Nyx Terms of Service Introduction: Nyx Net is a non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Nyx Net provides free public access to the Internet through Unix shell accounts on the network called Nyx. Nyx Net is supported primarily by contributions and Nyx is operated and maintained by volunteers. Thus Nyx is a low-budget operation with limited resources. The intent of these "Terms of Service" (TOS) is to distribute the resources available to all validated users in a fair manner. The Board of Directors reserves the right to modify this TOS at any time. Changes to the TOS will be posted to nyx.announce and to Nyx's webpages. By obtaining and using an account on Nyx you are agreeing to the following terms: I. General: 1. Use of Nyx and the Internet is solely at your own risk A. Nyx is not guaranteed to be in operation at any specific time or in any specific manner. You will not hold Nyx Net, or Nyx Net's directors, officers, administrators, volunteers, employees, or contractors liable for lack of access to Nyx, nor for loss of any files or communications which you entrust to Nyx. B. Nyx provides you access to information, communications, software, photos, video, graphics, music, sounds, and other material and services located both on the Nyx computer network and on the Internet ("Content"). You agree that you must evaluate and bear the risks associated with the subject matter, accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any Content available toyou on or through Nyx. C. Nyx Net is not responsible for the Content of articles posted to newsgroups by, e-mail sent by, webpages maintained by, or other files or information available from Nyx users. D. Other individuals who are not Nyx users also have access to the Internet. Nyx Net does not have the capability to monitor, review, or restrict any Content made available by third parties on the Internet, nor to edit or remove any such Content from the Internet. E. Some newsgroups and webpages available on the Internet contain language, pictures and discussions intended for "adult" audiences. Nyx Net does not limit the age of users, nor does Nyx Net monitor the newsgroups or webpages accessed by users. Parents are responsible for monitoring their children's use of computer equipment and Nyx Net will not be liable for any such inappropriate use. 2. You are solely responsible for all use of your Nyx account(s). If you allow another person to use your account, or make your password accessible so that another person does use your account, you will be responsible for all their activities in or from your account. 3. Your use of Nyx is subject to all applicable local, state, national, and international laws and regulations. Violation of such law may be deemed a violation of this TOS. 4. You agree to cease any use of Nyx at any time upon request of a Nyx Administrator. 5. You agree that the Administrators of Nyx, the President of Nyx Net, and the Board of Directors of Nyx Net have the right to restrict or terminate your account at any time for violation of this TOS, but may do so at their own discretion, and are not obliged to terminate your account or anyone else's account. Failure to restrict or terminate your account for any cause shall not constitute a waiver of the right to restrict or terminate your account for the same cause. You agree that any restriction or termination of your account may be effective immediately, without prior notice. You agree that Nyx Net will not liable to you for any restriction or termination of your account due to a violation of this TOS. 6. You agree to voluntarily limit your login time on Nyx to approximately 1 hour per day; i.e. 30 hours per month. 7. If any webpages adversely affect the operation of the machine and/or equal service to all other Nyx users, whether due to traffic, bandwidth requirements, or any other reason, Nyx Net reserves the right to limit service to that account. The user will be informed before any such restriction comes into effect. II. Uses of Nyx Specifically Allowed: 1. Each person may have one regular account and one semi-anonymous account. 2. Each account may use up to 2MB disk space to store files and programs in a home directory. 3. Each account may also use up to 2 MB of space on the webserver ("arachne" or "www.nyx.net"). 4. All files stored on the webserver must be world-readable. 5. Cron jobs are permitted only with approval of the Systems Administrator. 6. Mailing lists may be maintained on Nyx only with the approval of the Mail Administrator. 7. Personal resumes may be maintained on Nyx, including on the webserver, and Nyx e-mail addresses may be used for job searches or on a resume. 8. Nyx may be used for charitable, educational, artistic, and literary purposes, or for scientific research intended to benefit the general public, subject to the other limits in this TOS. 9. Access to MUDs, Talkers, and other such telnet-based Internet services may be accessed via the installed telnet program, or other installed talker client programs, subject to the usage limits in Section III. III. Uses Specifically Not allowed on Nyx: 1. Nyx Users may not have more than one regular and one semi-anonymous account per person. 2. Organizations or groups of persons may not collectively own an account on Nyx, though an individual may use their account at their own risk for the benefit of a group as long as that use is otherwise consistent with this TOS. 3. All account ID's (aka "logins" or "userids") must be in the form generated by Nyx Net's account generation program (e.g. first_initial_last_name and/or anonXXXX). Tricking the account generator into creating another name by entering a false name or an incomplete name is not allowed. (Accounts created before 4/9/97 are grandfathered under this paragraph and may continue as long as they remain in good standing but will not be recreated if they lapse or are terminated.) 4. Users may not use more than 2MB for their home directories, including subdirectories. Home directories exceeding 4MB may be deleted without notice. 5. Temporary storage of files should only be done in the directories allocated for such use. Users may not use excessive amounts of temp disk space or use temp space for long term storage. 6. Users may not use more than 2 MB of space per account on the webserver without the express permission of the Web Administrator(s). 7. Users may not limit read access to files on their webspaces by password, group permissions, or subscription. 8. Users may not store programs or other files not intended for public access in their webspace. 9. Users may not be simultaneously logged in to more than one port or more than one session on the Nyx network. 10. Use of terminal multiplexing programs, such as "screen" or "term", is forbidden. 11. No user may run any daemon, bot, or similar process without prior permission from the System Administrator. 12. PPP/SLIP connections or programs that emulate such connections such as tia, mlink, and slirp are not allowed. 13. Due to the high load Slipknot causes on the machines, use of Slipknot is not allowed. 14. The creation and/or running of a MUD or Talker on any Nyx machine is not permitted. 15. News (aka USENET or Netnews) must be read interactively on Nyx. Obtaining a newsfeed, via any method (download/ftp/email/etc) is prohibited. Access to the Nyx specific groups (nyx.*) is permitted via offline newsreaders. 16. Use of Nyx as the primary e-mail account of a for-profit business is prohibited. 17. Use of the Nyx e-mail address on business cards, business letterhead, or business advertising is prohibited. 18. Posting advertising for a for-profit business to newsgroups from a Nyx account is prohibited. 19. Advertising a for-profit business from a webspace on Nyx is prohibited. 20. Users may not sell the right to use an account on Nyx. 21. Selling advertising space on Nyx's webserver is prohibited. 22. "Spamming" newsgroups, including posting a single article or substantially similar articles to an excessive number of newsgroups, is prohibited. 23. Sending unsolicited mass e-mailings which provoke complaints from the recipients is prohibited. 24. Mail bombing (i.e., sending large numbers of messages or excessively large messages with the intent to harass) is prohibited. 25. Engaging in either 19, 22, 23, or 24 above from a provider other than Nyx and using an account on Nyx as a mail drop for responses, or to draw attention to a Nyx web site is prohibited. 26. Use or storage of copyrighted or trademarked material on Nyx without permission of the owner or licensee is prohibited. This includes use or storage of "pirated" software. 27. All activity in violation of the laws of the United States of America and the State of Colorado is prohibited. This includes fraud, false advertising, obscenity, harassment, divulgence of trade secrets, etc. 28. Unauthorized access and/or use of other computer networks from Nyx is prohibited. 29. Unauthorized access to root on any of the machines of the Nyx network is prohibited. 30. All other Cracking, malicious Hacking, or malicious Spidering activities to or from Nyx are prohibited. 31. Attempts to interfere with the regular workings of Nyx's systems or network connections, or activities which adversely affect the ability of other people or systems to use Nyx, including CPU and memory abuse, are not permitted. 32. Accounts of users who provide false information on account validation forms will be terminated. 33. Impersonating another user or otherwise falsifying one's user name in email, USENET postings, on Internet Relay Chat (IRC), or with any other Internet service are prohibited. Nicknames are allowed in IRC. USENET post or e-mail headers may be slightly altered to deflect unsolicited mail as long as the identification of the true account posting is decipherable. Anonymous remailer services and pgp signatures may be used. 34. Attempts, whether successful or not, to gain access to any other system or users' private data without express consent of the user are prohibited. Directories with world-read access are excepted. 35. Use of IRC bots or clonebots from Nyx are prohibited, whether the IRC servers are controlled by Nyx or by other parties. An IRC bot is a program which runs and is connected to an IRC server for many hours a day, automatically performing certain actions. 36. Chain letters in any form are prohibited. 37. Excessively long connections to Nyx are prohibited and use of any program or automatic method to avoid disconnection after a period of inactivity is also prohibited. 38. Unapproved cgi scripts on the webserver are prohibited. 39. Flooding newsgroups with excessive numbers of posts is prohibited. IV. Requests/Complaints/Appeals All requests or complaints should be addressed to the appropriate administrator (Mail/News/Web). An unsatisfied user may appeal any decision to the System Administrator. Decisions of the System Administrator may be appealed to the President of Nyx Net and decisions of the President may be appealed to the Board of Directors of Nyx Net. All decisions of the Board of Directors are final.