Acceptable Use Policy

This Cartika Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") describe the proper kinds of conduct and prohibited uses of Cartika's hosting services (the "Services"). This AUP is not exhaustive and CartikaInc  reserves the right to modify this TOS/AUP at any time, effective upon posting of the modified TOS/AUP at www.cartikahosting.com. By registering for and using the Services, and thereby accepting the terms and conditions of this TOS/AUP, you agree to abide by these conditions as modified from time to time. Any violation of the TOS/AUP may result in the suspension or termination of your account or such other action as Cartika deems appropriate.

Server Abuse

Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server, or customer, of Cartika is strictly prohibited.

Unauthorized use of other people's accounts or computers Cartika will strongly react to any use or attempted use of an Internet account or computer without the owner's authorization. Such attempts include "Internet scamming" (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password robbery, security hole scanning etc.

Any unauthorized use of accounts or computers by a Cartika customer, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to Cartika, will result in action against the attacker. Possible actions include warnings, account suspension or cancellation, and civil or criminal legal action, depending on the seriousness of the attack.

IMPORTANT NOTE - Cartika has the right to discontinue service, or deny access to anyone who violates our Policies or the terms and conditions shown below WITHOUT WARNING OR PRIOR NOTICE. No refunds of fees paid will be made if account termination is due to violation of the terms outlined below. No files located on the offending account will be retrievable

Customers may not run IRC, bots or clients on shared servers. Unacceptable uses also include, but are NOT limited to: Bulk emailing, unsolicited emailing's, newsgroup spamming, illegal content, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, warez, cracks, software serial numbers, and/or anything else determined by Cartika to be unacceptable use of Cartika's services including abuse of server resources.

All hosting accounts may be terminated that include the following content or which have links to the following content:
" Providing material that is grossly offensive to the Web community including blatant expressions of bigotry, racism or hatred.
" Promoting or providing instructional information about illegal activities, or promoting physical harm or injury against any group or individual.
" Displaying material that exploits children under 18 years of age.
" Acts of copyright infringement including offering pirated computer programs or links to such programs, information used to circumvent manufacturer-installed copy-protect devices, including serial or registration numbers for software programs, or any type of cracker utilities.

Bandwidth Traffic

Each plan with Cartika comes with a pre determined bandwidth usage amount. In the event that your account exceeds the bandwidth limitations included with your account you will be billed at the amount specified in the account details

You will receive a notice from our system once you utilize 70% of your bandwidth allocation.  You can either choose to upgrade your account to the next highest plan, pay $2/GB of overage or remain where you are if you are near the end of your billing cycle and do not expect to go over.

All overages will be billed automatically to your account.

Shared Hosting Server Resource Utilization

CartikaHosting has designed our plans so that users can typically utilize all of the resources they have purchased without hitting any server resource limitations.  This is especially true with utilization towards any of the scripts advertised on our site (including phpBB, Zen Cart, VB, Joomla, WordPress, etc).  having said this, there may be occassions where a clients script is simply poorly written (and this can include custom coding or 3rd party modules) where a user is utilizing far too many server resources for the tasks they are performing.  Although there are no fixed numbers with respect to what is too much, we do go by a reasonable use model.  We do not assign hard limits as we like to allow our clients the ability to burst and utilize more then "their fair share" for periods of time.  However, poor coding will result in unnecessary dramatic spikes in server resource utilization.  If this were to occur, we will take every possible action required to minimize the negative impact on our environment.  In most cases, the client will be contacted and informed of the issue and given the opportunity to correct their coding.  There will however be some instances where the coding is so poor, that we will be required to suspend the offensive domain until such time that the client is able to correct the issue.  This sort of drastic action will only be taken when absolutely necessary so as to maintain the stability of our environment.

Resellers Hosting Server Resource Utilization

Reseller clients are bound by the same server resource rules as presented above.  Additionally, resellers are required to spread their accounts across multiple servers.  Our pricing and model is designed as such.  having said this, A reseller is permitted to utilize 100% of their resources in a single account for the UR1-UR2 plans.  From UR3-UR8, resellers are not permitted to utilize more then 60% of their total resource allocation towards a single account.  If a reseller has an account whos requirements are greater then what is available in 100% of the UR1 or UR2 plan or 60% of the UR3-UR8 plans, it is recommended to look at a VDC solution for that client.  Please contact our sales department for more information.

Shared/Reseller Hosting Uptime SLA

CartikaHosting offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee.  A service will be generally available to the internet - Isolated ISP or transit outages are out of our control and not covered by this SLA.  This SLA includes both unscheduled maintenance windows within our networks and data center.  CartikaHosting will credit 50% of your fee if we are responsible for an outage resulting in an uptime less then 99.9% for a calender month.  CartikaHosting will credit 100% of your fee if we are responsible for an outage resulting in an uptime less then 99% for a calender month.   Please note - Scheduled Maintenance Windows and Control Panel Service is exempt from any uptime SLA's as our control panel service is isolated from our other services and typically we will take the control panel offline while performing major system upgrades (however, other core services will not be affected)

Managed Dedicated Server, Dedicated Cluster and VDC Uptime SLA

CartikaHosting offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee.  A service will be generally available to the internet - Isolated ISP or transit outages are out of our control and not covered by this SLA.  This SLA includes both unscheduled maintenance windows within our networks and data center.  CartikaHosting will credit 50% of your fee if we are responsible for an outage resulting in an uptime less then 99.9% for a calender month.  CartikaHosting will credit 100% of your fee if we are responsible for an outage resulting in an uptime less then 99% for a calender month.   Please note - Scheduled Maintenance Windows and Control Panel Service is exempt from any uptime SLA's as our control panel service is isolated from our other services and typically we will take the control panel offline while performing major system upgrades (however, other core services will not be affected)

Network Uptime SLA for Shared, Reseller, Dedicated and Colocation Customers

CartikaHosting offers 100% Network uptime SLA for all customers.  Unscheduled network outages of any nature will make customers eligible for a service credit valued at 1 days of service for every 5 mins of unscheduled network outage accrued during a calender month. 

Chat Rooms

We do not allow clients to install their own chat rooms within a shared hosting account, without approving it with the Cartika Support Team. Most chat rooms tend to be large system hogs and we cannot allow it as an account option. However, we do provide a choice of Java chat rooms for a small extra charge that will more than fill your needs and run without hindering the performance of the machine for others. Note: Parachat chat rooms do not apply to this rule. They are perfectly fine to install.

Abuse of SMTP Mail Server

We do not allow clients to send more than 2000 pieces of e-mail per day from a shared hosting account. If you do send more than 2000 pieces of e-mail per day, your account will be placed on hold for Network Abuse. If you are sending legitimate e-mails and they total more than 2000 per day Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to have review your options.

Background Running Programs

We may allow programs to run continually in the background. These are considered on a one-to-one basis and an extra charge will be incurred based on system resources used and operational maintenance needed. (this section does not apply to managed dedicated servers)

IRC

We currently do not allow IRC IRC clients or IRC bots to be operated on any of our servers. In addition, IRC servers are not permitted on our network. Anyone found to be in violation of this policy risks immediate account termination.

Excessive Use/Overages

You will not exceed the bandwidth, storage and E-mail usage limits outlined by your particular web hosting package. If you use any bandwidth or storage space in excess of the agreed upon number of megabytes per month Cartika may will assess you with additional charges based on pre-set plan overage fees. If Cartika elects to take any corrective action, Cartika will not refund any unused pre-paid fees. Your use of your account and access to it is your responsibility. You are responsible for any unauthorized access to your account resulting in bandwidth, storage and/or E-mail usage exceeding the limits outlined in your particular web hosting package specifications and resultant charges. Bandwidth overages are currently billed at $2/GB/month. Disk space overages are currently billed at $.10/MB/month disk space.

Intellectual Property Rights

Material accessible to you through Cartika's services may be subject to protection under the United States, Canada, or other copyright laws, or laws protecting trademarks, trade secrets or proprietary information. Except when expressly permitted by the owner of such rights, you must not use Cartika or its servers and network in a manner that would infringe, violate, dilute or misappropriate any such rights, with respect to any material, which you access or receive through the Cartika network. If you use a domain name in connection with Cartika or similar service, you must not use that domain name in violation of any trademark, service mark, or similar rights of any third party.

Network Security

Customers may not use the Cartika network with an attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the customer, logging into a server or account the customer is not expressly authorized to access, password cracking, probing the security of other networks in search of weakness, or violation of any other organization's security policy. Customers may not attempt to interfere or deny service to any user, host, or network. This includes, but is not limited to, flooding, mail bombing, or other deliberate attempts to overload or crash a host or network. Cartika will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations. Users who violate system or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. You are solely responsible for any security breaches affecting servers or accounts under your control. If your server or website is responsible for or involved in an attack on or unauthorized access into another server or system, Cartika will shut it down immediately. You will pay any charges resulting from the cost to correct security breaches affecting Cartika or any of its other customers.

Electronic Commerce

You will be solely responsible for the development, operation and maintenance of your online store and products and all contents and materials appearing online or on your products, including without limitation (a) the accuracy and appropriateness of content and materials appearing within the store or related to your products, (b) ensuring that the content and materials appearing within the store or related to your products do not violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, and (c) ensuring that the content and materials appearing within the store or related to your products are not libelous or otherwise illegal. You will be solely responsible for the final calculation and application of shipping and sales tax. You will also be solely responsible for accepting, processing, and filling any customer orders, and for handling any customer inquiries or complaints arising there from.

You are also responsible for the security of any customer credit card numbers and related customer information you may access as a result of conducting electronic commerce transactions through your Web Site. You will keep all such information confidential and will use the same degree of care and security as you use with your confidential information.

Static / Dynamic Content Caching

You expressly (i) grant to Cartika a license to cache the entirety of your Web Site, including content supplied by third parties, hosted by Cartika under this Agreement and (ii) agree that such caching is not an infringement of any of your intellectual property rights or any third party's intellectual property rights.

IP Address Ownership and Usage

Cartika shall maintain and control ownership of all IP numbers and addresses that may be assigned to you by Cartika and Cartika reserves, in its sole discretion, the right to change or remove any and all such IP numbers and addresses.

IP Address usage must be justifiable, as per ARIN guidelines. Justifiable uses are listed below
SSL Encryption - Service Domain - Virtual FTP server - Anonymous FTP server.

Shared, Reseller, Dedicated and VDC Data Back Up Policy

CartikaHosting offers backups of all data including web files, data bases and emails.  These back ups are available as a courtesy to our clients.  It is always recommended that clients maintain their own backups of any and all data.  CartikaHosting is not responsible for any data loss or potential revenue or financial losses accrued from loss of data.  Back Up data may become corrupted or otherwise unusable.  We do not gurantee that data can be recovered if lost, and in case of data loss, we will recover data from the latest back up snapshot available. 

Dedicated Backup Server Policy

CartikaHosting offers a managed dedicated backup solution as part of our offerings.  This service is designed for customers to backup offnetwork (off network to CartikaHosting) appliances for day to day file and data base backup/recovery as well as an offsite disaster recovery solution.  CartikaHosting will provide the dedicated server hardware along with the software required to perform these tasks.  However, CartikaHosting is not responsible for supporting the end user appliances being backed up.  Furthermore, CartikaHosting cannot guarantee the integrity of the backups on the servers.  The dedicated backup server offering is a single dedicated server with redundant hard drives in a RAID1 array.  This sort of hardware can fail.  CartikaHosting will maintain the hardware and software versions running on the dedicated backup server.  We will replace any hardware which fails.  If a recoverable backup is not available for a customer when required from their backup server, CartikaHosting will refund the current months service payment for the backup service.  No other warranty or guarantee is implied or offered with the Dedicated Backup Server offering by CartikaHosting.

Cancellation Policy

Upon receiving a cancellation request, all data will be immediately removed from our servers and your account will be cancelled.  If the cancellation occurs within the first 30 days of service, a full money back request can be requested and will be issued.  Any Dedicated server Dedicated Cluster or VDC is not eligible for the 30 day money back guarantee (exceptions to thiis may be made, however, a special request must be made in writing and will be determined on a case by case basis).  After the 30 day money back guarantee period, CartikaHosting does not provide partial monthly credits.  However, we will provide pro-rated credits on longer termed (ie 6 month, 12 month, etc) subscriptions less the current, partial monthly fee.

Deliquent Accounts

Accounts in arrears will be suspended after 10 days and all data will be removed from our servers 30 days after their suspension.  Once data has been removed, it will not be retrievable.

Copyright Infringement

DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT

Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement

Pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(2), all notifications of claimed copyright infringement on the Interactive-Hosting system or Web site should be sent ONLY to our Designated Agent.

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PROVIDED SOLELY FOR NOTIFYING Cartika THAT YOUR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL MAY HAVE BEEN INFRINGED.

WE CAUTION YOU THAT UNDER FEDERAL LAW, IF YOU KNOWINGLY MISREPRESENT THAT ONLINE MATERIAL IS INFRINGING, YOU MAY BE SUBJECT TO HEAVY CIVIL PENALTIES. THESE INCLUDE MONETARY DAMAGES, COURT COSTS, AND ATTORNEYS FEES INCURRED BY US, BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER, OR BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER'S LICENSEE THAT IS INJURED AS A RESULT OF OUR RELYING UPON YOUR MISREPRESENTATION. YOU MAY ALSO BE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR PERJURY.

DO NOT SEND ANY INQUIRIES UNRELATED TO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT (e.g. REQUESTS FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE OR CUSTOMER SERVICE, REPORTS OF E-MAIL ABUSE, etc.) TO THE CONTACT LISTED BELOW. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE IF SENT TO THAT CONTACT.

Written notification must be submitted to the following Designated Agent:

Cartika
cc:Copyright
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada.
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Under Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(3)(A), the Notification of Claimed Infringement must include the following:

1. Physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed or a representative list if multiple works are involved.
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing that should be removed or access to disabled and information reasonably sufficient to enable the online service provider to locate the material (usually a URL to the relevant page).
4. Information reasonably sufficient to allow the online service provider to contact the complaining party (address, phone number, e-mail address).
5. Statement that the complaining party has "a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law."
6. Statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

Lawful Purpose

Cartika reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. Customers may only use Cartika servers for lawful purpose. Transmission of any material in violation of any Federal, State, Provincial or Local regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to copyrighted material, material legally judged to be threatening or obscene, and material protected by trade secrets. The designation of any materials as such described above is left entirely to the discretion of Cartika management. Regardless of the place of signing this agreement, the client agrees that for purposes of venue and jurisdiction this contract was entered into and performed in Toronto,Ontario, and any dispute will be litigated or arbitrated in Toronto, Ontario. Customer further waives all objections to venue or jurisdiction and acknowledges that venue and jurisdiction in any such litigation will be held in Shelburne County Courts. IN NO EVENT SHALL Cartika's MAXIMUM LIABILITY EXCEED FIVE HUNDRED ($500.00) DOLLARS.

Indemnification

CUSTOMER AGREES THAT IT SHALL DEFEND, INDEMNIFY, SAVE AND HOLD Cartika HARMLESS FROM ANY AND ALL DEMANDS, LIABILITIES, LOSSES, COSTS AND CLAIMS, INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEY'S FEES ASSERTED AGAINST Cartika, ITS AGENTS, ITS CUSTOMERS, OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES, THAT MAY ARISE OR RESULT FROM ANY SERVICE PROVIDED OR PERFORMED OR AGREED TO BE PERFORMED OR ANY PRODUCT SOLD BY CUSTOMER, IT'S AGENTS, EMPLOYEES OR ASSIGNS. CUSTOMER AGREES TO DEFEND, INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS Cartika AGAINST LIABILITIES ARISING OUT OF; (1) ANY INJURY TO PERSON OR PROPERTY CAUSED BY ANY PRODUCTS SOLD OR OTHERWISE DISTRIBUTED IN CONNECTION WITH Cartika'S SERVER; (2) ANY MATERIAL SUPPLIED BY CUSTOMER INFRINGING OR ALLEGEDLY INFRINGING ON THE PROPRIETARY RIGHTS OF A THIRD PARTY; ( 3) COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND (4) ANY DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS SOLD TO CUSTOMER FROM Cartika'S SERVER.

Disclaimer

Cartika WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES YOUR BUSINESS MAY SUFFER. Cartika MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED FOR SERVICES WE PROVIDE. Cartika DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY OR MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THIS INCLUDES LOSS OF DATA RESULTING FROM DELAYS, NON-DELIVERIES, WRONG DELIVERY, AND ANY AND ALL SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY Cartika AND ITS EMPLOYEES. Cartika RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REVISE ITS POLICIES AT ANY TIME.

FAILURE TO FOLLOW ANY TERM OR CONDITION WILL BE GROUNDS FOR IMMEDIATE ACCOUNT DEACTIVATION.

THREATS/ABUSE AGAINST THE NAME, SERVERS, AND ALL THEREIN, OF Cartika SHALL BE DEALT WITH TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW, THIS INCLUDES PACKAGE CLONING, NAME CLONING, WRONGFUL SUGGESTED AFFILIATION, MISLEADING MENTION OF AFFILIATION, IMAGE CLONING/STEALING, HTML CODE CLONING/STEALING.