BuzzardNews.Com
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Last Modified on: 2007-02-10

The following is the policy all customers must abide by when using their BuzzardNews.Com service. It outlines the various acceptable uses for your account and what we consider abuse. By signing up and/or using your BuzzardNews.Com account, you agree to abide by this policy and to keep updated on changes. This policy may change at any time.

Account Services
All Personal BuzzardNews.Com services are single user accounts. These accounts should be used by the owner of the account only, and there should only be one concurrent login session at any time. Personal accounts are not dedicated connection accounts and are not allowed a 24 hour per day connection. Abuse of 'Unlimited Download' accounts by excessive large scale downloading is prohibited. Failure to comply with this regulation is in direct conflict with the Terms & Conditions which every customer should have read and agreed to. Accounts are meant for the primary purpose of posting and downloading articles, use of limited accounts for the primary purpose of downloading headers is prohibited by our Terms & Conditions.

Net Etiquette and Abuse
At BuzzardNews.Com, we would like every customer to have the best Usenet experience possible; however, we do not wish it to be at other customers' expense. The Internet is a global computer network which is comprised of people from diverse backgrounds. When communicating with people on the Internet, it is best to keep in mind that there is another person on the other end of the computer that you are communicating with. Please treat others with the same respect as you would like to be treated.

Copyrights
Almost every country has copyright laws. BuzzardNews.Com cannot and does not review the information flowing through or stored on our system. When you become a BuzzardNews.Com customer, you are agreeing not to transfer or store copyrighted works on our system without the permission of the copyright holder.

Content
The content of USENET newsgroups is not regulated by BuzzardNews.Com; therefore, BuzzardNews.Com is not liable for their contents. Please do not contact the administrators regarding copyright issues, inflammatory posts, etc.

Commercial Posts
Commercial posts are frowned upon in many newsgroups. If you are attempting to sell goods or services, please make sure you do so in the proper forums (*.forsale, business groups, etc.).

Chain Letters/Pyramid Schemes
According to United States law, chain letters and pyramid schemes are illegal. If you are found to be posting these to the newsgroups, your account will be terminated.

Binary Posts
Certain newsgroups are specifically designated as allowing binary files to be posted, and some are designated for binary posts only. It is well accepted all over Usenet that binary files will be posted only in designated groups. Posting of binaries or text articles inappropriately, regardless of whether explicitly stated in a newsgroup charter or FAQ will bring your account under review for possible termination.

Spam
Spam is the repeated posting of articles to inappropriate newsgroups. BuzzardNews.Com does not tolerate spam in any form. We run filters on our incoming and outgoing feeds to cut down on spam traffic that goes in either direction. BuzzardNews.Com is very strict about spamming. You agree to not spam, and you agree to avoid heavy repetitive posting, as that may look like spam. If you are determined to have spammed, you will be charged a $50 cleanup fee per spam message that you post, and your account will be terminated.

BuzzardNews.Com
Terms & Conditions

Last Modified on: 2007-09-12

Please read the following terms and conditions carefully. By signing up with BuzzardNews.Com and or using any of BuzzardNews.Com's services, you agree to abide by the following terms. Contact us if you have any questions.

Service Limited To Adults
BuzzardNews.Com's service is available only to adults who are at least 18 years old. By accepting this AGREEMENT, you certify to us and all others that you are an adult.

Privacy and Security
Computer security and privacy are complex issues. It is important to understand this point:

We will cooperate with law enforcement officials and with other system administrators in the legitimate investigation of suspicious activity.

Intentional violations of the privacy of other users, whether on our system or at another site, will be grounds for immediate termination of your account and may lead to criminal prosecution and or civil penalties.

Any attempt, whether successful or not, to bypass security features or systems of BuzzardNews, its affiliates or partners will be grounds for immediate termination of your account and may lead to criminal prosecution and or civil penalties.

Copyright Infringement And Hacking
You are responsible for determining the legal status of any intellectual property you use or duplicate through our system. Some of the material available on the network is copyrighted, and some of it may have been distributed in violation of copyright laws. We cannot and do not review the information flowing through or stored on our system. You agree not to violate copyright laws by transferring copyrighted works through our system or by causing them to be transferred or stored without the permission of the copyright holder. Breaking this agreement will be grounds for account termination.

We consider the exchange of information about security mechanisms to be protected speech. However, traffic in access codes, credit card numbers, or similar information is a crime that we take seriously. We expect you to respect the rights and privacy of all users and to use your account only for lawful purposes.

Controversial and Explicit Material
We cannot be and are not responsible for the contents of any of your communications through BuzzardNews.Com. The Internet and USENET are large communities that regard censorship as worse than obscenity. Through our service, you will have access to and you will at some time or another become exposed to materials that you find offensive. Such materials include sexually explicit text and (encoded) images, pro-religious and anti-religious debate, questionable political views, and hateful speech. BuzzardNews.Com expressly disclaims liability for any harm resulting from encountering such material.

Account Usage
BuzzardNews.Com accounts are single-user accounts. This means that only one ip address is allowed to connect at a time, and the owner of the account (or their immediate family) is the only person(s) allowed to use that account. User Accounts are for personal, non-commercial use only. Users are prohibited from using a personal account to feed or operatate a news server that provides access to a public network or that provides access to individuals other than the owner of the account. Personal accounts are not dedicated connection accounts and are prohibited from using them as such by maintaining a continuous connection for extended periods. In addition to our usage policies, we also have rules prohibiting the repeated posting of inappropriate articles ("spamming") from a BuzzardNews.Com user account. Violation of the usage policies or rules may result in the termination of your BuzzardNews.Com user account.

Accounts that are designated as having 'Unlimited Downloads', are simply personal accounts that are not charged by the amount they have downloaded. While we do not charge by the amount that these accounts download, abuse of our systems by excessive downloading is prohibited. We may at our sole discretion either temporarily suspend the account, terminate the account or take other measures that we alone deem appropriate to prevent abuse of these types of accounts.

All accounts include free header downloads unless otherwise stated, however, abuse of free header downloads is prohibited. Any limited (gig based) account excessively downloading headers is a violation of these Terms of Service. Accounts in violation may have their free header status revoked without notice.

Billing and Settlement
Continuing Service Billing
Continuing services will be billed in advance. Monthly accounts are purchasing the ability to use our services, whether or not you use the service you are still liable for all charges to your account until such time as you cancel your account through our Account Manager. We do not prorate service. Your service, and thus your billing, is in whole month increments. Your account will automatically be renewed at the end of each service period, repeating the length of the previous service period, unless you specify otherwise. Credit Card accounts will be billed on or near your monthly billing anniversary date. You can stop your service, or switch to a discounted prepayment plan, via the online Account Manager.

Payments
We accept payments via credit card and e-Check. We will attempt to charge your credit card or checking account for any balance on your account. If the first charge attempt for a service period fails, service will be suspended. Service will be resumed when you repurchase a new subsciption via the online Account Manager.

e-Checks
Accounts paying by e-Check will be billed 10 days prior to their next renewal date. Cancelations must be received via our Account Manager prior to the billing of the account. Cancelations received after this time will be effective for the next billing period. Example: If your account is due to renew on the 20th, we will bill your account on the 10th. If you wish to cancel you would need to cancel prior to 8:59PM on the 10th.

Account Cancellation

Customers paying by Credit Card
Cancellations must be entered prior to the next service period for them to take effect before that billing period. Your service, and thus your billing, is in whole month increments. Service can be cancelled from the Account Manager only. Otherwise, all accounts are renewed automatically.

Customers paying by e-Check
Cancelations must be received via our Account Manager prior to the billing of the account. Cancelations received after this time will be effective for the next billing period. Service can be cancelled from the Account Manager only. Otherwise, all accounts are renewed automatically.

Charge Backs / Charge Reversals
By accepting these Terms of Service you agree that you will not initialize any chargeback with your credit card issuer for any charges authorized by your acceptance of these Terms of Service. It is hereby understood and agreed upon that an additional chargeback fee of $35.00 will be assessed to your account, if you initialize a 'chargeback' with your credit card issuer to reverse payment without our written permission for any of the charges authorized by your acceptance of these Terms of Service, and you hereby agree to pay this fee if this occurs. If you have any issues or disputes regarding our billing of your credit card you must first make contact with us by email to billing@buzzardnews.com, Your failure to do so may forfiet certain rights with your credit card issuer.

Refunds
No refunds will be given under any circumstances except erroneous charges, including prepaid accounts or accounts deleted for violation of our Acceptable Use Policy.

Duplicate Accounts
Creation of multiple accounts will require payment in full for each account created. Cancellation and refund provisions apply to each account individually, without regard to any other accounts you may have with BuzzardNews.Com.

Indemnify and Hold Harmless
You are responsible for all actions that occur in regards to your account. As a condition of service, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless BuzzardNews.Com, its officers, employees, agents, and shareholders, for any action or cause of action resulting from the use of your account or the use of any services provided by BuzzardNews.Com. BuzzardNews.Com is not responsible for any long distance charges or internet access charges a customer may accrue while using our service.

Termination or Change of Service
BuzzardNews.Com, reserves the right to terminate, change or refuse service to anyone, at any time, for any reason, we also reserve the right to add,drop or modify any of our products at any time. The policies contained within may change at any time without notice. It is the customer's responsibility to keep abreast of our "Acceptable Use Policy" found at http://www.buzzardnews.com/info/aup.html. By logging on to your account you agree to the terms and condition of use.

BuzzardNews.Com
PRIVACY STATEMENT

Last Update: 2007-03-12

This privacy statement covers the site buzzardnews.com. Since we value your privacy, we have provided this statement to inform you in how we use any information that you provide us, or that we may gather from you during your visit to our web site. This statement covers the following concerns with respect to your privacy.

1. What personally identifiable information BuzzardNews.Com collects.
   
   
2. What personally identifiable information third parties collect through the Web site.
   
   
3. What organization collects the information.
   
   
4. How BuzzardNews.Com uses the information.
   
   
5. With whom BuzzardNews.Com may share user information.
   
   
6. What choices are available to users regarding collection, use and distribution of the information.
   
   
7. What types of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under the control of BuzzardNews.Com.
   
   
8. How users can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
   

If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should contact the BuzzardNews.Com Customer Support Department by emailing support@buzzardnews.com.

This statement covers only information that is collected through this Web site, and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from the site.

Information Collection and Use

Information Collection
BuzzardNews.Com is the sole owner of the information collected on buzzardnews.com. We collect information from our users at several different points on our Web site.
Registration
In order to use this Web site, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration a user is required to give contact information (such as name and email address). We use this information to contact the user about services on our site for which he has expressed interest. It is optional for the user to provide demographic information (such as income level and gender), but encouraged so we can provide a more personalized experience on our site.

Order
We request information from the user on our order form. A user must provide contact information (such as name, email, and shipping address) and financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customer's orders. If we have trouble processing an order, the information is used to contact the user.

Information Use
BuzzardNews.Com uses information gathered from users on its site to provide the primary services of access to Usenet Newsgroups. We also aggregate non-personal information such as the number of times a visitor has been to our website, how long they stayed, what type of browser they used, etc. This aggregated information is used by us to better understand our customers and to help us in identifying market strategies. We never sell, lease or rent any personal information about our users.
Profile
We store information that we collect through cookies, log files, clear gifs, and/or third parties to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users that details their viewing preferences. Consequently, collected information is tied to the users personally identifiable information to provide offers and improve the content of the site for the user. This profile is used to tailor a user's visit to our Web site, and to direct pertinent marketing promotions to them. We do not share your profile with other third parties. We do not tie information regarding which Usenet Newsgroups a user accesses to their personal information.

Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user's hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

This site uses cookies to provide a more customized and pleasurable experience. Using cookies gives us the ability to allow you to only enter you username and password once when you enter the site and to remember whom you are when you return to our site. We do not store personal information in any cookie, generally our cookies contain your user id number, username and IP address, and other information that we use to determine what areas of our site you have access to.

Some of our business partners use cookies on our site (for example, advertisers). However, we have no access to or control over these cookies, once we have given permission for them to set cookies for advertising.

This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by buzzardnews.com only and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Third Party Advertising
The ads appearing on this Web site are delivered to users by our Web advertising partners. Information about users' visit to this site, such as number of times they have viewed an ad and pages they have visited (but not user name, address, or other personal information), is used to serve ads to users on this site.

Log Files
Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are tied to personally identifiable information in our databases to enable our Web-based service. We also use a tracking utility that uses log files to analyze user movement.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
We may employ, or our third party advertising company may employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. BuzzardNews.com does not tie clear gifs to users' personally identifiable information.

Clear Gifs can "work with" existing cookies on a computer if they are both from the same Web site or advertising company. That means, for example, that if a person visited 'www.companyZ.com', which uses an advertising company's clear gif, the Web site [or advertising company] would match the clear gif's identifier and the advertising company's cookie ID number, to show the past online behavior for that computer. This collected information would then be given to the advertising company [or Web site].

In addition, we may use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If users would like to opt-out of these emails, please see the Opt-out section.

Communications from the Site

Special Offers and Updates
We send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option do not send these types of communications unless the user has opted-in to receive them. Please see the Choice and Opt-in sections. We occasionally send out emails to former customers regarding changes in our service that we feel they may be interested in.

Service Announcements
On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.

Sharing

Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)
Currently we do not share aggregated demographic information with our partners and advertisers.

Third Party Advertisers
BuzzardNews.Com may share Web site usage information with a reputable third party for the purpose of targeting our Internet banner advertisements on this site and other sites.

These are the instances in which we will share users' personal information:
We DO NOT Share Personal Information with Third Parties except to complete business transactions initiated by the user, such as credit card and other financial transactions.

Third Party Intermediaries
We currently use VeriSign, Inc. to process our credit card transactions. Their privacy policy statement can be viewed at http://www.verisign.com/truste/index.html. We also use Authorize.Net. to offer our customers another secure method of payment. The Authorize.Net privacy policy can be viewed at http://www.authorize.net/company/privacy/.

Business Transitions
In the event BuzzardNews.Com goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users' personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified via prominent notice on our Web site for 30 days prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. If as a result of the business transition, the users' personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection they will be given choice consistent with our notification of changes section.

Choice/Opt-in
At times we may choose to provide our users with the option to opt-in for special promotions, newsletters, etc. Unless a user specifically opts-in for these [items / events] they will be excluded from them and will not have any of their information used for these purposes.

Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications may opt-out of receiving these communications by replying to unsubscribe in the subject line in the email or email us at support@buzzardnews.com. If the user has opted in for any item or even we also offer an opt-out mechanism on the Account Manager page, or the user may contact us at support@buzzardnews.com to opt-out.

Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an outside party.

Links
This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, BuzzardNews.Com, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.

Surveys [& Contests]
From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code). Contact information will be used or shared with the [contest / survey] sponsors to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site. Users' personally identifiable information is not shared with third parties unless we give prior notice and choice. Though we may use an intermediary to conduct these surveys or contests, they may not use users' personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Security
This Web site takes every precaution to protect our users' information. When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, their information is protected both online and off-line.

When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when users are just "surfing".

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Our employees must use password-protected screen-savers when they leave their desk. When they return, they must re-enter their password to re-gain access to user information. Furthermore, ALL employees that have any access to personal information are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our users' information is protected. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment, in a locked facility.

If users have any questions about the security at our Web site, users can send an email to support@buzzardnews.com.

Supplementation of Information
In order for this Web site to properly fulfill its obligation to users it is necessary for us to supplement the information we receive with information from 3rd party sources.

Credit Check
For example, to determine if users qualify for one of our credit cards, we use their name and social security number to request a credit report. Once we determine a user's credit-worthiness, this document is destroyed.

Address Verification
We use 3rd party companies to process credit card transactions, software provided by these 3rd party companies may be used to verify a user's identity and or address to complete these transactions.

Enhancement of Marketing Profile
We purchase third party marketing data and add it to our existing user database to better target our advertising and provide pertinent offers we think our users would be interested in. We use this information to enhance or overlay the 'profile' of individual users. This aggregate marketing data is therefore tied to the users' personally identifiable information. See also the 'Profile'.

Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users' personally identifiable information. This can be done at the Account Manager page which is available to you after you have logged into the website.

Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

If, however, we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our Web site notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice we will also email users, who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.