Acceptable Use Policy

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Osage Municipal Communications Utility (OMCU) sets forth an Acceptable Use Policy with the intent of protecting our service, our customers, and other users of the Internet from potentially abusive actions taken by OMCU customers. The following policy is non-exclusive; any action about which there is doubt should be referred to OMCU for evaluation. OMCU may alter this policy from time to time as need dictates.

Subscribing to OMCU services constitutes implied consent with this Acceptable Use Policy.

Statement of Responsibility

  1. Each OMCU Broadband account has an IP address that the customer who registered the account is solely responsible. The account owner is responsible for all access and actions taken with regard to the account. It is the account owner's responsibility to safeguard the account IP address and to ensure OMCU Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) is honored. The service is for the account owner only; any resale of service is unauthorized and will be subject to disconnection of service. OMCU will hold the account owner responsible for any violations of the AUP.
  2. Sites directly attached to the OMCU backbone are expected to adhere to the OMCU Acceptable Use Policy. The individual who signed the contract is responsible for educating site users on the Acceptable Use Policy. Violations of the AUP by directly attached sites will be referred to the contract signer for resolution. The contract signer will be held responsible for any violations of the AUP.
  3. OMCU enforces these policies with respect to OMCU customers only. We are not responsible for abusive actions which originate from other sites or networks on the Internet.
  4. OMCU strongly encourages the customer to configure the security of their wireless routers. OMCU can assist with securing the customer wireless network when necessary.

Acceptable Use Policy Violations

The following practices are considered a violation of the OMCU Acceptable Use Policy:

  1. Network Practices
    1. Attempting to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network or account on OMCU systems or the Internet at large ("cracking"). This includes scanning or probing ports without the consent of the owner of the machine being scanned.
    2. The downloading or distribution of restricted media in violation of copyrights, including, but not limited to books, movies, music, software. Refer to our Copyright Infringement section of this document.
    3. Use of OMCU systems or networks (willfully or negligently) in a manner that encumbers disk space, processors, bandwidth, or other system resources so as to interfere with others' normal use of services on OMCU or other systems and networks ("denial of service" attack).
    4. Activities which violate local, state, or federal statutes.
  2. Shell/Telnet Access
    1. Unauthorized access.
    2. Running background processes after you have logged out.
    3. Compiling and running foreign binaries without express written consent of OMCU.
    4. Activities which violate local, state, or federal statutes.
  3. Email
    1. Sending unsolicited mass mailings of any nature, including those with a "negative option" for continuation. The negative option is inviting those who do not wish to receive more email to reply to you.
    2. Sending a large number of email messages, or singularly large email messages, to a single address in order to flood someone's mailbox.
    3. Forging email headers to obscure the true originator of the message.
    4. Creating or participating in pyramid schemes or chain letters.
    5. Sending harassing email, either by language, size, or frequency. This includes sending email (or real time) messages to a person who has asked explicitly that you do not.
    6. Activities which violate local, state, or federal statutes.
  4. Copyright Infringement

All users of the Service shall comply with U.S. copyright and related laws. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other applicable laws, OMCU reserves the right to terminate the Service provided to any customer or user who is either found to infringe third party copyright or other intellectual property rights, including repeat infringers, or who, in the sole judgment of OMCU, is infringing these rights.

Reporting an AUP Violation

  1. Claims of Copyright Infringement
    1. OMCU customers are required to respect the legal protection provided by copyright law. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide the information below to the email address, abuse@osage.net
      1. An electronic or physical signature of the person legally authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest.
      2. A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed.
      3. A description of where the material that you claim infringes your copyright is located on the site.
      4. All time and date stamps of the copyright infringement as well as the IP information of the claimed infringer.
      5. Your address, telephone number and e-mail address.
    2. Upon receipt of notification of claimed copyright infringement, OMCU will follow the procedures outlined in Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 USC § 512).
    3. Notice and Take-Down Procedures.
      1. If OMCU is notified of a credible claim of copyright infringement, or otherwise becomes aware of facts and circumstances from which infringement is apparent, it will respond initially via phone or e-mail to the customer, if customer cannot be reached, we reserve the right to suspend the customers service until they have been contacted or have been in contact with us.
      2. OMCU reserves the right to restrict or terminate service without refund in the event of an AUP violation.
  • OMCU also reserves the right to take action on abuse which is not specifically named in this AUP at the sole discretion of OMCU. Use of the OMCU systems and network constitutes understanding and agreement of this policy.
  1. OMCU provides an email address, abuse@osage.net, for use in reporting abusive activities originating from OMCU customers as outlined in the OMCU Acceptable Use Policy. Please note, abuse originating from non-OMCU customers cannot be handled by OMCU. Report those instances to the provider/site that has authority over the abusive user.
  1. Email Abuse and Spam
    1. When reporting email abuse, include a FULL copy of the message, including headers. This information is required in order for any action to be taken. In many cases, the “From” field is forged, and is not the true origin. We cannot determine the origin of email without full headers.
    2. Information on how to reveal the full headers of an email can be found in your email software documentation. Also, you may visit http://spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/19.html or http://members.tripod.com/~cyberstalked/header.htm. Full headers will contain at least one line beginning with "Received:"
    3. Spam (UCE, UBE - unsolicited commercial or bulk email) originating from outside the OMCU network should be reported to the network or domain from which it originated. Note that the address in the "From:" field is often forged. Some of the links below can help you determine where the spam actually came from.
    4. If complaints of spam to the originating network or domain do not produce results (i.e. spam from that origin continues to be sent), then report the spam to OMCU. We can and do block email to and from networks or domains that refuse to stop sending spam.
  2. Other AUP Abuses
    1. When reporting other types of abuse include details, such as log files, that document the incident. OMCU cannot act on your word alone; we must have documented proof of an incident. If possible, please send such documentation in plain text format. In addition, reports of port scans or probes must include a note of which time zone is referred to by the reported date/time.
    2. Send your report in an email message to abuse@osage.net. Due to the number of reports that may be submitted pertaining to a single abuse incident, it is not always possible for OMCU to respond to every report.

NOTE: The action taken on abuse reports will be at the sole discretion of OMCU. Our intent is NOT to police the internet usage of customers, but to simply do our part to insure quality access and use of the Internet for our customers and the Internet community at large.

Repeat Infringers

OMCU reserves the right to disable, or terminate, the accounts of customers who are repeat infringers.

Accommodation of Standard Technical Measures

It is OMCU’s policy to accommodate and not interfere with standard technical measures, i.e., technical measures that are used by copyright owners to identify or protect copyrighted works, and (1) have been developed pursuant to a broad consensus of copyright owners and service providers in an open, fair, voluntary, multi-industry standards process; (2) are available to any person on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms; and (3) do not impose substantial costs on us or place substantial burdens on our systems or networks.