BluDog Telecom Inc. Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) identifies and sets forth some requirements and restrictions on the use by Customer of the Service provided by BluDog Telecom Inc. (“BluDog”) and is incorporated by reference in the Voice over IP Terms of Service Agreement between BluDog Telecom Inc. and Customer. Customer must review and comply with the AUP laws and guidelines, however, this AUP is not intended to be (i) interpreted as, relied upon, or used as a substitute for the advice of legal counsel, (ii) or considered to be a complete and exhaustive list of all laws and regulations applicable to Customer’s use of the Service. In addition to the below laws, various other state and foreign laws may apply to Customer’s use of the Service. Each Customer is advised to obtain the advice of its own legal counsel before using the Service.

Customer’s access to the Service may be restricted, suspended or terminated for violation of this AUP, at BluDog’s sole and absolute discretion.

BluDog reserves the right to change or modify the terms of the AUP at any time, effective immediately when posted to the BluDog website. Customer’s use of the Service after changes to the AUP are posted to the BluDog website shall constitute acceptance of any changed or additional terms.

BluDog maintains a zero-tolerance policy for any violation of this AUP and requires that its Customers implement and enforce this same zero-tolerance policy.

Capitalized terms used in this AUP shall have the meaning as given in Customer’s Voice over IP Terms of Service Agreement.

1 General Statement

BluDog is dedicated to the use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Unified Communications and related technologies to improve the telecommunications industry and the lives of individuals throughout the world.

BluDog’s goal is to deliver carrier-grade communications services to all its Customers, at a reasonable price and to make available all the benefits that VoIP offers as broadly as possible. In order to achieve this goal, an Acceptable Use Policy is necessary.

2 Abuse

Customer may not use the BluDog Service to engage in, foster, or promote illegal, abusive, or irresponsible behavior, including but not limited to:

  1. Restricted Content.
    Any purpose prohibited by applicable international, federal, state or local law, rule or regulation (which laws may impose more stringent requirements than the guidelines described herein).

    1. Child pornography
    2. Unlawful gambling activities
    3. Threats, harassment and abuse of any individual or organization
    4. Fraudulent activities
    5. Terroristic or other solicitations advocating human violence and/or hate crimes based upon religion, ethnicity, or country of origin.
    6. Unlawful high yield investment plans (Ponzi schemes)
  2. Run public internet relay chat services
  3. Collect information by deceit, including but not limited to internet scamming, password theft, phishing, security hole scanning and port scanning
  4. Using any false, misleading, or deceptive TCP or UDP packet header or any part of the header information in an email or a newsgroup posting
  5. Any manner which is in breach of the IFFOR (International Foundation for Online Responsibility) policies or registering an abusive string in the sTLD
  6. Generate, or allowing others to generate, calls, emails or data activity causing Nuisance Calls, AIT (Artificial Inflation of Traffic), SPAM or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email), also described as Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE), unless permitted by law.
  7. Complies (where applicable) with policies of any internet registry or registrar, including RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre [RIPE NCC]) policies as updated and amended on the RIPE website at www.ripe.net from time to time
  8. Unwanted calls which cause annoyance to the receiver or hoax calls of an offensive, spiteful, abusive, indecent, defamatory, obscene, or menacing nature including unauthorized or ‟spam” Calls and ‟silent” Calls as defined by Ofcom in its “Statement of policy on the persistent misuse of an electronic communications service” published 20 December 2016, and any subsequent update.
  9. FCC and FTC Rules and Regulations – United States
    Using the Service for auto-dialing, robocalls, telemarketing, high volume fax, text messaging, voicemail broadcasting or call “blasting” or any other transmission that violates any provision of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) National Do Not Call Implementation Act (DNCIA), the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), or other Federal regulatory protections.
  10. Use of the Service in any way that is defamatory, libelous, or invasive of another’s privacy, or any similar behavior.
  11. Collecting or using information without the consent of the owner of the information, including without limitation collecting email addresses, screen names or other identifiers (sometimes referred to as phishing, scamming, password robbery, spidering, and data harvesting).
  12. Any conduct that is likely to result in retaliation against BluDog or BluDog employees, officers, representatives, or other agents.
  13. Any conduct that results in retaliation against BluDog, which includes but is not limited to engaging in behavior that results in any virus, malicious software (malware), ransomware or hacking being implemented against BluDog, or any BluDog server or firewall being the target of a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) or any other technological cyberattack.
  14. US Congressional CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
    Customer must comply with the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) of 2003 and other laws and regulations applicable to bulk or commercial email in regards to the BluDog Service or any third party products and/or services connected to or utilized with the Service.
  15. Customer must comply with the rules and conventions for postings to any BluDog forum, chat group or other newsgroup medium in which BluDog participates. This includes the prohibition of off-topic commercial messages, mass postings, or any other content deemed offensive, derogatory or inappropriate, and BluDog reserves the right to remove or edit content or users, at its sole discretion.
  16. Fair Use
    BluDog unlimited usage plans are for normal use and are plan specific. Normal, reasonable use on BluDog unlimited plans must be in accordance with the Acceptable Use Policy, located at www.BluDog Telecom.com/aup and the applicable Sales Order, and consistent with the types and levels of usage by typical Customers on the same plan. “Typical” refers to the calling and connection patterns of at least 98% of BluDog’s customers on the same business plan. Excessive or unauthorized use beyond that normally experienced by BluDog’s customers, in BluDog’s sole and absolute discretion, may result in unlimited usage plan service termination. Prior to taking such action, BluDog will attempt to contact the Customer to discuss the cause for the excessive or abusive use and the required remediation to continue the Service. Should unlimited usage plan service be terminated, usage will be billed at the current prevailing rate as provided by contacting the BluDog sales department and requesting the current rate(s).

    1. BluDog may determine that abnormal, unreasonable or impermissible usage is occurring, and may take appropriate steps, including suspension or termination of Service, even if the number of minutes or bandwidth used is not excessive, when a Customer’s usage or connection patterns during more than one month reflect excessive usage, including but not limited to :
    2. call lengths;
    3. frequency of call forwarding/transferring;
    4. short duration calls;
    5. number of calls made during a month;
    6. number of calls made to a 3rd party conference calling service during a month;
    7. number of calls terminated and re-initiated consecutively, which, in the aggregate, result in excessive call lengths during a specific time frame; or
    8. other calling patterns indicative of an attempt to evade enforcement of this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
    9. In addition, unlimited usage plans cannot, under any circumstances, be used for call centers, continuous or extensive call forwarding, autodialing (including automatic outbound dialing systems or call distribution systems), telemarketing (including without limitation charitable or political solicitation and/or polling), transcription services, fax “blasting”, junk faxing or fax spamming, broadcast fax, ANI or CLI spoofing or other high volume or multi-person calling or faxing purposes.

3 IP Addresses

Customer agrees that if the IP Numbers utilized for Customer’s account are listed on an abuse database Customer will be in violation of this AUP, and BluDog may take reasonable action to protect its Service, including suspension and/or termination of Customer’s Service, regardless of whether the IP numbers were listed on an abuse database as a result of Customer’s actions.

4 Copyrighted Material

Customer may not use the BluDog Services to download, distribute or otherwise use in any manner any music, audio, text or other works protected by copyright law unless Customer has been expressly authorized by the owner of the copyright or otherwise permitted by established copyright law for said use.

5 Intellectual Property Rights – Trademarks/Service Marks

Any and all marks are and shall remain the exclusive property of BluDog, its Suppliers and/or their Affiliates, as the case may be, and BluDog grants Customer a limited license to reproduce the marks only to the extent expressly provided for in the Voice over IP Terms of Service Agreement. Customer shall not perform any act that would infringe upon, harm or contest the validity of any mark or rights therein or hinder or prevent BluDog, its Suppliers and/or their Affiliates from utilizing, licensing or sublicensing the marks in any manner, nor use, alter or exploit in any manner any of the marks, except in such manner and media as BluDog may consent to in writing. Customer acknowledges that any right to use the marks is conditioned upon Customer’s observance of the provisions of the Voice over IP Terms of Service Agreement and this AUP regarding Intellectual Property Rights and the marketing of the Service. Customer shall display the marks in accordance with BluDog’s guidelines for using trademarks as in effect from time to time and as provided to Customer upon BluDog receiving request, in writing. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any change by Customer, its Suppliers or any of their Affiliates to the marks guidelines which affects Customer’s usage shall not apply retroactively to Customer’s past usage which conformed with the then current guidelines and BluDog shall permit Customer a reasonable period of time in which to conform with the new guidelines. BluDog retains the right to specify and approve the quality and standards of all materials on which the marks are displayed and to inspect from time to time samples of such materials. If requested by BluDog, additional agreements and conditions regarding manufacture and quality control will be set forth in a separate Addendum to the Voice over IP Terms of Service Agreement. Failure of Customer to adhere to such standards of quality as provided herein shall be grounds for BluDog to terminate Customer’s rights to use such marks and to terminate the Voice over IP Terms of Service Agreement. All advertising and other promotional, packaging and similar materials used by Customer concerning BluDog Service shall bear such trademark notices and legends as BluDog may reasonably require pursuant to this AUP.

6 Links from the Website

If the BluDog website contains links to other websites and/or resources provided by third parties (including but not limited to downloads of any kind), these links and resources are provided for Customer’s convenience only. This includes links contained in advertisements, including banner advertisements and sponsored links. BluDog has no control over the content of those sites or resources and accepts no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from Customer’s use of them. If Customer decides to access any of the third-party websites linked to the BluDog’s website, Customer does so entirely at their own risk and is subject to the Voice over IP Terms of Service Agreement on use of such websites.

7 Disclaimer of Warranties

Customer understands that BluDog cannot and does not guarantee or warrant that files available for downloading from the internet or the BluDog website will be free of viruses or other destructive code. To the fullest extent allowed by law, BLUDOG WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY A DISTRIBUTED DENIAL-OF-SERVICE ATTACK, VIRUSES, OR OTHER TECHNOLOGICALLY HARMFUL MATERIAL THAT MAY INFECT YOUR COMPUTER EQUIPMENT, COMPUTER PROGRAMS, DATA, OR OTHER PROPRIETARY MATERIAL DUE TO YOUR USE OF THE BLUDOG WEBSITE, OR ANY SERVICE OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE WEBSITE OR TO YOUR DOWNLOADING OF ANY MATERIAL POSTED ON IT, OR ON ANY WEBSITE LINKED TO IT. Customer’s use of the BluDog website, its contents, and any services or items obtained through the BluDog website is solely at Customer’s own risk. The website, its contents, and any services or items obtained through the website are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without any warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Neither BluDog nor any person associated with BluDog makes any warranty or representation with respect to the completeness, security, reliability, quality, accuracy, or availability of the BluDog website. Without limiting the foregoing, neither BluDog nor any person associated with BluDog represents or warrants that the BluDog website, its contents, and any services or items obtained through the BluDog website will be accurate, reliable, error-free, or uninterrupted, that defects will be corrected, that the BluDog website or the server(s) that makes the BluDog website available are free of viruses or other harmful components, or that the BluDog website or any services or items obtained through the website will otherwise meet Customer’s needs or expectations. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PROVIDED BY LAW, BLUDOG HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

8 Indemnification

Customer agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless BluDog and its respective officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents and representatives against all damages, claims, liabilities, judgements, awards, losses and other expenses, including without limitation reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, whether or not a lawsuit or other proceeding is filed, arising out of or relating to Customer’s violation of this Acceptable Use Policy.

9 Inquiries

Inquiries regarding this AUP should be directed to our Legal Department at legal@bludogtelecom.com.

10 Complaints about Abuse or Breach of the AUP

If you wish to inform BluDog Telecom about a breach of this AUP please contact a BluDog representative at 805-647-3319 or email our Legal Department at legal@bludogtelecom.com.

11 Best Practices

Customer must follow all relevant industry guidelines, standards and best practices, such as those provided by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Society (ISOC) when utilizing the BluDog Service. Customer may purchase professional services from BluDog if Customer is unclear as to best practices for the Service.

12 Compliance

BluDog may test and otherwise monitor Customer’s compliance with all these requirements. Customer’s access to the BluDog Service may be restricted, suspended or terminated for violation of this AUP, at BluDog’s sole and absolute discretion. Any failure to enforce this policy in every instance does not amount to a waiver of BluDog’s rights.

This AUP was last updated December 2022.