Freewebs Terms of Service and Abuse Policy
Effective Date: October 30, 2006
A Violation of any of the below Terms of Service will result in action by Freewebs up to and possibly including the termination of your account, with or without warning.
Freewebs is a private service which provides free site building tools and free web hosting. We offer our free members up to 40MB of web space, and many site building, editing, and promotion tools. Freewebs reserves the right to cancel any account for any reason or no reason at all. Freewebs provides web hosting to any site that abides to our terms and conditions. Freewebs reserves the right to change the terms and conditions at any time. Freewebs users are entirely liable for all activities conducted through your account.
The following rules apply while using Freewebs services:
- Pornographic, obscene, nude, graphically violent, and other inappropriate content is strictly prohibited.
- Offensive and indecent directory names are not allowed and will be blocked.
- Freewebs is not responsible for the content of any member homepages.
We reserve the right to remove any homepages that are in violation of our
terms and conditions. Members will be held legally responsible for the contents
of their web pages including but not limited to use of copyrighted material without
the permission of the author or posting material considered indecent for minors.
The use of Freewebs Homepages for illegal purposes is strictly forbidden
and any homepage found to be or believed to be, in Freewebs sole discretion, violating the law may be removed without notice.
Freewebs membership will be revoked if any of the following activities occur:
- Adult or Pornographic related
- Hate, Bigotry, and/or Intolerance
- Warez or Software Piracy related
- Music Piracy Related
- Hacking Related
- Making available copyrighted software which has been "cracked" (e.g., copyright protection for the software has been removed)
- Making available serial numbers for software which can be used to illegally validate or register software.
- Making available tools which can be used for no purpose other than "cracking" software.
- Spamming to promote your website
- Anything related to illegal activity
- You and any person who has access to your account must evaluate, and bear the risk associated with, the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any Content. Freewebs reserves the right to remove Content which is deemed in Freewebs sole discretion harmful, offensive, or otherwise in violation of the Rules or any rules or policies Freewebs has in place at the time.
- You or Freewebs may terminate your Account at any time for any reason. To remove your Freewebs site and account, log in and visit your My Account section.
- THE FREEWEBS SERVICE IS PROVIDED TO YOU “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITH NO WARRANTY. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, FREEWEBS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, THE IMPLIED CONDITION OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR COURSE OF PERFORMANCE. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IF YOU RELY ON ANY INFORMATION OR CONTENT ON THE SERVICE, YOU DO SO SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
- Freewebs will not be liable for any of its services. We have the right to cancel our service at any time, and we will not be liable for any files that are lost and/or corrupted which may occur (including, for example, from a system crash, security breach, or hard disk failure). To the full extent permissible under the applicable law, Freewebs shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages resulting from the use or inability to use Freewebs services. You agree, at your own expense, to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Freewebs and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, consultants, agents, suppliers and licensors from and against any and all third party claims, liability, damages, losses and/or costs (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from or relating to: (a) your failure to comply with these terms of use; (b) your infringement or violation of any intellectual property or other right of a third party; or (c) your violation of any applicable law.
- All non-premium members are required to have the Freewebs Toolbar on
their website. This adds a small strip at the top of your website with additional features for your site like bookmarking, tell-a-friend, and search. There will also be a small text link at the bottom of your site linking back to Freewebs.com. Users can upgrade
their user status to premium status for less than a dollar a month. Other
restrictions apply to all non-premium accounts including a maximum limit of
100 files per account, and unavailability of several site add-ons and extras.
In addition, sites that have not signed up for any premium
services or registered a domain name will automatically have banner advertisements
inserted at the top of the site. Members can remove the banner ad and the
Toolbar at any time by signing up for any of our paid services starting at less than $2 per month.
Users agree not to contact any advertisers run on Freewebs or Freewebs sites. If you have questions or problems regarding advertisements, please contact our support or abuse departments. - All templates offered by Freewebs are copyrighted material. Such templates are offered for use to Freewebs users under license only, and are not offered for sale or unbridled use. Such license limits use of Freewebs templates to sites hosted by Freewebs.com. Freewebs templates may not be transferred to or hosted on another web host or Internet Service Provider.
- These terms of use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Maryland. Both parties submit to the personal jurisdiction in Maryland. These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and Freewebs with respect to the Service. You acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the provisions of these terms of use. By using this site, you consent to the terms of use described herein, including any updates. Freewebs reserves the right to vary these terms of use from time to time and will update the “Effective Date” section above when such changes are made.
Internet Safety
Freewebs is dedicated to the millions of young users who create or are affected by sites created using our services. The internet is a vast ocean of information that can be used to express ideas, interests, experiences, feelings and thoughts.
Freewebs is a powerful tool enabling our users to easily express these things. It is our goal to make this experience as enjoyable as possible in a clean and respectful environment. We hope that some of these resources will be found useful to you.
NetSmartz
Deceptive Business Practices
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
If your complaint is against a company in another country, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.
Trademark Violations
If you find a site hosted by Freewebs which is in violation of trademark(s) held by yourself, company, or organization, please make sure that you have the following information to submit to Freewebs:
- The name held in trademark
- The site address in violation of your trademark
- The name of the page(s) that contains the content in question
- Supporting documentation for the trademark,
ex: Federal Trademark ID #
- Method of violation (use and intent of content)
Should the proper information and supporting documentation be in order, please fill out the following form to report the trademark violation.
Defamation, Privacy and Youth
As one of the largest Free Web Hosting companies in the world,
with millions of sites and and thousands more created daily,
we are unable to catch all violations as sites are created.
Our sites are also edited 24 hours a day and seven days a week,
internationally, which makes the task of preventing inappropriate
use of our services impossible as the content is being created.
With many young users, we take great pride in allowing these
users to express their interests and communicate with others
in a positive environment. We understand that many users also
use our services for negative purposes, such as defamation of
character in the form of libel. We are also aware that many
users post information or images of others without the consent
of the individuals.
Freewebs is aware that the person that has created an inappropriate
site can do so again, either with our services or using one
of the many other services on the web, should we simply delete
the site. It is for this reason that we take the approach of
confronting the problem in hopes of nurturing a positive reaction
from the violator.
If you are a parent and are concerned about a site created by
your child, please be informed that your child has full access
to the account and can delete both content or the entire site
at any time. Due to the many false complaints we receive, we
do not freeze or delete a site unless we find a violation of
our Terms-of-Service. Also, if your child has come across a
Freewebs site which you find inappropriate, please inform
us of this, but be aware that they most likely found
this site after having been given the address from a friend.
It might better suit your purposes to address the situation
offline as well as reporting it to us.
If you find a site hosted by Freewebs which is defaming your
character, someone you know, your company, or organization,
please make sure that you have the following information to
submit to Freewebs.
Should the proper information be in order, please fill out the following form to report the violation.
Adult or Inappropriate Content
Pornographic, obscene, nude, graphically
violent, and other inappropriate content is strictly prohibited.
Freewebs treats all abuse violations on a case by case basis.
Violations which fall into this category sometimes cannot be
determined by expressing a definition, but there are some guidelines
which can be used to determine if the content on a site is in
violation of our Terms-of-Service.
Please review the following guidelines:
Other inappropriate content includes:
- Graphically violent images not specific to the context of the
site
- Graphically violent content that is not computer generated
for gaming purposes
- Hate speech directed toward an individual or group of people
based on sex, color, creed, practices, or orientation
- Content depicting or referring to the harm of others, animals,
or property
- Content depicting violent behavior toward others or oneself
Should the proper information be in order, please fill out the following form to report the violation.
Hacking Related Content
There are several definitions which can be applied to hacking related content. Please review the following to better understand the issue and what constitutes hacking related content.
Freewebs does not allow any program to be hosted on an account which is in violation of copyrights of the creator of the game or program to which the hack is intended. Distribution of legal hacks which may be distributed by the creator of a game or program cannot be hosted without express permission from the copyright holder.
If you find a site hosted by Freewebs which is using or distributing content in violation of the above definitions, please make sure that you have the following information to submit to Freewebs.
Should the proper information be in order, please fill out the following form to report the violation.
Spam Violations
Although Freewebs is not an email service provider, we are aware of the growing problem that spam has become on the internet. We are strictly against all spam activity, including mass Emailing, multiple Emailing, multiple posts or mass posting into forums, and flooding of forums or chatrooms with the intent of promoting a site.
To better understand how to define spam, or to report spam activity, please refer to these third-party links:
For Freewebs to take the proper steps to monitor the spamming activity of our users, we require proper verification of this activity. For proper verification, please report the activity to one of the above sites, and to the Email Service provider from which the spam is coming. First time violators will be warned of the activity. Repeat verified violators will have their sites removed from our system.
Please also send us notification of spam abuse by submitting this form to report the violation.
Copyright Violations
If you find a site hosted by Freewebs which is in violation of copyrights held by yourself, company, or organization, please make sure that you have the following information to submit to Freewebs:
- The site address in violation of your copyright
- The name of the page(s) that contains the content in question
- A description of the content
- Location of your site from which the content has been stolen
- Method of violation (hotlinked content, copied content, altered content)
- Date of creation of original content
Should the proper information and supporting documentation be in order, please fill out the following form to report the copyright violation.
Guestbook, Shoutbox, Ratings & Comments Violations
Guestbook violations fall into two catagories. Please review the information pertaining to the violation you require assistance with.
Inapropriate content in someone else's Guestbook
Freewebs takes abuse of services provided very seriously. The Guestbook, however, does not contain content posted by the Site Manager.
Freewebs receives many complaints that content on a Guestbook is a violation of our Terms-of-Service, mainly due to defaming, vulgar, or otherwise inappropriate content. We have found that the individual complaining about the content is often the same individual posting the abusive content in hopes of having a site deleted. Since the Site Manager is not the one posting this content, Freewebs will notify the user in hopes that they will better monitor the content in the Guestbook.
Should you be a concerned parent, school official, or law enforcement officer investigating content on a site, please use the proper form to obtain information.
Inappropriate content in your Guestbook
Freewebs currently offer IP logging for both form submissions and for the Guestbook entries. Use this feature to obtain IP information, from which you can obtain ISP information to report online abuse.