Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") defines the rules and requirements for using services provided by Hostry Compute LLC ("Hostry", "we", "us", "our").

This policy applies to all Hostry services and must be read together with the Master Service Agreement. Violation of this policy may result in suspension or termination of services, liquidated damages, and referral to law enforcement.

1. Purpose and Scope

Hostry provides infrastructure and hosting services intended for lawful, responsible and proper technical use.

This policy exists to:

• protect Hostry infrastructure and network integrity;
• protect other customers and upstream providers;
• ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
• define prohibited activities and enforcement measures.

Customers are fully responsible for all activity originating from their services, whether authorized by them or not.

2. General Use Requirements

Customers must use Hostry services:

• in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including those of the United States, the European Union and the customer's own jurisdiction;
• in a manner that does not harm Hostry, other customers or third parties;
• with proper security, access control and system administration practices.

3. Security and System Responsibilities

Customers must, at their own expense:

• maintain secure system configurations;
• apply operating system and software updates in a timely manner;
• protect credentials and access mechanisms;
• prevent unauthorized access, abuse or compromise of their systems.

Failure to maintain basic security standards may be treated as a policy violation. A compromised customer system that is used to attack others is the customer's responsibility.

4. Prohibited Activities

The following are strictly prohibited on Hostry infrastructure. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive.

4.1 Illegal Content and Activities

• hosting, transmitting, distributing or storing content unlawful in any relevant jurisdiction;
• selling, distributing or facilitating access to controlled substances, illegal goods or contraband;
• any content involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of minors;
• pornography, erotic materials and adult content sites;
• resources promoting terrorism or separatism;
• distribution or advertising of banned substances;
• activities violating applicable United States, European Union or local law.

4.2 Fraud, Deception and Misrepresentation

• phishing, scams and fraudulent schemes of any type;
• pyramid and Ponzi investment schemes;
• impersonation of individuals or organizations;
• misrepresentation of identity, ownership, business affiliation, or the nature of content or services provided;
• storing or delivering content that is fraudulent or misleading, or that promotes deceptive services or products.

4.3 Intellectual Property Infringement

• illegal distribution of software, audio and video productions;
• distribution of keygens, cracks and other tools for software hacking;
• circumvention of copyright protection, licensing systems or other intellectual property safeguards;
• cardsharing and unauthorized redistribution of subscription television signals;
• storing, distributing or referencing domain names for material protected by trademark, copyright, patent or other intellectual property right without the owner's authorization.

Copyright claims are processed under the DMCA Procedures.

4.4 Malware and Security Violations

• creation, transmission or distribution of viruses, ransomware, trojans, worms, spyware, adware or similar harmful code;
• unauthorized access, penetration or intrusion into any system, network, account or data;
• scanning, probing, penetration testing or similar security testing without Hostry's express prior written authorization;
• operating services for port scanning or vulnerability searching;
• operation of botnets or command-and-control infrastructure, or any resource related to botnets.

4.5 Network Abuse and Service Disruption

• initiating, participating in or facilitating denial-of-service (DoS or DDoS) attacks;
• traffic flooding, resource exhaustion or mail bombing;
• forging or manipulating IP packet headers, email headers or protocol identifiers, including spoofing or falsifying routing information;
• bypassing, evading or interfering with service limitations, usage quotas, rate limits or other technical restrictions imposed by Hostry;
• transmitting any content that may cause harm to the Hostry network, equipment or other users.

4.6 Open Proxies and Anonymization Services

Operation of the following is prohibited unless expressly approved in writing by Hostry:

• open proxies;
• open mail relays;
• anonymization gateways;
• Tor exit nodes or similar services.

This restriction does not apply to VPN services purchased from Hostry and used for their intended lawful purpose.

4.7 Unsolicited Communications (Anti-Spam)

Hostry services must not be used to send, distribute or facilitate:

• unsolicited bulk email, SMS, instant messages or social media messages ("spam");
• communications sent without explicit, verifiable opt-in consent from recipients;
• mailing lists, contact lists or databases that have not been validated through a confirmed opt-in process;
• promotional communications advertising Hostry services or any third-party services through spam or other unsolicited messaging;
• email messages with forged header information, or messages otherwise indicating that Hostry was involved in the distribution of such material;
• spam sent from a third-party network not under Hostry's control that advertises or refers recipients to content stored, delivered or made available on the Hostry network.

Spam-related violations may result in immediate suspension and liquidated damages as set out in Section 7.

4.8 Cryptocurrency Mining and Excessive Resource Use

• cryptocurrency mining, blockchain hashing, proof-of-work operations and other high-intensity computational processes are not permitted unless expressly approved in writing by Hostry;
• on shared and virtual services, applications generating a constant CPU load above 80% are prohibited. This restriction does not apply to dedicated servers.

Unauthorized mining constitutes a material breach of this policy.

5. Sanctions and Restricted Jurisdictions

Hostry operates in compliance with applicable sanctions, export control and trade restriction laws, including regulations administered by United States (OFAC, BIS), European Union, United Kingdom (OFSI) and United Nations authorities. Use of Hostry services is prohibited where it would violate those laws.

5.1 Restricted Jurisdictions

Hostry services may not be ordered, accessed, used or made available, directly or indirectly, by individuals or entities located in, organized under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in the following jurisdictions, or any other jurisdiction subject to comprehensive sanctions:

• Cuba
• Iran
• North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)
• Syria
• Sudan, where applicable under current sanctions regimes
• Crimea region of Ukraine
• Donetsk region of Ukraine
• Luhansk region of Ukraine

This list is updated in accordance with changes to applicable sanctions regulations. Services may also be unavailable where the customer is located, resident or registered in an unrecognized territory.

5.2 Sanctioned Persons and Entities

Use of Hostry services is prohibited if the customer, or any beneficial owner, controller or user of the services:

• appears on any applicable sanctions or restricted persons list, including the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List, the OFAC Sectoral Sanctions Identifications (SSI) List, the EU Consolidated Sanctions List, the UK OFSI Consolidated List, or the BIS Entity List or Denied Persons List;
• is owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a sanctioned person or entity;
• acts on behalf of or for the benefit of a sanctioned person, entity or jurisdiction.

5.3 Prohibited Transfers and Re-Exports

Customers must not export, re-export, resell, sublicense or otherwise make Hostry services available to restricted jurisdictions or sanctioned persons; provide access credentials or technical control of services to prohibited parties; or route traffic in a manner intended to conceal the true location or identity of users.

5.4 Circumvention Prohibited

Customers must not attempt to circumvent sanctions or geographic restrictions, including by using VPNs, proxies, anonymization services or routing manipulation to mask location; falsifying account, billing or identity information; or using intermediaries to indirectly access services.

5.5 Enforcement and No Refunds

Where a sanctions or export control risk is identified or reasonably suspected, Hostry may, without prior notice, suspend or terminate services, restrict account functionality, refuse new orders or renewals, and permanently delete services and associated data. No refunds, credits or service restoration are provided for actions taken to comply with sanctions or export control obligations.

6. Enforcement Actions

Hostry may take protective or enforcement action including traffic filtering or blocking, rate limiting or blackholing, service suspension or termination, and permanent deletion of services and data.

The procedure depends on the category of violation:

• Critical Violations — child sexual abuse material, botnets, terrorism or separatism, phishing or manifest fraud. Services are cancelled and the account blocked immediately and without prior notification. A statement of reasons is provided no later than the date the restriction is imposed, except where prohibited by law enforcement or judicial order.
• Standard Violations — all other violations, including intellectual property claims and excessive resource use. A formal notification is issued first, with a reasonable period to remedy the violation voluntarily before any restriction is applied.

Full detail on statements of reasons, redress and the treatment of frequent offenders is set out in the EU Digital Services Act Disclosures and in Section 7 of the Master Service Agreement.

7. Liquidated Damages

Certain violations may cause substantial harm to Hostry, other customers and upstream providers in amounts difficult to quantify. In lieu of actual damages, Hostry may assess liquidated damages:

• USD 5.00 per unsolicited message for each instance of unsolicited bulk communication;
• USD 500.00 per occurrence for each discrete violation not tied to a specific number of messages, including network abuse, operation of open proxies, malware distribution and security violations;
• additional charges to cover penalties or fees imposed on Hostry by carriers, datacenters or anti-abuse networks as a result of the customer's actions.

Payment of liquidated damages is in addition to Hostry's right to suspend or terminate services or pursue other remedies.

8. Cooperation Obligations

Customers must cooperate with abuse investigations by responding to requests for information, providing logs or technical details when requested, and taking corrective action in a timely manner. Failure to cooperate may result in suspension or termination of services.

9. Relationship to Other Policies

Certain matters are handled under separate policies:

• abuse complaints — Abuse Reports Processing Policy;
• copyright claims — DMCA Procedures;
• law enforcement requests — Law Enforcement Requests;
• notices of illegal content from EU users — EU Digital Services Act Disclosures;
• data handling — Privacy Policy and Data Processing Agreement.

This policy does not override legally binding court orders or regulatory obligations.

10. Updates to This Policy

This policy may be updated to reflect legal or regulatory changes, operational requirements, or security and infrastructure changes. Hostry reserves the right to add to the list of prohibited activities. The effective date at the top of this page indicates the latest revision. Continued use of Hostry services constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact

Questions about acceptable use, and reports of potential violations, should be sent to abuse@hostry.com or submitted through the Portal ticket system. Informal inquiries sent via unrelated channels may not be processed.