Acceptable Use Policy — Vail Stream

What this policy covers

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") applies to anyone using services provided by Vail Stream Technologies Inc., a Canadian company headquartered in Ontario, Canada, including our email hosting, domain services, website hosting, and any other infrastructure we manage on your behalf. By using our services, you agree to this AUP. Violating it may result in service suspension or termination.

This policy incorporates the requirements of the OpenSRS Email Acceptable Use Policy, which governs our email infrastructure.

Prohibited activities

Illegal activity

You may not use our services for anything illegal under Canadian, US, or applicable international law. This includes (but isn't limited to):

Distributing malware, viruses, ransomware, or any malicious code
Phishing, identity theft, or fraud
Intellectual property infringement (copyright, trademark, patent violations)
Distributing child sexual abuse material — this results in immediate termination and reporting to authorities
Inciting or planning violence, terrorism, or hate crimes
Money laundering or financing of criminal organizations

Spam and unsolicited communications

You may not use our email services to send unsolicited bulk email or commercial electronic messages in violation of Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), the US CAN-SPAM Act, or equivalent laws in other jurisdictions. In particular:

No sending commercial electronic messages to recipients who haven't given consent (express or implied) where consent is required by law
No purchased, scraped, or harvested email lists
No misleading subject lines or sender identification
No omitting unsubscribe instructions where legally required

Spam sent from other networks that references or directs replies to a Vail Stream-hosted email address is treated as if it originated from that account.

If we receive credible spam complaints about your domain, we may suspend service immediately while we investigate.

Financial liability: If our email infrastructure provider levies spam-complaint charges (a minimum of USD $500 per substantiated incident) arising from your violation of this AUP, you are responsible for those costs. We will investigate complaints before passing charges through, and you will not be billed for spam that was spoofed or sent by third parties without your involvement.

Network abuse

No port scanning, vulnerability probing, or unauthorized penetration testing of systems you don't own
No denial-of-service attacks or participation in botnets
No attempts to circumvent security measures, access controls, or rate limits
No proxying traffic for illegal activities

Resource abuse

Our services are designed for normal business use. You may not:

Use email mailboxes as bulk file storage
Use website hosting to mine cryptocurrency, run heavy compute workloads, or distribute large files unrelated to your normal business
Operate services that consume disproportionate bandwidth, storage, or processing power compared to typical small business use

If your usage exceeds reasonable limits, we'll reach out to discuss a plan that's a better fit.

Harmful or abusive content

You may not host or distribute:

Content that harasses, threatens, or stalks individuals
Content that incites discrimination based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristics
Sexually explicit material involving non-consenting parties
Content designed to deceive or defraud users
Defamatory material, hate literature, or copyrighted material you don't have rights to distribute

Your account and your users

You are responsible for all activity that occurs through your accounts and services, including activity by your employees, contractors, and anyone else you give access to. Keep credentials secure and use strong, unique passwords. If you believe an account has been compromised, contact us immediately at [email protected] so we can help contain it.

Email-specific policies

The following additional rules apply specifically to our email hosting services, which are operated on infrastructure provided by OpenSRS (Tucows Inc.).

Sending limits

All email accounts are subject to daily sending limits on the number of recipients per 24-hour period. These limits are more restrictive during the first days of account usage and become more lenient over time. The exact limits are not published and may be adjusted without notice. If you hit a sending limit, you will see a "daily maximum exceeded" error.

If you have a legitimate need to send to a larger number of recipients (such as a one-time business announcement to an opt-in list), contact us in advance and we can request a temporary limit increase on your behalf. Bulk sends are subject to the OpenSRS Email Mass Mailing Policy, including advance notice, opt-in-only lists, and restricted sending windows.

Password security

Our email infrastructure provider may periodically require password resets for security purposes. You will be given a time period to comply. If you do not reset your password within the specified window, your account's sending capability will be suspended until the password is changed. You can still log in to change your password, which will re-enable sending.

Inbound filtering

Our infrastructure provider reserves the right to block or filter incoming email from any source if deemed necessary to protect the network. We will make reasonable efforts to notify you if legitimate mail is being filtered.

File sharing

If your email plan includes file storage or sharing features, the following content is prohibited: defamatory material, child sexual abuse material, hate literature, material violating any applicable law, copyrighted or trademarked material you don't have rights to, and files containing viruses, trojans, worms, or other harmful components.

Immediate disablement

Our infrastructure provider's operations team may immediately disable any email account without prior notice to prevent ongoing abuse or damage to the network. We will be notified after the fact and will contact you as soon as possible to explain the situation and discuss next steps. Reinstatement after a spam or abuse suspension follows the OpenSRS Email Abuse Reinstatement Policy, which requires a written explanation and commitment from the affected account before service is restored.

Consequences of violations

If we believe you've violated this AUP, we may take any of the following actions, depending on severity:

Notice: For minor or unintentional violations, we'll reach out and give you a chance to correct the issue.
Suspension: For repeated or more serious violations, we may temporarily suspend the affected service while we investigate.
Termination: For severe violations or repeated non-compliance, we may terminate your account immediately, without refund.
Reporting: For violations involving illegal activity, we may report to relevant authorities and cooperate with law enforcement investigations.
Cost recovery: You are responsible for any costs we incur as a result of your violation of this policy, including spam complaint fees charged by our infrastructure providers.

Reporting violations

If you believe someone using our services is violating this AUP, please report it to [email protected]. Include as much detail as possible (URLs, timestamps, screenshots) so we can investigate quickly.

We take all abuse reports seriously and aim to review them promptly, typically within one business day.

Changes to this policy

We may update this AUP from time to time. For material changes affecting active clients, we will provide at least 30 days' notice by email before the changes take effect; changes required by our upstream infrastructure providers or by law may take effect sooner.