1. Disclaimer and Warranties:
1. The IRCHighWay network ("IRCHighWay") disclaims all warranties, whether express or implied. The services that IRCHighWay maintains are provided "as is" and on an "as available" basis. IRCHighWay disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a purpose and non-infringement. IRCHighWay, nor any of our affiliates, sponsors, members, staff or volunteers will not and cannot warrant that any functions contained in any of our services will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the services and servers provided herein that makes them available are free of viruses or other harmful components.
2. Any information, recommendations or comments from private users does not reflect the opinion or recommendations of IRCHighWay in any way. IRCHighWay cannot be held liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses resulting from any use of the services, servers operated by IRCHighWay or by any user that is not endorsed as a representative of IRCHighWay.
3. The content and discussions found on this network are in no way endorsed or supported by the network owner(s), admins, or IRCops. Any user knowingly participating in any activity that is considered illegal or unlawful, does so at his/her own risk and can not hold IRCHighWay responsible or liable for any of his/her actions.
4. If alerted by relevant authorities that any channel or user is directly or indirectly involved in any form of illegal activity, IRCHighWay reserves the right to start an investigation of the user, and potentially co-operate with law enforcing officials, provided that IRCHighway is given sufficient evidence of such accusations. Please turn to the IRCHighWay Privacy Policy for info about which personal information is collected and stored.
5. Additionally, if IRCHighWay finds that any channel or user is in breach of this policy, IRCHighWay will conduct its own investigation without prior requests from law enforcement officials or authorities and may take action against the user or channel as outlined below.
6. As we do not monitor or moderate channel or message activity proactively, IRCHighWay can not be held liable for any activity that users conduct, unless IRCHighWay was given reasonable notice of the activity, and was given reasonable time to conduct its own investigation and take action.
7. Should relevant authorities discover a user of IRCHighWay is participating or using IRCHighWay to conduct the above mentioned actions, the authorities should contact the network administration of IRCHighWay through the means listed on our website.
2. Terms of Service:
1. The following section provides a list of what IRCHighWay considers abuse of its services and this policy and IRCHighWay reserves the right to take action against individuals or channels for breach of these Terms.
3. Personal Harassment:
1. Attacking people on this network in a personal way, about their beliefs, sexual preferences, color of skin (this includes ALL Racial slurs/Comments), and any and all other personal attacks will NOT be tolerated here. If IRCHighWay receives information regarding this or witness such actions, then appropriate action will be taken as detailed below.
4. Channels:
1. IRC channels can be created and registered by an individual or a group for any reason.
2. IRCHighWay does not get involved with channel matters that do not affect the network or are not in breach of this policy. The founder of a channel is 100% in charge of the specific channel. He/she may appoint channel admins, ops and halfops to help take care of the channel. The channel staff can kick and/or ban other users for any reason as they see fit. Issues such as channel access, bans or kicks should be taken up with the relevant channel founders or staff. This information may be found by looking at the registration information for the channel.
3. In cases where a dispute about a channel's legitimate ownership is occurring, IRCHighWay, at its own discretion, and dependant on the timeframe of the dispute, may assist in the resolution of the situation by interfering based on the information provided through its own log files about registration data and/or evidences provided by either parties. Such a decision must be overviewed by IRCHighWay's Server Owners Committee before any change can be effected, and as such does not constitute a regular course of action.
4. Intentional and especially repeated avoidance of channel bans is not tolerated and can lead to your removal from the network for a period of time.
5. Channel Violations:
1. If IRCHighWay receives information that a channel is violating this policy, IRCHighWay will first attempt to resolve the problem with the channel founder. If the channel founder is un-cooperative, or does not take action to correct the situation, IRCHighWay, at its own discretion may:
• Drop the registration of the channel.
• Transfer the founder status to the successor if he is willing to co-operate with IRCHighWay, and remove the access of the original channel founder.
• Suspend the channel for a period of time in order to stop it being used.
• Forbid the channel from ever being used in a registered or unregistered state.
2. In order to enforce this policy, IRCHighWay reserves the right to enter channels that IRCHighWay feels may be in violation of this policy in order to conduct investigations. No Operator will ever mask his identity as an Operator when entering these channels, but he may use his operator powers to override channel bans/kicks/or keys in order to complete his investigations.
6. Services Abuse:
1. Abuse of network registration services which include but are not limited to "NickServ" "ChanServ" "MemoServ", "OperServ", “BotServ”, “LoveServ” and “MoraleServ” will not be tolerated on this network. Persons who abuse services will dealt with as outlined below.
7. SPAM and UCM (Unsolicited Commercial Messages):
1. Users are NOT permitted to send messages that contain information inviting users to visit websites, other networks, or participate in any activity, when that user does not specifically have permission by the affected user or channel to provide this information. Additionally, IRCHighWay will take appropriate action against a channel or individual if we are notified that the user is conducting the same activity on other networks which directly involve or affect IRCHighWay.
8. Insecure Proxies or Unauthorized Hosts:
1. Users are not permitted to connect to IRCHighWay by utilizing insecure proxies or hosts for which they have no authorization to connect from. IRCHighWay checks the original IP address of users for insecure proxies upon connection. Unauthorized Hosts are defined as hosts that the user has not been granted express permission from the host's administrator to use to connect to IRC.
2. Additionally, if a proxy administrator wishes to stop his users from connecting to IRCHighWay, he may contact the network administration and request that his host should be banned from doing so.
9. Excessive Connections:
1. IRCHighWay uses technology to limit the number of users that may connect from a single IP address. This is to protect the services, servers, resources and users of IRCHighWay from potential attacks. The limit is set to a maximum of 4 connections from the same IP. Users that believe they have a valid reason to connect over the limit may apply for a raise of the limit (temporary or permanent) from the network administration. Valid reason(s) for this has to be provided. This application may or may not be approved.
10. Bots/Clients.
1. Non-abusive bots are tolerated but not supported by IRCHighWay. Abusive bots (i.e. Floodbots, warbots, hacked servers etc.) will be dealt with as is outlined below.
2. Abusive clients such as Bottlers, IRC-ORKs, XDCC-Catchers and other similar clients are not allowed on this network.
11. Violations of this policy:
1. Depending upon the severity of the action the user conducted, the user may be denied access to our network services for a short period of time. Extreme or multiple violations may result in a permanent ban.
2. Additionally, depending upon the nature of the violation, the user may be denied access to the nickname or channel services (NickServ, ChanServ etc.) for a short period of time. Extreme or multiple violations may result in a permanent restriction.
3. If it is found that the majority of members of a channel is contributing to the policy violation, they shall be dealt with as having committed a violation as individuals and will be dealt with as outlined above.
4. When banned from the network, users are not permitted to deliberately or forcefully connect to the network by any means. This includes, but is not limited to, using another dynamic IP or connecting through a proxy (BNC). By connecting like this (ban evading), the users penalty will be extended, no matter for how long the original ban was set or for what reason it was set. The only way a ban can be lifted prior to expiry, is by sending an email to banned [at] irchighway.net as described when akilled/k-lined, and wait for the case to be handled by network staff. The ban then may, or may not, be removed.
5. Due to the complexity of the IRC protocol, and IRCHighWay’s commitment to our Privacy Policy, IRCHighWay does not monitor the communications between users, Therefore IRCHighWay can not actively moderate or monitor any message or channels for illegal, unlawful or unauthorized activities as defined by this policy.
12. Oper abuse:
1. In the event that IRCHighWay has been notified of or witnesses any infringement or illegal activity conducted by the representatives of IRCHighWay (the IRCops or network administrators), IRCHighWay will conduct its own investigation into the incident (potentially, in co-operation with law enforcement officials) and take appropriate action according out our "Acceptable Operator Policy", or applicable laws.
2. If a user feels that they have been un-fairly treated by any IRCop with regards to any issue listed above, they may contact the network administration as listed on our website to plead the case. In these cases, the user should provide necessary information regarding why they believe they are not in violation of this policy. This may include, but is not limited to log files.
13. Additional info:
1. This acceptable usage policy is subject to change at any time at the discretion of IRCHighWay. Should any changes be made to this document, IRCHighWay will notify all users of the change via our website and optionally via Signon Message or Global Notice.
2. Additionally individual servers that provide resources, time or money to IRCHighWay may have their own rules and additions to this acceptable use policy with regards to what is permitted to be conducted on those servers. Any additional rules or amendments to this Policy will be displayed to the user when they logon via the MOTD feature.
3. Questions regarding this policy can be addressed to the network administration. Details of their contact details may be found on our website.

IRCHighWay
Network Administration Staff
soc [at] irchighway.net
http://www.irchighway.net

Guidelines for stress-free and fun chatting:
The following information is provided to enhance your experience while using our network. Please note that this is only a guideline for the benefit of our users and does not in any way constitute any part of our Acceptable Use Policy.

• IRC is meant to be fun, and if you have found it's not fun anymore, we suggest you take a break.
• If a user is annoying you, the best action in most cases is to use the silence or ignore commands.
• If a user is annoying the rest of the channel, kick or kick/ban is the best option.
• Registering your nickname will give you access to additional features such as memo sending/receiving and access to restricted channels.
• Not everyone is an IRC guru; if someone new to IRC comes along, try to help them out. Remember, you were once an IRC newbie as well.
• Being an IRCop isn't all fun and games. We spend more time doing boring stuff like writing these documents than having fun.
• Don't ask us to hire you as an IRCop. If we want more IRCops we will ask you.
• Respect others and respect the rules of a channel. Don't complain to us if you get banned.
• When entering a new channel, read the topic. Basic channel rules are often described there.
• The website provides help for many things in the form of articles displayed on the front page. For example: “What to do if I’m banned from the network/a channel” or “I’m new to IRC – How does it work?” Take a look at them – They may answer your specific question(s).
• Our #help channel is there for you. If you have a problem with our services or IRC in general, try asking in that channel.
• There are few special channels for specific issues such as #abuse for abuse/spam reports, #unixhelp for linux/unix assistance, etc. Of course, we are also available to assist you in #help, our main help channel.
• If you just want to chat with us, #irchighway is the best channel for that.
• If you heard a good joke or quote recently, tell us, we can always use a good laugh ;)

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