Acceptable Use Policy

1. Illegal content and activity

Do not use the Service for, or to help with, anything that breaks the laws of [To be completed: governing law], of the place where the instance runs or of the place where you are, including:

• Child sexual abuse or exploitation material. We have zero tolerance: the account is closed at once and reported to law enforcement.
• Infringing copyright, trademarks or other intellectual property, including distributing pirated software, films, music or games.
• Phishing, fraud, or impersonating another brand or person.
• Hosting or distributing malware, ransomware or botnet command-and-control servers.
• Illegal gambling, trade in drugs, weapons or other prohibited goods, and content promoting terrorism or inciting violence.
• Collecting, selling or leaking other people's personal data without authorisation.

2. Attacks and network abuse

• Launching or helping with denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, including running or using "stresser" or "booter" services, reflection and amplification attacks, and packet floods.
• Accessing, breaking into or testing other people's systems, networks or accounts without permission, including brute-forcing passwords.
• Port scanning or vulnerability scanning without the owner's permission.
• Spoofing source IP addresses, using IP or MAC addresses not assigned to you, hijacking routes, or running DHCP or other services that interfere with the network.
• Running open proxies, open DNS resolvers, open mail relays or Tor exit nodes.

3. No "DD" reinstalls

Install operating systems only from our images, using Reinstall in the console. Do not overwrite an instance's system disk with an image we did not provide, whether with dd, network reinstall scripts, custom boot loaders, rescue environments or any other method (a "DD reinstall"), including installing Windows or another operating system this way.

Why: unofficial images may lack correct network settings and security updates, may raise licensing problems (unlicensed Windows, for example), and get in the way of troubleshooting and abuse handling.

If we find a DD reinstall, we may ask you to reinstall an official image from the console by a deadline, suspend the instance, or reinstall an official image for you (which erases the instance's data). You bear any data loss, and charges already paid are not refunded. If you need another operating system, ask us first.

4. Spam

• Do not send unsolicited bulk or marketing email, or spam by SMS, messaging apps, social networks or forums.
• Do not use bought, rented or scraped address lists.
• Outbound port 25 (SMTP) may be restricted by default. If you need to send mail, use a reputable sending service or ask us first, and set up SPF, DKIM and a way to unsubscribe.
• If your instance's IP address is blacklisted because of your mail, you bear the cost of delisting.

5. Mining and resource abuse

• No cryptocurrency mining (CPU or GPU), mining pool proxies, or disk-heavy farming and plotting such as Chia.
• Instances share physical hardware. If an instance keeps CPU, disk or bandwidth fully loaded for long periods and affects others, we may limit it, for example by capping its CPU.
• Do not try to bypass, interfere with or deceive our metering, monitoring or limits, and do not attack the console, the hosts or other customers' instances.

6. Other prohibited conduct

• Paying with stolen cards or someone else's identity, or making abusive chargebacks.
• Opening several accounts to get around a suspension or abuse a promotion.

7. How we enforce this policy

We find violations through automated monitoring (which reads resource usage, not content) and through complaints. We usually act in these steps, adjusted to how serious the problem is:

• Notice: we tell you by email and in the console what we detected and why, and ask you to fix it by a deadline.
• Restriction: we limit the instance's CPU or network.
• Lock: we suspend and lock the instance. While locked it cannot be started, reinstalled or opened in the console until an administrator reviews it. A locked instance is not deleted when an unpaid grace period ends; it keeps being billed as before, and you can delete it at any time to stop billing.
• Termination: for serious or repeated violations we close the account and delete its instances after notice.

For attacks in progress, child abuse material, serious ongoing harm to others, or where the law requires it, we may suspend immediately without notice. Charges paid are not refunded when we suspend or terminate for a violation, and costs we incur dealing with it (such as extra traffic or IP delisting) may be taken from your balance or claimed from you.

8. Reporting abuse

To report abuse on the Service, email [To be completed: contact email] with the IP address, the time (with time zone) and evidence such as logs. We pass complaints about your instances on to you; please reply and deal with them within 24 hours.