This document outlines the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy between:
1. ICDSoft LLC, registered in Sofia, Europe, with Court Decision 6254 from year 2002, company registration ID 130948460, with headquarters in Sofia, 39-41 Cvetna Gradina Str.
and
2. You (the customer), with the details/data provided on the order/registration page
Content
All services provided by ICDSoft may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data, or material in violation of any United States Federal, State, or City law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, material that is threatening or obscene, "adult only" content material, or material, protected by trade secrets and other statute.
Note: Pornography and sex-related merchandising are prohibited. This includes sexual content or direct links to adult content hosted elsewhere. Sites promoting any illegal activity, violence, or content that may be damaging to our servers or any other server, or links to such sites are also prohibited. Examples of non-acceptable content or links are:
Pirated software or copyrighted MP3 files
Adult content (in any form)
ICDSoft will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.
File sharing services
Anonymous file sharing services are not allowed on any of our servers.
File sharing services are allowed on VPS servers, as long as they do not support anonymous uploads. For shared servers, file sharing services are allowed for personal and business use only. ICDSoft reserves its right to revise the operation of each file sharing service run on a shared hosting account, and refuse service for it, if deemed necessary.
ICDSoft Account Panel
By placing an order through the website ("www.icdsoft.com"), a customer account will be created for the client, giving access to a service management interface - "ICDSoft Account Panel" (also referred to as "ICDSoft Reseller Panel", "ICDSoft Reseller Account Panel"), which allows management and control of services purchased from ICDSoft.com.
The interface also allows participation in the ICDSoft Partner Programs, known as "ICDSoft Affiliate Program" and "ICDSoft Reseller Program".
Refund policy
For shared hosting services with annual billing, ICDSoft offers an unconditional 100-day money-back guarantee. If the customer wishes to cancel a hosting account on a shared server within the initial 100-day period for any reason, he/she has to notify ICDSoft by e-mail at accountmanager@icdsoft.com or via а ticket posted through the ICDSoft Account Panel, and the payment will be promptly refunded. Since all domain registrations are irreversible and non-refundable, they will be subject to an annual registration fee for a separate/standalone domain, according to the Domain pricing list. Therefore, if the customer purchased a hosting account with a domain registration, the domain registration fee will be deducted from the refund amount. As the customer is the sole owner of the registered domain name, arrangements can be made to transfer its registration to another provider.
For hosting services with monthly billing, ICDSoft offers a 15-day money-back guarantee, for the initial term of service only.
No partial or prorated refunds are offered after the initial money-back guarantee period.
If a customer disputes a setup / renewal charge for any account, ICDSoft will not re-activate the service, unless the customer covers all fees involved, including the chargeback fee and any other transaction fees.
Accounts terminated due to policy violations will not be refunded.
The purpose of the money-back guarantee is to allow customers enough time to test ICDSoft hosting services, and/or to be able to reverse possible erroneous payments. ICDSoft reserves the right to refuse cancellation requests, in cases of a repeating abuse of the money-back guarantee policy - e.g. opening and refunding an account and then opening it again, or making too many cancellation requests for the mere purpose of using a free hosting service.
Account renewal policy
ICDSoft does not renew accounts automatically. For the customer's convenience, ICDSoft will send renewal reminders to the contact email address on file for the corresponding hosting account. The customer is ultimately responsible for renewing the hosting account through one of the options given by ICDSoft.
The schedule of these reminders and the events related to the expiration of various services are described on the Hosting Services Expiration and Renewal page.
Customers are not allowed to open a second hosting account for a domain that is already hosted through ICDSoft. If the customer wants to continue hosting the specified domain with ICDSoft, he/she needs to renew the account using one of the renewal options given by ICDSoft.
Domain registration policy
The pricing of the domain registration services with ICDSoft are defined in the Domain pricing list.
ICDSoft registers .EU domain names at EURid, and .HK, .COM.HK, .NET.HK, .ORG.HK, .IDV.HK, and .EDU.HK domain names at domain.net.hk. For details on these registrations check the sections below. ICDSoft registers the rest of the top level domains at the ICANN-accredited registrar Enom Inc. Therefore, all such domain names are a subject of the Domain Registration Agreement of Enom Inc.
If you register domain(s) with ICDSoft, or transfer an existing domain registration, you must be acquainted with the Registration Agreement of Enom Inc.: http://www.enom.com/terms/agreement.asp
By registering/transferring a domain at ICDSoft, you confirm that you have read, and you agree with the Registration Agreement of Enom Inc.
Premium domains
Some Top Level Domains (such as .BIZ and .CLUB) support the so-called premium domains option. ICDSoft does not register premium domains. However, the premium status of a domain is decided by the registry, and the status of an existing domain can be switched to premium before renewal. This results in an increased renewal fee for the domain. ICDSoft passes the domain renewal fee directly to the customer.
SSL certificates
ICDSoft provides both free and commercial SSL certificates issued by third parties. The free SSL certificates are issued by Let's Encrypt, and the commercial certificates are issued by Geotrust and Sectigo. All certificates provided by ICDSoft are domain-validated (DV), meaning that for an SSL certificate to be issued for a certain domain, the SSL issuer would need proof of control over the domain. Details about the issuance, approval, installation, renewal processes and use cases of different certificates follow.
Free SSL certificates by Let's Encrypt provided by ICDSoft
The customer can enable free SSL certificates issued by Let's Encrypt via their hosting Control Panel. These certificates are intended to be used only on ICDSoft servers.
To have a Let's Encrypt certificate issued for a particular domain/hostname, the customer must make sure that the domain/hostname points to the correct server by having its DNS (name servers and/or corresponding A records) pointed accordingly. Wildcard SSL certificates by Let's Encrypt can be enabled only if the domain is pointed to the name servers of the ICDSoft server where the domain is hosted. To enable a free SSL certificate covering a second-level domain (e.g. example.org), the A records for both the apex domain (e.g. example.org) and its "www" subdomain (e.g.www.example.org) must point to the correct IP address.
Each free Let's Encrypt certificate is issued for a period of 90 days. The system will attempt to automatically renew the certificate 30 days before its expiration, and will keep doing this daily until the renewal is successful or the certificate expires. The customer can disable a Let's Encrypt certificate at any time via their hosting Control Panel.
Disclaimer: ICDSoft cannot guarantee a successful SSL certificate installation and/or renewal. It is up to the customer to make sure that the domain/hostname they want to enable a free SSL certificate for is active and pointed properly at all times, that there is no AAAA (IPv6) DNS record for it, and that there are no restrictions of any kind (e.g. restrictive .htaccess rules, active DNSSEC protection) that would block the SSL web validation process.
Commercial SSL certificates by Geotrust and Sectigo provided by ICDSoft
The commercial certificates offered by ICDSoft can be used on an ICDSoft server, as well as on an external server operated by the customer. ICDSoft takes care of the installation when the certificate is purchased for an ICDSoft-hosted account. Installation on external servers is not a service ICDSoft provides, and it is something that the customer must take care of.
All commercial SSL certificates offered by ICDSoft are purchased/renewed for a period of one year. The customer can renew a commercial SSL certificate when there are less than 30 days remaining until its expiration date.
The validation process for a commercial SSL certificate involves manual approval, which shows proof of control over the domain. The default approval method is via an approval email sent to one of the following predefined administrative contacts - admin@, administrator@, hostmaster@, postmaster@, webmaster@. The customer must select one of the predefined contacts during purchase and make sure that the approval email is valid.
If technically viable, ICDSoft may complete the approval process on behalf of the customer. In cases when the customer must take action to complete the SSL approval process, ICDSoft will inform the customer via email.
If the customer orders an SSL certificate for an external server (Standalone SSL), ICDSoft will provide the necessary certificate files in PEM format to the customer in a convenient and secure way.
SSL certificates issued by an external provider
The customer is free to install any certificate they have acquired from another vendor. This is done via the hosting Control Panel > SSL/HTTPS section. ICDSoft does not and cannot guarantee the validity and proper operation of external SSL certificates.
SSL certificate for the server URL
The server URL (also known as temporary URL) allows the customer to preview their website without having a domain pointed to the server. The server URL uses an SSL certificate issued for the server itself and the customer cannot issue or install an SSL certificate for this URL.
Configuring a website to use SSL
Having an SSL certificate installed on the server does not mean that the website / web software used by the customer is configured properly to use it. This service is not covered by the SSL installation provided by ICDSoft and is the sole responsibility of the customer. Depending on the software used by the website, the customer may be able to configure it to use SSL by utilizing the tools available in the hosting Control Panel.
Resource usage
To maintain the integrity of our shared hosting services, we have several special per-user resource limits in place. These include, but are not limited to:
Memory limitations: Customers using shared hosting services will be able to use only a certain portion of the total available memory on the server.
CPU usage limitations: Scripts that take too much real CPU time will be terminated. Shared hosting accounts have a soft limit on the number of minutes they can use per day. You can see the limits for each hosting plan on the Hosting Features page.
Simultaneous script execution limitations: Customers will be able to run only a certain amount of CGI scripts simultaneously. Whenever this limitation is triggered, execution of subsequent CGI script requests via the web will produce an error message.
MySQL disk usage limitations: Shared hosting plans involve a limit to the total size of MySQL databases, according to the Hosting Features page. Although this limit is soft, in cases in which the integrity of the MySQL service is endangered, accounts with MySQL disk usage over the limit may be restricted.
Number of inodes limitation: The total number of files, folders, and email messages in a single hosting account should not exceed the limit specified in the features of the plan the account is on.
Number of vhosts limitation: The number of vhosts is determined by several factors, including the number of parked domains on the account, the number of the created subdomains, assigned IP addresses, and installed SSL certificates. Customers with a large number of vhosts (over 1000) might be contacted and asked to reduce their number.
MySQL connections limit: Each MySQL user cannot exceed a certain number of connections to the MySQL server.
Mailbox usage: Each mailbox on a shared server is limited to a certain disk space and number of inodes, according to the hosting account plan.
ICDSoft reserves the right to alter the above limitations and to place additional limits without prior notice if an account endangers the stability or the performance of the hosting server due to intensive resource usage. The additional limits may include, but are not limited to MySQL, memory and CPU usage limitations, and stopping access to directories.
Multi-domain hosting
Each hosting account on ICDSoft servers is meant to be used for one domain, or multiple domains according to the hosting plan.
Parked domains are full aliases of the main domain - they display the same site content and share the same mailboxes. If the hosting package does not allow multi domain hosting, pointing parked domains to subfolders or subdomains on the account through .htaccess files or other means is not allowed.
Published content
The customer may not host material that is:
offensive to any person or group. This includes, but is not limited to: prejudice, racism, intolerance, hatred, and harassment; expressions that are by nature libelous, defamatory, and offensive to or disrespectful of ethnic, racial, religious, or other groups;
likely to cause damage to reputation of third parties.
Note: Defamatory speech distributed over the Internet can result in civil liability for the defamer.
Account content ownership
The content of the hosting account is considered to be a property of the customer. The customer retains ownership on all data that he/she uploads to the hosting account. ICDSoft will not use the data on the hosting account for any other purpose than for the provision of the hosting service itself. ICDSoft will not provide hosting account data to any third parties, unless this is required by law, or the customer has agreed upon this.
As an owner of the hosting account data, the customer is solely responsible for the content of the account, including its security. ICDSoft reserves its right to block access to any content that may be threatening the security of the hosting service, the data of other customers on the servers, or ICDSoft's reputation. ICDSoft reserves its right to judge as to what content is considered threatening and is a subject of this rule.
Intellectual property rights
Materials, accessible to the customer through ICDSoft's services, may be subject to protection under the United States or other copyright laws, or laws protecting trademarks, trade secrets or proprietary information. Except when exclusively permitted by the owner of such rights, the customer may not use ICDSoft's services in a manner that would infringe, violate, dilute, or misappropriate any such rights, with respect to any material, which the customer accesses or receives through ICDSoft's network. If the customer uses a domain name in connection with ICDSoft's service, he/she may not use that domain name in violation of any third party trademark, service mark, or similar rights.
When using ICDSoft's services, the customer retains all intellectual property rights on their own content, trademarks, and any other data related to the site/account content. ICDSoft will use this content/data/trademarks only for the provision of the hosting service, unless other actions are required by law.
Network security
Customers may not use ICDSoft's network in an attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes but is not limited to: accessing data not intended for the customer, logging into a server or account the customer is not exclusively authorized to access, password cracking, probing the security of other networks in search of weaknesses, or violation of any other organization's security policy. Customers may not attempt to interfere or deny service to any user, host or network. This includes, but is not limited to: flooding, mail bombing or other deliberate attempts to overload or crash a host or network. ICDSoft will fully cooperate with investigations of violations of systems or network security. This also includes cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations. Users who violate system or network security may incur criminal or civil liability.
Email services
Spam or unsolicited e-mail
The customer may not use ICDSoft's network, ICDSoft's equipment, or ICDSoft's e-mail service in connection with the transmission of spam, flames, mail bombs, or similar unsolicited e-mail messages. The customer's domain may not be referenced as originator, intermediary or reply-to address in any of the above. This prohibition fully extends to sending of unsolicited mailings from another service that in any way mentions your domain name or implicates the use of ICDSoft's network, ICDSoft's equipment, or ICDSoft's e-mail services. A message is considered unsolicited if it is posted in violation of a newsgroup charter, or if it is sent to a recipient without their prior consent. For purposes of this provision, merely making one's e-mail address accessible to the public will not constitute a request or invitation to receive messages.
In case sufficient evidence is presented about any violation of this provision, ICDSoft reserves the right to disable the customer's account without prior notice. For the purpose of acquiring such evidence, ICDSoft will use various techniques, including but not limited to: closely inspecting all spam reports sent to ICDSoft's anti-abuse department (abuse@icdsoft.com), searching the logs of ICDSoft's mail servers, and scanning the server space for popular "spamming" applications. ICDSoft will be the sole arbiter as to what would be considered sufficient evidence.
Volume sending
Volume sending from shared hosting services is permissible under the condition that the activities of the customer do not impact the overall reputation and operation of the email service on the server.
If volume sending is a requirement of the customer, they should use a VPS-type service, or a third-party sending service for their outgoing emails.
Email forwarding
Due to the distributed nature of the global email system, email forwarding may be used to amplify and conduct spam attacks. If email forwarding is a cause of delays, throttling, or blocks against a shared server, the feature may be disabled for the customer's account. For customers who rely on the email forwarding feature for their business operations, a VPS-type service is recommended.
To keep the reputation and operational performance of ICDSoft's email servers, email forwarding may be subject to spam filtering. In such a case, the customer would need to monitor the forwarding mailbox for any filtered messages.
Abuse
Any attempts to undermine, slander, libel, threaten or cause harm to ICDSoft's customers, employees and property, or to the company directly, is grounds for immediate termination without refund. In addition, any such attempts will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Indemnification
Customer agrees to indemnify, defend and hold harmless, ICDSoft, its subsidiaries and other affiliated companies, its officers, directors, employees and agents from and against all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from any violation of these Terms of Use.
Refusal of service
ICDSoft reserves the right to refuse hosting for insecure applications that could be, for instance, utilized by an attacker to gain unauthorized access to the server and/or execute applications with the privileges of the customer that has uploaded the insecure application in question. Customers are responsible for keeping their applications up-to-date, checking for security issues with the application vendor, and updating to the latest secure version that is available. In the event that an insecure application is installed on the hosting account of the customer, ICDSoft reserves the right to disable access to it, or, if deemed necessary, to the hosting account in its entirety. This will be with the exclusive purpose of preventing damage to the customer and to the other customers hosted on the same server, and may be done with or (in case of emergency) without prior notice.
ICDSoft reserves the right to impose restrictions or fully suspend any of the services provided to customers, in case the operation of these services threatens the overall security and stability of the hosting system, and/or the proper operation of other customers' accounts/services.
ICDSoft reserves the right at its sole discretion to refuse or cancel service. Violation of any of ICDSoft's Terms could result in a warning, suspension, or account termination. Submitting fake personal information can also be grounds for suspension or termination.
Hosting service for educational institutions
Hosting plans with the name "Educational Institutions" are provided to educational institutions only. Examples of educational institutions are: primary, intermediate, or high schools, colleges, universities, which provide formal education, as well as their functional equivalents in various countries. The user/owner of the provided hosting service is the legal entity that manages the respective educational institution, and not an employee, educator, or student that is a part of the educational institution. The site/services on the account are meant to be used for the official purposes of the respective educational institution - e.g. their official website.
ICDSoft keeps the right to decide at its own discretion whether a user that applies for an educational hosting service is an educational institution or not, as well as whether the account is used for official purposes of the educational institution.
Compensation for an unused hosting period at previous provider
ICDSoft provides a free period of hosting to customers moving from another provider where they have an unused period of their hosting subscription. To receive the compensation, customers must provide proof of the remaining time with the previous provider such as screenshots showing service due date, service-related receipts/invoices, or similar.
The maximum free hosting period customers are eligible for is six (6) months. When calculating the compensation, we take into account the type of hosting service with the previous host and the hosting service purchased with ICDSoft. The hosting services must be comparable in their type so that the full amount of remaining time (up to 6 months) can be added as compensation. For example, to get the maximum due compensation for a VPS plan with ICDSoft, the account at the previous host must also be on a VPS or similar plan.
To request the compensation, customers must submit a support ticket through the ICDSoft Account Panel and include their proof of remaining time with the previous host. The request must be submitted during the first 30 days of a new hosting subscription contract.
Disclaimer: ICDSoft reserves the right to decide which accounts are eligible for compensation and what period of free hosting they get, if any. We also reserve the right to refuse providing free hosting as compensation.
Advanced Security
Advanced Security is a complex service that includes several other services which may include daily malware scanning, malware removal and cleanup, blacklist removal, security auditing, investigation, and reporting, as well as regular file change monitoring, protection from common attack vectors and known security exploits, quarantined backups, and other relevant services.
The Advanced Security service is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. In particular, we cannot guarantee that the service will prevent initial or subsequent malware infection of the covered site. We will make reasonable efforts to perform these services for a covered website and restore it to a working state on a best-effort basis. If we are unable, for any reason, to clean up the site from malware, we will refund any fees paid for the service.
A customer may request that we clean up their site from malware as many times as needed, as long as all security recommendations presented by our team after a cleanup are followed.
The service is applicable to one website, where a website is defined as a single software application with a single database, or a software application with a single administration interface, running in one hosting account.
Our 100-day money-back guarantee applies to the Advanced Security service, as long as one of the following conditions are met:
No site cleanup requests have been submitted as part of the service;
We have been unable to clean up the website from malware or restore it to a working state.
Extended Backups
Extended Backups is a paid service upgrade which provides 12 months of extra backups for a hosting account. Extended backups start accumulating after the customer purchases the upgrade. With the Extended Backups service, all account data gets backed up on the 1st and 15th day of each month, and each backup is kept for 12 months on a separate server.
The Extended Backups service is covered by the ICDSoft unconditional 100-day money-back guarantee. If the customer wants to cancel this service within the 100-day period, they need to notify ICDSoft by e-mail at accountmanager@icdsoft.com or via а ticket posted through the ICDSoft Account Panel.
Disclaimer: ICDSoft cannot guarantee the integrity of the backups and the data they contain. Reasons for inconsistent/broken backups include but are not limited to: incorrectly stored/broken user files, accounts near or exceeding their disk space and/or inodes quota, accounts that affect the stability of the backup system, system failures, force majeure.
Scheduled Server Maintenance Policy
All major server maintenance events are announced on our Maintenance Schedule page within a reasonable time frame. Our maintenance windows are as follows:
03:00 - 07:00 server time on Saturday and Sunday mornings for standard maintenance events.
03:00 - 04:00 server time on weekdays for urgent maintenance events that cannot be deferred to the weekend maintenance window due to events that may hinder the stability of the hosting service.
Outages within the weekday maintenance periods are not expected to exceed 15 minutes. If they do, this will be reflected in the uptime statistics.
Major maintenance events that affect all servers are scheduled for the weekend unless they are urgent, and their deferral may compromise the security or stability of the hosting servers.
Urgent maintenance events may occur at any time. Outages due to maintenance events conducted outside the maintenance windows listed above will be reflected in the uptime statistics.
Disclaimer
ICDSoft, at its sole discretion, may change these terms and conditions at any time. By using ICDSoft's services, the user agrees that ICDSoft may: (1) revise these terms and conditions; and (2) change the services provided. Any such revision or change will be binding and effective immediately on posting of the revised terms or change to the service(s) on ICDSoft's website, or on notification to the customer by e-mail. The customer agrees to periodically review ICDSoft's website, including these terms, to get informed of any such revisions. If the customer does not agree with any revision, he/she may terminate the services at any time by notifying ICDSoft by e-mail or via a ticket posted through the (ICDSoft Account Panel). Notice of the customer's termination will be effective on receipt and processing by ICDSoft. The customer agrees that, by continuing to use ICDSoft's services following notice of any revision to this Agreement or change in service(s), he/she abides by any such revisions or changes.
The content available through this site is the sole property of ICDSoft and is protected by patent, copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. Except as otherwise explicitly agreed in writing, ICDSoft-owned content received through this site may be downloaded, displayed, reformatted, and printed for your personal, non-commercial use only. You agree not to reproduce, retransmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish, broadcast, or circulate the content received through this site to anyone, including but not limited to others in the same company or organization without ICDSoft's express prior written consent.
Limited liability
THE CUSTOMER AGREES THAT ICDSOFT SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY (1) SUSPENSION OR LOSS OF THE SERVICE(S), INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION SERVICES AND WEB HOSTING SERVICES, (2) USE OF THE SERVICE(S), INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION SERVICES AND WEB HOSTING SERVICES, (3) INTERRUPTION OF ICDSOFT'S SERVICES OR INTERRUPTION OF THE CUSTOMER'S BUSINESS, (4) ACCESS DELAYS OR ACCESS INTERRUPTIONS TO ICDSOFT'S WEBSITE(S) OR SERVICE(S) OR DELAYS OR ACCESS INTERRUPTIONS THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES IN RELATION TO THE SERVICES OFFERED BY ICDSOFT; (5) LOSS OR LIABILITY RESULTING FROM ACTS OF OR EVENTS BEYOND ICDSOFT'S CONTROL (6) DATA NON-DELIVERY, MIS-DELIVERY, CORRUPTION, DESTRUCTION OR OTHER MODIFICATION; (7) LOSS OR LIABILITY RESULTING FROM THE UNAUTHORIZED USE OR MISUSE OF THE CUSTOMER'S ACCOUNT; OR (8) APPLICATION OF THE DISPUTE POLICIES. ICDSOFT ALSO WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING LOST PROFITS) REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ICDSOFT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IN NO EVENT SHALL ICDSOFT'S MAXIMUM AGGREGATE LIABILITY EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID BY THE CUSTOMER FOR THE DISPUTED SERVICE, BUT IN NO EVENT GREATER THAN ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100.00). BECAUSE SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, IN SUCH STATES, ICDSOFT'S LIABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
