Acceptable Use Policy

Midwest Telecom of America Inc.’s goal is to provide high quality service to our customers while protecting their privacy and security. We have established our AUP to prevent unacceptable uses of our services and equipment and to ensure that we are able to provide the level and quality of services our customers expect.

The AUP applies to all customers of Midwest Telecom of America Inc., and visitors to www.pickmta.com, www.midwesttlele.com and all of its sub domains or subdirectories.

"Customer" includes any organization, individual, company, or other entity and their agent or affiliate, to which Midwest Telecom of America Inc. (directly or indirectly) provides services.

"Services" includes any Midwest Telecom of America Inc. facilities, any equipment on Midwest Telecom of America Inc.’s side of the demarcation point or point of service, any equipment owned or provided by Midwest Telecom of America Inc., any services provided by or arranged by Midwest Telecom of America Inc. and any service which is the subject of an agreement between Midwest Telecom of America Inc. and the Customer, regardless of whether or not the user of MTA Services has a contract with Midwest Telecom of America Inc. *In most cases the incumbent telephone company will own and/or operate the "services" that reside on "our" side of the demarcation point, or point of service. MTA does lease this service and equipment from the incumbent phone company to provide services to you and shall be known this way in all documents on this site.

Prohibited Uses

The following uses are prohibited under this AUP. The descriptions are guidelines and are not meant to be exhaustive.

Illegal/Criminal Activity

MTA Services must not be used in creating, facilitating, or attempting, the intentional or unintentional criminal or civil violation of federal, provincial or other applicable law or regulation.

Violations include: infringing copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, patents or other types of intellectual property, posting any content that threatens, advocates, promotes or otherwise encourages violence or which provides instruction, information or assistance in causing or carrying out such violence, transmitting offensive materials including obscene, pornographic, indecent, hateful, defamatory or otherwise objectionable material violating personal privacy.

Security and Integrity Violations

MTA Services must not be used in creating, facilitating, or attempting (successfully or unsuccessfully) the violation of the security or integrity of a network, service or other system of Midwest Telecom of America Inc. or others.

Violations include:

Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account ("cracking" or "hacking") interfering with service to any user, host or network ("denial of service attacks")

Falsifying addressing information including modifying header information of any TCP/IP packet or email or newsgroup posting for the purpose of concealing the sender's or recipient's identity or any other illegitimate purpose. This provision is not intended to disallow the use of aliases or anonymous remailers for any legitimate purpose.

Using MTA Services to violate the acceptable use policies or service agreements of others

Midwest Telecom of America Inc. may investigate incidents involving such violations and may involve and will co-operate with law enforcement if a criminal violation is suspected.

Spamming, etc.

MTA Services must not be used in sending a message (including fax and voice traffic) to any person who does not wish to receive it or with the effect of preventing fair and proportionate use of MTA Services by others, or in spamming, whether or not the quantity or quality of messages disrupts the facilities of Midwest Telecom of America Inc. or others.

Violations include:

Sending unsolicited bulk messages (commercial advertising, unsolicited commercial messages, political tracts, announcements, etc.), sending messages with charity requests, petitions for signature, chain mail or financial scam related requests, posting a single message, or similar messages, to large numbers of newsgroups (excessive cross-posting or multiple posting, also known as "USENET spam"), spamming indirectly through the use of other service providers or transmitting email or content through other service providers in a way which indicates in any way that Midwest Telecom of America Inc. was involved in the transmission of such email or content, operating an unsecured email relay, posting binary files to non-binary newsgroups, attempting to evade filters of spamming, violating accepted norms of the Internet community, whether or not expressly mentioned in this AUP.

Midwest Telecom of America Inc.’s Rights

Midwest Telecom of America Inc. reserves the right to prohibit activities that violate this AUP or may damage its reputation.

Midwest Telecom of America Inc. will generally not monitor private electronic mail messages sent or received by its Customers but may conduct reasonable investigation of a Customer and its equipment (i) if required by law or (ii) upon reasonable suspicion of a violation of this AUP to determine if there has been a violation or (iii) when public safety may require it. Midwest Telecom of America Inc. may at all times monitor its performance of MTA Services electronically to determine if its facilities are operating satisfactorily.

Midwest Telecom of America Inc. may disclose Customer information or information transmitted by means of its facilities (i) to comply with legal requirements or (ii) where necessary to protect Midwest Telecom of America Inc. and others from harm or (iii) where such disclosure is necessary to the proper operation of Midwest Telecom of America Inc.’s facilities. Midwest Telecom of America Inc. is not obliging itself to Customer to inform the Customer that Customer’s information has been disclosed or will be disclosed and in some cases may be prohibited by law from so informing.

The Customer acknowledges that Midwest Telecom of America Inc. is unable to exercise control over the content of information passing through its facilities or carried as a result of performing MTA Services and is therefore not responsible for that content.

Consequences

Violation of this AUP (direct or indirect, including by a third party) entitles Midwest Telecom of America Inc. to remove immediately the offending material, establish immediate or temporary filtering, deny access, suspend or terminate MTA Services, or take any other appropriate action, as determined by Midwest Telecom of America Inc. in its sole discretion, in addition to any remedies provided by any agreement to provide MTA Services. Midwest Telecom of America Inc. may give notice of violations but Midwest Telecom of America Inc. reserves the right to act without notice when necessary, as determined by Midwest Telecom of America Inc. in its sole discretion. Nothing in this AUP is to be construed to limit Midwest Telecom of America Inc's actions or remedies in any way with respect to any of the foregoing activities, and Midwest Telecom of America Inc. reserves the right to take any additional actions it may deem appropriate with respect to such activities, including without limitation, taking action to recover the cost of identifying offenders and disconnecting them from MTA Services, and charging to cover Midwest Telecom of America Inc's costs in the event of disconnection of dedicated access or like situation. Midwest Telecom of America Inc. may co-operate with other service providers to discourage and resist abuses of acceptable use policies. Midwest Telecom of America Inc. reserves the right to take corrective action upon notification to Midwest Telecom of America Inc. of unacceptable use on other networks. MTA Services may be used to link to other networks world-wide and you agree to conform to the acceptable use policies of these networks. You agree, through your operations, not to cause disturbances, outages or other problems which may affect Midwest Telecom of America Inc.’s or any other network or network based equipment, or which may adversely affect Midwest Telecom of America Inc.’s ability to provide services.

Indemnification

You will indemnify and hold Midwest Telecom of America Inc. harmless from any claim brought by third parties relating to Customer’s use of MTA Services. You must defend and pay all damages and costs (including legal fees) arising from such claims. You must immediately notify Midwest Telecom of America Inc. of any claim or potential claim, within the Customer’s knowledge, involving the Customer related to MTA Services. Failure to do so gives Midwest Telecom of America Inc. the right to defend such claims at your sole cost.

Incident Reporting

To report a suspected breach of this AUP, please contact webmaster@pickmta.com

Revisions to AUP

Midwest Telecom of America Inc. may amend this AUP according to its services agreement(s) with you. Use of MTA Services after due notification according to those services agreement(s), will constitute your acceptance of the amended AUP.

If you have any questions regarding this AUP, please contact webmaster@pickmta.com.