Spongy Donuts Web Hosting | Terms of Service

Client Agreement

Where the content states: "We" includes Spongy Donuts or any party acting on Spongy Donuts's implicit instructions. "You" or "Reseller" includes the person purchasing the services and/or any party acting on the customer's instructions. "Member" includes the purchaser of services and/or any party acting on the purchaser's instructions. "The Registrant" includes the person applying for a domain name or any party acting on the Registrant's instructions. "The Registry" refers to the relevant domain names Registry. "Server" means the computer server equipment in connection with the provision of the Services. "Web Site" means the area on the Server allocated by us to you for use by you as a site on the Internet. "TOS" includes this agreement. Spongy Donuts reserves the right to modify this policy at any time, effective immediately upon posting of the modification to this URL: http://www.SpongyDonuts.com/tos.html. In consideration of the mutual covenants herein, the parties agree to the following, which shall apply during the term of this agreement: By using any portion of Spongy Donuts's service, you are agreeing to this service agreement on this document entirely.

1. Personal Web Hosting Account

1.1 Customer may not resell space in their account. Personal accounts are to be used by the primary owner only, account holders are not permitted to resell, store or give away web-hosting services of their website to other parties. This includes email services, cgi scripts, mySql services Web hosting services are defined as allowing a separate, third party to host content on the owner's web site. Exceptions to this include ad banners, classified ads, and personal ads. Should customer wish to host materials for companies that are not under direct control of customer, arrangements should be made by sending mail to mark@spongydonuts.com. Failure to comply with this is grounds for immediate suspension of account until such time as the issue is resolved. Unauthorized Reselling or Providing Access Personal Account Services such as offering email services and accompanying features for use by individuals outside of the required use on your own account; the reselling or giving away of CGI and other scripts installed on Spongy Donuts Servers; or providing access codes to individuals not authorized to receive such materials as necessary for the running of your website or account.

2. Use of services

2.1 Excessive CPU, Bandwidh or Disk Space Usage has the ability to compromise our shared hosting environment. This is the result of using the system in a manner that encumbers disk space, processors or other system resources beyond the allowances of your specific plan type and to the degree that your usage compromises the hosting accounts of our other customers.
2.2 Excessive resource usage - cgi scripts or other executable code that consumes an undue amount of CPU time [defined dynamically by Spongy Donuts at will] will be reprioritized if possible, or we will ask you to discontinue its use either permanently or the script is altered by yourself or third party to operate in a less resource-hungry manner. Failure to cease operator of the offending executable will be considered as server abuse. Spongy Donuts reserves the right to terminate any process which it deems to be using excessive resource usage.
2.3 Background processes - background process [that is, application or utilities that are started from within an interactive shell login, and set to run permanently in the background on a server] are not to be initiated without prior arrangement with use. We reserve the right to examine all code before it is run on the server. Running of background processes without prior arrangement in and confirmation in writing from Spongy Donuts is server abuse.
2.4 Compiling - User rights to access compiler software is available upon request and arrangement. Once again, we choose to examine any code that is compiled and executed from our hardware. If you need access to the CP compiler, please contact us describing your need for access. Compiling without prior arrangement and written confirmation is server abuse.
2.5 Mailing Lists - Spongy Donuts has allocated tools to ensure proper delivery of opt-in opt-out mailing lists and normal email. It is important that you use these tools accordingly. All full packages include access to the pre-installed Mailman Mailing List Software. Large mailing lists, (those exceeding 500 subscribers) sent using the Spongy Donuts Services, must be sent using the mailing list tools that have been pre-installed for this purpose. If your mailing list exceeds 1,500 addresses you should contact Spongy Donuts requesting permission to send the mailing through the Spongy Donuts servers prior to sending any messages. Sending a large mailing through mailing list software other than Spongy Donuts pre-installed software can adversely affect the flow of email. Should such a large mailing disrupt normal services or create unacceptable server loads, the account associated with the mailing risks termination.
2.5a Mailing lists operated on Spongy Donuts servers must be double opt-in with specific clear instructions in order to opt-out
2.6 Pornography - Spongy Donuts prohibits the storage and transmission (inbound and outbound) of pornography with the exception of softcore erotic art. Written permission must be obtained before any pornographic material is stored and/or transmitted through Spongy Donuts servers.
2.7 Copyright software, Warez, destructive applications, copyright media, proprietary computer information and hacking & cracking sites are strictly prohibited on any portion of our services and network. Customers storing & transmitting (inbound and outbound) files that violate copyright or other federal laws are grounds for instant termination of service.
2.7a Warez Sites are sites that are typically used by "hackers" to trade (upload/download) illegally pirated copies of software programs with one another. Spongy Donuts Hosting has a zero-tolerance policy on all Warez Sites. Sites that become a trading post for "warez" programs will be reported to any and all regulatory, administrative, and/or governmental authorities for prosecution. In addition to your account being deleted from our servers, you may face legal action that can be taken against you by the programmers/software companies of the copyrighted software.
2.8 Any incident of server abuse is grounds for immediate and unconditional account termination. Common examples of abusive practices are listed below and Spongy Donuts Hosting reserves the right of interpretation as to what constitutes abusive practices. In short - if you are unsure that your actions may be perceived as an abuse of service, contact Spongy Donuts Hosting directly to check with us before proceeding.
2.8a Ignorance of your actions and consequences does not exempt you from liability
2.8b Spongy Donuts reserves the right to financially penalise any customer violating this agreement. The amount the customer is penalised is determined by Spongy Donuts. The customer agrees to pay all financial penalties placed by Spongy Donuts in full and within 30 days.
2.9 Email abuse - Unsolicited Commercial Email ['Spam'] is implicitly forbidden. This is considered server abused and is grounds for immediate termination.
2.10 Trafficking of illegal content - in the same way that storing illegal content on your account is banned, likewise is the utilization of your account to traffic illegal content, by any means or method, it must not reside on nor pass through a Spongy Donuts servers.
2.11 IRC sessions - Using Spongy Donuts Hosting servers to run an Internet Relay Chat [IRC] session is grounds for immediate termination. This includes the use of BNC and other redirection servers to indicate a source address on any Spongy Donuts Hosting server. Running IRC from our servers makes them targets for attack. Don't run IRC sessions, IRC bots, IRC servers or IRC proxies. IRCs, Chat Rooms, MUDs, etc. Also software used in the maintaining of an IRC connection (daemons), 'bouncers', 'eggdrops' and the like are strictly prohibited.We will give no warning before terminating this activity and the account responsible.
2.12 Hacking / Denial of Service - Network activity that constitutes an attack on any internet host from a Spongy Donuts is grounds for immediate termination of likely prosecution.
2.13 Selling for free - Spongy Donuts prohibits any portion of its services to be resold without charge. This includes but not limited to: entire hosting accounts, email services, scripts, FTP accounts, MySQL databases, applications, licenses, webspace and bandwidth (this includes image hosting and file/data hosting services, either free or subscription/fee based).
2.13a Proxy websites and such are prohibited.
2.14 Any reselling of Spongy Donuts services is prohibited unless clearly stated otherwise. Portions of a cPanel shared account may not be resold under any circumstances. Only resources in WebHostManager may be resold under a reseller agreement (i.e. with the purchase of a reseller package).
2.15 Spongy Donuts backs up data for its own use and disaster recovery. The customer is encouraged to make their own backups. Customers may request 1 free restore per month. Spongy Donuts makes it backups to an offsite location. We do not make any guarantees on the integrity and reliability of the backups.
2.16 Spongy Donuts guarantees a 99% server uptime to shared hosting customers. The following credit schedule applies:

98 - 99 = 90% service credit

97.99 - 95.00 = 100% service credit

2.16a Customers claiming credit under our uptime guarantee must do so by opening a ticket within 72 hours of the incident with their username, main account domain and PayPal subscription ID or latest order number if you are paying by credit card. All requests after 72 hours of the downtime incident happening will be void.
2.16b Uptime guarantee and crediting schedule do not apply to subaccounts created by resellers and VPS customers.
2.17 Spongy Donuts guarantees a 99% network uptime guarantee to VPS customers. Conditions in section 2.16a apply and the crediting policy set in 2.16 of this agreement also apply to this condition.
2.18 Spongy Donuts has the final say and will determine the uptime of our servers and will base its uptime on our own monitoring systems. External monitoring statistics set up by customers will not be considered as evidence of uptime/dowtime.
2.19 Only one promotion can be used when ordering. Multiple promotions cannot be combined together and used together. Only one promotion per paying account. Spongy Donuts reserves the right to refuse a promotion to a customer.
2.19a Spongy Donuts reserves the right to revoke a promotion already being used or a new promotion introduced with or without prior notice
2.19b Spongy Donuts reserves the right to reduce the advertised time of the promotion running time with or without prior notice

3.0 Payment and Bills

3.0a All accounts are set-up on a pre-pay basis only
3.1 Spongy Donuts provides a 3-day no interest credit period to the customer to allow resolution of any payment issues. Spongy Donuts reserves the right to reduce the credit period time at its own discretion at anytime. Spongy Donuts reserves the right to impose a late fee of no more than $5 for unagreed late payments.
3.2 Spongy Donuts will suspend your account if outstanding bills have not been paid in within 5 days. Spongy Donuts reserves the right to suspend the account
3.2a If after 7 days outstanding bills owed to Spongy Donuts have not been paid in full and no further credit arrangements have been made, Spongy Donuts will terminate all hosting accounts and deactivate all other services purchased through Spongy Donuts until all owed amounts have been paid in full.
3.3 After account suspension, Spongy Donuts will not provide you with any account backups unless the full outstanding bill has been paid in full before backups are deleted.
3.4 Spongy Donuts reserves the right to impose a re-activation fee for accounts that have been suspended
3.5 Spongy Donuts reserves the right to impose a late fee for circumstances where your bill has not been paid in full and on time

4.0 Refunds & Cancellations

4.1 You can only cancel your account by opening a support ticket with our billing department supplying your: Main account domain, username, password, subscription number or latest order number
4.1a If you do not cancel using the procedures set in section 4.1, your account will not be canceled and will be subject to charges
4.2 Accounts canceled under our 16 day money back guarantee are subject to a full refund for the hosting account only (less any additional fees), UNLESS the account was purchased under a special promotion held by Spongy Donuts.
4.2a Accounts purchased under any Spongy Donuts promotion (with our without coupon code) are EXCLUDED from the 16 day money back guarantee.
4.2b Any free additional services provided are deducted from the total refund amount of customers requesting a refund under our 16 day money back guarantee. The following fees are deductable (hence will not be refunded):

SSL certificate: $10.00

4.3 If you have violated our Terms of Service, the 16 day money back guarantee no longer applies to you
4.4 Domains, SSL certificates, IP addresses and any additional services ordered are not governed by our 16 day money back guarantee
4.5 If you are requesting credit under our 99.9% uptime guarantee (i.e. we did not provide you with 99.9% uptime), then the request must be submitted within 72 hours of the incident happening. Otherwise the request will be void.
4.6 You must allow up to 30 days for credit and refunds to be processed and applied to your account
4.7 If you have paid yearly for your account but cancel while having unused months not yet paid for, the remaining unused amounts will not be refunded. Customers have 16 days to request a refund regardless of how many days, weeks, months or years you have paid for.
4.8 If you are using our domain reseller account services, and cancel your account, the domain reseller account will be suspended and any funds loaded in the domain reseller will be forfeited. Any domains in the domain reseller will also be forfeited. The customer is thus responsible for transferring any domains away from our domain reseller before terminating an account with us.

5.0 6.0 Support Restrictions

6.1 Spongy Donuts does not provide support for 3rd party scripts including all scripts listed in Fantastico, RVSiteBuilder, ClientExec and any other script unless explicitly stated.
6.2 If you open a ticket requesting support for a 3rd party script, your ticket will be reprioritized as low priority and may be closed without an answer.
6.3 The offer of any particular service does not constitute an obligation on Spongy Donuts part to tutor the necessary skills to utilize that service, only to provide system-specific information.
6.4 problems with domain names/DNS issues are NOT directly the responsibility of Spongy Donuts . DNS is a cooperative system and works solely because the parties involved in running the system agree to cooperate in the furtherance of the DNS/domain system. We will do our best to isolate the source of the problem at hand, however unless this source is hardware directly under the control of Spongy Donuts, then the task of acquiring a solution will fall back into your hands. Spongy Donuts will advise when requested, but rarely intermediate in domain issues not directly related to the operation of one of our DNS servers.
6.5 Spongy Donuts covers free initial migration from your previous host. This service is limited to cPanel/WHM to cPanel/WHM transfers. We offer basic troubleshooting after account migration to ensure things have been transferred successfully. Spongy Donuts does not cover 3rd party script troubleshooting. It is your responsibility to ensure your scripts are compatible with our server environment.

7.0 Lawful Purpose

7.1 Spongy Donuts reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. Customers may only use Spongy Donuts server for lawful purpose. Transmission of any material in violation of any Federal, State or Local regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to copyrighted material, material legally judged to be threatening or obscene, and material protected by trade secrets. The designation of any materials as such described above is left entirely to the discretion of Spongy Donuts Hosting management. Regardless of the place of signing this agreement, the client agrees that for purposes of venue this contract was entered into in the United States of America, and any dispute will be litigated or arbitrated in the United States of America.

8.0 Indemnification

8.1 CUSTOMER AGREES THAT IT SHALL DEFEND, INDEMNIFY, SAVE AND HOLD Spongy Donuts HARMLESS FROM ANY AND ALL DEMANDS, LIABILITIES, LOSSES, COSTS AND CLAIMS, INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEY\'S FEES ASSERTED AGAINST Spongy Donuts, ITS AGENTS, ITS CUSTOMERS, OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES, THAT MAY ARISE OR RESULT FROM ANY SERVICE PROVIDED OR PERFORMED OR AGREED TO BE PERFORMED OR ANY PRODUCT SOLD BY CUSTOMER, IT\'S AGENTS, EMPLOYEES OR ASSIGNS. CUSTOMER AGREES TO DEFEND, INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS Spongy Donuts AGAINST LIABILITIES ARISING OUT OF; (1) ANY INJURY TO PERSON OR PROPERTY CAUSED BY ANY PRODUCTS SOLD OR OTHERWISE DISTRIBUTED IN CONNECTION WITH Spongy Donuts SERVER; (2) ANY MATERIAL SUPPLIED BY CUSTOMER INFRINGING OR ALLEGEDLY INFRINGING ON THE PROPRIETARY RIGHTS OF A THIRD PARTY; ( 3) COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND (4) ANY DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS SOLD TO CUSTOMER FROM Spongy Donuts SERVER.

9.0 Disclaimer

9.1 Spongy Donuts WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES YOUR BUSINESS MAY SUFFER. Spongy Donuts MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED FOR SERVICES WE PROVIDE. Spongy Donuts DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY OR MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THIS INCLUDES LOSS OF DATA RESULTING FROM DELAYS, NON-DELIVERIES, WRONG DELIVERY, AND ANY AND ALL SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY Spongy Donuts AND ITS EMPLOYEES. Spongy Donuts RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REVISE ITS POLICIES AT ANY TIME.
9.2 Spongy Donuts RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CANCEL/SUSPEND/TERMINATE YOUR ACCOUNT AT ITS OWN DISCRETION WITH OR WITHOUT REASON IF IT FEELS THE ACCOUNT WILL CAUSE DAMAGE TO THE ORGANISATION OR ANY OTHER REASON. Spongy Donuts RESERVES THE RIGHT TO ALTER THE SERVICES PROVIDED AT ANY TIME WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE.
9.3 ALL SUB-NETWORKS, RESELLERS AND DEDICATED SERVERS OF Spongy Donuts MUST ADHERE TO THE MENTIONED HERE POLICIES.
9.4 FAILURE TO FOLLOW ANY TERM OR CONDITION WILL BE GROUNDS FOR IMMEDIATE ACCOUNT DEACTIVATION.

10.0 Intellectual Property Rights

10.1 Material accessible to you through Spongy Donuts services may be subject to protection under the United States or other copyright laws, or laws protecting trademarks, trade secrets or proprietary information. Except when expressly permitted by the owner of such rights, you must not use Spongy Donuts or its servers and network in a manner that would infringe, violate, dilute or misappropriate any such rights, with respect to any material, which you access or receive through the Spongy Donuts network. If you use a domain name in connection with Spongy Donuts or similar service, you must not use that domain name in violation of any trademark, service mark, or similar rights of any third party.

11.0 Contract

11.1 Spongy Donuts reserves the right to revise, amend, or modify this AUP, our TOS (Terms of Service) and our other policies and agreements at any time and in any manner. Notice of any revision, amendment, or modification will be posted in accordance with our TOS (Terms of Service). All users of Spongy Donuts Internet services, and their clients, must comply with this AUP and our TOS (Terms of Service). Please check back regularly for any updates

12.0 Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

This Acceptable Use Policy document, including the following list of Prohibited Activities, is an integral part of your Hosting Agreement with Spongy Donuts. If you engage in any of the activities prohibited by this AUP document Spongy Donuts may suspend or terminate your account. Spongy Donuts\'s Acceptable Use Policy (the "Policy") for Spongy Donuts Services is designed to help protect Spongy Donuts, Spongy Donuts\'s customers and the Internet community in general from irresponsible or, in some cases, illegal activities. The Policy is a non-exclusive list of the actions prohibited by Spongy Donuts. Spongy Donuts reserves the right to modify the Policy at any time, effective upon posting at http://spongydonuts.com/tos.html. Prohibited Uses of Spongy Donuts Systems and Services:

A. Transmission, distribution or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws.
B. Sending Unsolicited Bulk Email ("UBE", "spam"). The sending of any form of Unsolicited Bulk Email through Spongy Donuts's servers is prohibited. Likewise, the sending of UBE from another service provider advertizing a web site, email address or utilizing any resource hosted on Spongy Donuts\'s servers, is prohibited. Spongy Donuts accounts or services may not be used to solicit customers from, or collect replies to, messages sent from another Internet Service Provider where those messages violate this Policy or that of the other provider.
C. Running Unconfirmed Mailing Lists. Subscribing email addresses to any mailing list without the express and verifiable permission of the email address owner is prohibited. All mailing lists run by Spongy Donuts customers must be Closed-loop ("Confirmed Opt-in"). The subscription confirmation message received from each address owner must be kept on file for the duration of the existence of the mailing list. Purchasing lists of email addresses from 3rd parties for mailing to from any Spongy Donuts-hosted domain, or referencing any Spongy Donuts account, is prohibited.
D. Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to violate this AUP or the AUP of any other Internet Service Provider, which includes, but is not limited to, the facilitation of the means to send Unsolicited Bulk Email, initiation of pinging, flooding, mail-bombing, denial of service attacks.
E. Operating an account on behalf of, or in connection with, or reselling any service to, persons or firms listed in the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database at www.spamhaus.org.
F. Unauthorized attempts by a user to gain access to any account or computer resource not belonging to that user (e.g., "cracking").
G. Obtaining or attempting to obtain service by any means or device with intent to avoid payment.
H. Unauthorized access, alteration, destruction, or any attempt thereof, of any information of any Spongy Donuts customers or end-users by any means or device.
I. Knowingly engage in any activities designed to harass, or that will cause a denial-of-service (e.g., synchronized number sequence attacks) to any other user whether on the Spongy Donuts network or on another provider's network.
J. Using Spongy Donuts's Services to interfere with the use of the Spongy Donuts network by other customers or authorized users.

Customer Responsibility for Customer's Users

Each Spongy Donuts customer is responsible for the activities of its users and, by accepting service from Spongy Donuts, is agreeing to ensure that its customers/representatives or end-users abide by this Policy.

Complaints about customers/representatives or end-users of an Spongy Donuts customer will be forwarded to the Spongy Donuts customer\'s postmaster for action. If violations of the Spongy Donuts Acceptable Use Policy occur, Spongy Donuts reserves the right to terminate services with or take action to stop the offending customer from violating Spongy Donuts\'s AUP as Spongy Donuts deems appropriate, without notice.

Spongy Donuts Guarantees

We are confident in our abilities to follow through on our promises. That is why we guarantee

16 days Money Back
99.9% Server Uptime
Technical support

All Hosting Plans Include:

99% Uptime Guarantee
Technical Support
User-Friendly Control Panel
mySQL Database(s)
CGI-bin / PHP / Perl
Fantastico DeLuxe Installer
16 Day Money Back Policy
SiteBuilder
Ruby on Rails