TechShell

Nothing is without its rules & regulations; TechShell is no exception. Below are the site's service terms & privacy policy. Everything in this page should be clear to everyone who wishes to use TechShell's services, especially the service terms; failure to abide by them can result in such penalties as service bans & even legal action, depending on the severity of a violation. Be sure to read the terms carefully & understand them.

TechShell relies on the common courtesy & consideration of users to make its services fair for everyone. The following offences will result in a service ban:

1. Deliberately defacing the accounts of other users
2. Deliberately trying to disrupt TechShell's server
3. Using TechShell as a launch pad for disrupting other remote computers & networks
4. Using TechShell to impersonate other websites & businesses for criminal purposes
5. Fraudulently purchacing a paid service using false credit card information
6. Publicly distributing pirated, copyrighted content without license
7. Using TechShell as a proxy for pirating copyrighted content
8. Storing/distributing pornography of any genre & medium (especially child pornography)
9. Storing/distributing content that defames any individual
10. Promoting racial, ethnic, sexual, religious, political & other forms of bigotry

These offenses may also warrant legal action against any offending users, depending on the severity of each case & who may have been affected. Any legal action to be taken will be done in full cooperation with law enforcement & according to the laws of the province of Ontario, in the nation of Canada.

It's also expected that all users respect the copyrights of those who produce original content of any kind. However, original content that may contain ecxerpts of copyrighted material is perfectly acceptable, provided that proper attribution to its original creators is given, as per fair use & other laws promoting consumer rights. Note that original content from other users must also be respected, though creating/sharing public domain content is highly encouraged.

All service prices issued by TechShell are in Canadian funds. If a user wishes, they may upgrade from free to paid service, or downgrade from paid to free service, at anytime. Should an upgrade be made, billing will commence & be calculated at the date of the upgrade request, after which time the normall billing schedule will resume. Should a downgrade be made, a refund will be calculated & issued, based on the date of the downgrade request, after which time the normal billing schedule will resume. No user will ever be bound by any contract beyond the above terms.

Privacy is a major concern for everyone. TechShell respects the privacy rights of others & refuses to collect/store/distribute anyone's private information, for any reason other than registration, billing & normal service operation; TechShell collects usernames for account registration purposes only, e-mail addresses (via Google's GMail service) for business-related communications only, credit card information (via the secure third-party company PayPal) for billing purposes only & IP addresses for server administration/policy enforcement purposes. Only IP address & username information is saved on TechShell's servers; all account passwords are encrypted. Credit card information for billing is stored only on PayPal's network & e-mail addresses are stored only on Google's GMail servers, as contact information under the system operator's own e-mail account; this information will never be given to any third party, or used/abused to send unsolicited advertisements. At no point in time, will TechShell ever collect the residential addresses of its users for any purpose.

The privacy rights of individual users may be overturned ONLY when it is known that they have violated the service terms, in a manner that requires law enforcement; this is done strictly to uphold the service terms as well as the law. The only information that would be given are server logs (which include the IP addresses of the offending party) & the offending party's e-mail address. Should the offense involve fraud, law enforcement will also receive the offending party's billing information.