into a server or account which such User is not authorized to access
    2. Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization
    3. Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding", "mail bombing" or "crashing"
    4. Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting
    5. Taking any action in order to obtain services to which such User is not entitled.
XIII. Notification of Violation:

Bitstreamworks is under no duty to look at each Customer's or user's activities to determine if a violation of the AUP has occurred, nor do we assume any responsibility through our AUP to monitor or police Internet-related activities.

  1. First Violation: Any User which Bitstreamworks determines to have violated any element of the AUP shall receive an email warning of the violation. The service may be subject at Bitstreamworks discretion to a temporary suspension pending a User's agreement, in writing, to refrain from any further violations.
  2. Second Violation: Users that Bitstreamworks determines to have committed a second violation of any element of the AUP shall be subject to immediate suspension or termination of service without further notice.

We reserve the right to drop the section of IP space involved in SPAM or Denial-of-Service complaints if it is clear that the offending activity is causing great harm to parties on the Internet. In particular, if open relays are on your network or a Customer's network, or if Denial-of-Service attacks are originating from your network. In certain rare cases, we may have to do this before attempting to contact you. If we do this, we will contact you as soon as is feasible.

XIV. Suspension of Service or Cancellation:

Bitstreamworks reserves the right to suspend network access to any Customer if in the judgment of the Bitstreamworks network administrators the Customer's server is the source or target of the violation of any of the other terms of the AUP or for any other reason which Bitstreamworks determines to be appropriate. If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of the Customer in question will be deactivated until an investigation is complete. Prior notification to the Customer is not assured. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. The Customer will not be credited for the time the Customer's machines were suspended.

Bitstreamworks reserves the right to amend its policies at any time. All Sub-Networks, users and site owners must adhere to the above policies. Failure to follow any term or condition will be grounds for immediate Cancellation. You will be held responsible for the actions of your clients and restricted users in the matter described on these terms and conditions. Therefore, it is in your best interest to implement a similar or stricter terms and conditions or otherwise called acceptable terms of use policy.

XV. Indemnification:

Bitstreamworks wishes to emphasize that in agreeing to the Bitstreamworks AUP and Terms of Service (TOS), Customer indemnifies Bitstreamworks for any violation of the AUP and TOS that results in loss to Bitstreamworks or the bringing of any claim against Bitstreamworks by any third-party. This means that if Bitstreamworks is sued because of a Customer's or a Customer of a Customer's activity, the Customer will pay any damages awarded against Bitstreamworks, plus all costs and attorney's fees.

XVI. Miscellaneous Provisions:

You must provide us with — and keep current — good contact information for you. E-mail and telephone contacts are used, in that order of preference.

  1. A waiver by the Company of any breach of any provision of this Agreement by Subscriber shall not operate as or be construed as a continuing or subsequent waiver thereof or as a waiver of any breach of any other provision thereof.
  2. Subscriber shall not transfer or assign this Agreement without the prior written consent of the Company. Company may assign Agreement at any time without consent from or notice to Subscriber. Company reserves right to cancel Customers rights under this contract at any time without further obligation.
  3. Bitstreamworks is not responsible for any damages your business may suffer. Bitstreamworks does not make implied or written warranties for any of our services. Bitstreamworks denies any warranty or merchantability for a specific purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by Bitstreamworks.
  4. It is absolutely forbidden to host pornographic content or IRC servers. Accounts found hosting this material will be subject to immediate cancellation without refund.
XVII. Responsibility for Content:

You, as a Bitstreamworks Customer, are solely responsible for the content stored on and served by your Bitstreamworks server space.

For any questions or comments on these terms, please email support@bitstreamworks.com