Terms of Service

WHEREAS, DreamHost Web Hosting is an information provider connected to the Internet DreamHost Web Hosting offers storage and transfer services over the Internet through access to its Web Server;

WHEREAS, Customer seeks to utilize DreamHost Web Hosting's server for its own purposes;

WHEREAS, the parties acknowledge that the Internet is neither owned nor controlled by any one entity; therefore, DreamHost Web Hosting can make no guarantee that any given reader shall be able to access DreamHost Web Hosting's server at any given time.

DreamHost Web Hosting represents that it shall make every good faith effort to ensure that its server is available as widely as possible and with as little service interruption as possible;

NOW THEREFORE, in consideration of the mutual promises contained herein, the parties agree as follows;

FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS

1. Customer agrees to a thirty (30) day contract minimum (or three (3) or six (6) or twelve (12) or twenty-four (24) month contract depending on length of pre-payment), beginning upon commencement of service.
2. There is a per-plan one time setup fee of $49.95 for all shared hosting packages, and if the customer wishes to cancel DreamHost shared Web Hosting services within ninety-seven (97) days of the initial signup they shall be able to do so for any reason (aside from disablement for Terms of Service or Spam Policy violations) and have their money promptly refunded.
3. At the end of the contract term, the contract will automatically renew for successive thirty (30) day periods (or three (3) or six (6) or twelve (12) or twenty-four (24) month periods, depending on length of pre-payment) indefinitely until canceled in writing or via the web panel. After the first 97 days a canceled account will be canceled before the next payment is due and no more billing will occur nor will any payment be refunded, even for unused portions.
4. "97-Day Money-Back Guarantee" offer only applicable to credit card or Google Checkout payments for shared web hosting. Other forms of payment are non-refundable. Dedicated server payments are non-refundable. Domain registrations (including the value of any used free domain registrations included with the plan) are not refundable under any circumstances. See domain registration agreement for more information.
5. Violations of DreamHost's Terms of Service or Spam Policy may, at DreamHost's discretion, result in immediate and permanent disablement without refund.
6. Disputed charges ("chargebacks") associated with any DreamHost account may, at DreamHost's discretion, result in immediate and permanent disablement.

TAXES

1. DreamHost Web Hosting shall not be liable for any taxes or other fees to be paid in accordance with or related to purchases made from Customer or DreamHost Web Hosting's server. Customer agrees to take full responsibility for all taxes and fees of any nature associated with such products sold.

MATERIAL PRODUCTS

1. Customer will provide DreamHost Web Hosting with material and data in a condition that is "server-ready", which is in a form requiring no additional manipulation on the part of DreamHost Web Hosting. DreamHost Web Hosting shall make no effort to validate this information for content, correctness or usability.
2. Use of DreamHost Web Hosting's service requires a certain level of knowledge in the use of Internet languages, protocols, and software. This level of knowledge varies depending on the anticipated use and desired content of Customer's Webspace by the Customer.
3. The following examples are offered:
   • Web Publishing: requires a knowledge of HTML, properly locating and linking documents, FTPing Webspace contents, Graphics, text, Sound, imagemapping, etc.
   • CGI-Scripts: requires a knowledge of the UNIX environment, TAR & GUNZIP commands, Perl, CShell scripts, permissions, etc.
4. The Customer agrees that he or she has the necessary knowledge to create Customer's Webspace. Customer agrees that it is not the responsibility of DreamHost Web Hosting to provide this knowledge or Customer Support outside of the defined service of DreamHost Web Hosting.
5. DreamHost Web Hosting will exercise no control whatsoever over the content of the information passing through the network.
6. The customer agrees to make use of DreamHost Web Hosting servers primarily for the purpose of hosting a website, and associated email functions. Data uploaded must be primarily for this purpose.. DreamHost Web Hosting servers are not intended as a data backup or archiving service. DreamHost Web Hosting reserves the right to negotiate additional charges with the Customer and/or the discontinuation of the backups/archives at their discretion. If you exceed your allocated transfer bandwidth for a month, you will be billed at the rate of $1 per additional 10GB.
7. Servers are shared with other customers, and as such IRC-related activities or severely CPU intensive CGI scripts (e.g. chat scripts, scripts which have bugs causing them to not close properly after being run, etc.) are not encouraged. Any application that listens for inbound network connections (even if the application would otherwise be allowed) are not permitted. BitTorrent clients, proxy servers/scripts, IRC bots and bouncers (BNC) specifically may not be run on any DreamHost Web Hosting server. If your processes are adversely affecting server performance disproportionately DreamHost Web Hosting reserves the right to negotiate additional charges with the Customer and/or the discontinuation of the offending processes.
8. Customer agrees to not engage in activities pertaining to Black Hat SEO, Spamdexing, and so-called "Scraper sites." These can all have a severely detrimental effect on server performance and are not permitted.
9. The Customer agrees to hold only one (1) active web hosting service plan at any given time with DreamHost Web Hosting. Signing up for multiple plans is grounds for termination of all plans, including the first one, without warning.
10. DreamHost Web Hosting makes no warranties or representations of any kind, whether expressed or implied for the service it is providing. DreamHost Web Hosting also disclaims any warranty of merchant-ability or fitness for a particular purpose and will not be responsible for any damages that may be suffered by the Customer, including loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries or service interruptions by any cause or errors or omissions of the Customer. Use of any information obtained by way of DreamHost Web Hosting is at the Customer's own risk, and DreamHost Web Hosting specifically denies any responsibility for the accuracy or quality of information obtained through its services. Connection speed represents the speed of a connection to and do not represent guarantees of available end to end bandwidth. DreamHost Web Hosting expressly limits its damages to the Customer for any non-accessibility time or other down time to the pro-rata monthly charge during the system unavailability.
11. DreamHost Web Hosting specifically denies any responsibilities for any damages arising as a consequence of such unavailability. In the event that this material is not "Server-ready", DreamHost Web Hosting may, at its option and at any time, reject this material, including but not limited to after it has been put on DreamHost Web Hosting's Server. DreamHost Web Hosting agrees to notify Customer immediately of its refusal of the material and afford Customer the opportunity to amend or modify the material to satisfy the needs and/or requirements of DreamHost Web Hosting. If the Customer fails to modify the material, as directed by DreamHost Web Hosting, within a reasonable period of time, which shall be determined between the parties themselves, the contract shall be deemed to be terminated.
12. All domain names registered through DreamHost or its previous domain registration site, domainitron.com, that are 'parked' or are otherwise not immediately associated with a DreamHost hosting plan will be automatically pointed to a "Coming Soon" web page which informs visitors that the registrant has recently registered their domain name via Dreamhost.com. The Coming Soon web page may be modified at any time by DreamHost without prior notice to you and may include such things as, without limitation, links to additional products and services offered by DreamHost.

TRADEMARKS & COPYRIGHTS

1. Customer warrants that it has the right to use the applicable trademarks, if any.

HARDWARE, EQUIPMENT, & SOFTWARE

1. The customer is responsible for and must provide all telephone, computer, hardware and software equipment and services necessary to access DreamHost Web Hosting.
2. DreamHost Web Hosting makes no representations, warranties or assurances that the Customer's equipment will be compatible with the DreamHost Web Hosting service.

DREAMHOST DEDICATED SERVER STIPULATIONS

1. Bandwidth pricing and measurement frequency is subject to change at DreamHost's discretion. Customers affected by such changes will be notified no less than thirty (30) days in advance by DreamHost Web Hosting.
2. DreamHost is under no obligation to compensate Customer for downtime, whether the downtime be caused by Customer, DreamHost Web Hosting, or DreamHost's upstream providers.
3. Customer agrees that dedicated server payments are NONREFUNDABLE. For example, if Customer submits payment for twelve (12) months of service, service will be provided for twelve (12) months and will not be refunded if customer chooses to discontinue service with DreamHost mid-way through the term.
4. Hardware upgrades to an existing 'platform' (platform defined as a motherboard/chassis combination) will be performed by DreamHost and shall incur an additional one-time labor fee of $100 as well as an increase to Customer's standard monthly rate.
5. DreamHost reserves the right to alter the dedicated server packages advertised on its website at its discretion. DreamHost is not required to upgrade Customers' hardware or bandwidth allocation as a result of a pricing or service package change. There will be an additional charge of $200 associated for any such hardware upgrade requested by Customer. Customer will not be required to upgrade hardware as a result of a pricing change.
6. For managed servers using a "DreamCatcher" monitoring option, DreamHost is responsible for the security of the network, the kernel, and the base operating system (defined as the standard set of debian packages that come installed with the server). DreamHost may take any steps it deems necessary at any time to protect the security of your server (this generally includes applying security patches as well upgrading the entire operating system).
7. For unmanaged servers not using a "DreamCatcher" monitoring option, Customer is responsible for keeping the security of their system up to date. This includes but is not limited to the following requirements:
   • the kernel will be patched within 7 days of any announced security hole relating to the kernel
   • any security patches for all installed software must be applied within 7 days of their general announcement to the security community at large.
   DreamHost is not responsible for notifying unmanaged servers of the need to apply patches. Failure to comply with these requirements is grounds for termination of contract without refund. DreamHost reserves the right to take any action upon unmanaged dedicated servers it deems necessary at any time to protect the security and integrity of DreamHost's network.

AGE

1. The Customer certifies that he or she is at least 18 years of age, or that their parent or legal guardian will act as the "customer" in terms of this contract.

INTERNET ETIQUETTE

1. Electronic forums such as mail distribution lists and Usenet news groups all have expectations regarding subject area and appropriate etiquette for posting. Users of these forums should be considerate of the expectations and sensitivities of others on the network when posting material for electronic distribution. The network resources of DreamHost Web Hosting may not be used to impersonate another person or misrepresent authorization to act on behalf of others or DreamHost Web Hosting. All messages transmitted via DreamHost Web Hosting should correctly identify the sender; users may not alter the attribution of origin in electronic mail messages or posting.
2. Users must not attempt to undermine the security or integrity of computing systems or networks and must not attempt to gain unauthorized access. This includes (but is not limited to) such things as port scanning of either DreamHost or external computers and Denial Of Service attacks of any kind.
3. For more information on acceptable practices for bulk email, the use of copyrighted materials, trademarks, and more, please see http://abuse.dreamhost.com/.

TERMINATION

1. This contract may be terminated by either party, without cause, by giving the other party 30 days written notice. DreamHost Web Hosting will accept termination by electronic mail. Notwithstanding the above, DreamHost Web Hosting may terminate service under this contract at any time, without penalty, if the Customer fails to comply with the terms of this contract, including non-payment. DreamHost Web Hosting reserves the right to charge a reinstatement fee.

LIMITED LIABILITY

1. Customer expressly agrees that use of DreamHost Web Hosting's Server is at Customer's sole risk. Neither DreamHost Web Hosting, its employees, affiliates, agents, third party information providers, merchants licensers or the like, warrant that DreamHost Web Hosting's Server service will not be interrupted or error free; nor do they make any warranty as to the results that may be obtained from the use of the Server service or as to the accuracy, reliability or content of any information service or merchandise contained in or provided through the DreamHost Web Hosting Server service, unless otherwise expressly stated in this contract.
2. Under no circumstances, including negligence, shall DreamHost Web Hosting, its offices, agents or any one else involved in creating, producing or distributing DreamHost Web Hosting's Server service be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages that result from the use of or inability to use the DreamHost Web Hosting Server service; or that results from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, errors, defects, delays in operation, or transmission or any failure of performance, whether or not limited to acts of God, communication failure, theft, destruction or unauthorized access to DreamHost Web Hosting's records, programs or services. Customer hereby acknowledges that this paragraph shall apply to all content on DreamHost Web Hosting's Server service.
3. Notwithstanding the above, Customer's exclusive remedies for all damages, losses and causes of actions whether in contract, tort including negligence or otherwise, shall not exceed the aggregate amount which Customer paid during the term of this contract and any reasonable legal fee and court costs.

LAWFUL PURPOSE

1. Customer may only use DreamHost Web Hosting's Server for lawful purpose. Transmission of any material in violation of any Country, Federal, State or Local regulation is prohibited. To this effect, child pornography is strictly prohibited as well as housing any copyrighted information (to which the customer does not hold the copyright) on DreamHost Web Hosting's Server.
2. Customer agrees to not have any content on their site that advocates, sells or in any way makes available tools or methods to send unsolicited e-mail or usenet postings (spam), or to use DreamHost Web Hosting's Servers for relaying unsolicited e-mail or usenet postings, or to use unsolicited e-mail or usenet postings to advertise for their site hosted at dreamhost. Any complaint we receive about a violation of this or the preceding two points will be taken very seriously and will result in immediate account cancellation without a refund.

INDEMNIFICATION

1. Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold DreamHost Web Hosting harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorneys' fees, ("Liabilities") asserted against DreamHost Web Hosting, its agents, its customers, servants officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by Customer,its agents, employees or assigns. Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless DreamHost Web Hosting against Liabilities arising out of
   • any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with DreamHost Web Hosting's Server;
   • any material supplied by Customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party;
   • copyright infringement;
   • any defective product which Customer sold on DreamHost Web Hosting Server.

CONTRACT REVISIONS

Revisions to this Contract will be applicable to previous Contracts

Revisions will be considered agreed to by the Customer on renewal of service as specified in Section - Financial Arrangements.

TRANSFER

Customer may not transfer this contract without the written consent of DreamHost Web Hosting.

CONTRACT

These Terms and Conditions constitutes the entire Contract and understanding of the parties.

Any changes or modifications to these Terms and Conditions of Contract thereto are agreed to by the both parties upon renewal of services.