Footprint.co.uk Ltd trading as Footprint issues this document. The company shall be known throughout this document as Footprint.

Use of Footprint Service constitutes acceptance and agreement to our TOS (Terms of Service). All service provisions are subject to the TOS (Terms of Service) of Footprint.

The TOS may be changed from time to time at the discretion of Footprint. The client understands that change to the TOS by Footprint shall not be grounds for non-payment.

Footprint agrees to provide the client with web hosting services for a monthly or annual fee. Footprint will never require clients to advertise for Footprint on their website in any way shape or form unless agreed upon, such as a non-profit organisation receiving complimentary hosting. Clients are allowed to use Footprint services for personal and/or business/commercial websites or content.

Content:

All services provided by Footprint may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any United Kingdom (or any other country) law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, material that is threatening or obscene, material that is β€œadult only” content, or material protected by trade secrets and other statue. The subscriber agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Footprint from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the subscriber or any other party.

Adult Content:

Footprint does not allow adult β€œxxx” related websites, pornography and sex-related content on its servers. Nor do we allow adult subscription or membership based β€œpay sites”. This includes sexual content, or links to adult content hosted elsewhere. This is also true for sites that promote any illegal activity or content that may be damaging to our servers or any other server on the Internet. Links to such materials are also prohibited. Footprint will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.

Educational adult websites and adult e-commerce stores are allowed but due to such a fine line we recommend checking with Footprint support before hosting such websites. Footprint will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.

Some Examples of Unacceptable Content:
  • Adult / Pornographic
  • Hacking programs / Hacking Archives / Hacking Information
  • Warez Sites
  • Spam / Spamming Software
Distribution or Transmission of Obscene or Indecent Speech or Materials:

Violation of indecency and obscenity laws can result in criminal penalties.

Intellectual Property Rights:

Material accessible to you through Footprint’s Services may be subject to protection under United Kingdom (or any other country) copyright laws, or laws protecting trademarks, trade secrets or proprietary information. Except when expressly permitted by the owner of such rights, you must not use the Footprint Service in a manner that would infringe, violate, dilute or misappropriate any such rights, with respect to any material, which you access or receive through the Footprint Network. If you use a domain name in connection with the Footprint Service or similar service, you must not use that domain name in violation of any trademark, service mark, or similar rights of any third party.

SPAM and Unsolicited Email:

Footprint takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Email (SPAM). Very simply this means that Clients of Footprint may not use or permit others to use our service for sending SPAM Emails. Clients of Footprint may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is advertised by SPAM from other services. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including termination of service.

If a customer is found to be in violation of our SPAM policy, Footprint may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate a customer’s account. In addition, Footprint may impose a Β£100 penalty for each spam policy violation. Footprint solely reserves the right to refuse or cancel service to known spammers. Lastly, Footprint reserves the right to determine what violates this policy. As such, any violation may result in cancellation of services without refund.

β€œCatch All” Email Accounts:

Footprint does not allow the use of β€œcatch all” email accounts. This is the practise of anything@yourdomain.com directing all mail to a single mailbox. This practice is out-of-date and causes extreme surges of spam, both for you and for our spam filtering servers. To use an email address you must login to your control panel and create the required mailbox, catch-all mailboxes are banned and if found will be removed without notice or your account disabled.

MailFoundry Spam Filtering Limits:

Some domain names may have too many mailboxes or receive such a high volume of spam email that it will not be possible for us to provide MailFoundry service to them, due to the extreme usage. While MailFoundry is a dedicated system for handling huge volumes of spam it does have limits. Should the amount of spam or number of mailboxes in use on a domain break what Footprint believes to be realistic limit thresholds then we will inform you that MailFoundry services will not be continued for your domain. SpamAssassin will be supplied in replacement to MailFoundry. It may be possible to buy MailFoundry services for β€˜extreme usage’ domains for an additional negotiable charge depending on usage history and expected MailFoundry processing requirements.

Scripting, Applications and Background-running Programs:

We do not allow background-running programs. This includes any IRC related software such as bouncers and bots. We provide a hosting service not a shell service. You are not allowed to compile and run software on our hosting servers.

You are free to use any scripts (such as php, cgi or perl) you wish provided they do not affect the normal operations of the server and they are not mentioned specifically below.

Scripts that are commonly known for causing server disruption include large cgi-based message forums, auctions, galleries, and banner exchanges. In the event a script affects normal server and/or administrative operations, Footprint reserves the right to disable the account pending client cooperation and resolution.

Scripts we do not allow include:

  • Chat servers/scripts of any kind are strictly prohibited.
  • Formmail scripts using the filename β€œformmail” are prohibited.

Formmail and contact forms are acceptable providing the script is not named β€œformmail” for its filename and providing that you maintain the latest version of the script and it remains secure and un-abused by spammers.

We do allow you to have ONE remote MySQL user if requested. The user must have a fixed, non changing, IP address for us to grant access to. You can request a remote MySQL user via our helpdesk.

Network Security:

Customers may not use the Footprint Network to attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the customer, logging into a server or account the customer is not expressly authorized to access, password cracking, probing the security of other networks in search of weakness, or violation of any other organization’s security policy. Customers may not attempt to interfere or deny service to any user, host, or network. This includes, but is not limited to, flooding, mail bombing, or other deliberate attempts to overload or crash a host or network. Footprint will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations. Users who violate system or network security may incur criminal or civil liability.

Physical Security:

For security reasons Footprint operates β€˜closed’ datacentre facilities. Physical access to any servers or related equipment at any Footprint locations is not permitted. Only fully authorised Footprint staff are permitted access to work onsite at these facilities.

Support Boundaries:

Footprint provides technical support to its Clients between 9am and 5.30pm Mon – Fri not including Bank Holidays.

Footprint limits technical support to its area of expertise, this is providing web hosting services and related features. Footprint does not offer support for application specific issues such as php programming, cgi programming, html, website design and development or any other such issue. Footprint does not provide technical support for YOUR Clients.

Any additional work you may require from Footprint staff which does not fall within usual support boundaries is charged at a rate of Β£50 GBP per hour, in 30 minute increments. All charges will be discussed before work commences on a per incident basis. Examples of work beyond the boundaries of normal support include: site scripting problems, script installation, website design and development.

Cancellations:

Requests for cancellation must be submitted via email toΒ info@footprint.co.uk. Your cancellation will be confirmed by Footprint.

Cancellation must be received 48 hours or more before your next payment is due. Footprint will then stop all recurring payments due and you will NOT be billed again.

Changing a domains DNS to another provider or transferring a domain away from Footprint does not constitute a cancellation request. A cancellation request must be submitted to our helpdesk and we will then confirm the cancellation date back to you.

Payment:

Establishment of this service is dependant upon receipt by Footprint of payment of all stated charges. Subsequent payments are due on a reoccurring date that coincides with the date of signup (monthly or yearly terms).

Service may be interrupted on accounts that fall overdue (such as a credit card being declined or expired). Footprint may, at its sole discretion, charge a fee of Β£15.00GBP to reinstate a suspended account.

When payment is declined from your chosen payment method we will send an email notification and retry payment the following day, this will occur 3 times over a 3-5 day period. After this period if we have not received payment or had notice from you that the due payment is in hand, your account will be suspended or terminated at the sole discretion of Footprint.

It is very important you keep your email address on file with us current by notifying us of email address changes viaΒ info@foortprint.co.uk. Failure to keep us updated with your current email address may mean important communications don’t reach you, resulting in suspension or termination of your hosting account.

A service charge, equal to the charge incurred by Footprint, will be charged to your account for each cheque or other form of payment that is returned to Footprint unpaid.

Refunds and Disputes:

All payments to Footprint are non-refundable. This includes any setup fee and subsequent charges regardless of usage. If you dispute a charge to your credit card issuer that, in Footprint’s sole discretion is a valid charge under the provisions of this TOS, you agree to pay Footprint an Administrative Fee of not less than Β£25 and not more than Β£100.

If you are paying annually for hosting services and cancel early before your 12 months of service is over, we will issue a pro-rata refund for full unused months at time of cancellation.

Footprint does not offer any kind of β€œmoney back guarantee” or β€œtrial period”.

All domain registration fees are non-refundable, in whole or in part, even if your domain name registration is suspended, cancelled or transferred prior to the end of your term.

VAT and Payment Currency:

UK and EU clients will be billed in GBP (Pounds Sterling) and prices exclude VAT. Clients in the rest of the world will be billed in USD with VAT not applicable to our USD pricing.

If you are a VAT registered business in another EU member state then you must supply your VAT registration number for VAT to be zero-rated. If your VAT registration number is not supplied or cannot be confirmed as valid then VAT at the UK rate will apply.

Product Pricing:

Footprint reserves the right to change the pricing of products and/or services at any time.

Invoicing:

Footprint does not provide paper or hard-copy invoices. PDF invoices are sent via email.

Domain Name Expiry and Redemption Fee’s:

Footprint is not liable for expiry or loss of your domain name.

Before a domain expires you will be reminded to renew your domain by invoice up to 90 days before the date of expiry. On the date a domain expires it will be deactivated by the registry, and no longer display your website. Once a domain is deactivated and expired you will have 30 days to contact us to renew the domain name at our regular renewal rates.

Redemption Period – After 30 days have passed since the expiry date of your domain, the domain is placed in its β€œredemption period” and to renew the domain at this stage will cost $250 USD (approx Β£179 GBP) +VAT. This is a cost charged by the registry and passed on to you by us. Redemption periods last between 30 and 60 days, and then the domain is released to the public so anyone can re-register your domain and you will lose it.

Domain Transfers:

Any domain name registered by Footprint (as your registrar) is yours to keep. You can transfer your domain name to a different registrar at any time once the domain is 90 days old – Newly registered domains do have a 90 day waiting period where they cannot be transferred from Footprint to a different registrar.

The same 90 day β€˜no transfer’ window applies when an expired domain is renewed or restored after being in the registry redemption period. Once 90 days have passed from renewing such domains they are then free to be transferred again.

Free Domain offers:

Occasionally we run a promotion and supply a free domain name when hosting is purchased. The terms & conditions for our free domain name offer are plain and simple. We will register the domain name for 1 year (2 years for .uk domains) on your behalf. All we ask is that you stay hosting with us for a minimum of 3 months. If you decide to leave before 3 months and you want to take the domain with you we will only release it once you have paid our normal domain registration fee. If you stay for 3 months or longer and then decide to leave you are free to take the domain at no charge.

Abuse:

Any attempts to undermine, slander, libel, threaten, or cause harm to a Footprint server, customer, employee, or the company directly is strictly prohibited and is grounds for immediate termination without refund. In addition, we will pursue all attempts to the fullest extent of the law.

Refusal of Service:

Footprint reserves the right at its sole discretion to refuse or cancel service. Violation of any of Footprint’s TOS could result in a warning, suspension, or account termination. Accounts terminated due to policy violations will not be refunded. Domains terminated due to policy violations will not be released to the customer.

Information Disclosure Policy:

Footprint will not otherwise disclose its customers’ personal and account information unless Footprint has reason to believe that disclosing such information is necessary to identify, make contact with, or bring legal action against someone who may be causing harm or interfering with the rights or property of Footprint, Footprint’ customers, or others, or where Footprint has a good faith belief that the law requires such disclosure.

Footprint also will not, except for reasons stated below, disclose to third parties the contents of any electronic mail, electronic communications, or other electronic data that Footprint stores or transmits for its customers. The circumstances under which Footprint will disclose such electronic customer communications or data are when:

  • it is necessary in order to provide service to the customer
  • it is necessary to protect the legitimate interests of Footprint and its customers
  • it is required to cooperate with dispute policies, court orders, warrants, or other legal processes that Footprint determines in its sole discretion to be valid and enforceable
  • it is necessary to provide to a law enforcement agency when the contents appear to pertain to the commission of a crime
Privacy Policy

It is the policy of Footprint to not disclose any personal information or account data to third parties without prior consent of the individual unless instructed to do so by a court of law or other legal warrant/document.

Footprint will in the normal course of its business collect personal information from clients and prospective clients, for the purposes of billing, customer service, provision of information, as well as other legitimate business reasons. This information may be stored in a number of ways including electronic and paper formats.

Any person may request a copy of personal information pertaining to themselves, which shall be provided free of charge after reasonable proof of identity. Any personal information held on our systems will be deleted on request and after reasonable proof of identity

We may also store information about you using cookies which we can later access when you visit our websites at a later date. If you want to delete any cookies that are already on your computer, please refer to your system administrator who will be able to help you locate and remove these cookies. If you want to stop cookies being stored on your computer in future, please refer to your browser manufacturer’s instructions by clicking β€œHelp” in your browser menu. Please note that taking either of these measures may prevent you accessing features offered from our sites.

As with most websites, when you visit one of our sites, we will log your IP address and time of access which may be used later for research or fault investigation processes.

Indemnification:

Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold Footprint (or it’s employee’s/owners) harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable legal fees asserted against Footprint, its agents, its customers, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by customer, it’s agents, employees or assigns. Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Footprint against liabilities arising out of; (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with Footprint server; (2) any material supplied by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party and (3) copyright infringement. Customer agrees to limit the liability of Footprint to the amount paid for service.

Disclaimer:

Footprint will not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. Footprint makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for services we provide. Footprint disclaims any warranty or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by Footprint and its employees. Footprint makes no β€œuptime” guarantees. The Client agrees that Footprint shall not be liable for any damages as a result of loss of hosting services or hosted data. The Client further acknowledges that Footprint’s liability for its own negligence is zero, and Footprint may not be held responsible. Liability or Damages in any event may not exceed an amount equivalent to charges payable by Client for services during the period damages occurred. In no event shall Footprint be liable for any special or consequential damages, loss of revenue or injury.

Footprint can accept no responsibility for any loss of data or consequences arising from this. Footprint always advises clients to back up their site data regularly for their own protection. Footprint does not guarantee its own backups of customer data and is not liable for any loss of data, loss of backups or inability to restore service after implementing its disaster recovery plan.

Footprint furthermore expects that its customers who provide hosting services (resellers) to others will ensure its customers fully comply with all applicable laws and this Footprint TOS. A reseller’s client’s failure to comply with those laws and our TOS will violate this policy.

If a customer provides hosting services (resellers) to others and decides to cancel their reseller hosting account with Footprint then Footprint will not be responsible for maintaining hosting for the resellers customers. Footprint has no agreement or responsibility to any resold services. Resold services to others are your own responsibility.

All communications (emails, verbal or written) are between Footprint and the client. These communications are private and are therefore not to be shared with any other parties.

This agreement is made between the customer (as specified in the customer details section when placing your order) and Footprint. If you are purchasing hosting on behalf of another party please ensure you specify the account owners details in the customer details section. Footprint will only be able to communicate with regards to the account with the registered customer and not a third-party.

Finally, Footprint wishes to emphasize that in accepting services, customers indemnify Footprint for the violation of any law or Footprint policy that results in loss to Footprint or the bringing of any claim against Footprint. This means that if Footprint is sued because of activities of the customer that violate any law, or this policy, the customer will pay any damages awarded against Footprint, plus costs and reasonable legal fees.

Failure to comply with any of our terms of service will result in grounds for immediate account deactivation or removal