Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy (“Policy”) applies to Circle Fiber’s (hereinafter “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us”) fiber optics internet and telephone service (“Services”) and any equipment that is owned and provided by Circle Fiber in connection with Services provided to the customer of record as shown on the Circle Fiber bill (collectively “Customer”, “you”, “your”).

In order to completely fulfill your needs as our Customer for reliable service and to meet the challenge of supporting the Internet as a diverse forum for free and open discussion and the dissemination of information, we as a responsible Company, have certain legal, ethical and operational obligations.

To protect the competing interests of Internet users and our clients and to require Customers to use the Services responsibly and to enable Circle Fiber to provide secure, reliable, and functional Services, we enforce this Policy. This Policy has been established in the spirit of determining guidelines for our customers, to clarify their rights and responsibilities as Internet users and customers of our services.

As a member of the Internet community, our Company, through this Policy, aims to prevent those activities that are either irresponsible or disruptive to the Internet activities of others. We also proscribe all those activities that fall outside the legal boundaries of acceptable Internet use and behaviors.

For any of the activities outlined below, we reserve the right to take preventative or corrective action, at our discretion. If you use or otherwise accept any Services or Circle Fiber equipment, you are agreeing to comply with this Policy and be bound by its terms. It is the Customer’s sole responsibility for ensuring that other users of the Services and Circle Fiber Equipment understand and comply with this policy.

General Conduct

The Services and Circle Fiber equipment may be used only for lawful purposes. Customer may not use the Services or Circle Fiber Equipment in order to create, transmit, or store any information, data or material (a) in violation of any applicable law, (b) in a manner that will infringe the copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights of others, (c) that will unlawfully violate the privacy, publicity, or other personal rights of others, or (d) that is illegal or contains a virus, worm, or other malware.

Customer may not use the Services and Circle Fiber Equipment in a way that violates applicable federal, state, or local laws or regulations regarding unsolicited, false, or fraudulent email or electronic communications or in a way that could be reasonably expected to adversely impact the Services or deny or limit the full intended use of the Services by others.

Violations

Customers are said to be in violation of this Policy when they, their customers, affiliates and /or subsidiaries engage in any of the following proscribed activities:

Spamming

refers to the act of sending, supporting, assisting, or commissioning the sending of, unsolicited commercial messages over the Internet to others. This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, charity requests, petitions for signatures and political or religious tracts.

Such messages may only be sent to individuals that have explicitly requested the information from you. Spamming is considered harmful because it can overload the Company’s server network, can disrupt service to our other customers, violate our terms of service with “upstream providers,” and foster a negative perception toward the Company.

Spamming includes, but is not limited to, any means of Internet-based transmissions, such as email, newsgroup, Internet fax or Internet phone. It is a violation of this Policy to commission spamming by a third-party, even if that third-party does not use Company systems, networks or resources, if the spam message contains any reference to a website hosted by us or contains any other reference, message or link attributable to any service, network or system of the Company.

Forging Headers refers to the act of altering, removing or misrepresenting email headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the originator of the email. Like spam, forging headers is harmful to our servers and compromises our reputation.

Spamming Newsgroups by sending, or commissioning the sending of, commercial advertisements or other messages to one or more different, off-topic newsgroups, are unwelcome in most Usenet discussion groups and on most electronic mailing lists (discussion lists). If you are unsure about a posting to a Usenet group, please refer to the newsgroup or mailing list’s charter to determine if advertising is allowed.

Harassment represents the act or intention of intimidating, threatening, frightening or otherwise harassing others, using company servers, networks and infrastructure. Harassment can result from the language of correspondence, or the frequency or size of messages. A single unwelcome message can be considered harassment. Additional messages sent to an unwilling recipient, after being requested to stop by that recipient, can also be construed as harassment.

Defamatory or Abusive Language by using our network as means to distribute, transmit, facilitate or post defamatory, harassing, abusive or threatening language or anything that a reasonable person would regard as hate speech or literature. This includes language or other activity that significantly prejudices, creates a hostile bias, or grossly defames a class of individuals. This policy includes links placed in websites to other materials and sites containing this type of information. Circle Fiber will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision and reserves the right to take immediate action up to and including disabling your account upon receiving notice that your account contains this information.

Facilitating a Violation of the Policy by advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, service or information that is designed to violate, or assist in the violation of this Policy. This includes the facilitation of the means to spam, initiation of pinging, flooding, mail bombing, denial of service attacks, piracy of software, or other means or mechanisms that interrupt another’s use of the Internet or another’s property.

Illegal or Unauthorized Access to Other Computers or Computer Networks by accessing, attempting to access, monitoring, or disrupting another’s account, computer, computer network, or otherwise attempting to circumnavigate the security measures of another individual’s system without their permission.

This type of activity is extremely harmful and could result in a severe security breach. Any activity that might be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration is also regarded in the same manner (for example: port scan, stealth scan, or other information gathering or monitoring activity).

This also includes, but is not limited to, an attempt to circumvent security in order to obtain access to services on Company servers that are not provided in your account and scanning our network or other networks with the intent to breach and or evaluate security vulnerabilities.

Unauthorized Reselling or Providing Access to Account Services such as offering internet services and accompanying features for use by individuals outside of the required use on your own account; the reselling of CGI scripts installed on the Companies servers; or providing access codes to individuals not authorized to receive such materials as necessary for the running of your website or account.

Distribution of Internet Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, Denial of Service Attacks, or Other Destructive Activities by sending or distributing malicious code, or information regarding the creation of Internet viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, mail bombing or denial of service attacks, whether you actually intended to send or distribute such malicious code or information. This includes sending packets with an illegal packet size, UDP flooding, ping-flooding, half-open TCP connection flooding and any other activity that may be deemed harmful and that may result in a denial of service against any computer or computer network. Also, activities that disrupt the use of, or interfere with the ability of, others to use a computer network and any connected network, system, service or equipment.

Customer Responsibility for Content

Circle Fiber does not assume any responsibility, control, oversight, or other interest in the e-mail messages, websites, content or any other data (in any form) of its Customers, whether or not such data and information is stored in, contained on, or transmitted over property, equipment or facilities of Circle Fiber. Customer is and shall remain solely responsible for such data and information.

System and Network Security

Customers are prohibited from breaching or attempting to breach the security of Circle Fiber or others, including, without limitation, (a) accessing data not intended for such Customer or logging into a server or account which such Customer is not authorized to access, (b) attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of a system or network, (c) attempting to interfere with, disrupt, or disable service to any person, host, or network including, without limitation, a denial of service attack or overloading or flooding a service or network, (d) impersonating any person or entity or falsifying or forging any information or data, or (e) taking any action in order to obtain Services to which Customer is not entitled.

Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. Circle Fiber may investigate occurrences that may involve such violations, and Circle Fiber may involve and cooperate with law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Customers who are alleged to be involved in such violations.

Copyright Infringement

Circle Fiber is registered with the United States Copyright Officer under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”); see Title 17 United States Code, Section 512. Circle Fiber respects the intellectual property rights of others. Customer may not use the Services in any manner that infringes upon the copyrights of other intellectual property rights of others, including but not limited to copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, software and patents held by other individuals, corporations, or other entities.

Our Company is required by law to respond immediately to a copyright infringement and block access to customer content upon receipt of an official notice of a copyright violation. For more information on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), click HERE. In accordance with the DMCA and other applicable laws, Circle Fiber maintains a policy that provides for the suspension, or termination in appropriate circumstances, of Customers who are repeat copyright infringers.

This information related to copyright infringement does not take the place of advice from your legal counsel. Circle Fiber is providing this information for informational purposes only.

Notification of Copyright Claim and Procedure

A copyright owner may notify Circle Fiber of alleged infringements of their works as defined by U.S. copyright law and according to the DMCA. This notice must be submitted to Circle Fiber’s DMCA Agent, as described below, and notification must satisfy the requirements of the DMCA.

Contact
DMCA Agent Email: copyright@circlefiber.com

Mail
Circle Fiber
ATTN: Copyright Claims
24 S Minnesota Street
Cape Girardeau MO 63703

DMCA complaints must be in writing and contain the following information according to Title 17 United States Code, Section 512:

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed.
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Circle Fiber to locate the material.
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit Circle Fiber to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which complaining party may be contacted.
5. A 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. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

You should be aware that complainants who make false claims or misrepresentations concerning copyright infringement may be liable for damages under DMCA.

Counter-Notification in Response to Claim of Copyright Infringement

If a Customer receives a DMCA notification of an alleged infringement and the Customer believes in good faith that the alleged infringement has been wrongly filed, then the Customer may submit a counter-notice to Circle Fiber. Please forward your counter-notice to Circle Fiber’s DMCA Agent at the address noted above. This process will invoke a dispute between you and the complaining party. Your counter-notification must be in writing and contain the following information according to Title 17 United States Code, Section 12:

1. A physical or electronic signature of an authorized person.
2. Identification of the material that has been removed, or access to which has been disabled, and the location at which material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the alleged infringer has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as result of a mistake or misidentification.
4. Your name, address and telephone number, statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the federal district in which you are located and that you will accept service of process from the complainant.

You should be aware that persons who make false counter-notices or misrepresentations concerning copyright infringement may be liable for damages under the DMCA.

Response to Use Violating Law or Policy

Circle Fiber does not monitor or regulate the content of any messages or material transmitted or displayed by Customers. From time to time, Circle Fiber may receive complaints or information that a Customer is using the Services in violation of federal, state, or local law or this Acceptable Use Policy.

If Circle Fiber determines that a Customer has violated applicable law or this Policy, Circle Fiber may take such action as authorized by law, including, without limitation, a written warning, temporary suspension of Service, requiring Customer to provide written assurance of refraining from any further violations, termination of Services, or legal action seeking injunctive relief or damages.

Circle Fiber shall not be liable for any damages, of any nature including, without limitation, consequential damages alleged to have been suffered by Customer or any third party resulting in whole or in part from Circle Fiber’s actions authorized by law or this Policy.

Miscellaneous

Monitoring

Circle Fiber will not intentionally monitor private email messages sent or received by our customers, unless required to do so by law or court order. However, we reserve the right to monitor our servers and equipment, which may include your data and information, to ensure that our systems and network are operating optimally.

Disclosure of Private Information

Circle Fiber will not disclose private customer information unless compelled by law or court order.

Practicality / Timeliness

Circle Fiber will react to notices regarding violations as quickly as practical, given our judgment as to the potential harm and consequences of the alleged violation.

Proof

In instances where alleged Policy violations by Customers have not been substantiated by the notice sent to our Company and the accuracy of the notice cannot be substantiated by us after a review of the facts, we reserve the right to use our best judgment on who bears the burden of proof for or against the alleged Policy violation. In such cases, we place the burden of proving the Policy violation on the complaining party. However, there are some instances where we may place the burden of proving a Policy violation did not occur on our Customer – these instances will usually involve what we view as a protected class (i.e. potential harm to minors).

Jurisdiction

Circle Fiber always applies the laws of the United States and the State of Missouri to any legal analysis by our Company. We may also apply the laws of other jurisdictions to a particular issue. Customers must submit to personal jurisdiction in Missouri and agree to file all legal claims in St. Louis County. This agreement shall be governed in all respects by Missouri law without regard to the conflict of law provisions thereof.

Finally, Customers are required to comply with U.S. Export Control Laws regardless of where they may reside. Customers may not export prohibited items, nor conduct business with prohibited nations or individuals. For more information, please consult the Export Administration Regulations Database, located HERE.

Modification of Acceptable Use Policy

Circle Fiber reserves the right to modify this Acceptable Use Policy at any time in its sole and absolute discretion. Changes and modifications will be effective when posted to the Circle Fiber website, circlefiber.com. Any use of the Services by Customer after the posting of any changes will be considered acceptance of such changes.

No Waiver / Severability

Any failure of Circle Fiber to enforce this Policy shall not be construed as a waiver of any right to do so at any time. If any portion of this Policy is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion will be construed consistent with applicable law, and any remaining portions will remain in full force and effect.

Notice to Customers

Circle Fiber may deliver a notice to a Customer by any means Circle Fiber deems appropriate, including, without limitation, delivery to your email account associated with your fiber optic account, or mailing the notice to your address associated with your fiber optic account. Notices provided by email or other electronic means will be effective upon transmittal by Circle Fiber and notices by mail will be effective upon delivery.

Circle Fiber hopes this Acceptable Use Policy is helpful in clarifying the obligations of Internet users, including Circle Fiber customers and their subscribers, as responsible users of the Internet.