Authorized Use Policy

By using the Service, the customer agrees to abide by, and require others using the Service via the customers account to abide by the terms of this AUP. The customer should consult this document regularly to ensure that their activities conform to the most recent version at www.giantcomm.net. If you use the service after a change has been posted via the internet, the customer is to abide by the changes. IF THE CUSTOMER DOES NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS, THE CUSTOMER SHOULD IMMEDIATELY STOP THE USE OF THE SERVICES AND NOTIFY THE GIANT CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT AT 1-866-704-4268 SO THAT THE CUSTOMERS ACCOUNT MAY BE CLOSED. 

 General: We expect the customer to have a basic knowledge of how the Internet functions, the types of uses that is generally acceptable, and the types of uses that must be avoided. Common sense is the best guide as to what is considered acceptable use. In this Policy, "Service(s)" refers to any dial-up, Wireless Internet access, DSL Internet access, web hosting, Data Center Hosting, or similar services that the customers may have purchased from Giant.

Installation: The Service is installed by a trained technician, to the specifications of Giant’s engineered network design.  Any attempt by the customer to reconfigure, adjust, or move the equipment, which results in a loss of service, the customer will be held liable for any costs incurred by Giant (not limited to travel time, technician labor, parts) for restoration of service.  The customer understands that failure to comply with this restriction may cause damage to Giant’s network and is subject to liability for damages and/or criminal prosecution.

Computer and Equipment Requirements: At the time of initial installation of the Service, the customers’ computer equipment must comply with Giant’s current minimum computer requirements that are available at www.giantcomm.net. The minimum computer requirements may change and Giant will make reasonable efforts to support previously acceptable configurations; however, Giant is not obligated to continue to provide such support.

Assumption of Risk: The customer understands that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages or other materials ("Content"), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the person from which such Content originated. This means that the customer, and not Giant, is entirely responsible for all Content that the customer uploads, downloads, posts, emails, transmits or otherwise make available via the Service. Giant does not control the Content posted via the Service and does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content. The customer understands that by using the Service, the customer may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable and the customer may be exposing others to Content that others find objectionable. The customer agrees that they must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content.

User Content: The customer is solely responsible for any information that is published on the web or other Internet services. The customer must ensure that the recipient of the content is appropriate and must take appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving inappropriate content. The customer may not use the Service to harm or attempt to harm a minor, including, but not limited to, by hosting, possessing, disseminating, or transmitting material that is unlawful, including child pornography or obscene material. Giant reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials from the Service, in whole or in part, that it, in Giant’s sole discretion, deems to be offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable.

Indemnity: The customer agrees to indemnify and hold Giant Communications and their subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, co-branders or other partners, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Content the customer may submit, post, transmit or make available through the Service, the customers use of the Service, the customers connection to the Service, the customers violation of these Terms Of Service, the customers violation of the AUP, or the customers violation of any rights of another.
Intellectual Property Infringement: The customer may not use the Service to post, copy, transmit, or disseminate any content that infringes the patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademark, or propriety rights of any party. Giant assumes no responsibility, and the customer assumes all risks regarding the determination of whether material is in the public domain, or may otherwise be used by the customer for such purposes.

Commercial Use: The Service is designed for personal use of the Internet and may not be used for commercial purposes. The customer may not resell or otherwise charge others to use the residential Service. The customer agrees not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider, or for any other business enterprise, including, without limitation, virtual private network usage, IP address translation, or similar facilities intended to provide additional access.

Servers: The customer may not operate, or allow others to operate, servers of any type or any other device, equipment, and/or software providing server-like functionality in connection with the Service, unless expressly authorized by Giant.

Prohibited Activities: Giant Customers may not use the Services in a manner that violates any applicable local, state, federal or international law, order or regulation. Additionally, Giant Customers may not use the Services to: Conduct, participate in, or otherwise facilitate pyramid or other soliciting schemes. Use an IP address not assigned to the customer. Modify or replace Giant-provided service configurations and/or settings. Violate any other Giant policy or guideline. Resell or redistribute the Service to any third party via any means including but not limited to wireless technology.

Misuse of Service: The customer is responsible for any misuse of the Service that occurs through the customers account. The customer must therefore take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access or misuse the Service. The customer agrees that they will NOT use the Service to: upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable; harm minors in any way; impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Giant official, forum leader, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent the customers affiliation with a person or entity; forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Service; upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that the customer do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements); upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights ("Rights") of any party; upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam”, "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation, except in those areas (such as shopping rooms) that are designated for such purpose; upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment; disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to "scroll" faster than other users of the Service are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in real time exchanges; interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service; intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including, but not limited to, regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any rules of any national or other securities exchange, including, without limitation, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ, and any regulations having the force of law; "stalk" or otherwise harass another; or collect or store personal data about other users. Resell or redistribute the Service to any third party via any means including but not limited to wireless technology.

Copyright Infringement:  When we are notified that copyright infringement has occurred on your account, it is our policy to suspend your Internet service and contact you immediately. Once the file(s) has been deleted, your service will be reactivated. If within a 12-month period we receive a 2nd notification, this process will repeated and you will be charged $20 fee. Upon the 3rd and each successive notification, the fee will be $50 per notification, regardless of how long it has been since your last offense. 

Hacking/Attempted Unauthorized Access: The customer may not use the Service to breach or attempt to breach the security of another user or attempt to gain access to any other person’s computer, software, or data without the knowledge and consent of such person. The equipment and the Service may not be used in any attempt to circumvent the 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 or making use of a server or account the customer is not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other networks or computers for any reason. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, cracking tools, packet sniffers or network probing tools, is prohibited.

Security: The customer is solely responsible for the security of any device connected to the Service, including any data stored on that device. Giant recommends that the customer take appropriate security precautions for any systems connected to the Service.

Disruption of Service: The customer may not disrupt the Service in any manner. Nor shall the customer interfere with computer networking or telecommunications services to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, denial of service attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service, improper seizing and abuse of operator privileges or attempts to “crash” a host.

Viruses, Trojan Horses, Worms and Denial of Service Attacks: Software or other content downloaded from the Service may contain viruses and it is the customers sole responsibility to take appropriate precautions to protect the customers computer from damage to its software, files and data. The customer is prohibited from posting, transmitting or disseminating any information or software that contains a virus, Trojan horse, worm or other harmful program or that generates levels of traffic sufficient to impede others’ ability to send or retrieve information. Prohibited conduct of this type includes denial of service attacks or similarly disruptive transmissions, as well as transmissions containing other harmful or malicious features.

Electronic Mail: The customer may not use the Service to send unsolicited bulk or commercial e-mail messages (“spam”). Any unsolicited e-mail must also not direct the recipient to any web site or other resource that uses the Service. The Service may not be used to collect responses from unsolicited e-mail sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or e-mail services that violates this Policy or the acceptable use policy of any other Internet service provider (a charge of $5.00 for each piece of unsolicited bulk mail or spam, transmitted from or connected with subscribers account will apply). In addition, “mail bombing,” the sending of numerous copies of the same or substantially similar messages or very large messages or files with the intent to disrupt a server or account, is prohibited. The customer may not reference Giant, or any portion of the Giant network (e.g. by including “Organization: Giant” in the header or by listing an IP address that belongs to the Giant network) in any unsolicited email even if that email is not sent through the Giant network. Further, forging, altering or removing electronic mail headers is prohibited.
Bandwidth, Data, Storage, and Other Limitations: The customer must comply with the current bandwidth, data storage and other limitations on the Service. The customer must ensure that the customer’s activities do not improperly restrict, inhibit, or degrade any other user’s use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Giant) an unusually large burden on the network itself. In addition, the customer must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, disrupt, degrade or impede Giant’s ability to deliver the Service and monitor the Service, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services. Giant may terminate, suspend, or require the customer to upgrade the Service and pay additional fees if Giant, in its sole discretion, determines that that the customer is using excessive bandwidth.

Speed: If the Service you have purchased is provided within a range of speeds (referred to herein as the .synchronization rate. or .sync rate.), the sync rate is measured between the equipment at your home and the equipment in the network that provides the Service functionality. The Service will be provided, if at all, at least at the lowest sync rate speed within the range. If the Service cannot be provided at the lowest sync rate in the range, either you or Giant may disconnect the Service without a termination charge to you. You will not receive a refund or rebate for the period during which you received the Service. If the Service you have purchased has an “up to” speed range (i.e. sync rate up to 384 kbps, or up to 1.5 Mbps), there is no minimum sync rate guarantee. There is no guarantee or warranty that the Service will perform at the upper end of the sync rate range, nor is there a guarantee or warranty that actual throughput from the Internet to your computer (.throughput speed.) will be at or above the low end of the speed range. Throughput speeds associated with some or all features of the Service (e.g., Usenet, email) may be limited, at Giant’s sole discretion, and such limitation will have no effect on whether the minimum speed is met.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED TO THE CUSTOMER "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. NEITHER GIANT, NOR ITS AFFILIATES OR ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS OR LICENCORS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS WARRANT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE OR FREE FROM VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL MALICIOUS AGENTS. GIANT DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY DATA OR ANY FILES SENT BY OR TO THE CUSTOMER WILL BE TRANSMITTED IN UNCORRUPTED FORM OR WITHIN A REASONABLE PERIOD OF TIME. ALL REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND MERCHANTABILITY ARE HEREBY EXCLUDED AND DISCLAIMED. GIANT AND ITS EMPLOYEES, REPRESENTATIVES AND AGENTS ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY COSTS OR DAMAGES, ARISING DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, FROM THE INSTALLATION OR USE, OF THE SERVICE, THE EQUIPMENT FURNISHED BY GIANT, OR GIANT’S PROVISION OF TECHNICAL SERVICE AND SUPPORT FOR THE SERVICE; EVEN IF SUCH DAMAGE RESULTS FROM THE NEGLIGENCE OR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OF THE GIANT INSTALLER, TECHNICIAN OR CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE, INCLUDING ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR DAMAGES, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT GIANT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IN ANY EVENT, GIANT'S CUMULATIVE LIABILITY TO THE CUSTOMER FOR ANY AND ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE USE OF THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF SERVICE FEES PAID DURING THE IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING TWELVE MONTH PERIOD. THE CUSTOMER HEREBY RELEASES GIANT FROM ANY AND ALL OBLIGATIONS, LIABILITIES, AND CLAIMS IN EXCESS OF THIS LIMITATION. GIANT IS ALSO NOT LIABLE FOR ANY COSTS OR DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE CUSTOMERS BREACH OF THIS AGREEMENT.

The customers sole and exclusive remedy under this Agreement is as expressly set forth herein. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of implied warranties, so the above exclusions or limitations may not apply to the customer.

Failure to observe the guidelines set forth in this AUP can result in anything from a warning to a suspension of privileges or termination of the customers Service. Decisions of Giant’s staff are final. Giant may refer potential violations of laws to the proper authorities, may cooperate in the investigation of any suspected criminal or civil wrong, and will cooperate with authorities when required to do so by law, subpoena, or when the public safety is at stake. Giant assumes no obligation to inform a member that the member's information has been provided and, in some cases, may be prohibited by law from giving such notice.