The Chesapeake Bay Region's Favorite Gateway to the Internet!
 Providing the Chesapeake Bay Region with Broadband
and Dialup Internet Access Since 1995

By using SMI's services beyond the "Effective Date" (below) you have agreed to the terms set forth.

Posting Date: Jan 20, 2003
Effective Date: Feb. 5, 2003

Southern Maryland Internet, Inc.
Acceptable Use Policy (Terms, Disclaimers and Liability Limitations)

This Agreement represents the complete agreement and understanding between Southern Maryland Internet, Inc. (herein after called SMI) and Customer and supersedes any other written or oral agreement. Upon notice published on-line via SMI, SMI may change these terms and conditions, and/or change the prices charged for these services, and/or discontinue or change the services offered.

Installation and or use of SMI’s software and/or services consitutes full agreement with the terms, disclaimers and liability limitation. The customer must be 18 years or older to qualify for an account. Furthermore it is the responsibility of the customer to monitor/prevent access by minors to potentially offensive or adult materials which may be accessed on the internet. In addition, it is the sole responsibility of the customer to determine whether or not dial-up access to SMI'’ internet services is a local telephone call or not.

Your Privacy Rights

SMI respects your privacy, and will not release any records of your account unless presented with proper papers from an authorized court. SMI will not access any of your private files, except in cases where they may be threatening the integrity of the SMI network or the Internet itself or violating any other part of the terms of use presented herein.

Account and Agreement Terms

This Account or Agreement shall remain in effect until either 1) the Customer serves written notice via email, postal mail or fax that he/she/they want to terminate their account or 2) SMI terminates the Customer's account. SMI reserves the right to terminate an account or agreement at any time for any reason. If SMI exercises it’s right to terminate an account, the Customer may receive a refund depending on the circumstances of the termination and at the sole discretion of SMI.   

SMI may occasionally require updated registration and account information from the Customer to continue this service. In addition, the Customer is required to notify SMI in writing or by email of any changes in the account information, such as address, phone number, or credit card information.

SMI reserves the right to change this agreement by notifying the Customer via the SMI web page (www.chesapeake.net)  or in writing or by e-mail to the customer’s Chesapeake.net email address at least 15 days in advance of the effective date of the change. Use by the Customer after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the new terms. If customer does not agree to the new terms, the Customer may cancel the agreement by submitting a cancellation request in writing prior to the effective date to billing@chesapeake.net or sending a fax to 410-257-5401.  The account will be terminated in accordance with the terms originally agreed to by the customer.

Billing/Terms/Termination

SMI will bill the Customer for monthly, semi-annual. annual, bi-annual or tri-annual subscriptions and activation fees as set forth in SMI 's current rate schedule. The Customer is solely responsible for making sure payments are made on time whether or not a bill is received from SMI. SMI generates and sends invoices, posts charges and deposits check payments on a regular schedule. Should a customer’s account become past due for any reason, the resulting accrued balance will be posted in a single invoice to clear the Customer’s account.

The SMI accounting cycle begins on the day that the account is enabled on SMI's equipment. It is the responsibility of the customer to make sure the internet software on their equipment is working properly and to notify technical support staff if they are unable to install or configure the internet software properly. Customers must notify SMI at least 10 working days before the next payment is due if Customer wishes to change the method of payment. The Customer must notify SMI at least 10 working days before the next payment is due if the Customer wishes to change type of account.

Service payments will be remitted to SMI in advance of receiving services. Delinquent accounts are those that remain unpaid at the beginning of the next accounting cycle. There is a $25.00 service charge for each returned check.

Accounts that are delinquent by two weeks or more are put on "accounting hold" and may not be used. Accounts that are unpaid for one month automatically have their files archived. Accounts that are unpaid for two months have their files purged. SMI accounts continue to accrue charges while they are on hold. There is a service reconnection charge equal $10 to remove accounts from accounting hold status.

Termination requests for SMI accounts must be received in writing via e-mail (billing@chesapeake.net) fax, or postal service at SMI's main office. Customers are responsible for the full term of their agreement.  Customers that choose to prematurely terminate a long-term agreement (6-month, 1, 2 or 3-year) will not be eligible for a refund.  Customers that choose to terminate a month-to-month agreement will not receive a refund for a partial month.  Any setup/activation/connection fees are likewise not subject to refund.

Additional Charges will be accrued by the customer if disk usage and/or bandwidth usage exceed the limits set by SMI. Additional disk storage is charged in 1MB increments at $1/Mb/Month and additional bandwidth is charged in 100 MB increments at a rate of $10/100Mb/month. The limits are as follows:

   Tier 0,1,2 and National Accounts:        Disk Storage: 5MB                   Bandwidth: 300MB/Month
   Tier3 Accounts:                                     Disk Storage: 10MB                 Bandwidth: 500MB/Month
   Co-Locates:                                           Disk Storage: no limit               Bandwidth: 1GB per month

The Customer is responsible for all fees up to the date of termination of the service, except where SMI is unable to provide services through its own negligence or lack of coverage under this agreement.

Provision of Services

SMI will provide services on its host computing systems to individual customers in exchange for payment of fees and compliance with the terms and conditions of this document. SMI services are defined as the use by the Customer of computing, telecommunications, software, and information services provided by SMI. These services also include the provision of access to computing, telecommunications, software and information services provided by others via the world-wide computer network known as the Internet.

Security of Accounts

SMI will provide account security at the currently accepted industry level. The Customer must realize that the Internet itself is inherently unsecured and that SMI cannot protect against security breaches created by monitoring the Internet external to SMI.

The Customer agrees to maintain a secure password to the account. It is recommended that the Customer change the password on a regular basis to protect him/herself from the most common breach of Internet security.

Customer agrees not to use any SMI services to obtain the passwords of customers on SMI or other systems. The Customer agrees not to use SMI services to make unauthorized attempts to access, destabilize, deactivate, or harm the systems and/or networks of others.

Use of Material

The Customer agrees not to use SMI services to violate copyright or other intellectual property rights of any author or publisher. For example, the Customer may not upload or download commercial software in violation of software license agreements.

Abuse of Internet Services

The Customer agrees to use the services provided by SMI as permitted by applicable local, state, and federal laws. The Customer agrees, therefore, not to use these services to conduct any business or activity or solicit the performance of any activity that is prohibited by law.

The Customer agrees to refrain from mass posting of the same message to many inappropriate Usenet newsgroups or email addresses (Spamming). The Customer agrees not to send mass, unsolicited e-mailings. The Customer agrees to post advertisements only where appropriate in usenet news groups. The Customer agrees to respect the conventions of the newsgroups, lists and networks to which the customer is posting, including rules more restrictive than, but not limited to, the above.

Customer agrees to abide by SMI's interpretation of the above. If the Customer needs help interpreting or applying these rules, the Customer should ask SMI support staff (support@chesapeake.net) for assistance.

Abuse of SMI Services

Any use of SMI system resources that either intentionally or unintentionally disrupts the normal use of the system for other SMI customers is considered to be grounds for administrative intervention. Some examples of system abuse include spawning many processes, running 'bots' of any kind from a shell account, consuming excessive amounts of memory or CPU for long periods of time, sending excessive numbers or sizes of ping packets (flood pinging), being connected to more than one SMI modem without a multi-modem account, and staying connected to SMI modems through any automated means to avoid the 15 minute idle timeout implemented by SMI.  Unintentional abuse  may be the result of having ones computer infected by a virus or worm that performs abusive acts.

Depending on the nature and the severity of the abuse, the user may receive an email warning, have their processes halted, or have their account suspended by SMI Technical Support. If the misuse is unintentional, the suspension may be rescinded following discussions with SMI Technical Support. If the misuse is intentional, the suspension may be rescinded at the discretion of SMI Technical Manager, and may require the payment of a service reconnection charge. Occasionally, unintentional misuse is misclassified as intentional misuse. Customers who believe their activity has been misclassified may appeal to the SMI Technical Manager.

Discovering and Reporting Abuse

Violations of the SMI conditions for use are unethical and may in some cases be criminal offenses. You are expected to report to SMI any information you may have concerning instances in which the conditions of use have been or are being violated. When SMI becomes aware of possible violations, we will initiate an investigation. At the same time, in order to prevent further possible unauthorized activity, SMI may suspend access to services to the individual account in question. Confirmation of violations may result in cancellation of the individual account and/or criminal prosecution. The account suspension may be rescinded at the discretion of the SMI Technical Manager, following payment of a reconnection charge.

SMI reserves the right to monitor Customers' actions when this is necessary to determine whether or not the Customer is violating the conditions of use. This may be done only after making a good faith effort to notify the Customer of the suspected abuse.

Offensive or Adult Materials

SMI exercises no control over the content of materials accessed or received through SMI’s internet connection.  Some materials may be offensive or adult in nature. Due to Southern Maryland Internet’s inability to control the content of these materials, no accounts will be sold to customers less than 18 years of age. Parents of minors who wish to have access to the internet through Southern Maryland Internet, Inc. by accepting the terms of this agreement, understand that the such materials are available on the internet and accept responsibility for monitoring and/or controlling access to such materials.

Warranties

SMI makes no warranties of any kind, whether expressed or implied, for its services. SMI specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. SMI will not be responsible for any losses or damages resulting from delays, non-deliveries, mis-deliveries, service interruption, or Customer's errors or omissions. SMI will not, under any circumstances, be responsible for consequential damages.

Jurisdiction

The validity, construction and performance of this Agreement shall be governed by the State of Maryland.

Severability

If any provision of this Agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be contrary to law, the remaining provisions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect.

Effective Date

This agreement shall become effective and billing will proceed when the Customer's internet access is enabled on SMI's servers.