Internet Policies

All information transiting the Runestone Internet Services network is unrestricted unless it is listed as unacceptable under this policy.

It is the policy of Runestone Internet Services (“the ISP”) to provide its subscribers electronic access to the broadest possible number of organizations connected to the Internet. This is accomplished through connectivity to one or more state, multi-state, regional or national backbone networks. All information that exits the Runestone Internet Services network and traverses the numerous other networks to which Runestone Internet Services is directly or indirectly connected, must conform to the acceptable use policies governing those networks.

It is the responsibility of all individual subscribers or subscriber organizations to:

• Respect the privacy of other subscribers and not to seek information pertaining to other subscribers without their explicit permission. This includes but is not limited to personal data, passwords, access to confidential files, or modification of files belonging to other subscribers.
• Use the network service in a manner that is consistent with ethical practice and accepted community standards.

Service Monitoring. The Company is under no obligation to monitor a customer’s usage, bandwidth, transmissions and/or content of Service. However, the Company may monitor the usage, bandwidth, transmissions and content of Service to (i) comply with any necessary laws, regulations or other governmental requests or (ii) operate the Service properly or to protect itself, its network and its customers and subscribers. The Company reserves the right to modify, reject or eliminate any information residing on or transmitted via its network that it, in its sole discretion, believes is unacceptable or in violation of law, this Acceptable Use Policy or any other terms and provisions applicable to Service.

It is the responsibility of all individual subscribers or subscriber organizations to respect the legal protection provided by copyright and license to programs, data, and other information that may be accessible over the Runestone Internet Services network.

We reserve the right to remove any material from any of our servers at any time.

It is not acceptable to use the Runestone Internet Services network services or facilities for any purpose:

• Which would violate any applicable laws or regulations
• Where the meaning of the message or the content of a file would likely be highly offensive to the recipient or recipients
• Which make unauthorized entry into other computational, information storage, or communications devices or resources
• Which propagate computer malware, viruses or transmissions of any type which cause disruption to disable or otherwise impede the recipient’s facilities or equipment
• To make distribution of unsolicited advertising/bulk email/spam
• Which causes disruption of our service or any other entities service due to facilities overload (flaming, bulk e-mail/spam, web server disruption, etc.)

Time limits do not apply to a connection that is inherently “on” 24 hours per day such as DSL, Fiber, T1 or Wireless service.

If a subscriber utilizes their own residential or business computer network, the subscriber is responsible for the proper configuration and operation of their network. The subscriber must insure that their network is secure from anonymous or unauthorized access at all times, not only when connected to the Internet. This is especially important when the subscriber is utilizing “wireless” methods for their local network (i.e. a wireless router). Not only can the subscriber’s own data be at risk, an unsecured subscriber network may allow malicious activity to originate from the network unbeknownst to the subscriber. Runestone Internet Services shall not be held liable or responsible for the operation, security or subsequent damage or loss of computer equipment, data, labor or revenue due to the security policies and practices of the subscriber.

In addition to the items relating to e-mail stated in the section titled Unacceptable Use Policy, the following terms and conditions also apply:

• Check and remove your e-mail from the server on a regular basis, at least once a week.
• Mailboxes have a maximum size limit of 15 Gigabytes. If a mailbox approaches or attempts to exceed this limit any new incoming messages will be rejected.
• As a convenience, we provide a webmail facility at http://webmail.runestone.net . This is useful when on vacation, etc. but is not intended to be used as a primary method for accessing e-mail.
• We reserve the right to delete any e-mail messages from the server at any time. It is strongly suggested that any important e-mail messages be copied (downloaded) to the customer’s equipment as soon as possible.
• We reserve the right to delete any e-mail account and its content from our servers if it has not been accessed by the account holder in at least six months.
• We reserve the right to change the access credentials on any account at any time. This is generally only necessary in the event of a compromised account being abused by unauthorized parties.
• Do not consider Internet e-mail to be a secure means of communications. While no one other than system administration personnel (throughout the Internet) would normally have access to e-mail messages, the content of a message is nothing more than simple text in a readable form. If more security is required, consider using an encryption program to scramble messages before they are sent. The message recipient will also have to be told how to decrypt any encrypted messages sent to them.
• Do not consider Internet e-mail to be 100% reliable. While there are many safeguards built into the system, the Internet is not infallible. If you must know that a message was delivered, request that the message recipient reply immediately with a confirming message.

If any of the conditions stated in this e-mail policy are contrary to your needs, please contact us for additional information or to make further arrangements.

While Runestone Internet Services strives to provide reliable Internet access, we also recognize that equipment can fail. In the event that we cannot provide access to the Internet because of a failure within our equipment, we will provide prorated reimbursement to our “unlimited access” subscribers in the form of a credit.

The following conditions apply:

• An outage must be the result of a failure within our equipment as opposed to the Internet in general. “Our equipment” is defined to mean that communications equipment used to provide access to the Internet which we own and have direct control over. The subscriber’s equipment and other equipment and facilities that we may utilize but do not own are excluded.
• An outage must extend for a period of time greater than 48 hours.
• The subscriber must be on an “unlimited access” plan prior to and during an outage.
• An outage does not include unavailability of service due to 100% utilization of our facilities by other subscribers.
  The amount of reimbursement will be prorated and determined by Runestone Internet Services. It will be based on the number of days access was unavailable and the total number of days in the month in which the outage occurred. For example, a three day outage that occurred during a month that was thirty days long would result in a ten percent credit of the monthly subscription fee.
• The amount of reimbursement is not to exceed the subscription fee for one month of service.
• Any other real or perceived loss incurred by the subscriber as the result of an outage is the responsibility of the subscriber.

All subscribers of the Runestone Internet Services, whether organization or individuals, are responsible for publicizing this Acceptable Use Policy at their locations.

All participating telephone companies and resellers are responsible for communicating this policy statement to the appropriate administrative authorities at all user sites connected to theirs via connections that are not directly supported by Runestone Internet Services.

The ultimate responsibility for assuring the acceptability of use according to this policy is with the individual end-user who originates the communication.

The Runestone Internet Services Board of Directors or its designee will review alleged violations of this policy on a case-by-case basis. A violation may result in denying the user access to the network, termination of access to all services, and forfeiture of all fees paid.

Evidence of illegal activities will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

Runestone Internet Services reserves the right to modify this policy at any time. Subscribers are encouraged to visit this page regularly.