Terms of Service for Bigdam.net Internet Services

Terms of Service

We agree to provide you with those services set forth at the time of signup and you agree to abide by the restrictions made below. In the event of any violation of the below terms and conditions of using our service, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account immediately, without notice. If you do not wish to be bound by the below terms and conditions of using our service, then you may not access the service.

Warranty Disclaimer

No warranty's are made regarding the service. We do not guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted or error free. We exercise no control whatsoever over the content of information that is passed through our system. The service is provided on an "as is" basis.

Responsibility of Use

User shall assume all responsibility for all content distributed, accessed, or viewed while connected to our service. Under no circumstance shall we be held liable for your actions while you are using the service. In the event of a court order, we may provide any and all information that they request of us to them.

Limitation of Liability

Under no circumstances shall we, our agents, our providers, or employees be liable for any damages, which result in any way from user's use or inability to use the service or any part thereof. This includes all direct and indirect damages, special, punitive or consequential damages that may result from busy signals, errors, delays in the service, deletion of files, viruses, theft, or alteration of a user's computer. In the event that we are found liable under any circumstance under the terms of this agreement, our liability shall be limited to the unused balance of user's subscription payment pro-rated to reflect the current term.

Billing Terms

We expect users of our private network services to pay for services according to our rate schedule, and in a timely fashion. All payments are due by the first of the month, for the new month's service. If we have not received payment by the tenth, service will either be terminated or a late charge of $10 will be assessed, at our discretion. Chronically late customers may be required to pay a deposit equal to one month of service, which is refundable if you terminate service and are current on payments. If you are late on a discounted pre-paid account, such as a quarterly or annual one, we reserve the right to charge you for the late period at the regular price for the service. After that amount is paid, you can then pre-pay again for the next period.

Pre-paid accounts are offered at a discount because they are a contract for that service and that time period. There are no refunds on pre-paid accounts, if you choose to terminate them early.

There is a $25 reconnection fee to turn on an account that has been disconnected due to lack of payment. This fee will also be charged if a customer closes their account and reopens it within two weeks of the closure date. The fee will be waived if your account was terminated in error.

All accounts with checks returned for non-sufficient funds will be charged $25 to cover our expenses. In addition, these accounts will be terminated, if the payment is not received within five days of the check being returned.

For an account to be reactivated after non-payment termination, payment of all previous charges, at the standard rate, the reconnection fee, and the next month's service will be required.

If you cancel your service on or after the 25th of the current month, you are also responsible for paying for the next month of service as part of your cancellation. If you are on dial up service and are due to pay, you will be charged $25.00 for that month, no matter what previous payment plan you were using.

For prepaid accounts, please note that if costs rise substantially, the change will be billed against the prepaid balance and you will be sent a letter explaining what has happened.

As of May 10, 2007, we will be invoicing our customers by email. All customers will be required to have their preferred valid email account for invoicing on file with us by that date. If you choose to not opt in to this service, we will be adding two dollars a month to each account that requires paper invoicing, to cover our expenses. Please email your preferred email address to billing.net for this service.

Age Limit

User represents to us that he or she is 18 years of age or older. User understands that certain materials available from Service provided under the terms of this Agreement may not be suitable for individuals under the age of 18.

Sexually Explicit Materials

User understands that the Internet contains unedited materials some of which are sexually explicit or may be offensive. User accesses such materials at his or her own risk. We have no control over and accept no responsibility whatsoever for such materials.

Restrictions of Use

Bigdam.net, aka Terra Byte Systems, use of service rules:

Users shall not use our services in ways that violate laws, infringe the rights of others, and interfere with other users of our service or other service networks. User is responsible for the knowledge of, and adherence to any and all laws, statutes and regulations pertaining to or in any way connected with the services provided by bigdam, a component of Terra Byte Systems and all use of any information, data, material or service in violation of any such law is strictly prohibited.

By posting information in or otherwise using any communications service, chat room, message board, news group, software library, or other interactive service that may be available to you on or through this site, you agree that you will not upload, post, or otherwise distribute or facilitate distribution of any content including text, communications, software, images, sounds, data, or other information -- that:

1. Is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another's privacy, tortuous, contains explicit or graphic descriptions or accounts of sexual acts (including but not limited to sexual language of a violent or threatening nature directed at another individual or group of individuals), or otherwise violates Bigdam.net, aka Terra Byte Systems rules or policies;
2. Victimizes, harasses, degrades, or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability;
3. Infringes on any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other proprietary right of any party;
4. Constitutes unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, junk or bulk e-mail (also known as "spamming"), chain letters, any other form of unauthorized solicitation, or any form of lottery or gambling.
5. Contains software viruses or any other computer code, files, or programs that are designed or intended to disrupt, damage, or limit the functioning of any software, hardware, or other information of any third party, or the gathering of information from any user or user generated files without the user.s specific and complete informed agreement, or constitutes any form of data communication violating privacy rights of our network users.
6. Impersonates any person or entity, including any employee or representative of Bigdam.net, aka Terra Byte Systems.

You further agree that you will not knowingly solicit or collect personal information from a minor without appropriate prior and verifiable parental consent.

Bigdam, aka Terra Byte Systems. generally does not pre-screen, monitor, or edit the content posted by users of communications services, chat rooms, message boards, news groups, software libraries, or other interactive services that may be available on or through this site. However, Bigdam.net, aka Terra Byte Systems and its agents have the right at their sole discretion to remove any content that, in our judgment, does not comply with these rules or is otherwise harmful, objectionable, or inaccurate. We are not responsible for any failure or delay in removing such content.

User's rights herein granted, cannot be transferred, assigned, shared, sold, or used by anyone other than the User. The user on any system account can use no more than one connection to the services provided by Bigdam.net, aka Terra Byte Systems, except as granted by us in writing, at any time.

Bigdam.net, aka Terra Byte Systems, reserves the right to establish and enforce time limits and/or session limits for connecting to the Company's services for all "dial up" accounts.

Users shall not establish Internet servers in their homes or offices of any kind, including without limitation, Web, E-Mail, games, FTP, or the like, without prior written authorization and pricing agreement from the Company.

Bigdam.net, aka Terra Byte Systems reserves the right to establish and enforce usage limits limiting the speed of uploads and downloads of any kind and in all protocols, including without limitation, file downloads (FTP's), Web browsing, etc., from time to time, for all wireless, DSL or other system accounts.

Dialup Restrictions

Bigdam.net provides service as unlimited, but not dedicated. Dedicated usage for the purpose of our TOS is an average of over 15 hours a day worth of usage based upon a 30 day monthly cycle. If you use the service as dedicated, we reserve the right to inform you that we may no longer service your account. We are a consumer service, and not designed for people who require an "always on" connection with long periods of inactivity. Always on accounts are available for 45.00 per month. Please inquire.

User agrees to allow provider to force a 15 minute idle timeout and 5 hour maximum session on their dial-up account. Attempts to defeat the idle timer using a ping bot or system tool, or the use of a redialer to automatically reconnect once disconnected is prohibited.

The right to use the Service is not transferable. Accounts are for User's use only. User shall be responsible for the confidentiality of User's password. Loaning User's account to others, connecting a system used by multiple persons, group use of user log-ins, and consuming more than one modem line are explicitly prohibited. If User has multiple accounts, then User shall be limited to one log-in session per system account at any time.

Email Restrictions

• User agrees that Port 25 (SMTP) is blocked for all outgoing mail servers except our own.
• User may not send from an email address that is not their own.
• User may not send an email that is over 10 MB in size.
• User may not forge message headers to hide the origin of their email.
• Provider may block certain attachment types used in transmitting viruses.
• Provider may run a virus scanner on all mail and drop mail containing viruses.

Wireless Terms of Use

There are no refunds of access fees paid in advance. Requests for termination of service must be made prior to the end of the paid term of service. Any late access fees or penalties for service provided are still due and must be paid if you terminate service.

Radios are leased to you and remain our property. There are a very few exceptions. If you quit our services we expect the return of our radio in good operating condition, with all associated parts and power injectors, in a timely fashion; generally this means within 10 days unless other arrangements are made. If you do not wish to return the radio, the full retail cost of the radio is to be paid by the beginning of the next month. This cost is $400.00, _if you are current and all install fees ($269.75 for a basic install) have been paid_. If you have not paid the install and lease fee, the full price of the radio is $550.00. The cost to replace a power injector for the radio is $50.00.

Equipment lost or destroyed is the responsibility of the subscriber.

Lightning damage or damage caused by power surges is the responsibility of the subscriber.

All users of radio equipment are encouraged and advised to have a new and functional surge suppressor between the device and the electrical system, to prevent this sort of damage. This is the responsibility of the homeowner. Surge suppressors have a limited life, and are considered nonfunctional after 3 years. We recommend that you consider using a battery backup unit, or Uninterruptible Power Supply instead of a surge suppressor, as this will protect your computer and the radio more fully.

The uploading and downloading of copyrighted music using peer-to-peer software may well be illegal and subject to civil and criminal prosecution; we will fully cooperate with legal subpoenas for information about individual customers who may be the subject of investigations into such file sharing.

Further, file sharing using peer-to-peer software has the ability to completely fill our network and cause our other customers to not be able to use the network for their lawful and rightful purposes. Any customer who uses peer-to-peer sharing software on our network in such a fashion as to cause such loss of service to our other customers will be terminated, with forfeiture of any and all pre-paid services and with no reinstitution of services.

At the termination of Service, all leased equipment shall immediately be returned to bigdam.net, and any costs of recovery of such equipment will be at the expense of said customer. Damaged or lost equipment shall be billed to the customer at the retail cost of the radio (internet receiving microwave device) equipment; this cost is currently $400.00 more than the cost of lease and installation of equipment.

Users are assumed to have paid for 6 Gigabytes of data transfer during any given month; amounts greater than 6 GB are subject to additional fees of $3.00 per Gigabyte (approximately $2.40 per 800 MB CD-ROM disk). These fees are subject to change.

Fiber to the home customers

Users of the Zipp (tm) Fiber to the home (ftth) system or network are subject to all broadband terms expressed elsewhere in these terms of service and to any and all terms of service as stated by the Grant County PUD (GCPUD) Zipp (tm) network.

The GCPUD expressly denies any liability for losses or damage due to interruptions of service or failures of service, and expressly states that they make no guarantees of quality of service to end users or independent Internet service providers (ISPs) of fiber to the home (ftth) such as bigdam.net, aka Terra Byte Systems.

The users of the Zipp network should contact bigdam.net first in the event of service issues, before contacting the GCPUD.

Right to Cancel

We reserve the right to cancel Service for any reason without prior notice. In the event that a user's service is cancelled by us for a reason outside of this TOS, we will refund the user the unused portion of that month's service at the time of cancellation.

System Backups

We do not and will not perform system backups on any User's E-mail account(s). We shall not be held responsible for any lost E-mail data, email attachments, or any E-mail message contents, regardless of the reasoning for data loss or system causes. Except as otherwise set forth herein, we will not provide historical data, to any party for any reason, regarding any system or Internet activity.

No Confidentiality

Information transmitted through us and through the Internet in general is not confidential. We can not and shall not guarantee privacy or protection of any User. We reserve the right to monitor any User's transmissions when deemed necessary for providing proper service and/or to protect the rights and property of our company.

Privacy Policy

Bigdam.net will not use or sell your email address or personal data to any 3rd party, with the exception that if Bigdam.net sells the majority of its assets or business, it may provide this data to the purchaser of the business so that they can continue providing service to the Bigdam.net endusers.

Failure to Comply With Terms and Conditions

We may deny User access to all or part of the Service without notice if User engages in any conduct or activities that we in our sole discretion believes violates any of the terms and conditions in this Agreement. If we deny User access to the Service because of such a violation, User shall not have the right (1) to access through us any materials stored on the Internet, (2) to obtain any credit(s) otherwise due to User, and such credit(s) shall be forfeited, (3) to access third party services, merchandise or information on the Internet through us, and we shall have no responsibility to notify any third-party providers of services, merchandise or information nor any responsibility for any consequences resulting from lack of notification.

Miscellaneous

In the event that any portion of this Agreement is held to be unenforceable, the unenforceable portion shall be construed in accordance with applicable law as nearly as possible to reflect the original intentions of the parties and the remainder of the provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

Our failure to insist upon or enforce strict performance of any provisions of this Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right. Neither the course of conduct between parties nor trade practice shall act to modify any provision of this Agreement.

We may modify this Agreement from time to time by placing a notice of such modification on our website, and User's continued use of the Service following notice of such modification shall be deemed to be User's acceptance of any such modification. It is User's responsibility to check this online area regularly to determine whether this Agreement has been modified. If User does not agree to any modification of this Agreement, User must immediately stop using the Service.

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Washington without regard to its conflicts of law provisions. Any cause of action User may have with respect to the Service must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim or cause of action arises or such claim or cause of action is barred.

We shall not be liable or deemed to be in default for any delay or failure in performance under this Agreement or interruption of service resulting directly or indirectly from acts of God, civil or military authority, acts of public enemy, war, riots, civil disturbances, insurrections, accidents, dire, explosions, earthquakes, floods, the elements, strikes, labor disputes, power outages, fiber breakages, telephone system outages, shortages of suitable parts, materials, labor or transportation or any cause beyond our reasonable control.

Venue for litigation of any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of, in connection with, or in relation to this Agreement, or the breach thereof, naming us as the defendant, shall be proper only in a venue determined by us.

In any action between us and User to enforce any of the terms of this Agreement, We shall be entitled to recover expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees.

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between User and us with respect to the Service.

General Advice

Philosophically we agree with those who call for greater sharing of information and for making music and other media freely available over networks, and that copyright laws need major reform. However, the reality is that there are laws in place that prevent, or discourage the trading of creative works which claim copyright protection under the laws of the United States, and of most foreign countries as well.

A side consequence of the trade in legally murky works is that popular filesharing programs can saturate networks and compromise your computer's integrity with trojans and spyware. We do not consider it fair to other users of the network for one individual to claim all access to the network, knowingly or unknowingly, and such behavior can not be allowed.

Those of you who engage in filesharing copyrighted materials should understand that we will have to comply with any search warrants that are served us by copyright enforcement authorities. New laws such as CALEA imply that all communications over electronic media are subject to archiving and wiretapping, and may be used against you in investigations into criminal or terrorist activities.

We will act to avoid seizure of our equipment because of .criminal. activity. Be warned.

Every Broadband Subscriber is REQUIRED to:

Run current anti-virus and firewalling software, and to maintain its currency. We do not necessarily require any particular brand, but we do seem to have good luck with AVG, available as a free download at free.grisoft.com, or as a paid antivirus and internet security suite at www.grisoft.com. We do NOT endorse any software packages, and do not offer free support for third party software. We will provide such assistance as we can as a help desk service to our customers in good standing.

Use Liveupdate, and autoupdate if you use Microsoft products such as operating systems or internet tools.

You must run spyware detection and removal software. .Ad aware. and .Spybot Search and Destroy. are two packages that I know work to a degree. You must keep your operating system current and up to date with all service packs and patches.

This is not an endorsement of any mentioned software, nor do we underwrite its performance. Software is generally supported by the seller of such software and we are not in a position to support all software.

Hardware routers are also useful in protecting your computer and network, and are also recommended.