Terms of Service (TOS)

 

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Our layouts, style sheets, graphics and code may NOT be resold, redistributed, disassembled, reverse engineered, added to any type of collection or media online or off line, offered for download from any web site nor placed online for browse-to-buy or other type viewing purposes. Our layouts may not be used in any online display of sample web sites. You may NOT extract images or code from the layouts or style sheets to sell or distribute in any manner. You may NOT use any component of our layouts or site content to produce what could be directly or indirectly considered a competitive venture against us. All copyrights remain with BlackPortDesign.com.

All hosting accounts have a full money back guarantee, upon cancellation within 30 days of payment, if the account holder is not satisfied for any reason. The amount refunded will be the dollar amount paid to BlackPort Design, LLC by the account holder, less the bandwidth used by that account for the first 30 days of service. Domain registration fees are not refundable. If we register a domain name, on your behalf, as part of a free registration promotion - you must keep your domain name under our current domain name registration services. Cancellation or termination of your account will void the promotion offer and you will be charged $29.95 for your domain name registration.

You may cancel your hosting account at anytime. Refunds for accounts cancelled after the first 30 days will be granted less the dollar amount for 1/12 the annual hosting account price, times the number of full and partial months the account was active. Any bandwidth overage will be deducted before refund is granted. In other words, BlackPort Design, LLC will refund you ONLY for the full months that you have not used.

You are responsible for making sure that we have your current and correct contact information on file, by frequently logging into your billing account. We reserve the right to send announcements and invoices relating your hosting account and domain name with us. No more than twice a month we may email you information on promotions or discounts relevant to your hosting or domain account with us. We ask that you not report these messages as SPAM to spamcop or any other similar service, because that makes more work for us and less benefits for other customers. Doing so may be considered grounds for termination of your account. BlackPort Design, LLC will NOT give your email address or any other contact information to any third party except under the direction of law enforcement officials.

We will make every reasonable attempt to avoid unexpected server down time and to ensure that all accounts are well taken care of. We cannot guarantee or predict server down time. Any network problem, or outage, is not covered under any guarantee or warranty and will not be grounds for reimbursement for any subsequent financial damages or losses. All account data backups are the account holder's responsibility. BlackPort Design, LLC is NOT responsible for your data backup or subsequent loss. Shared hosting accounts should not be used for mission critical web sites or email that require absolute redundancy.

The term of an account's contract is based on the type of billing chosen at the time of sign-up. The contract's length is equal to the term of service paid for. Monthly billing is on a 30 day contract, Semi-annually is on a 6 month contract and Annually is on a 12 month contract. Upon the completion of the contract BlackPort Design, LLC is in no way required to extend the contract and/or its terms for any period of time.

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Billing

Your account must be paid in full before your website is put live to the web unless we have agreed to a payment plan.

Payment is due by the 1st of the month, there is a 5 day grace period for snail mail purposes. This does not apply to those who purchased hosting through their web site packages.

Account with payments not received by the 5th grace period day will be suspended until payment is made.

If your acct goes unpaid after 3 months, your acct will go into collections and all necessary actions will be taken to receive payment for services given.

If your acct has been suspended, we will hold the current data folder for you for 14 days from the initial cancellation of your account, this gives you the option to continue service. After 14 days your data will be deleted. If you would like to continue service with BlackPort Design, LLC you will have to pay the balance due and annually.

If you send your payment in by mail you are still bound to the above due dates. Please email the sales department to let us know your payment is in the mail.

 
Return Check/NSF Policy

Returned checks that have not been honored by the Client's bank fall 100% to the responsibility of the Client. All returned checks fall under the jurisdiction of the laws for the State of Minnesota and will be assessed a $30.00 or 5% service fee, whichever is greater. BlackPort Design, LLC will take any and all legal measures to ensure returned checks are paid. If legal action is taken to receive payment for a returned check, in additional to the $30.00 or 5% service fee, the Client will be responsible for any court fees, and any attorney fees.

*Unsolicited E-mail (anti-spam policy)

Accounts caught sending unsolicited, as defined by BlackPort Design, LLC, email or UseNet postings, either through our servers or to promote a web site on our servers will be terminated immediately, will not qualify for a refund and will be charged $50 per complaint filed. Accounts terminated for sending unsolicited email or UseNet posts give up all rights to any content, files, backups and technical support associated with this and ALL accounts hosted on any and all BlackPort Design, LLC server and network. You may not create email forwards which forward to an email address not accessible by you, unless the recipient has specifically consented for you to do so.

BlackPort Design, LLC reserves the right to investigate accounts accused of sending unsolicited emails, or UseNet postings, in any way deemed necessary. This includes suspending the accused account, during the pending investigation.

Sites promoting, advertising or otherwise making available tools, information and/or software for the purpose of sending unsolicited email or UseNet postings will be shut down without notice. We reserve the right to cancel all hosting accounts, of anyone having an account suspended for sending spam. We will make available, upon request, the source of the complaints. We will NOT make available the actual complaint, if it means giving out individual contact information of the person filing the complaint. WE STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU AVOID USING THIRD PARTY MAILING LISTS - EVEN IF THEY ARE GUARANTEED TO BE CLEAN!!!

Although we have a ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY on unsolicited email/spam, we are not unreasonable. We have shut down an extremely small percentage of accounts for sending Unsolicited Email. However, we can and will enforce our Terms of Service.

*Unsolicited is defined, by BlackPort Design, LLC as: E-mail sent to recipients who have not asked to be contacted by you or Usenet postings (that are cross-posted to more than three newsgroups and/or posted in newsgroups where this is against that groups FAQ or charter), for the sole purpose of promoting a web site or commercial business on our servers.

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Excessive Bandwidth Use

If your hosting account, with BlackPort Design, LLC goes over the bandwidth allowance set for that account, you agree to pay for that overage. All of our Cpanel hosting accounts have bandwidth restrictions set. If you reach your designated bandwidth limit, your account will automatically suspend until the next month.

Account Termination

Violation of our anti-spam policy will be grounds for immediate account termination. Web sites deemed offensive, pornographic or racially degrading, by BlackPort Design, LLC will be removed from our servers without notice. Abusive behavior of any type will not be tolerated. Web sites promoting, making available or otherwise contributing to software piracy, hacking, spamming, denial of service attacks and/or damage to commercial networks or servers will be removed from our servers without notice and illegal acts will be reported and prosecuted. Free For All (FFA) link sites and using your account for IRC/BBN purposes is not allowed on our servers.

Accounts using up enough server resources, to slow or crash a server, will be shut down without prior notice. If an account is shut down, due to server resource issues, we will (upon request) make a reasonable effort to help get the account un-suspended. This includes tracking down the offending program, if applicable, and/or making available other arrangements for hosting the account on a semi-private or private server (additional fees may be required).

Third-party installed versions of FormMail are forbidden, due to the security risk they pose. We have FormMail available, globally, for all accounts on our network. We do not allow ANY Matt Wright script to be installed on our servers. For a list of the Matt Wright banned scripts, please see: www.scriptarchive.com.

All server activity is logged. Any snooping, hacking, or other inappropriate activity of any type outside of your account, on our servers, will be grounds for termination.

In addition, your account is for web and email use only, any other activities, at our sole discretion, will be grounds for termination as well.

Our hosting packages are classified as follow, business hosting and personal hosting. Personal hosting is categorized strictly for non-profit use. Personal sites may not setup any kind of online sales, whether it be goods or services both are prohibited. Personal hosting MAY take charitable donations but that is it. Business hosting is categorized for businesses selling products, services and advertising. The use of our Personal hosting packages for Business hosting is prohibited. Any site that sells and kind of service, advertising or product with personal hosting is in violation of the terms of service.

BlackPort Design, LLC reserves the right to suspend or terminate any account at any time at their sole discretion.

This Terms of Service may be amended, at any time, at the discretion of BlackPort Design, LLC. All accounts are required to comply with any changes made to these policies. You are required to keep a valid and current email address on file with us. If you need your email address on file changed please use our contact form → Here

If you are unsure if what you are doing is against our TOS, contact us. There are no refunds granted for accounts terminated due to TOS violation.

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Domain Name Registration and Renewal Policy

BlackPort Design, LLC will make every effort to register, transfer and/or renew your requested domain name. This is not a guarantee that your requested domain name is available for registration, transfer and/or renewal. Your domain name may go unregistered, un transferred and/or renewed, due to circumstances beyond our control, such as registry, software and other problems or outages, and will not be grounds for compensation of financial loss. You are responsible for monitoring your domain expiration date and making sure you renew it before it expires.

An order for domain name registration, transfer and/or renewal, does not guarantee domain name registration, transfer and/or renewal. Domain names will not be registered, transferred and/or renewed until payment is received. If requested domain name is paid for, to BlackPort Design, LLC and subsequently not registered, transferred and/or renewed by BlackPort Design, LLC the domain registration fee will be refunded.

By placing an order for domain registration, you agree to the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.

By using our hosting services, we require that you place a clearly visible link at the bottom of your pages for the duration of time you are with BPD as follows:

Hosting Provided By BlackPort Design

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

BlackPort Design, LLC's liability (including, for purposes of this paragraph only, any of it employees, agents, or representatives), to Customer (either directly or as a third party defendant in any action or proceeding) for any claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement or Service Orders or the provision of any Services under Service Orders (including, without limitation maintenance and support) shall be limited to the amount of fees paid by Customer to BlackPort Design, LLC under this Agreement within one year preceding the date Customer contends its claim arose.
In no event shall BlackPort Design, LLC be liable for any loss of data, loss of profits, cost of cover, or any other special, incidental, consequential, indirect or punitive damages, however caused and regardless of theory of liability. This limitation will apply even if BlackPort Design, LLC has been advised of, or is aware of, the possibility of such damages.

These Terms are subject to change with or without notification; it is your responsibility to check the website for policy updates.

Last Updated: May 20th, 2007