Statement of Purpose
and
Acceptable Use Policy
The primary purpose of Tri-Rivers Internet is to provide Internet services to our customers. We will consider most suggestions as long as they are legal and do not interfere with our primary purpose.
We cannot guarantee the privacy of our users' e-mail and files; however, we do our best to maintain a secure environment and we are personally dedicated to the privacy of our users. Towards this end:
We will never intentionally read a user's e-mail except upon request of that user.
The only user-owned files we may examine without the user's permission are standard system files; for example, .login, .cshrc, and .rhosts. We will not read a user's .newsrc file; however, we may run software that will examine each user's .newsrc file and tally statistics for our user community as a whole.
If we believe the contents of a user owned file may jeopardize us on a legal basis, or our primary purpose, we may ask for an explanation, to view the file, or that the file be removed from our systems.
In general, any process a user has running while not logged in to our systems is subject to termination. If you have a specific need or desire to run processes while not on-line, contact us.
We do not distribute our users' personal information, including that which may normally be found on line.
Those under the age of 18 will not be given an account without the signature of a parent or legal guardian.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate a user's account for any reason. Some examples of what may result in account termination:
Breaching, or attempting to breach security on any system or network without the written authorization of those responsible for said system or network.
Forging email or news articles. That is, attempting to make articles or email appear to come from someone or somewhere they do not.
Propagating chain letters via e-mail, Usenet news, or other Internet services. These letters are usually along the lines of "pass this on to receive good luck," or "send these five people a dollar in order to make thousands."
Sharing your account. There is nothing wrong with letting someone read news over your shoulder, or showing someone around the Internet; however, with the exception of certain organizational accounts specifically contracted to be used by multiple people, our accounts are individual accounts. Users may not share their user IDs and passwords with others.
Extreme violations of netiquette. The Internet is frequently described as the last forum for free speech. People regularly clash loudly over such matters as race, religion, sexual preference, and political standing. It is difficult to be on the Net for any length of time without being offended by someone. It is also quite possible to do the offending. We will investigate any complaints we receive, either by our users or others, but action will rarely be warranted. We may suggest a more appropriate newsgroup or forum to a user, or perhaps a different approach. If a user is disrupting a newsgroup or other "net community" simply for the sake of being disruptive, we may take additional action.
If a user's presence on our systems jeopardizes our primary purpose, we may suspend or terminate that user's account.
Automating any communication over the connection to our systems for the purpose of bypassing the 15 minute time-out policy on an idle line.
We reserve the right to issue a warning in lieu of terminating or suspending an account.
We ask that businesses, organizations, or individuals who would like to use the Internet for advertising contact us first. Advertising is a touchy subject on the Internet, and the more overt methods can meet with an overwhelming negative response. There are a variety of effective methods of advertising without bringing down the wrath of the Net, and we would like the opportunity to direct users to them.