Internet Acceptable Use Policy

INTRODUCTION

Cable One/Sparklight provides a variety of Internet services to residences and businesses (the "Services"). The Cable One/Sparklight residential service allows subscribers to connect to the Internet through a high-speed Internet access connection. The Services use resources that are shared with many other customers and each user benefits by being able to share these resources. However, as with any resource, the benefits provided must be balanced with duties and responsibilities so that all users can rely on them for a productive experience. Use of the Services, therefore, is subject to the rules and guidelines set forth below. Each customer of Cable One/Sparklight is responsible for ensuring that the use of all Services provided to such customer complies with this Acceptable Use Policy (the "Policy"). ANY USER WHO DOES NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS SHOULD IMMEDIATELY STOP USE OF THE SERVICES AND NOTIFY THE CABLE ONE/SPARKLIGHT CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT SO THAT THE USER'S ACCOUNT MAY BE CLOSED.

I. PROHIBITED USES AND ACTIVITIES

Cable One/Sparklight provides a variety of Internet services to residences and businesses (the "Services"). The Cable One/Sparklight residential service allows subscribers to connect to the Internet through a high-speed Internet access connection. The Services use resources that are shared with many other customers and each user benefits by being able to share these resources. However, as with any resource, the benefits provided must be balanced with duties and responsibilities so that all users can rely on them for a productive experience. Use of the Services, therefore, is subject to the rules and guidelines set forth below. Each customer of Cable One/Sparklight is responsible for ensuring that the use of all Services provided to such customer complies with this Acceptable Use Policy (the "Policy"). ANY USER WHO DOES NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS SHOULD IMMEDIATELY STOP USE OF THE SERVICES AND NOTIFY THE CABLE ONE/SPARKLIGHT CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT SO THAT THE USER'S ACCOUNT MAY BE CLOSED.

In general, the Policy prohibits uses and activities involving the Service that are illegal, infringe the rights of others, interfere with or diminish the use and enjoyment of the Service by others, or impede Cable One/Sparklight from providing the Service or operating its business. These prohibited uses and activities include, but are not limited to, using the Services, customer-provided equipment, or Cable One/Sparklight-provided equipment, either individually or in combination with one another, to:

Conduct and information restrictions

• undertake or accomplish any unlawful purpose;
• upload, download, post, store, send, transmit, or disseminate any information or material which is harassing, threatening, or intimidating;
• upload, download, post, publish, transmit, reproduce, or in any other way infringe copyrights of third parties;
• transmit unsolicited bulk or commercial messages commonly known as "spam;"
• collect responses from unsolicited bulk messages;
• send very large numbers of copies of the same or substantially similar messages, empty messages, or messages which contain no substantive content, or send very large messages or files that disrupts a server, account, newsgroup, or chat service;
• collect very large numbers of e-mail addresses, screen names, or other identifiers of others (without their prior consent), a practice sometimes known as spidering or harvesting, or participate in the use of software (including "spyware") designed to facilitate this activity;
• falsify, alter, or remove message headers with an intent to deceive;
• falsify references to Cable One/Sparklight or its network, by name or other identifier, in messages;
• impersonate any person or entity, engage in sender address falsification, forge anyone else's digital or manual signature, or perform any other similar fraudulent activity (for example, "phishing");
• violate the rules, regulations, or policies applicable to any network, server, computer database, or Website that you access;

Technical restrictions

• access any other person's computer or computer system, network, software, or data without his or her knowledge and consent; breach the security of another user or system; or attempt to circumvent the user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or making use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other hosts, networks, or accounts without express permission to do so;
• use or distribute tools or devices designed or used for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, decoders, password gatherers, unauthorized keystroke loggers, analyzers, cracking tools, packet sniffers, encryption circumvention devices, or Trojan Horse programs. Unauthorized port scanning is strictly prohibited;
• distribute programs that make unauthorized changes to software (cracks);
• use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network ("Premises LAN"), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, e-mail, Web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers;
• use or run programs from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises LAN, except for personal and non-commercial residential use;
• service, alter, modify, or tamper with Cable One/Sparklight Equipment or Service or permit any other person to do the same who is not authorized by Cable One/Sparklight;

Network and Usage Restrictions

• restrict, inhibit, or otherwise interfere with the ability of any other person, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to use or enjoy the Service, including, without limitation, posting or transmitting any information or software which contains a worm, virus, or other harmful feature, or generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others' ability to use, send, or retrieve information;
• restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or otherwise disrupt or cause a performance degradation, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to the Service or any Cable One/Sparklight (or Cable One/Sparklight supplier) host, server, backbone network, node or service, or otherwise cause a performance degradation to any Cable One/Sparklight (or Cable One/Sparklight supplier) facilities used to deliver the Service;
• resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Premises the ability to use the Service (for example, through Wi-Fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly. The Service is for personal and non-commercial residential use only and you agree not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider or for any business enterprise or purpose (whether or not for profit);
• connect the Cable One/Sparklight Equipment to any computer outside of your Premises;
• interfere with computer networking or telecommunications service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, denial of service attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service, improper seizing and abusing operator privileges, and attempts to "crash" a host;
• access and use the Service with anything other than a dynamic Internet Protocol ("IP") address that adheres to the dynamic host configuration protocol ("DHCP"). You may not configure the Service or any related equipment to access or use a static IP address or use any protocol other than DHCP unless you are subject to a Service plan that expressly permits you to do so;
• engage in Excessive Use, as defined below.

II. CUSTOMER CONDUCT AND FEATURES OF THE SERVICE

What are your obligations under this Policy?

You are responsible for any misuse of the Services that you have contracted for, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a friend, family member, guest, employee or customer with access to your account. Therefore, you should take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access to the Services and ensure that users you have authorized do not engage in any of the "Prohibited Uses and Activities" identified above.

You are solely responsible for the security of any device you choose to connect to the Services, including any data stored on that device. In particular, Cable One/Sparklight recommends against enabling file or printer sharing of any sort. Cable One/Sparklight recommends that any files or services you do choose to make available for remote access be protected with a strong password, personal firewall or as otherwise appropriate.

How Does Cable One/Sparklight address inappropriate content and transmissions?

There may be content on the Internet or otherwise available through the Services which may be offensive to some individuals, or which may not be in compliance with all federal, state and local laws, regulations and other rules. For example, it is possible to obtain access to content which is harassing, threatening, intimidating, pornographic or offensive, particularly to children. Cable One/Sparklight does not assume any responsibility for the content contained on the Internet or otherwise available through the Services. You must assume the risk of accessing content through the Service and Cable One/Sparklight shall not have any liability for any claims, losses, actions, damages, suits or proceedings arising out of or otherwise relating to access to such content. Parents may want to use a program capable of restricting access to sexually explicit material on the Internet. Content questions or complaints should be addressed to the content provider. You are solely responsible for any information which you publish on the web or other Internet services. You must ensure that the recipient of the content is appropriate. For example, you must take appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving inappropriate content. Cable One/Sparklight reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be offensive, indecent, or otherwise inappropriate regardless of whether such material or its dissemination is unlawful. Cable One/Sparklight does not have any obligation to monitor transmissions made on the Services. However, Cable One/Sparklight does have the right to monitor such transmissions from time to time and to disclose the same in accordance with your subscriber agreement. By using the Services to reproduce, publish, display, transmit and distribute content, a user is warranting that the content complies with this Policy and authorizing Cable One/Sparklight to reproduce, publish, display, transmit and distribute such content as necessary for Cable One/Sparklight to deliver the content in a timely manner.

What requirements apply to Electronic Mail?

The Services may not be used to or distribute e-mail or other forms of communications in violation of the "Prohibited Uses and Activities" described above. This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, charity requests, petitions for signatures and political or religious messages. Such messages may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested them. The Services may not be used to send messages to any individual who has indicated that he/she does not wish to receive messages from you. The Services may not be used to collect responses from unsolicited email sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or email services which violates this Policy or the acceptable use policy of any other Internet service provider. Moreover, unsolicited email may not direct the recipient to any website or other resource which uses the Services. You may not create a username or email address that, in the sole judgment of Cable One/Sparklight, is pornographic, patently offensive or misleading. You may not reference the Cable One/Sparklight network (e.g., by including "Organization: Cable One/Sparklight " in the header or by listing an IP address that belongs to the Cable One network) in any unsolicited email even if that email is not sent through the Cable One/Sparklight network. In the event that Cable One/Sparklight believes in its sole discretion that any subscriber name, account name, or e-mail address (collectively, an "identifier") on the Service may be used for, or is being used for, any misleading, fraudulent, or other improper or illegal purpose, Cable One/Sparklight (i) reserves the right to block access to and prevent the use of any of these identifiers, and (ii) may at any time require any customer to change his or her identifier. Cable One/Sparklight may at any time reserve any identifiers on the Service for Cable One/Sparklight's own purposes. Cable One/Sparklight is not responsible for the forwarding of email sent to any account which has been suspended or terminated. Such email will be returned to sender, ignored, deleted, or stored temporarily at Cable One/Sparklight's sole discretion. Cable One/Sparklight is not responsible for deleting or forwarding any e-mail sent to the wrong e-mail address by you or by someone else trying to send e-mail to you. In addition, Cable One/Sparklight may suspend or delete a Cable One/Sparklight email address after three (3) months of inactivity or other evidence of non-use.

What requirements apply to instant, video, and audio messages?

Each user is responsible for the contents of his or her instant, video, and audio messages and the consequences of any of these messages. Cable One/Sparklight assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, misdelivery or deletion of, or any failure to store, these messages. In the event that a Service account is terminated for any reason, all instant, video, and audio messages associated with that account (and any secondary accounts) will be permanently deleted as well.

III. NETWORK MANAGEMENT AND LIMITATIONS ON BANDWIDTH CONSUMPTION

The Cable One/Sparklight network is designed for typical usage by a typical residential computer user. Computer activity resulting in excessive or sustained bandwidth consumption may burden the network and such usage may be restricted. Bandwidth on our network is a limited, shared resource among subscribers. Because we seek to provide the Service at a reasonable cost to the largest number of users, the use of our network is subject to usage limitations. Therefore, users must comply with the current bandwidth, data throughput, and other limitations on the Service, including the excessive use guidelines described below. Users must ensure their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, or degrade any other user's use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole but reasonable judgment of Cable One/Sparklight) an unusually large burden on the network itself. In addition, users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, disrupt, degrade or impede Cable One/Sparklight's ability to deliver the Service and monitor the Services, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

How does Cable One/Sparklight manage its Network?

Cable One/Sparklight strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among hundreds of thousands of customers.

Cable One/Sparklight may use tools and techniques to manage its network, deliver the Service, and ensure compliance with this Policy and the Subscriber Agreement. These tools and techniques are dynamic, like the network and its usage, and can and do change frequently. For example, these network management activities may include (i) identifying spam and preventing its delivery to customer e-mail accounts, (ii) detecting malicious Internet traffic and preventing the distribution of viruses or other harmful code or content, (iii) limiting speeds during periods of extended congestion, (iv) requiring an upgrade or purchase of a different Internet service and (v) using other tools or techniques that Cable One/Sparklight may be required to implement in order to meet its goal of delivering the best broadband Internet experience to all its customers.

How does Cable One/Sparklight track usage?

We collect data on customer traffic pattern usage through the use of traffic management software. Cable One/Sparklight reserves the right to conduct tests to improve network security, to enhance the performance of our network, and to determine whether to make available new service offerings. These technical tests are performed almost continuously and without notice.

Users may also monitor their bandwidth usage in the MyBandwidth section of http://myaccount.cableone.net

What is Excessive Use?

Excessive use means bandwidth or data usage that is significantly higher than typical usage for which our network is designed. Excessive Users consume so much data that their usage could negatively impact the Service provided to other customers.