This is the Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) for Managed Hosting of Synapse Communications Private Limited (henceforth referred to as Synapse). This document contains information as to what type of behaviour is/isn't acceptable and permissible through the Synapse facilities.

If you have any queries, please contact us on info@synapse.co.in for clarifications.

Background Information

From time to time, Synapse may impose reasonable terms and conditions regarding the use of its services. Such terms and conditions are called Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) and are posted on the Internet at http://www.synapseindia.info/solutions/aup.shtml. The AUPs are not exhaustive and Synapse reserves the right to update and modify the AUPs at any time without intimation or notice. All amended AUPs shall automatically become effective immediately after they are posted on the Site and any subsequent use of the site shall be governed by such amended terms. At this page, you can review the most current version of the Terms and Conditions at any time. You are advised to regularly check these AUPs for any amendments or updates.

By using the services, you thereby accept and agree to abide by the terms and conditions of the AUPs as modified from time to time. Use of the Site after any such changes constitute your acceptance of the new terms. If you do not agree to abide by these changes in the AUPs, please do not use these services.

Any violation of the AUPs may result in the suspension or termination of your account or such other action, as Synapse deems appropriate. An unlisted activity may also be a violation of the AUPs if it is illegal, irresponsible, or is a disruptive use of the Internet. No credits will be issued for any interruption in service resulting from policy violations.

Web hosting and all other services provided to the Customer by Synapse may be used only for purposes consistent with the concerned applicable laws of the Union of India and any other such law, which may come into force from time to time.

Violation of any AUP is strictly prohibited. Violation of any AUP may result in the immediate termination or suspension of the services you receive from Synapse. You shall remain solely liable and responsible for your use of the services and any and all content that you display, upload, download or transmit through the use of the services. Content includes, without limitation, your e-mail, web pages, personal home pages, and domain names. It is Synapse's policy to terminate services to repeat infringers. Synapse reserves the right to refuse service to anyone at any time, without giving any reasons.

All services rendered by Synapse may be used only for purposes conforming to the laws of the Union of India and any other such law, which may come into force from time to time. The transmission, or the storage, or the presentation of any information, data or material in violation to the above-mentioned laws is prohibited.

Customer Security Responsibilities

The Customer is solely responsible for any and all breaches of security affecting sites/server under the control of the Customer. If a Customer's site/server is involved in an attack on another server or system, it will be shut down and an immediate investigation will be launched to determine the cause/source of the attack. In such an event, the Customer is responsible for the cost to rectify any damage done to the Customer's site/server and any other system requirements affected by the security breach. The labour used to rectify any such damage is categorised as Emergency Security Breach Recovery and is currently charged at Rs. 10,000 per hour. Enquiries regarding security matters may be directed to us at info@synapse.co.in.

System And Network Security

Violations of system or network security are prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability. Synapse may investigate incidents involving such violations and may involve and will cooperate with law enforcement, if a criminal violation is suspected.

Some examples of system or network security violations include, without limitation, the following:

	Unauthorised access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without express authorisation of the owner of the system or network.
	Unauthorised monitoring of data or traffic on any network or system without express authorisation of the owner of the system or network.
	Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mailbombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks.
	Forging of any TCP-IP packet header or any part of the header information in an E-mail or a newsgroup posting.
	The use of viruses, trojans, worms, or any other computer programming routine which may damage, interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data, corporate information or personal information.

Violators of any and all of the AUPs are responsible, without limitations, for the cost of labour required to clean up and correct any and all damage done to the operation of the network and business operations supported by the network. Violators of any and all of the AUPs are also responsible, without limitations, for all costs incurred by Synapse while responding to complaints and other actions against Synapse. Such labour is categorised as Emergency Security Breach Recovery and is currently charged at Rs. 10,000 per hour. Enquiries regarding security matters may be directed to us at info@synapse.co.in.

Synapse is concerned with the privacy of online communications and web sites. In general, the Internet is neither more nor less secure than other means of communication, including mail, facsimile, and voice telephone service, all of which can be intercepted and otherwise compromised. As a matter of prudence, however, Synapse urges its Customers to assume that all of their online communications are insecure. Synapse cannot take responsibility for the security of information transmitted over Synapse's facilities.

Password Protection

The Customer is responsible for protecting the Customer's password and for any authorised or unauthorised use made of the Customer's password. The Customer will not use or permit anyone to use Synapse's service to guess passwords or to access other systems or networks without authorisation. Synapse will fully cooperate with any and all law enforcement authorities in the detection and prosecution of illegal activity.

Internet Etiquette
The Customer is expected to be familiar with and to practice good Internet etiquette (Netiquette). The Customer will comply with the rules appropriate to any network to which Synapse may provide access. The Customer should not post, transmit, or permit Internet access to information the Customer desires to keep confidential. The Customer is not permitted to send or post any material that is abusive, defamatory, illegal, libellous, obscene, pornographic, profane, sexually explicit, slanderous, threatening, tortuous, indecently depictive of children, containing expressions of bigotry, casteism, prejudice, racism, gender bias or is likely to result in retaliation against Synapse by offended users or any material which may be a criminal offence or be a reason for civil liability or material which would violate any law whether local, state, national or international. This also includes sites that may imply/infer sexual content, or links to similar/adult content elsewhere. Synapse reserves the right to refuse or terminate service at any time for violation of this section.

Copyright Infringement - Software Piracy Policy

The Synapse network may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution, or storage of any information, data or material in violation of the laws of the Union of India or state regulations or laws, or by common law, is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights.

Making unauthorised copies of software is a violation of the law, no matter how many copies you are making. If you copy, distribute or install software in ways not permitted by the license, you are violating copyright law. If caught with pirated software, you or your company may be liable under both civil and criminal law. You may be both fined and receive penitentiary sentences.

In compliance with the appropriate copyright acts which exist and may come into force from time to time, please send notifications of claimed copyright infringements to info@synapse.co.in.

Synapse will cooperate fully with any civil and/or criminal litigation arising from the violation of this policy.

If Synapse becomes aware of any material whatsoever posted by the Customer that is an infringement or could be a possible infringement on a third party's copyright, then Synapse will initiate an investigation. If Synapse receives from a Complainant any claim whatsoever, with the applicable copyright or trademark registration number; together with a copy of the underlying copyrighted work along with the Customer's materials; and a good faith certification, signed under penalty of perjury, that the work is the property of the Complainant and/or his/her/their client(s), that the work has been copied and that the use of the work is not defensible and/or is not in compliance with the laws of the Union of India, then Synapse reserves all discretionary powers of action thereupon, which includes but is not limited to the denial of access to the challenged material of the Customer.

Synapse will notify the Customer of the copyright infringement allegation and will allow the Customer to respond to the allegation(s).

Synapse may refuse altogether or require the Customer to amend any and all artwork, design, copy or content so as to be in compliance with the legal and moral obligations and duties placed upon Synapse.

Synapse shall have no liability, directly or indirectly, to Complainants and/or third/other parties for Customer's infringing copyrighted materials. Customer shall reimburse Synapse for all expenses associated with processing valid infringement allegations and defending any and all legal claims associated therewith.

Network Responsibility

Customers have a responsibility to use the Synapse network responsibly. This includes respecting the rights of the other Customers of Synapse. Synapse reserves the right to suspend and or cancel service with any Customer who uses the Synapse network in a way that adversely affects other Synapse Customers. This includes but is not limited to:

	Attacking or attempting to gain unauthorised access to servers and services that belong to Synapse or its Customers (i.e. computer hacking).
	Participating in behaviour that result in reprisals that adversely affect the Synapse network or other Customers' access to the Synapse network.
	Imposing a large load on the Synapse system.
	The use of materials which contain any viruses, worms, Trojans or other computer programming routines which may damage, interfere with, intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information.
	Any illegal activity or content that may be damaging to our server(s) or any other server(s) on the Internet or any other Internet related infrastructure (including but not limited to any and all forms of hardware, software and middleware).

Synapse will react strongly to any use or attempted use of an Internet account or computer without the owner's authorisation. Such attempts include, but are not limited to, "Internet Scanning" (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password robbery, security hole scanning, port scanning, etc. Any unauthorised use of accounts or computers by a Synapse Customer, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to Synapse, will result in severe action taken against the attacker. Possible actions include warnings, account suspension or cancellation, and civil or criminal legal action, depending on the seriousness of the attack. Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server, or Customer, of Synapse is strictly prohibited.

Violations of this policy may be reported directly to the appropriate law enforcement agencies of the Union of India. Synapse will cooperate fully with any civil and/or criminal litigation arising from the violation of this policy.

Lawful Purpose

All services may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any applicable law, regulation, or AUP is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to copyrighted material or material protected by trade secret and other statute or dissemination of harmful or fraudulent content.

The Customer shall comply with the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Information Technology Act, 2000, and all other laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations as applicable concerning your participation in, or use of in any capacity, the services rendered to you, including but not limited to financial transactions.

The usage of other organisations' networks or computing resources is subject to their respective permission and usage policies.

The customer shall not exploit the national emblem of India, or any part of the Constitution of India or the person or personality of a national leader or a State dignitary for personal gain.

The Customer hereby agrees that any and all materials submitted for publication/hosting on/by Synapse will not contain anything leading to an illegal, abusive or unethical use of the web hosting product(s) or of the host server(s).

The use of any Synapse service or product for the purpose of participating in any activity dealing with subject matters that are prohibited under applicable law is prohibited.

Any conduct that constitutes harassment, fraud, stalking, abuse, or a violation of Indian trade restrictions in connection with the use of Synapse services or products is prohibited. Using the Synapse facilities to solicit the performance of any illegal activity is also prohibited, even if the activity itself is not performed. In addition, knowingly receiving or downloading a file that cannot be legally distributed, even without the act of distribution, is prohibited.

Sites/Servers hosted within Synapse network are open to the public. You are solely responsible for your usage of the Synapse network and sites/servers and any statement you make on servers hosted within the Synapse network may be deemed "publication" of the information entered.

Acknowledging the foregoing, you specifically agree not to use our service in any manner that is illegal or libellous.

Child Pornography on the Internet

Synapse will cooperate fully with any criminal investigation into a Customer's violation of any law of the Union of India concerning child pornography. Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the Synapse network, and will be liable for illegal material posted by their clients.

Child pornography includes photographs, films, video or any other type of visual presentation that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years or any written material or visual representation that advocates or counsels sexual activity with a person under the age of eighteen years.

Any and all violations of this policy will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement agencies immediately.

Commercial Advertisements with E-mail

Synapse takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) or SPAM over our network. Very simply, this means that Customers of Synapse may not use or permit others to use our services to transact in UCE. Customers of Synapse 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.

Sending a message, especially an advertisement, to more than five recipients, is by itself spamming unless the individuals have specifically requested to be added to a mailing list on that topic. This includes both commercial advertisements and informational messages sent to recipients via electronic mail (email) as well as off-topic messages posted in Usenet discussion groups where the recipient has not requested or invited the message. E-mail is a person-to-person medium, not a broadcast medium.

Customers of Synapse are strictly prohibited from using or permitting others to use UCE or SPAM over our network. As our Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the Synapse network, it is advisable that Customers develop a similar, or stricter, policy for their clients.

Violation of Synapse's SPAM policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, Synapse will initiate an immediate investigation (within 48 hours of notification). During the investigation, Synapse may restrict Customer access to the network to prevent further violations. If a Customer is found to be in violation of our SPAM policy, Synapse may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate Customer's account. Further, Synapse reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. Synapse will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offence.

Violation of Synapse's SPAM policy may be reported to info@synapse.co.in.

IP Address Overlap

Synapse administers the network on which Customer servers reside. Synapse maintains the control and ownership of any and all I.P. addresses that may be assigned to Customer and reserves to itself the sole discretion of the right to change or remove any and all I.P. numbers and addresses. The Customer cannot use I.P. addresses, which were not assigned to them by Synapse. Any site/server found using I.P. addresses that were not officially assigned will be suspended from network access until such time as the I.P. address overlap can be corrected.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

Synapse allows the use of IRC inside the Synapse network as long as the use of IRC on a Synapse server does not violate any of the other terms of this AUP. As a policy, Synapse will not provide vanity IRC reverse DNS records. To enforce this policy, Synapse does not turn the reverse address of I.P.s over to the Customer. Authority over this information remains with Synapse.

Privacy Policy

Synapse has a strong corporate policy to respect and protect the privacy of its Customers and their information that is stored on Synapse's servers. Synapse will only access and disclose information as necessary to comply with applicable laws and government requests, to provide Synapse services, to operate and/or maintain its systems and/or to protect itself and/or its Customers.

All information on the Internet should be considered publicly accessible. Important and/or private information should be treated carefully. Synapse is not liable for the protection or privacy of electronic mail or other information transferred through the Internet or any other network Synapse and/or its Customers may utilise.

Billing

The Customer understands that the Customer is responsible for paying for any network resources that are used to connect the Customer's server to the Internet. The Customer may request that the Customer's server be disconnected from the Internet, but the Customer will still be responsible for paying for any network resources used up to the point of suspension or cancellation. The Customer is responsible for paying all applicable taxes. You agree to hold Synapse harmless for any and all taxes and duties liability.

Synapse reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to deactivate the Customer's website(s) hosted with Synapse upon an indication of the Customer's credit problems. This includes but is not limited to payments due to Synapse.

Suspension

Synapse reserves the right to suspend network access to any Customer if, in the judgment of the Synapse network administrators, the Customer's site/server is the source or target of the violation of any of the other terms of the AUPs or for any other reason which Synapse chooses. If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of the Customer in question will be deactivated until an investigation is complete. Synapse does not assure prior notification to the Customer before suspending the use of services, which Synapse decides is an illegal, abusive or unethical use of the services offered by it.

In extreme cases, law enforcement agencies will be contacted regarding the activity. The Customer will not be credited for the time the Customer's machines were suspended.

Cancellation

Synapse reserves the right to cancel service at any time. If inappropriate activity is detected, all services to the Customer in question will be deactivated until an investigation is complete. Synapse does not assure prior notification to the Customer before deactivating the use of services, which Synapse decides is an illegal, abusive or unethical use of the services offered by it.

In extreme cases, law enforcement agencies will be contacted regarding the activity. Any and all amounts owed to Synapse will become due and will be payable immediately. Any violation of policies that result in extra costs will be billed to the Customer (i.e. transfer, space etc.).

Indemnification

Synapse wishes to emphasize that in agreeing to the Acceptable Use Policy or its equivalent, the Customer indemnifies and holds harmless Synapse from any and all claims resulting from any violation of the Acceptable Usage Policy or its equivalent law that results in loss to Synapse or the bringing of any claim against Synapse by any third-party. This means that if Synapse is sued because of a Customer's or a Customer of a Customer's activity, the Customer will pay any damages awarded against Synapse, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees.

Disclaimer of Responsibility

Synapse reserves the right but is under no duty or responsibility or obligation to monitor the website or to look at each Customer's or user's activities to determine compliance with the AUPs or any other operating rules that may be established by Synapse from time to time. Synapse does not assume any responsibility through our AUPs to monitor or police Internet-related activities. Synapse disclaims any and all responsibility for any such inappropriate use and any liability to any person or party for any other person's or party's violation of this policy.

Failure to follow any term or condition will be grounds for immediate Cancellation of services by Synapse.

Indirect or attempted violations of the AUPs and actual or attempted violations by a third party on your behalf shall be considered violations of these AUPs by you.

Synapse hosting service is provided on an "as is" basis. Synapse gives no warranty, expressed or implied, for the web hosting services provided. This "no warranty" expressly includes any reimbursement for losses of income due to disruption of service by Synapse or its providers.

Synapse is not responsible for any damages arising from Customer's use of Synapse or by Customer's inability to use the web hosting services for any reason.

Synapse is not responsible for any damages arising from the Customer's use, misuse or inability to use any of the services offered by Synapse.

While Synapse shall make every reasonable effort to protect and backup data for Customer on a regular basis, Synapse is not responsible for Customer's files residing on Synapse servers. The Customer is solely responsible for independent backup of data stored on Synapse servers.

Nothing in these AUPs render Synapse liable for any loss or liability (including without limitation the result of any server crashes or being out of service, deletion, corruption, loss or removal of data) arising out of the occurrence of any matter outside its reasonable control. Time shall not be of the essence in respect of Synapse's obligations.

These AUPs apply exclusively to your access to and use of the site and do not alter the terms or conditions of any other agreement you may have with Synapse.

Any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques developed by Synapse or obtained during the execution of the Services will be owned exclusively by Synapse.

By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read the AUPs and that you accept and agree to be bound by the same in full, without any limitation or qualification whatsoever.

The Customer agrees to defend, hold harmless, and expeditiously indemnify Synapse from any and all liability, claim, loss, damage or expense arising out of Customer's breach or violation of any covenant contained in this Contract, or resulting from the Customer's use of the service.

Customer agrees to waive and hold Synapse harmless from any claims relating to any action taken by Synapse as part of an investigation into a suspected violation of the AUPs or as a result of its conclusion that a violation of one or more of these AUPs has occurred. Therefore, Customer cannot sue or recover any damages whatsoever from Synapse as a result of the decision to remove material from its server, or to suspend or terminate or discontinue Customer's account.

We provide our clients with rack space; an electrical outlet; a static IP address; high speed redundant backbone; fire detection systems; primary and secondary domain name services; an air-conditioned environment; round-the-clock monitored security system and a monthly monitoring and reporting of network traffic.