Autonomous Service Regulations for the regulation of massive or unsolicited email

 

AUTONOMOUS SERVICE REGULATIONS

FOR THE REGULATION OF

MASSIVE OR UNSOLICITED EMAIL

Massive and unsolicited email control

Given that RACSA is an Internet Service provider, and that the technical requirements provide the need of regulating the massive or unsolicited email practice and taking into consideration that this practice produces a series of inconveniences in the area of the Company and of the service users, RACSA, as public company, provides these Regulations.

Chapter I

General dispositions

Article 1. What is considered massive email is the generation of multiple messages to different email addressees through Internet.

What is considered unsolicited email is the generation of that message to

different destinations that has not been solicited by the addressee.

Solicited email is the one where there is an existing previous commercial relationship between the issuer and the recipient, in which the recipient has explicitly indicated his/her consent to receive commercial messages from the issuer. The issuer is in the obligation of keeping the updated register of the people who consent receiving their commercial messages, making sure that the customers no longer wanting to receive the messages from the issuer are erased from the register. For such purpose, the issuer must include at the end of each of his messages, the option for the recipient to be able to be excluded from the issuer’s list of distribution, which must be respected, by immediately stop

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sending additional commercial mails, otherwise, said messages will change the condition of unsolicited, being exposed to the application of these Regulations.

RACSA expressly forbids its customers to get involved, directly or

Indirectly, in the practice of sending massive or unsolicited email through

an IP address or RACSA email address.

It is forbidden; in addition, sites or services hosted in RACSA IP addresses

to be promoted through the sending of massive or unsolicited mail.

Chapter ll

Definitions

Article 2. Dialup service: Internet Service whose connection is made through the ICE telephone service, where there is a contract signed between the customer and RACSA.

900-ONLINE: RACSA’s Service that enables providing a connection to Internet, through the ICE telephone service to get connected through the telephone number 900-365-4632 (900-ONLINE), without requiring a formal contract between the user and RACSA.

Cable Modem Service: RACSA’s Internet Service that enables providing a connection to Internet making use of the infrastructure of a local TV cable operator.

Internet Dedicated Service: RACSA’s Service that enables providing a permanent connection to Internet through direct lines up to RACSA’s routing equipments.

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Co-Location: RACSA’s Service that consists in a physical space leasing to host

telecommunications equipments and servers, which enables the access to private or public communication networks from this physical space.

Email: Every correspondence, message, file, data or other electronic information

transmitted to one or more persons through an interconnection computer network.

Permanent Account: Modality of the Internet Service that is provided with the previous signing of a contract between the customer and RACSA.

Email Addressee: Email address to which the message is addressed from the sender or transmitter sending it.

IP address: Single address of the user connected to the Internet network.

Displayed Headings: Refers to the email heading, when enlarged, displaying the message’s servers, origin and complete route, as well as the date and exact time the message was issued.

Hosting: RACSA’s Internet Dedicated or Co-Location Service where third parties lease spaces to host Web pages or any other type of value added

service.

Violation: Performing the practice of sending unsolicited email.

Internet Directo: RACSA’s Service that enables the connection to Internet through a satellite link.

Internet XPRESS: RACSA’s Service through which a person can have

access to the Internet network by acquiring a prepayment card, which brings with it a username and password to access the service. The connection is made

through a conventional telephone line.

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User’s name: Known also as username or login, is the identification

assigned to the customer when he/she acquires a contract for the Internet Service.

RACSA: Radiográfica Costarricense, S. A.

Open relay: Method through which a mail server processes a mail message in which neither the sender nor the addressee are local users.

Sender: Email address issued or generated by a message for a recipient or addressee.

Proxy Server: Is a server acting as intermediary between a user’s work station and Internet.

Open Proxy Server: Condition in which a proxy server allows third parties to be connected by acquiring the same identity (IP address) of said server, falsifying the sender’s origin.

User: The individual or corporation who uses RACSA’s Internet network services.

Chapter lll

Of RACSA’s Regulation Legal Authority and the Scope of Application of Regulations

Article 3: Legal Foundation

RACSA, in its capacity as Public Company and as telecommunications operator, has the legal authority to impose the technical operation standard for the services rendered by the company, in the benefit of the service it provides. By virtue of the aforementioned, RACSA issues these Autonomous Service Regulations, whose purpose is to regulate the

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rendering of telecommunications service through email, aiming at ensuring its good performance and appropriate satisfaction of the public interest.

Article 4: Scope of application

As Autonomous Service Regulations, these Regulations are applicable to the different users of the telecommunications services rendered by RACSA.

Chapter lV

Procedures and y sanctions

Article 5: To file an accusation for the practice of sending massive or unsolicited email, the accuser must contribute the evidence before RACSA

sending the email received with its respective heading displayed to the following email address: abuse@racsa.co.cr

Article 6: After receiving the accusation, RACSA will proceed to study it and will declare it as massive or unsolicited email if it adjusts to the provisions of article 1 of these Regulations.

Article 7: RACSA, will issue a warning, prior to blockage, for the customers incurring in the massive or unsolicited email practice or of massive sending messages with virus. Said warning will be issued to the customer through email, in which the telephone numbers will be indicated for the customer to coordinate with RACSA’s Abusive Mail Control Area, with the aim of correcting the practice that generates the abusive mail complaints. This coordination must be carried out within a term of two hours as maximum, starting after the generation of the warning on the part of RACSA, term in which the anomalous condition must be corrected under penalty of being blocked, in accordance to the provisions in article 8 of these Regulations.

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Article 8: In case of the customer continuing with the practice of sending massive or unsolicited emails, violating the provisions in article 7, the following sanctions will be applied:

A. Dialup Internet Customers:

I PERMANENT ACCOUNT

First violation: Blockage of access to Internet and email, until the procedures provided in article 9 of these Regulations are met.

Second violation: Loss of username and definitive closure of the access and email accounts.

II 900-ONLINE

First violation: Blockage of the telephone number used to access the

900-ONLINE service, until the procedures provided in article 9 of these Regulations are met.

Second violation: Definitive blockage of the telephone number used to access the 900-ONLINE service. This blockage will affect all the dialup services

provided by RACSA.

III INTERNET XPRESS

First violation: Blockage of the telephone number used, preventing the

access to all the dialup services provided by RACSA , until the procedures provided in article 9 of these Regulations are met,

Immediate and definitive blockage of the XPRESS card involved.

Second violation: Definitive blockage of the telephone number used,

preventing access to all the dialup services provided by RACSA.

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B. Cable modem Customers

First violation: Blockage of access to Internet and email, until the procedures provided in article 9 of these Regulations are met.

Second violation: Loss of username and definitive closure of the access and email accounts.

C. Internet Dedicated Service Customers

c.1 Internet Dedicated Service Customers

First violation: Blockage of the IP address involved until the procedures provided in article 9 of these Regulations are met.

Second violation: Definitive suspension of the Internet dedicated account.

c.2 Customers providing Hosting services

First violation: Blockage of the IP address involved until the procedures provided in article 9 of these Regulations are met.

Second violation: Definitive suspension of the IP address involved.

D. Co-Location Customers:

d.1 Co-Location Service Customers

First violation: Blockage of the IP address involved, until the procedures provided in article 9 of these Regulations are met.

Second violation: Definitive suspension of the account Co-Location.

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d.2 Customers providing Hosting services

First violation: Blockage of the IP address involved, until the procedures provided in article 9 of these Regulations are met.

Second violation: Definitive suspension of the IP address involved.

E. Cases of relay or open proxy or massive spreading of mails corrupted

with virus:

First and subsequent violations: Blockage of the IP address or access account until the vulnerability in the user’s system has been corrected.

Chapter V

Final Dispositions

Article 9: The customer whose service is blocked for incurring in the massive or unsolicited email practice and who wants to reactivate his/her service must comply with the following procedures:

For Individuals:

• The account owner must appear in person at RACSA’s offices with his/her ID card, and a copy of it.

• He/she must sign a letter of undertaking committing him/herself to not incurring again in the massive or unsolicited email practice.

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For Corporations:

• The corporation’s legal representative must appear in person at RACSA’s offices.

• He/she must submit legal capacity certificate not less than one month old.

• He/she must submit his/her ID card, and a copy of it.

• He/she must submit the corporate registration number, and a copy of it.

• He/she must sign a letter of undertaking, duly authenticated by an Attorney,

committing him/herself to the fact of his/her represented not incurring again in the massive or unsolicited email practice.

Article 10: After the customer has signed his/her commitment of not repeating the massive or unsolicited email practice, RACSA will have two working days to unblock said account or IP address. If the customer, within a one year term fails again to comply with his/her statement, the account will be definitively removed.

Article 11: In case that the blockage extends for over a month, RACSA

will be able to carry out the definitive blockage of the account, for which RACSA will apply the guarantee deposits of the account blocked to cover the outstanding balance. In case that said guarantee deposit is not enough to cover the outstanding debt, RACSA will proceed with the corresponding procedures of administrative and judicial collection.

Article 12: The customers to whom the service has been definitively closed for non compliance with these Regulations and who want a new RACSA Service,

must wait a period of three months for its processing.

Article 13: For those cases in which the customer present relay or open proxy

problems or of massive spreading of mails corrupted with virus, it is the user’s responsibility to solve the vulnerability that his/her system has experimented.

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Article 14: RACSA’s users who lease hosting services to third parties, will be

responsible for solving the problems related to massive or unsolicited mail, virus or vulnerabilities incurred by their customers contracting the hosting

service. RACSA’s users in this condition will be exposed to the sanctions described in Article 6 of these Regulations in case of not correcting the irregular condition.

Article 15: RACSA will be able to officially initiate de the proceeding provided within these Regulations and apply the corresponding sanctions whenever the existence of massive or unsolicited mail is verified.

Article 16: These Regulations will be in force as of the date of publication in the Official Newspaper La Gaceta.