Acceptable user policy for Sancharnet's users

This acceptable user policy (AUP) specifies the actions permitted by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to its users of Sancharnet Internet Services, including leased line, dial up and other services which may be introduced in future.. BSNL reserve right to modify the policy at any time. All subscribers of Sancharnet Services, directly or indirectly are required to engage in acceptable use only as per this policy as modified from time to time.

a. Illegal use

Sancharnet network may be used only for lawful purposes. 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 authorisation, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, violates export control laws or anti national.

b. Subscriber conduct

Subscriber shall use Sancharnet services for lawful purposes only. Subscriber shall not post or transmit using Sancharnet services any material which violates or infringes in any way upon the rights of others, which is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, vulgar, obscene, profane or otherwise objectionable, which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give right to civil liability or otherwise violate any law, or which, without the BSNL's express prior approval, contains advertising or any solicitation with respect to products or services. Any conduct by a Subscriber that in the BSNL's discretion restricts or inhibits any other Subscriber from using or enjoying Sancharnet services will not be permitted. Subscriber shall not use Sancharnet services to advertise or perform any commercial solicitation, including, but not limited to, the solicitation of users to become subscribers of other on-line information services competitive with the Sancharnet services .

Subscriber shall not upload, post or otherwise make available using Sancharnet services any material protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right without the express permission of the owner of the copyright, trademark or other proprietary right and the burden of determining that any material is not protected by copyright rests with subscriber. Subscriber shall be solely liable for any damage resulting from any infringement of copyrights, proprietary rights, or any other harm resulting from such a submission.

c. System and Network Security

Violation of system or network security are prohibited, and may result in criminal and Civil Liability. The BSNL will investigate incidents involving such violations and may involve/will cooperate with law enforcement agencies if a criminal violation is suspected. Examples of system or network security violations include, without limitation, the following:

• Unauthorized access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without express authorization of the owner of the system or network.
• Unauthorized monitoring of data or traffic on any network or system without express authorization of the owner of the system or network.
• Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mailbombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks.
• Forgery of any identification or obscuring of hostnames, usernames, IP addresses, or any message header information in any data.
• Harassing or threatening transmissions.
• Probing for means of gaining unauthorized access to computers or networks.
• Introducing or causing to be introduce any computer contaminant or computer viruses into system or network.
• Introducing or causing to introduce any pornography material, e-mail etc.

d. Indemnification

Subscribers agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the BSNL, its affiliates and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against all claims and expenses, including attorney's fees, arising out of the use of Sancharnet Services by subscriber or any body else than the Subscriber, if any.

e. EMAIL

It is a condition of use of Sancharnet services that subscriber do not post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law; post or transmit any information, software or any other material which violates or infringes upon the rights of others, including material which is an invasion of privacy or publicity rights or which is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, or derivative works with respect thereto, without first obtaining permission from the owner or right holder; post or transmit any information, software or other material, which contains a virus or other harmful component; post, transmit or in any way exploit any information, software or other material for commercial purposes, or which contains advertising.

Sending unsolicited mail messages, including, without limitation, commercial advertising and informational announcements, is explicitly prohibited. A subscriber shall not use another site's mail server to relay mail without the express permission of the site. Posting a message and subscribing without intent to large number of news groups, forums, e-mail, mailing lists or other groups or lists is prohibited.

f. Enforcement of AUP for BSNL subscribers

Indirect or attempted violations of the policy and actual or attempted violations by a third party on behalf of a Sancharnet subscriber or a subscriber's end user, shall be considered violation of the policy by such customer or end user. Any user found violating the above AUP is liable for action under the prevailing laws including termination of services.