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Customer Usage Policy

BY USING THE INTERNET ACCESS OFFERED BY mlecmn.net d.b.a. MILLE LACS ENERGY COOPERATIVE (heretofore referred to as MLEC), YOU ARE CONSENTING TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, DO NOT USE INTERNET ACCESS OFFERED BY MLEC.

THE DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED FOR USE ONLY (I) WITH THE INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE INITIALLY OFFERED BY MLEC IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE DOCUMENTATION AND (II) IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. NO RIGHT OR LICENSE IS GRANTED TO USE THE DOCUMENTATION WITH ANY OTHER INTERNET ACCESS.

GRANT
MLEC hereby grants non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited license to access the Internet through MLEC’S network and a non-exclusive license to use its accompanying software product and accompanying documentation on the following terms:

TITLE
Title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the Software and Documentation will remain with MLEC and/or its suppliers. The copyright laws of the United States and international copyright treaties protect the Software. Title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the content accessed through the Software or through MLEC’s Internet Services are the property of the applicable content owner and may be protected by applicable copyright or other law. This license gives you no rights to such content. You retain any rights you may have in data posted by you to the Internet.

NO ASSIGNMENT
The benefits or rights conferred by this agreement are non-transferable and non-assignable. The connectivity provided is expressly limited to you. Resale or use of this connection by another person or persons is prohibited.

DEFINITION OF SERVICES
Dial-up, Wireless and WildBlue Internet Service will provide Internet access to one computer or small office/home office (SOHO) router. Dial-up service will consist of access to one user on one computer for a single dial-up session. Wireless service will consist of a connection of requested speed per agreement signed. WildBlue Internet services will include the following connection types: Value Pak, Select Pak and Pro Pak.

CHARGES AND BILLING
A valid credit card may be required to open an account for Wireless and WildBlue Internet Service’s.

You agree to pay MLEC all charges relating to use of your account(s). Internet charges will be according to rates and prices published online at the time of use. Charges for other services, such as promotional offerings and other services to be offered from time to time will be according to prices published at the time.

Charges at the date of invoice will include the next month’s access fee, the next month’s other recurring charges, and additional usage charges incurred during the prior month, if any. Your first bill will be prorated according to the days of service left in MLEC‘s billing period.

For Dial-up, Wireless and WildBlue Internet Services, you may elect payment by on-line payment, bank draft, credit card, debit card, check or money order. MLEC will send you an invoice by mail setting forth all charges incurred by you at the end of each MLEC billing cycle. You are solely responsible for informing MLEC of new expiration dates and account numbers on your listed credit card, debit card, or bank draft accounts as appropriate. You are responsible for keeping MLEC updated when your listed credit card has no remaining credit.

For payments made by credit card, debit card or bank draft your account will be charged on the twenty-eighth (28th) each month or the next working day. For payments made by check or money order, your payment is due on the twenty-eighth (28) calendar day of the month.

MLEC will charge $25 for all returned checks and for bank drafts declined by your bank, and your account will be subject to immediate suspension. If payment is not received by the date due, your account is delinquent. MLEC may at any time charge your credit card any amount past due or any balance due at the time of notification to MLEC of a denied bank draft, declined debit card, or check returned for non-sufficient funds. If a reconnection is requested upon a termination for nonpayment, a fee of $10 will be charged for Dialup and Wireless Internet service’s and fee of $29.95 will be charged for WildBlue Internet services.

If you default, you are liable for any and all attorney fees, court costs and collection agency fees or commissions if MLEC has to employ these methods in order to collect debts owed to MLEC under this Agreement. Accounts cancelled due to non-payment will be reported to a credit reporting agency.

You agree to pay a fine of $500 for flagrant disregard of MLEC’s Allowable Use Policy as contained in this Agreement. It is at MLEC’s sole discretion what constitutes flagrant disregard of allowable use.

OTHER CHARGES
You are responsible for any local or long distance phone charges accrued in connecting to MLEC. MLEC is not responsible for any phone charges intentionally or unintentionally incurred by any subscriber for any reason.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
MLEC exercises no control whatsoever over the content of the information accessed through MLEC’s Internet Services. MLEC’s Internet Services are provided on an "as is, as available" basis, without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the warranties of performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. MLEC and/or contributors will have no liability whatsoever to you for any claim(s) relating in any way to (i) your inability or failure to perform research or related work or to work properly or completely, or (ii) any lost profits or consequential, exemplary, incidental, indirect or special damages relating in whole or in part to your rights hereunder or use of, or inability to use, MLEC’s Internet Services. MLEC will not be responsible for any damage suffered by you, including, but not limited to, loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, mis-deliveries or service interruptions caused by its own negligence or your errors or omissions. Use of any information obtained via MLEC’s Internet Services is at your sole risk. MLEC specifically disclaims any responsibility for the accuracy or quality of information obtained through MLEC’s Internet Services.

Under no circumstances and under no legal theory, tort, contract or otherwise, will MLEC affiliates or its suppliers be liable to you or any other person for any indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages of any character including, without limitation, damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses, or for any damages in excess of MLEC’s list price for a license to the Software and Documentation, even if MLEC will have been informed of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party.

ALLOWABLE USE
MLEC will publish its Customer Use Policy, on its web site. These policies may be revised from time to time. You agree to abide by MLEC‘s policies concerning use of MLEC‘s Internet Services as published on line at the time of use.

MLEC’s Internet Services may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission of any material in violation of any federal or state statute or regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, copyrighted material, material legally judged to be threatening or obscene, or material protected by trade secret. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless MLEC from any claims resulting from your use of MLEC’s Internet Services.

Commercial advertisements are unwelcome in most Usenet discussion groups and on most e-mail mailing lists. Inappropriate posting may result in account suspension or cancellation. See the newsgroup or mailing list's charter for whether advertising is allowed or not. "Spamming," or sending a message to many different off-topic newsgroups, is not allowed. Sending a message, especially an advertisement, to more than five recipients, is considered by itself spamming unless the individuals have specifically requested to be added to a mailing list on that topic. E-mail is a person-to-person medium, not a broadcast medium. Unsolicited advertisements via e-mail, or via discussion groups whose charter does not explicitly allow advertisements, are not allowable.

Violations of MLEC's Customer Use policy will result in account suspension or cancellation and fines as states in Charges and Billing.

UNLIMITED USAGE (Dial up)
MLEC offers unlimited usage to Single Dial-up Internet Services customers. "Unlimited usage" does not mean "unlimited access." Unlimited dial-up accounts have no hourly charges when the account holder is wholly and exclusively engaged in personal, interactive Internet use. Personal, interactive use is approximated by MLEC at 320 hours. Accounts may not be used for automated, unsupervised use of the Internet or simultaneous connections by multiple people. Accounts may not be kept connected with a keep-alive of any sort, such as setting an e-mail program to check mail periodically unattended. MLEC will disconnect dial-up connections after 2 hours of inactivity and after 8 hours of simultaneous connection or unauthorized use.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR ACCOUNT USE
You are responsible for all use of your account(s) and confidentiality of password(s). MLEC will suspend or change access upon notification that your password has been stolen, lost or otherwise possibly compromised. MLEC is not responsible for your personal files residing online on MLEC’s affiliated owned and controlled computers. You will be responsible for independent backup of your data stored online. You will be responsible for all access to and use of MLEC‘s Internet Services by your personnel or by means of your equipment, whether or not you have knowledge of or authorize such access or use.

If the subscriber is less than 18 years of age, the application must be signed and these terms agreed to by a parent or legal guardian, who is responsible for all charges related to the use of subscriber's account(s).

UNAUTHORIZED USE OF ACCOUNT
MLEC will strongly react to any use or attempted use of an Internet account or computer without the owner's authorization. Such attempts include "social engineering" (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password cracking, security hole scanning, denial-of-service attacks (ping-flooding, sending packets with an illegal packet size, UDP flooding, half-open TCP connection flooding, etc.) and the like.

Harassment or abusive use of e-mail and other Internet services are not allowed. MLEC will handle incidents of harassment on a case-by-case basis, consulting with all parties involved.

Any unauthorized use of accounts or computers by a MLEC customer, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to an affiliate of MLEC, will result in action against the attacker. Possible actions include warnings, account suspension or cancellation, and legal action, according to the seriousness of the attack.

LIMITATIONS ON RESOURCE USAGE
MLEC reserves the right to impose limits on the total amount of disk space and other resources available for your use on MLEC affiliated operated computers. E-mail accounts for dial-up account users are subject to a limit of 16MB. MLEC reserves the right to delete, without notice, personal e-mail files that have not been accessed for more than one month.

Disk space for storage of web pages is available in amounts specific to each Internet service package. Use of excess space will be charged on a monthly basis according to rates and prices published online at the time of use. MLEC reserves the right to remove files that exceed allowed limits.

E-MAIL PRIVACY
Electronic mail passes through multiple mail servers on the Internet as it passes from source to destination. Privacy can never be guaranteed from every possible mail server; therefore, users seeking total privacy should use some encryption scheme to render messages unreadable by eavesdroppers. With regards to MLEC affiliate’s mail servers, MLEC places a high value on privacy and will only examine users' mail when absolutely required, for example when troubleshooting e-mail delivery problems or being presented with a search warrant for the information.

ILLEGAL MATERIAL
MLEC bears certain legal liabilities for the use of its computer network and equipment. As such, MLEC prohibits any and all use of MLEC affiliate’s network for illegal purposes. When presented with a search warrant, MLEC is obligated to release any information named therein, and will cooperate with authorities in any criminal investigation of inappropriate Internet usage.

However, MLEC recognizes that the legal status of the Internet has not yet been resolved satisfactorily, either through legislation or court precedent. Therefore, MLEC must make certain decisions regarding the illegality of various specific actions. Among the actions MLEC considers illegal and therefore will not allow on its network are: unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material; exploitation of minors; and unauthorized use of computer resources. MLEC believes the First Amendment rights of free speech, freedom of the press and freedom of association apply to the Internet to the same degree as they do to print media and that any attempt to infringe upon those rights is void of legitimacy.

WEB SERVICE
MLEC provides personal web space to all customers. MLEC includes web service in its enhanced packages and hosts commercial web pages for a fee. In all cases, the web pages reside on MLEC affiliate’s computer equipment, giving MLEC some ethical responsibility for the content of such pages. MLEC will handle potentially inappropriate web pages on a case-by-case basis. Examples of inappropriate information include downloadable virus code and obscene materials.

Domain name service is available as an optional service. MLEC will register your domain request with InterNIC (Network Solutions) and you will be charged any fees that are charged by InterNIC. MLEC charges a setup fee for adding your registered name on the MLEC domain name server.

MLEC grants you non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited license to store documents on a MLEC affiliate’s Internet World Wide Web server, and to use the server at burst bandwidth speeds up to affiliate’s full capacity. MLEC will bill for usage in accordance with rate and prices published online at the time of use.

TERM AND TERMINATION
This agreement will become effective on the date the service application is entered into MLEC‘s system (no later than the end of one business day after receipt of application). MLEC, at its sole discretion, may terminate this agreement immediately or suspend your access to the service upon any breach of this Agreement by you.

You are responsible for notifying MLEC of your wish to terminate your account if desired. Charges will continue to accrue until your notification to MLEC of account termination, or until your account is cancelled due to non-payment as stated in "Charges and Billing." If your account is cancelled due to non-payment, you will be in default and subject to any and all late fees and collection fees payable by you under this Agreement.

Licenses granted hereunder will terminate automatically if you fail to comply with the limitations described herein. Upon termination, you must destroy all copies of the Software and Documentation.

EFFECT OF AGREEMENT
This Agreement (which will include the current and future Schedules hereto) represents the complete agreement concerning this license between the parties and supersedes all prior agreements and representations between them.

MODIFICATION OF TERMS AND CHARGES
MLEC reserves the right to change rates or otherwise modify provisions of this Agreement by notifying you at least thirty (30) days before the effective date of the change, by written or online notice. Your use of MLEC‘s Internet Services after such notice will constitute your acceptance of the modifications to this agreement.

FORCE MAJEURE
MLEC‘s performance hereunder is subject to interruption and delay due to causes beyond its reasonable control such as acts of God, acts of any government, war or other hostility, civil disorder, the elements, fire, explosion, power failure, equipment failure, industrial or labor disputes, inability to obtain necessary supplies and the like.

SEVERABILITY
If any provision of this Agreement is held to be unenforceable for any reason, such provision will be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable, and all other provisions are unaffected.

NOTICES
Except as otherwise provided herein, all notices hereunder will be given in writing as follows:

Mille Lacs Energy Cooperative PO Box 230 Aitkin MN 56431

GOVERNING LAW
This Agreement will be governed by and construed under the laws of the state of Minnesota except as governed by Federal law. The application of the United Nations Convention of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is expressly included. All disputes will be settled in Minnesota courts.

WAIVER
Failure of any party to enforce any provision of this Agreement will not constitute or be construed as a waiver of such provision or of the right to enforce such provision.

U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS
Use, duplication or disclosure of Software and Documentation by the Government is subject to restrictions set forth in subparagraphs (a) through (d) of the Commercial Computer-Restricted Rights clause at FAR 52.227-19 when applicable, or in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013, or at 252.211-7015, and in similar clauses in the NASA FAR Supplement.

For the WildBlue Fair Access Policy - click here