Section 1: About This Policy

This User Policy sets out how “the Services” (defined as “any broadband internet or related services that you have ordered, currently use, and/or any new or additional services which you may use in the future”) provided by UPC Ireland and its subsidiaries (collectively, “UPC,” “we,” or “us” may be used and any restrictions on your use of the Services. Many of the guidelines will be obvious, however, we set them out here so that there can be no confusion or doubt over what is or is not acceptable.

This User Policy has been created to promote the integrity, security, reliability and privacy of the UPC systems and networks and form part of the legally binding Terms and Conditions, which govern your use of the UPC systems, services and equipment. This User Policy also identifies the actions that UPC considers to be intrinsically abusive, and thus, constitute prohibited uses of the UPC systems, services and equipment.

If we have reasonable grounds to suspect that you are in breach of this User Policy or any other terms on which we provide services to you, or you do anything which would put us in breach of our statutory or other obligations, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Services without liability to you. We will give you notice of suspension or termination as soon as it is practical to do so.

Section 2: Modification of User Policy

UPC retains the right to amend, modify or substitute this User Policy at any time and we will notify you in writing 30 days in advance of doing so if the modification, amendment or substitution constitutes a material change to the Terms and Conditions of the Services. Any such modification, amendment or substitution shall also be posted on our website at www.upc.ie . If the modification, amendment or substitution constitutes a material change to the Terms and Conditions of the Services, you have the right to withdraw from your Agreement if you do not accept the modification, amendment or substitution. If you do not object to the modification, amendment or substitution within 30 days, the new Terms and Conditions shall then become applicable to you.

You should check this User Policy regularly as we may change it to take on board new issues that may arise in connection with your use of the Services or the way we provide the Services. The most up to date version of the User Policy will apply to your use of the Services, even if you have not read the updated version.

Section 3: Data Transfer Allowances, Excessive Use and Other Limitations

UPC broadband services are intended for normal recreational or educational use by individuals and families and our pricing and network architecture have been designed accordingly. The Services are strictly for residential use only - commercial use of any kind is prohibited. Customers who use the services more heavily than a normal home user will reduce the performance of the network for other customers.

From 5th September 2011, the data transfer allowance for all Fibre Power Broadband customers is 500GB

For queries regarding our Acceptable Usage Policy contact us by email aup@upc.ie

"Excessive use" of the Service is defined as usage exceeding your monthly data transfer allowance. If you exceed your monthly data transfer allowance as determined by UPC, in our sole judgment, UPC may take any of the following actions, or any combination thereof:

• Impose a charge of 3 cent per megabyte or part thereof for exceeding your data transfer limit; and/or
• Upgrade your package to a package with a higher data transfer limit with the corresponding higher monthly fee; and/or
• Downgrade your upload and download speed for a period of one month to dial-up speed, with your monthly fee remaining the same; and/or
• Suspend your access to the services for one month, with your monthly fee remaining the same; and/or
• Terminate your account as per the terms of the User Policy and UPC Terms and Conditions.

Section 4: Prohibited Conduct

As a general principle, you must not use the Services in any way that is unlawful or illegal or in any way that affects the enjoyment of other users of the Services or the internet. You may only use UPC systems, services and equipment in a manner that, in the sole judgment of UPC, is consistent with the purposes of such systems, services and products.

Any activities that improperly restrict, inhibit, or degrade any other person’s use or enjoyment of the Service and or the internet and related services, or represent (in UPC’s sole judgment) an unusually great burden on the network itself are strictly prohibited. In addition, you must ensure that your use does not improperly restrict, inhibit, disrupt, degrade or impede the ability of UPC to deliver the Service and monitor the Service backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

By way of illustration and not limitation, the following uses of UPC systems, services and equipment are prohibited:

• You shall not post, publish, transmit, link to, otherwise make available, re-transmit or store material on or through any UPC systems, services or products, and/or undertake any activity, which is:
  • In violation of any law or regulation, which is enforceable in the Republic of Ireland;
  • Is threatening, obscene, indecent, defamatory, or blasphemous or is calculated to incite hatred against any ethnic, religious or other minority or is otherwise calculated to adversely affect any individual, group or entity
  • Is in breach of any instructions we have given you under the Terms and Conditions and or this User Policy
  • Deceptive or misleading on-line advertising or marketing practices are prohibited;
  • Sending “junk mail” or “e-mail Spam” is strictly prohibited as further defined in Section 6;
  • The resale of UPC’ systems, services and/or products, without the prior written consent of UPC is prohibited;
  • The Services are strictly for residential use only - commercial use of any kind is prohibited;
  • You must not use the service to knowingly or unknowingly cause any malicious code, including but not limited to transmitted Worms, Trojans or Viruses. Any account found to have been used to transmit such items can be subject to immediate suspension or disconnection of services without notice.

• The following uses of UPC systems, services and equipment as described below expressly prohibited:
  • 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 customer, logging into a server or account the customer is not expressly authorised to access, or probing the security of other networks (such as running a SATAN scan or similar tool);
  • 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 customer is not expressly authorised to access. For 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, and attempts to “crash” a host;
  • Using any program/script/command, or sending messages of any kind, designed to interfere with a user’s terminal session, by any means, locally or by the Internet;
  • Executing any form of network monitoring which will intercept data not intended for the customer;
  • You must not use the Services to carry out Port scanning/probing (which is an attempt to identify an open gateway into another Internet user’s machine). Where it has been identified that an account has been used for this activity UPC may withdraw the Services without notice. You must not use the services to run any program that can be used to compromise the efficiency and security of network traffic.

Section 5: Intellectual Property Rights

Any images, photographs, articles, pages, designs, drawings, software, music, information and other materials published on the Internet and the Services are protected by copyright.

Published material on the Internet and on the Services does not mean it is available for anyone to copy. Unless the owner of that copyright specifically states that you may copy the work, you should assume that you cannot. It is an infringement of copyright to copy, reproduce, adapt, translate, broadcast or perform copyright protected material without permission, to make infringing copies available to the public or otherwise to knowingly deal in infringing copies. The Services must not be used, directly or indirectly, to transmit, publish, link to or otherwise make available any confidential information or trade secrets of any person or entity.

You shall not post, publish, transmit, link to, otherwise make available, re-transmit or store material on or through any UPC systems, services or products, and/or undertake any activity, which infringes or breaches any third party intellectual property rights (which shall include but not be limited to copyrights, trade marks, design rights, trade secrets patents, rights of privacy and publicity, moral rights and performance rights). For the avoidance of doubt, the installation or distribution of “pirated” software or other software products that are not appropriately licensed to the customer will constitute a violation of intellectual property rights. In the event of any disagreement as to whether materials posted, transmitted, re-transmitted or stored by a customer are in contravention of this section, the decision of UPC shall be final.

Section 6: Email

The following uses of UPC systems, services and equipment as described below expressly prohibited:

• Harassment, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages sent, is prohibited.
• Transmission of e-mail to any person containing offensive or abusive language;
• Sending unsolicited e-mail messages, including the sending of “junk mail” or other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material (“e-mail Spam”). Users are explicitly prohibited from sending unsolicited bulk e-mail messages;
• This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, promotional, or informational announcements, and political or religious tracts. Such material may only be sent to those who have specifically requested it. If any recipient requests you to stop sending them such e-mail of this nature, you must cease sending any further e-mail to that person;
• Creating or forwarding “chain letters” or other “pyramid schemes” of any type, whether or not the recipient wishes to receive such mailings;
• Malicious e-mail, including, but not limited to, “mail-bombing” (flooding a user or website with very large or numerous pieces of e-mail);
• Unauthorised use, or forging, of mail header information;
• Use of unsolicited e-mail originating from the UPC network or networks of other Internet Service Providers on behalf of, or to advertise any service hosted by UPC, or connected via UPC network;
• Willful failure to secure open SMTP ports so as to prevent the unauthorised use of customer resources for the purposes of sending unsolicited e-mail by a third party;
• For the avoidance of doubt any systematic, repeated or bulk referral of third parties to UPC contained in e- mails shall be deemed “e- mail Spam” and a breach of this policy. In addition to the right of UPC to suspend and/or terminate your contract and any other rights UPC may have, UPC shall not be obliged to credit you with any amounts pursuant to any referral program in existence (if any) from time to time.

UPC will configure all UPC mailboxes, email size limits, mail storage time and inactivity time limits to ensure efficient use of our servers and optimum quality of service for UPC customers

You are responsible for the security of your user name and password combinations. Do not disclose these combinations to anyone.

UPC cannot guarantee that you will be able to register and use any e-mail address that you would like.

If UPC requests that you change your e-mail address you must comply within the time frame specified by UPC at the time of the request. Failure to do so will result in the removal of the e-mail address and all e-mail contained within that mailbox will be permanently lost

If the e-mail address constitutes the primary mailbox and the changes to the user name are not carried out within the timeframe specified by UPC at the time of the request, your account may be suspended or disconnected. Upon suspension the account will only be reinstated following receipt of a signed letter confirming the new user name that you wish to use.

UPC reserves the right to suspend any email account that has not been accessed for a consecutive period of 5 months without prior consent or notification. A suspended email account may be reactivated by contacting customer services or our online resources. (In case of a suspension, UPC reserves the right to delete the content of an email account at the time of suspension.)

In case a suspended account remains suspended for an additional consecutive period of 1 month, UPC reserves the right to terminate the email account and delete its content. In that case the email address will be released and may be given to another user without notice to you or such other party.

Please note that UPC reserves the right to filter, block and remove incoming and outgoing email without notice in the following circumstances:

• Emails that have been blacklisted as a result of spamming or other abuse;
• Emails that UPC in its absolute discretion knows or considers to be “e-mail spam” as referred to in this User Policy;
• Emails that UPC in its absolute discretion knows or suspects to be containing a computer virus or any other type of malicious code;
• Emails that UPC in its absolute discretion considers being in violation of this User Policy.

UPC may also limit the number of email messages a user is able to send or receive in a given time period. This limit will only affect very heavy users, and is designed specifically to prevent our network being used to distribute spam.

Section 7: Usenet Newsgroups

The following uses of UPC systems, services and equipment as described below expressly prohibited:

• Posting the same or similar messages to large numbers of Usenet newsgroups (Newsgroup Spam, USENET Spam, Unsolicited Commercial Messaging, Unsolicited Commercial Mail, and Mass Mail Fraud).
• Posting chain letters or other pyramid schemes, of any type.
• Posting encoded binary files to newsgroups not specifically named for that purpose.
• Postings that contain offensive or abusive language.
• Cancellation or superseding of postings other than your own, with the exception of official newsgroup moderators performing their duties.
• Forging of header information. This includes attempting to circumvent the approval process for posting to a moderated newsgroup.
• Solicitations of mail for any other e-mail address other than that of the poster’s account or service, with intent to harass or to collect replies.
• Postings that are in violation of the written charters or FAQ’s for those newsgroups.
• Posting of Usenet articles from the UPC network or networks of other Internet Service Providers on behalf of, or to advertise any service hosted by UPC, or connected via the UPC network.
• Failure to secure a news server so as to prevent the unauthorised use of customer resources by a third party which may result in Usenet posts, which violate this policy.
• Advertisements posted in newsgroups whose charters/FAQ’s explicitly prohibit them. The poster of an advertisement or other information is responsible for determining the etiquette of a given newsgroup, prior to posting to it.

For the avoidance of doubt any systematic, repeated or bulk referral of third parties to UPC contained in Usenet newsgroups shall be deemed “Usenet Spam” and a breach of this User Policy and in addition to the right of UPC to suspend and/or terminate your contract and any other rights UPC may have, UPC shall not be obliged to credit you with any amounts pursuant to any referral program in existence (if any) from time to time.

Section 8: Management of Network

The Services are provided on a best efforts basis and we can not guarantee minimum bandwidth delivered to the customer and we can not guarantee that all data traffic can be transported complete and without delay.

UPC reserves the right to take whatever actions may be necessary to manage its network for the greatest benefit of the greatest number of subscribers. To this end, UPC reserves the right to restrict access to the Services and or to impose data traffic restrictions at its discretion (1) in order to implement new facilities, (2) to allow for data retrieval, and/or (3) to maintain service levels.

You expressly accept that any such actions on the part of UPC may affect the performance of the Service.

Section 9: Content & Content Filtering

The Internet contains material that is inappropriate for minors and may cause offence to others. We do not censor or restrict access to any material or information on the Internet unless required to do so by the law enforcement authority of the Republic of Ireland (the “Garda Siochana”) or other competent authority, in which case we shall have no liability to you for any such action or decision. We will however refer any complaints regarding censorship to the Garda Siochana for further investigation. Please see Section 20 for details of the UPC complaints procedures.

Additionally, you can contact www.hotline.ie to report Internet content that you suspect to be illegal. www.hotline.ie provides a secure and confidential environment where you may anonymously report such content if you encounter it on the Internet. Whilst the primary focus of the Hotline remains Child Pornography, other forms of illegal material do exist on the Internet and may be reported using this service.

UPC is not responsible for the content of any discussion forum posting, whether or not a customer of UPC made the posting. UPC is not responsible for the content of materials and information published by others, which are accessible through the UPC network, and does not accept responsibility for the violation of any laws resulting from such publication.

Section 10: Internet Protocol Services

UPC broadband Internet opens up new possibilities of use with its features such as ‘always on’, and while subscribers are able to benefit from these features, UPC must also ensure that the Service is not abused to the disadvantage of the Service and subscriber group. You must not use, nor allow anyone else to use the Services to provide Internet Protocol services to the Internet populace as a whole, including other UPC users. Internet Protocol services includes, but is not limited to, HTTP, games, telnet and FTP services. However, you may provide Internet Protocol services from your computer for personal use. An example would be the running of an authenticated FTP service to enable you to access files on your home computer remotely. The following conditions apply: Any Internet Protocol services you use require authentication e.g. you are not allowed to provide anonymous FTP servers; and you are not allowed more than ten concurrent connections to the Internet Protocol services you use.

Section 11: Security

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t is your responsibility to ensure the security of your machine and UPC is not responsible to you in the event that a person gains unauthorised access. You are also responsible for the security (including authentication) of any Internet Protocol services used by you from home. It is also your responsibility to ensure that you keep your passwords secure. UPC is not liable for any negative consequences, for instance lost or corrupted files, incurred by your failure to employ adequate security measures.

You are responsible for the protection of your PC from Worms, Trojans and Viruses. UPC strongly recommends that you use up-to-date anti-virus software to protect your PC.

Section 12: Use of Virtual Private Network (VPN)

As stated above, the UPC Services are for residential use only and we do not support the use of VPN. If we find you are using VPN we may instruct you to stop using it and you must comply with this request. This is in order to prevent problems with our network and other Internet users.

Section 13: Networking

You may connect your computer using the cable modem to a Local Area Network (LAN) once the service is installed. However, UPC will not install home LANs or provide any technical support regarding their use or configuration. Continued use of an item of networking software or hardware after UPC has notified the User to cease using that item will be regarded as an unacceptable use of the Services. Where UPC is being used to access another network, any abuse of the User Policy on that other network will be regarded as an unacceptable use of the Services. You must not provide access to the Services to third parties without the prior written agreement of UPC, unless they have entered into a UPC Resale agreement.

The residential broadband internet service is designed for connection to a single PC. If you connect more than one PC at any one time to the Broadband Service you agree that this shall be entirely at your own risk. UPC will not support your PC’s, the network used, or their configuration and technical support shall remain limited to your Internet connection only.

You must not connect more than three (3) PC’s to the Broadband Services at any one time. You are permitted to use routers and the connection of a dedicated hardware router or firewall shall not be considered a PC for the purposes of this section.

In connecting to the Broadband Service, you must only use a PC you own or lease, and you must not attempt to connect your PC to the Broadband Services from outside your home. This includes the use of wireless or non-wireless networking technology to connect your PC or any other PC to your Broadband Services from outside your home or the connection of your PC to anyone else’s Broadband Services.

Section 14: Hosting Policy

This section applies where we provide you with webspace as part of the Services or if you run a webserver on your own computer. If you are running a webserver on your own computer you are solely responsible for the security and setup for that server. You are also responsible for all traffic through your server even if you personally did not originate it. Where the website is held on our servers, you must keep your own back-up copies of any data and files. We do not keep back-up copies of your pages and will not be liable for any loss of your data or files.

You are responsible for the content of your website (including any content you link to) which must comply with this User Policy. You must obtain all necessary rights and clearances for the inclusion and publication of anyone else’s work on your website. (See Section 5 for more information). You must ensure that no adult material is displayed or linked before a clear warning has been given and the user has had the opportunity to decline to view such material.

You may not run a web site where access is subject to a premium rate telephone charge or which redirects you to such a website.

We may remove or request the removal of any material or links from your website if we consider that you are in breach of this User Policy.

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f your website generates abnormally high hit levels or generates abnormally high levels of network traffic, we may at our discretion move it and/or restrict access to it and you shall be liable for any additional charges arising from our action. This may include but is not limited to suspending your Internet access. If you are running the webserver from your own computer we may restrict or suspend your access to the internet until we receive a written (signed letter) reassurance from you that any breach of this User Policy has been rectified. On termination of your Internet account and/or Interactive Services for any reason, we may delete your website from our server immediately and without any liability to you.

You are solely responsible for the setup and security of all servers that you may run on your computer. You are also responsible for all traffic that may pass through your computer. UPC cannot be held liable for any losses or damages that may occur as a result of a compromise of your server. Please note that your account may be subject to immediate suspension or disconnection without notice, if any security breaches do occur or any server causes any degradation in network performance. You should also note that running servers on your computer may cause your own connection to operate in a less than optimal manner.

All remote access (FTP; SSH; PC Anywhere etc) must be password protected & the address must not be publicly advertised.

For online gaming, if the game in question has a password/IP access restriction option this must be used. Your IP address must not be publicly advertised on Gaming sites etc.

You must ensure that you do not further the sending of Unsolicited Bulk Email by others. This applies to both material that originates on your system and also third party material that might pass through it. This includes but is not limited to a prohibition on running an “open mail relay”, i.e. a machine which accepts mail from unauthorized or unknown senders and forwards it onward to a destination outside of your machine or network. If your machine does relay mail, on an authorized basis, then it must record its passing through your system by means of an appropriate “Received” line.

You may run other servers but be aware that UPC reserves the right to restrict access to them should they cause network problems or should we receive complaints.

We may, at our discretion, run manual or automatic systems to determine your compliance with our User Policy (e.g. scanning for “open mail relays”). You are deemed to have granted permission for this limited intrusion onto your network or machine.

Please be aware that UPC does not offer any DNS services, e.g. Domain Name Redirection. The Service is based on dynamic IP addressing and you must not specify IP addresses (other than DNS servers) in the network settings for your internet connection.

Please note that should we receive any complaints about any server that you may be running that your Internet access may be suspended without notice pending further investigation.

Section 15: Gaming Consoles

Users may only connect XBox gaming consoles to the UPC network using a designated Xbox compatible broadband access product.

Users may only connect PlayStation gaming consoles to the UPC network using a designated PlayStation compatible broadband access product.

Section 16: Violations of User Policy

UPC may, in its sole discretion, suspend or terminate a customer’s service for any material violation of the User Policy at any time and without warning. As a general matter, however, UPC attempts to work with users to cure violations and to ensure that there is no re-occurrence of the violation prior to terminating service, but it shall not be obliged to do so.

In applying the User Policy, it is intended that common sense and responsible attitudes should be the guiding principles. If you breach the User Policy, you may receive a formal warning from UPC specifying the unacceptable conduct and notifying you that repeated breaches may result the services being temporarily or permanently withdrawn, upgraded, downgraded, or fees imposed.

If, after you have received a formal warning from UPC, your conduct continues to breach the User Policy, UPC may take any and or all action described in this User Policy, including the termination, suspension or upgrading, or downgrading of the Services to you. If your access to the Services has been suspended, downgraded or upgraded, UPC may continue to do so until such time as UPC is satisfied that you have implemented appropriate steps to ensure that your use of UPC systems, services or equipment will comply with the User Policy. Further breaches will be grounds for termination of your contract with UPC.

Notwithstanding the above, UPC may terminate your contract with UPC without following the above procedures if you commit a breach of the User policy which in the reasonable opinion of UPC is serious enough to merit immediate termination.

Section 17: Removal of Materials

At its sole discretion, UPC reserves the right to remove materials from its servers and to terminate Internet access to users that UPC determines have violated this User Policy.

Section 18: Communication from UPC

UPC may use e-mail to communicate with you from time to time. E-mails from UPC will be sent to your primary UPC e-mail address. We will consider the e-mail delivered at the same time that it is sent. Communication from UPC via An Post will be considered delivered after a full 3 working days, i.e. mail sent on a Monday will be considered delivered on the following Friday. An Post Mail will be sent to the address registered on your Internet account.

Section 19: Contact Information

UPC Communications Ireland Limited Registered Number in Ireland 435668 Building P2 Eastpoint Business Park Clontarf Dublin 3

www.upc.ie customer.support@upc.ie

Section 20: Complaints and Enforcement

Complaints regarding abusive conduct will be accepted by email provided a valid return address is included. UPC must be able to verify each instance of abuse, and so each complaint must include the COMPLETE TEXT OF THE OBJECTIONAL MESSAGE, INCLUDING ALL HEADERS. 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.