At Bright Stars Web Technologies, our name reflects our mission statement. Every website hosted on our servers should be about purveying some sort of good, whether that be sport, entertainment, or businesses that provide useful products or services to the lives of others. our job is to provide website connectivity & email services, if requested, to our customers. As a customer, your job is to operate those services in accordance with these terms of service (TOS) & all other applicable laws. Below are terms of service that mere mortals can understand & follow. The language has been simplified considerably. If you really can’t understand these, with the exception of some of the technical terminology, you probably shouldn’t sign up for service. Obviously, should you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

First & foremost, you must be 18 or older & capable of entering into a legally binding contract within your jurisdiction & within the jurisdiction of the United States. If these terms of service are translated into other languages, the English version is the authoritative version. The others are for the convenience of those whose native language is not English. In any conflict between a translated version of these TOS & the English version, the English version wins. Because we are not capable of checking for translation errors, the English version of these TOS is the only authorized version.

Bright Stars Web Technologies will sometimes be referred to as ‘we’ or ‘us throughout these TOS, & you, the client & purchaser of our services, may be referred to as ‘you’.

Our Responsibilities to You

Our job at Bright Stars Web Technologies is to provide you, the website owner, with the necessary hardware and software for you to run a website on the worldwide web. You may also, if desired, use email on your domain, as well as FTP services to upload files to your site.

Bright Stars Web Technologies provides a 99% uptime guarantee for your website, with the following stipulations:

• We are not responsible for downtime not directly caused by malfunctioning of hardware or software not specifically under our control. This includes, as examples, client errors in site configuration, spamming, denial of service attacks, or other internet or cyber-attack.
• It also does not include outages caused by catastrophic acts of humankind or nature that destroy the hardware/software infrastructure.
• Nor does it include suspension or termination of the website due to non or partial payment for services or for other violations of these terms.

If an outage occurs that does not meet these exclusions, then Bright Stars Web Technologies will refund to you the applicable portion of the annual cost of your website. Thus, for example, if your website was down for a day, & your website is 1gb or less & therefore costs $84/year, you will be refunded $.23. Note that the refund cost is based on payment for a site on an annual basis, even if you pay on a monthly schedule. In no event is Bright Stars Web Technologies responsible for more than what you paid for the site for a single year.

As our job is to provide you, our most valued customer, with website, email, & FTP services, please let us know if anything with your services is amiss. We will attempt to help you as expeditiously as possible. There may be a charge for our assistance, but it’s very likely to be far less than what someone from the outside would charge. Obviously, there will be no charge if the problem is related to our hardware or software. We should be your go-to company if anything at all is wrong with your site.

Your Website

You may place website(s) on Bright Stars Web’s servers for the purpose of promoting your business or cause, provided that:

• Such websites do not contain hate material, either in the form of the written word, pictures, videos, or any other viewable, including encoded, form. Sites that promote hatred or disparagement of people because of their race, color, creed/religion, disability status, appearance, sexual orientation/gender identification, military status, or any personal characteristic that another person may or may not possess is prohibited. Websites containing such materials, as determined by Bright Stars Web Technologies after thorough investigation, will be removed, & no refunds will be issued.
• Websites must not contain violent materials or materials advocating the use of violence for any reason.
• Sites advocating terrorism of any kind, such as cyber terrorism, are also prohibited.
• Websites must not contain pornography. Those containing adult pornography will be deleted; those containing child pornography will be turned over to the proper authorities for criminal prosecution.
• Websites must not contain copyrighted materials belonging to others unless the site owner has written permission to use such materials & can provide proof thereof. Anyone believing that a site hosted by Bright Stars Web Technologies violates their copyright may report such violation to the ‘abuse’ inbox at our domain. Anyone found to have violated another’s copyright following thorough investigation will have the offending materials removed without recourse.
• File/image/video sharing websites are strictly prohibited. Websites found to be in violation will be removed & no refund will be granted.
• Websites that contain content related to gambling, illegal drugs, & any other illegal activities will be removed without refund.
• Websites that contain libelous, defamatory, slanderous, harassing, or obscene materials, as well as those that violate others’ privacy rights, are prohibited & will be removed & all refunds denied.
• Sites that contain “cracked”/Warez software or any content designed to circumvent the rights of software authors are illegal & will be removed. Forget about a refund.
• Websites that contain proxy(ies) are illegal & will be removed. Don’t even bother to request a refund.
• Websites that contain files that can infect visitors’ computers, that send spam, or that in other ways endanger others will be taken offline until they can be repaired. We understand that these events sometimes occur without knowledge &/or consent of the site owner. It is the site owner’s responsibility to keep their website updated, if applicable, to create strong passwords that are not easily guessed, to delete old sites that are no longer being used, & to ensure that any software used as a part of their website is well-maintained. It is strongly urged that each site owner conduct a yearly site audit to ensure compliance with cybersecurity best practices. If you do not feel qualified, we will do this for you for a charge of $25.
• You understand that owning a website is a social responsibility, & you promise & commit to do all in your power to protect your visitors as well as other sites located on Bright Stars Web’s server. You further understand that, although unlikely, if your site is compromised, there is a chance that the compromise can infect neighboring sites on our servers, & you agree to do everything in your power to prevent this, including, if necessary, paying someone to help you.

Email

It always looks professional to have work-related email go through your business domain, as opposed to sending work email through a personal address. Having said that, there are considerations that apply.

• In order to achieve email delivery, it is necessary to comply with email laws specific to your jurisdiction, as well as the Canned Spam Act laws of the United States. This may involve providing a link to unsubscribe in your emails, providing a mailing address, & providing a double opt in subscription, where the subscriber must confirm their desire to subscribe to your materials.
• Please do not send more than 200 emails per day. If more are required, please contact us to make different arrangements.
• Everyone on your email list must have requested to be so. If not, then you are guilty of spam, & your account will be removed. Spam is absolutely not tolerated.
• The same content that is prohibited on websites, as stated above, is also prohibited in emails. Emails involving chain letters, scams, phishing, containing fraudulent content, or those infected with viruses or other malware are illegal. If the account has been compromised without the owner’s knowledge or consent, email service will be shuttered until repairs are made. If these emails are sent willfully, then the account will be terminated.

Other Terms

Excessive Use

Bright Stars Web Technologies is a reseller of shared hosting services. This means that you share services with other customers. It’s your job to be a good neighbor. Your website, therefore, cannot use all or even most of the services and exclude other customers. If this occurs, it’s our job to control your service usage.

Services include disk usage, band width, memory, & computer usage. Disk usage is the amount of space on the server’s hard drive(s) your files take. Memory is the amount of the server computer’s memory. Bandwidth the amount of data your website pumps out, & is calculated by multiplying the size of the file by the number of visitors. So if your home page is 50kb & you have 10 people visiting at once, then the bandwidth is 500kb. Computer usage is the number of cores used. A hosting account is using excessive resources if you’re using 100% of a CPU core, 1gb memory, &/or 20 concurrent connections. Although we will attempt to notify you if your site is using excessive resources, your site may need to be throttled (slowed down) or even suspended so as not to disrupt other customers’ websites. Customers who exceed these limits on an ongoing basis will be asked to upgrade their package to a more suitable account. We will make the final determination as to excessive use. Clearly if your site is fairly routinely violating this excessive use policy, you need a larger platform on which to operate. Please note that your statistics are always available to you in your control panel, so you can always see whether or not your site has exceeded resource limitations.

If your site is violating these excessive use TOS because it has been hacked or compromised, then it is your responsibility to either fix the site or hire someone to repair it. Bright Stars Web Technologies can help, if requested, & will likely charge far less than if you call someone in.

Backups & Site Files

We provide tools to help you back up your site, & we do keep site backups for 7 days. We do not routinely backup your files for you, unless you request & pay for that service. If you do not request & pay for backup services, then it is your responsibility to keep backups of your site’s files & data. We’re not responsible for data loss due to your failure to back up your site. We’re happy to train you in the use of the backup tools that are at your disposal. We also urge you to use a program that downloads emails to your hard drive to serve as a backup mechanism for your emails.

Only files to be linked to on your website should be uploaded to your server. Your server is not a place for backing up your personal files. If there is not a link on your website to a file on the server, it doesn’t belong there. There may be times when you need to provide a file to someone. If the file is retrieved & deleted within a day or 2, & there is no copyright infringement, there won’t be any repercussions. Please contact us if you have questions regarding this.

Payment, Late Fees, Refunds, Renewal, Cancellation, Suspension, & Termination

Payment is required in advance for hosting services. We provide a 60-day money-back guarantee when services are first purchased from us. If you decide, before 60 days have elapsed, that we’re not the hosting provider you’d hoped for, please let us know, & we’ll (sadly) refund your money, no questions asked, though we would appreciate knowing how we could’ve improved our service to you. It will, however, be your responsibility to find a new hosting provider and to moved your site to their server. This warranty applies only to first-time purchases & not to subsequent renewal periods. Please note also that any domain names purchased through or transferred to us are not eligible for a refund.

We email invoices at the end of your scheduled pay period. No other methods are used to send out invoices to you. You have two weeks to pay the invoice. If the invoice remains unpaid 7 days after the due date, your site will be suspended & a late fee of $15 will be charged. If nonpayment continues for 7 additional days, i.e., 14 days after the due date, the site will be cancelled, in which case you will lose all your files, emails, & databases, if any. Bright Stars Web Technologies is absolutely not responsible for such loss. In order to activate your site once a suspension occurs, you must pay the full amount of the invoice plus the $15 late fee. A site cannot be reactivated once cancellation or termination takes place. If special circumstances exist, please contact us in order to arrange special payment consideration. Delinquent accounts may be turned over to a collection agency at our discretion.

You must keep your contact information on file with Bright Stars Web Technologies current. A mailing address, phone number, & valid email address are required for domain registration. If we send you invoices & other information which you don’t receive because your contact information is not current, we are not responsible for any damages that may occur such as suspension/termination of your site or loss of your domain name.

If you’ve paid for more than 1 month of service but find it necessary to stop receiving services from us, we’ll refund you the balance. So if you paid $120 for a year of service but notified us that you wished to cancel your site before the first day of the 5th month, your refund would be $70. You must notify us that you want your services cancelled in order to receive the refund. Refunds are calculated monthly. So if you notify us after the first of the month that you wish to cancel, the refund is calculated from the following month.

Absolutely no refund will be given if a site is suspended or terminated for violation of these TOS. That includes nonpayment. Refunds are also not given for any domain names purchased through us. That includes both new domain name registrations as well as domain name transfers. Additionally, if you purchased other services through us such as a dedicated IP, SSL certificate, etc., these, too, are nonrefundable. Basically, if you’re entitled to a refund, it’s for hosting fees only.

If you cancel your service with us, please ensure that all your files, emails, & databases are backed up prior to doing so. Once the request for cancellation is received & acted upon, the site can be removed at any time, resulting in the loss of your data. We are not responsible if that occurs. If the site is terminated for TOS violations, including nonpayment, we are also not responsible for any data loss that may occur.

Total Terms of Service

In order to receive services, you must agree to these TOS. If special modifications, such as payment arrangements, to these TOS are made, then they will be in writing & agreed to by both parties. No verbal representation of any kind is permitted. These TOS may change from time to time. We will do our best to notify you of such changes, but continuing to use our services means you agree with the current TOS. We promise to investigate thoroughly all suspected TOS violations, but, in the final analysis, we make the final determination whether or not a violation has occurred. If we deem that a violation has taken place, then services can be terminated without refund. No data backups will be performed in such cases, & all data will be lost.

We’re sorry to find it necessary to have these TOS. Unfortunately, a few people have made life tough for the majority of good folks. We thank you for being a part of our family here at Bright Stars Web Technologies, & we sincerely appreciate your business. Enjoy your website! & please let us know if we can do anything at all to make your time with us more pleasurable.