ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Last Updated: 12/11/2024

NextCity Networks, LLC ("NCN," "we," or "us") has adopted this Acceptable Use Policy (the "Policy") to define the scope of prohibited activities relating to the use of NCN's services, including, but not limited to, Ethernet transport and broadband Internet access services (the "Services") by customers of NCN (“Customers”) and by users that have gained access to the Services through Customer accounts (“Users”). As used in this Policy, “you” refers to Customers, and any reference to “Users” is intended to encompass, as applicable, both Customers and their Users. In addition, “NCN Network” includes, without limitation, NCN’s transmission network, including all equipment, systems, facilities, services, and products incorporated or used in such transmission network.

NCN reserves the right to modify this Policy at any time with or without notice, effective immediately upon posting of the modification. Any such modifications shall be effective and applied prospectively from the date of posting. Your use of the Services constitutes your acceptance of the Policy in effect at the time of your use.

By using the Services, you acknowledge that you are responsible for compliance with the Policy, including for violations of the Policy by any User that accesses the Services through your account. The Policy applies to all aspects of the NCN Network and Services. In situations where data communications are carried across networks of other Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”), Users of the NCN Network must also conform to the applicable acceptable use policies of such other ISPs.

Prohibitions on Use

You may not make any use of the Services or NCN Network that are illegal, infringe the rights of others, or interfere with or diminish the use and enjoyment of the Services or NCN Network by others. These prohibited uses and activities include, but are not limited to, the following prohibited activities:

•        Illegal Activity. The Services shall at all times be used in compliance with all applicable laws. Accordingly, NCN prohibits the use of Services for the transmission, distribution, retrieval, or storage of any information, data, or other material in violation of any applicable law or regulation, including, where applicable, any tariff or treaty. This prohibition includes, without limitation, the use or transmission of any data or material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent, or other intellectual property right without proper authorization and the transmission of any material that constitutes an illegal threat, violates export control laws, or is obscene, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful. Also, engaging in activity that violates privacy, publicity, or other personal rights of others is prohibited.

•        Unauthorized Access/Interference. Accessing illegally or without authorization computers, accounts, or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another individual’s system (known as “hacking”) is prohibited. Also, any activity that might be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (i.e., port scan, stealth scan, or other information gathering activity) is prohibited. A User may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to, or attempt to interfere with or compromise the normal functioning, operation, or security of, any portion of the NCN Network. A User may not use the Services to engage in any activities that may interfere with the ability of others to access or use the Services or the NCN Network. A User may not use the Services to monitor any data, information or communications on any network or system without appropriate authorization. A User may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the user accounts or passwords of other Users.

•        Unsolicited Commercial Email/Spamming/Mailbombing. The Services may not be used to transmit unsolicited bulk commercial email messages or to deliberately send excessively large attachments to one recipient. In addition, NCN prohibits the use of the Services for any "spamming" or "mailbombing" activities. Use of the service of another provider to send unsolicited bulk commercial email, spam, or mailbombs, to promote a site hosted on or connected to the NCN Network is similarly prohibited. Likewise, a User may not use the Services to collect responses from mass unsolicited email messages. Users shall not use the Services to send email messages that are (i) excessive and/or intended to harass or annoy others, (ii) continue to send email messages to a recipient that has indicated that he/she does not wish to receive them, (iii) send emails with forged TCP/IP packet header information, or (iv) send malicious email. Customers may not advertise, distribute, or use software intended to facilitate sending “opt-out” email or harvest email addresses from the Internet for that purpose. In addition, Customers may not sell or distribute lists of harvested email addresses for the purpose of “opt-out” email. NCN may in its sole discretion rely upon information obtained from anti-spamming organizations (including for example and without limitation spamhaus.org, spamcop.net, sorbs.net, and abuse.net) as evidence that a User is an active “spam operation” for purposes of taking remedial action under this Policy.

•        Spoofing/Fraud. NCN prohibits Users from intentionally or negligently injecting false data into data transmissions, for instance in the form of bad routing information (including but not limited to the announcing of networks owned by someone else or reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) or incorrect DNS information. A User may not attempt to send email messages or transmit any electronic communications using a name or address of someone other than the User for purposes of deception. Any attempt to impersonate someone else by altering a source IP address information or by using forged headers or other identifying information is prohibited. Any attempt to fraudulently conceal, forge, or otherwise falsify a User's identity in connection with use of the Services is also prohibited. Forging or misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the originator of the message and forging or misrepresenting any data with false or misleading content is prohibited.

•        Exploitation of Vulnerabilities in Hardware or Software for Malicious Purposes. Exploitation of scripts presented on web pages (i.e., forms for answering questions or entering data) is prohibited. Also, activities that disrupt the use of or interfere with the ability of others to effectively use the NCN Network or any connected network, system, service, or equipment by utilizing programs, scripts, or commands to abuse a website (i.e., DDOS, SYN Floods or similar attacks) are prohibited.

•        Distribution of Internet Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, or Other Destructive Activities. Sending Internet viruses, worms, Trojan horses, flooding, mail bombing, or denial of service attacks, or distributing information regarding the creation of such viruses, worms, etc. for reasons other than mitigation or prevention is prohibited. Also, activities that disrupt the use of, or interfere with the ability of others to effectively use, the NCN Network or any connected network, system, service, or equipment is prohibited.

•        Facilitating a Violation of this Policy. Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to violate this Policy, which includes the facilitation of the means to spam, initiation of pinging, flooding, mail bombing, denial of service attacks, and piracy of software, is prohibited.

•        Phishing. Simulating communications from and/or to a website or other service of another entity in order to collect identity information, authentication credentials, or other information from the legitimate users of that entity’s service is prohibited.

•        Pharming. Using malware, DNS cache poisoning, or other means to redirect a user to a website or other service that simulates a service offered by a legitimate entity in order to collect identity information, authentication credentials, or other information from the legitimate users of that entity’s service is prohibited.

•        Other Prohibited Activities. NCN prohibits Users from using the NCN Network or Services for any of the following activities:

o   Repeatedly exceeding any agreed upon bandwidth limitations on the Customer’s account;

o   Attempting to circumvent or alter the processes or procedures to measure time, bandwidth utilization, or other methods to document use of the Services;

o   Modifying, sub-licensing, adapting, translating, reverse engineering, selling, disassembling, or decompiling any portion of the Services;

o   Impersonating NCN (including any officer or employee), any User of the Services, or any other person or entity;

o   Violating your Service agreement with NCN (or its affiliate) or any other applicable policy maintained by NCN, including without limitation NCN's Privacy Policy;

o   Any activity that can reasonably be considered contrary to NCN's goodwill, public image, or overall reputation;

o   Any activity that disrupts, degrades, harms, or threatens to harm the NCN Network or the Services; and

o   Any other inappropriate activity or abuse of the Services (as determined by NCN in its sole discretion), whether or not specifically listed in this Policy.

The prohibited activities set forth above are not an exhaustive list and NCN reserves the right to take appropriate action to remedy any conduct which it deems to be a violation of this Policy or otherwise harmful to NCN’s Network, NCN’s Customers, or their Users.

Customer Responsibilities

Each User must take all reasonable steps to protect his or her account from unauthorized access. Users shall be solely responsible for any material that they maintain, transmit, download, view, post, distribute, or otherwise access or make available using the Services. Users are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of password and account information, as well as the security of their network. Customers agree to immediately notify NCN of any unauthorized use of their account or any other breach of security by any User or third party. If you become aware of any violation of this Policy by any person, including Users that have accessed the Services through your account, you are required to notify NCN. Users are responsible for notifying NCN immediately if they become aware of an impending event that may negatively impact the NCN Network. In all cases, you are solely responsible for the security of any device you connect to the Services, including third party-devices that provide or include any communications services, including any data stored or shared on that device.

Responsibilities of Resellers and Downstream Service Providers

Some Customers may be ISPs and their Users may be their customers that receive Internet connectivity from such ISPs though NCN. Such ISPs are responsible for imposing this Policy, or a substantially similar acceptable use policy, on their customers and for enforcing its restrictions with regard to its customers’ actions. NCN may forward complaints about customers of an ISP to such ISP for resolution. If at any time NCN determines that a downstream ISP is not taking appropriate action in accordance with this Policy, NCN shall work with such ISP to review their policies and enforcement procedures and such ISP shall cooperate with NCN in connection therewith. If the ISP continues to fail to take appropriate action, NCN will take any action, as it deems appropriate, up to and including suspension of the Services of the offending ISP customer or, if such offending ISP customer cannot be determined, the ISP.

Enforcement

Neither NCN nor any of its affiliates, suppliers, or agents have any obligation to monitor transmissions made on the NCN Network. However, NCN and its affiliates, suppliers, and agents have the right to monitor such transmissions for violations of this Policy and to disclose, block, or remove User transmissions in accordance with this Policy and applicable law. NCN reserves the right to suspend and/or terminate a Customer’s Services or a User's access to the Services in the event that a User engages in conduct which NCN, in its sole discretion, determines is in violation of the Policy or is otherwise illegal or improper. NCN generally will attempt to notify you of any activity which it deems to be in violation of the Policy and will request that you take whatever steps are necessary to cause the offending User to cease such activity. However, in cases where the Services provided by NCN to other Users or the operation of the NCN Network is threatened, or in cases involving unsolicited bulk commercial email/SPAM, a pattern of violations, mail relaying, alteration of your source IP address information, denial of service attacks, illegal activities, suspected fraud in connection with the use of the Services, harassment or copyright infringement, NCN reserves the right to suspend or terminate your Services or the User's access to the Services without notification. In addition, NCN may take any other appropriate action against you or a User for any violation of the Policy, which may include, but is not limited to, the issuance of written or verbal warnings, filtering, blocking, suspending, or terminating accounts, billing Customer for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges, or bringing legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect damages, if any, caused by User violations. NCN also reserves the right to avail itself of the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. NCN DOES NOT HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO ANY PARTY, INCLUDING YOU, FOR ANY VIOLATION OF THE POLICY. YOU HEREBY INDMENIFY, WAIVE, AND HOLD HARMLESS NCN, ALONG WITH NCN'S EMPLOYEES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, AFFILIATES, LICENSEES, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS, FROM ANY AND ALL CLAIMS RESULTING FROM, OR ARISING DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY OUT OF, ANY ACTION TAKEN BY ANY OF THE FOREGOING PARTIES IN CONNECTION WITH INVESTIGATIONS OR ENFORCEMENT OF THIS POLICY BY NCN OR IN CONNECTION WITH VIOLATIONS OF THIS POLICY BY LAW ENFORCEMENT.

NCN will cooperate with appropriate law enforcement agencies and other parties involved in investigating claims of illegal or inappropriate activity on the NCN Network. NCN reserves the right to disclose customer information to the extent authorized or required by federal or state law. In those instances involving child pornography, NCN may comply with all applicable federal and state laws including providing notice to the National Center for the Missing and Exploited Children or other designated agencies. NCN reserves the right to charge fees arising from management or handling of complaints related to alleged violations of the Policy.

NCN reserves the right to install and use, or to have you install and use, any appropriate devices to detect and prevent violations of this Policy, including devices designed to filter or terminate access to the Services. By accepting and using the Services, you consent to allowing us to collect service information and routing information in the normal course of our business, and to use such information for general business purposes.

Reporting Violators

NCN requests that any User who believes that a violation of this Policy has taken place should report the alleged violation to NCN promptly. Such report shall be sent to [[APPLICABLE CONTACT INFORMATION]]. Please include all applicable information that will assist NCN in investigating the complaint. In most cases, we will notify our Customer(s) of complaints we receive regarding an alleged violation of this Policy. You agree to promptly investigate all such complaints and take all necessary actions to remedy any violations of this Policy. We may inform the complainant that you are investigating the complaint and may provide the complainant with the necessary information to contact you directly to resolve the complaint. You shall identify a representative for the purposes of receiving such communications.

Privacy

Subject to the NCN Privacy Policy, we make no guarantee regarding, and assume no liability for, the security and integrity of any data or information a User transmits via the Services or over the NCN Network, including any data or information transmitted via any server designated as "secure." In addition, NCN may periodically monitor transmissions over its network for maintenance, service quality assurance or any other purpose permitted by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, P.L. No. 99-508, as amended.

Additional Terms and Conditions

The use of the Services and the NCN Network by a Customer is subject to the terms and conditions of any agreements entered into by such Customer and NCN. This Policy is incorporated into such agreements by reference.

Questions

If you have any questions regarding the Policy, please contact us at:

Mailing address:
NextCity Networks, LLC
700 Universe Blvd
Juno Beach, FL 33408

Email: solutions@nee.com