Virgin Media Acceptable Use Policy

Policy applies from: 16th June 2003

[note: you can find an independent, unofficial, guide to Virgin Media AUP policies
on the Virgin Media users site here]

Introduction

1. This Acceptable Use Policy specifies actions prohibited by Virgin Media to users of the Services.
2. Please read this Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") very carefully. An Acceptable Use Policy is important since, together with the associated Terms and Conditions ("Terms and Conditions"), it forms the basis of our legally binding relationship with Users.
3. "Users" and "you" means customers or anyone else who uses or accesses the Services. This AUP outlines the principles that govern use of the systems, services and equipment (e.g. your cable modem) provided by Virgin Media Limited or any other member of the Virgin Media group ("Virgin Media") in connection with the Services. By using our Services, you agree to comply with all parts of this AUP, and we may (notwithstanding our rights of suspension referred to below) terminate your account if you fail to comply with any of the same.
4. Virgin Media retains the right to amend, modify or substitute this AUP at any time and any such modification, amendment or substitution shall be posted on the relevant web site and become automatically effective upon all customers as from such date of posting.
5. Virgin Media recommends that you visit our website regularly to check for any updates or amendments to this AUP.

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Virgin Media's Right to Suspend or Terminate Your Services

1. In addition and without prejudice to its rights under paragraph J of the Terms and Conditions, and paragraph b below, Virgin Media will enforce appropriate sanctions of its choosing against any Users responsible for serious abuse - in respect of their use of the Services, (e.g. spam), or any content distributed via the Services (e.g. racist Usenet postings). Such sanctions may include, but are not limited to, a formal warning, suspension of access to the Services (or any part of the same), or termination of the relevant User's account.
2. Notwithstanding our right to terminate the Services, if you breach this AUP and/or the Terms and Conditions, you may receive a formal warning from Virgin Media specifying the unacceptable conduct and notifying you that repeated breaches may result in the Services (or any part of Services) being temporarily or permanently withdrawn from you.
3. If, after you have received a formal warning from Virgin Media in accordance with paragraph b, your conduct continues to breach this AUP, then Virgin Media will withdraw the Services (or part of the Services) from you until such time as Virgin Media is satisfied that you have implemented appropriate steps to ensure that your use of Virgin Media's systems, Services or equipment will comply with this AUP.
4. If such a suspension is imposed, then this may be lifted at our discretion, upon receipt of a formal written undertaking not to commit any future relevant abuse. However, all cases will be considered individually upon their merits (Virgin Media acting at its sole discretion at all times).

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Use of the Services

1. We reserve the right to investigate any suspected violation(s) of this AUP. When we become aware of possible violations, we may initiate an investigation, which may include gathering information from the User involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on our servers, networks or any other equipment associated with the Services.
2. During an investigation, if we believe that a violation of this AUP or the Terms and Conditions has occurred, we may take immediate remedial action. Such action may include temporary or permanent removal of material from our servers, the cancellation of newsgroup postings, warnings to the User responsible, and the suspension or termination of the User's account. We will determine what action will be taken on a case-by-case basis. Please note that we have a policy of open co-operation with all relevant UK authorities and regulators.
3. In addition to and without prejudice to your obligations pursuant to the Terms and Conditions, you agree to comply with (and ensure that others using the Services comply with) all applicable laws, statutes and regulations in connection with the Services. As the User of record, you are responsible for all use of your account, irrespective of use without your knowledge and/or consent.
4. You are required to keep your contact details provided to Virgin Media up to date. Keeping such records up to date is important as we may need to send notices or other information to you using the contact information you gave us.
5. Users are expected and required to review email in their primary mailbox provided as part of the Services on a regular basis. This is to enable us to advise of any significant issues that may affect your use of the Services.

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Use of Material

1. You are prohibited from storing, distributing, transmitting or causing to be published any Prohibited Material through your use of the Services. Examples of "Prohibited Material" shall be determined by Virgin Media (acting in its sole discretion) and shall include (but are not limited to) material that:
   1. contains direct threats of physical harm, harassment, or invades the privacy of any person, or is defamatory of any person;
   2. is racist, threatening, obscene, indecent (including but not limited to child pornography) or blasphemous;
   3. infringes or breaches any third party's intellectual property rights (which shall include, but not be limited to copyright, trade mark, design rights, trade secrets, patents, moral rights, paternity rights and performance rights) - this includes the use, distribution and/or copying of any material without the express consent of the owner;
   4. is in violation of any law or regulation that is enforceable in the United Kingdom;
   5. unsolicited promotional or marketing material;
   6. chain letters or pyramid selling schemes; and
   7. programs containing viruses, hoaxes or any tools designed to compromise the security of other websites and/or systems.
   For the avoidance of doubt, the storage upon and/or distribution over Virgin Media's systems by any User of "pirated" software, or any other materials that are not expressly licensed to the User, will constitute a violation of this paragraph 2(1) of the AUP.
2. Virgin Media reserves the right to inform and/or report the storage, distribution, transmission, retransmission or publication of Prohibited Material (and/or any other materials which may constitute unlawful conduct by Users) to relevant UK authorities and/or regulators, in addition to any action we may take as outlined in this AUP.

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System Security

1. You are prohibited from using the Services to compromise the security, adversely affect, or tamper with our system resources or accounts (including but not limited to those of other Users) on our systems, or at any other site accessible via our systems, without the explicit consent of the owner of such account and/or site. Malicious use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security is prohibited.
2. The security of the services used by you from your home is your responsibility. It is also your responsibility to ensure that you keep your passwords secure. Virgin Media is not responsible for any negative consequences (e.g. lost or corrupted files) incurred by your failure to employ adequate security measures.
3. Users are responsible for the security of their own devices that are directly or indirectly connected to Virgin Media's network. This includes, but is not limited to: PCs, wired and wireless home networking devices and games consoles.

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Prohibited Uses of Virgin Media's Systems, Services & Equipment

1. Any actions that may restrict or inhibit any person, partnership, company, firm or organisation (whether a customer of Virgin Media or otherwise) in its lawful use or enjoyment of any of Virgin Media's systems, services or products are also prohibited. Examples of the same include:
   1. Prohibited Actions: General Conduct:
      1. The sale or resale of Virgin Media's services and products;
      2. Deceptive or misleading on-line advertising or marketing practices;
      3. Furnishing false data on Virgin Media's sign-up form, contract, or on-line application, including fraudulent use of credit card numbers (and such conduct is ground for immediate termination and may subject the offender to civil or criminal liability); and
      4. Trade or Business use of the Services of any kind - the Services are for residential use only.
   2. Prohibited Actions: System and Network Security:
      1. Attempting to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account ("cracking"). This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the User, logging into a server or account the User is not expressly authorised to access, or probing the security of other networks without the express authorisation of the owner of such third party network(s);
      2. Effecting security breaches or disruptions of Internet communications. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which customer is not an intended recipient or logging onto a server or account that the customer is not expressly authorised to access. For the purposes of this section "disruption" includes, but is not limited to, port scans, ping floods, packet spoofing, forged routing information, deliberate attempts to overload a service, any otherwise unspecified form of Denial of Service (DoS) attack, or attempts to "crash" a host;
      3. Using any program/script/command, or sending messages of any kind, designed to interfere with or adversely affect a user's enjoyment of our network by any means, locally or by the Internet - including violating the privacy of other Users; and
      4. Executing any form of network monitoring which causes the interception of any data that does not belong to the User.

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Internet Protocol Services

1. Users may only provide Internet Protocol Services ("IPS") within the limits set out in this Section 5. Users are deemed wholly responsible for any and all network traffic emanating from relevant servers and are required to ensure that such IPS are secured against abuse by third parties. This includes (but is not limited to) ensuring that servers are running up to date, and that security patches and are configured so as to not act as relay servers at any time. "Relay servers" mean servers that can be utilised by another Internet user to relay spam, or any other type of abusive network traffic.
2. Failure by Users to so secure servers against such abuse may result in immediate suspension or termination of service by Virgin Media (acting at its sole discretion) with no prior notice - in order to protect the overall network and services provided to other customers.
3. In addition to the above, Users' provision of IPS may not adversely affect any other users of the Virgin Media network (including telephony and internet services). Further, Users may not include within and/or distribute via an IPS any content without the express consent of the owner of all relevant rights in such content (including but not limited to intellectual property rights). Virgin Media reserves the right to monitor network traffic and to take appropriate action as required - including the right to restrict any IPS. An example of such adverse usage could be the consumption of a high proportion of the available upload bandwidth over a significant period of time. Virgin Media will not offer any technical support for the provision of such IPS.
4. Any services provided which have a well-known port (as defined by IANA [www.iana.org]) must run on the defined port wherever possible. Exceptions to this must have good reason, to be determined by Virgin Media in each case at its discretion (e.g. the de facto standard as defined by a default installation).

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Usenet News Usage

1. Our services include access to many Usenet discussion groups (newsgroups). You acknowledge that some newsgroups contain language, media or discussion of subjects intended for adult audiences. We do not monitor access to Usenet newsgroups or the content of posts by our customers or customers at other sites. Accordingly, we are not responsible for the content of any posting made to Usenet.
2. We reserve the right to discontinue access to any Usenet newsgroup at any time and for any reason.
3. We will investigate complaints regarding posts of inappropriate material to Usenet by Users and may, at our sole discretion, take action based on the rules set out below. Criteria for determining whether a post is inappropriate include (without limitation):
   1. the written charter of the newsgroup(s) in question;
   2. the established Usenet conventions outlined below;
   3. the system resources consumed by the posting; and
   4. applicable laws.
4. Usenet news articles posted using the Services must comply with the written charter of the newsgroup to which they are posted. If a newsgroup does not have a charter its title or recent content may be considered sufficient to determine the general topic of the newsgroup. You are responsible for determining the rules of a newsgroup before posting to it.
5. You may post advertisements only in those newsgroups that specifically permit them in the charter. Some newsgroups may permit "classified ads" for single transactions between private individuals, but not commercial advertisements. You are responsible for determining whether or not a newsgroup permits such non-commercial advertisements before posting.
6. Users may not alter the headers of posts to Usenet to mislead other Internet users as to the origin of the posting. This includes but is not limited to, pre-loading the path, using another users details, using an incorrect "Date:" line.
7. Virgin Media may cancel usenet articles posted via its servers if they breach this AUP. Users should not cancel usenet articles of any third party without the express consent of such third party. You may not use our resources to cancel articles that you did not post. The sole exception to this rule is for moderators and retro-moderators of formally moderated newsgroups or newsgroups specifically allowing this in their charter; the moderator or retro-moderator of a newsgroup may cancel any articles in a newsgroup he or she is moderating.
8. You may not attempt to "flood" or disrupt Usenet newsgroups. Examples of disruptive activities include posting multiple messages with no text in the body, or posting many follow-ups to messages with no new text.
9. Whilst not propagated to Usenet, the Virgin Media.* hierarchy of groups is available for Users' use. Users who post to it are advised that they do so in accordance with the FAQ and this AUP, which is posted regularly in Virgin Media.announce.

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Email Use

1. Exchanging email with other Users is generally a matter of common sense and courtesy to others. Users should use their own sense of what is appropriate to guide their behaviour when sending email.
2. This paragraph 7 of the AUP and its day-to-day application are based on consideration of both the formal and informal practices of the Internet community.
3. We will investigate complaints regarding email and may take action at our discretion, which shall be based on but not limited to the following:
1. You may not use your email to post unsolicited messages to groups of people;
2. If so requested by Virgin Media or a recipient, you must desist from posting messages to said recipient;
3. Unsolicited mailings, whether commercial or informational, are strictly prohibited. We will not forward mail of accounts terminated for bulk mailing or unsolicited advertising;
4. Chain letters are unsolicited by definition and may not be propagated using the Services;
5. You may not send, distribute, or reply to mailbombs (whether malicious or otherwise). "Mailbombing" is understood as causing individuals to receive large amounts of un-requested email by any means;
6. Users may not construct, alter and/or forge the headers of email messages to conceal the sender's email address, or to prevent other Internet users from responding to messages;
7. Violations of this AUP may result in a large amount of email traffic. If our customers receive so much email that our resources are affected, we reserve the right to take such action(s) as may be necessary (to be determined at our sole discretion) to protect both the Services and our Users - including but not limited to deployment of appropriate network security software; and
8. Harassment, whether through language, frequency or size of messages sent, is prohibited.

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Complaints and Enforcement

1. Complaints
   1. Complaints regarding abusive conduct will be accepted via the email address abuse@virginmedia.com. A valid return address must be included. Virgin Media must be able to verify each instance of abuse, and so each complaint must include the COMPLETE TEXT OF THE OBJECTIONABLE MESSAGE, INCLUDING ALL HEADERS, where appropriate, or other forms of quantitative, supportive evidence.
   2. Please do NOT send excerpted parts of a message; sending a copy of the entire message, including headers, helps to prevent misunderstandings based on incomplete information, or information used out of context. Full headers demonstrate which path the message has taken, and enable us to determine whether any part of the message has been forged. This information is vital to our investigation.
2. Enforcement
   1. Virgin Media may, in its sole discretion, suspend or terminate a User's service for violation of any of part of this AUP at any time and without warning.
   2. As a general matter Virgin Media shall attempt to work with Users to cure violations and to ensure that there is no reoccurrence of the violation prior to terminating Services, but it shall not be obliged to do so.

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Virgin Media Is Not Responsible For Content

1. Virgin Media is not responsible for the content of any Usenet posting, whether or not the posting is made by a User. Virgin Media is not responsible for the content of materials and information published by others (including Users) that are accessible via the Services, and Virgin Media therefore does not accept liability or responsibility for any such publication. At its sole discretion (and without prejudice to any of its other rights pursuant to this AUP and the Terms and Conditions), Virgin Media reserves the right to remove any materials from any server of its choosing.