Acceptable Use Policy
Scope
This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") applies to anyone using a LochStudios service, including hosted sites, email accounts, registered domains, the LochStudios Panel, and any API endpoint we expose.
Prohibited content
You must not store, transmit, or link to: child sexual abuse material; content that incites violence or terrorism; content that infringes copyright, trademark, or other intellectual-property rights; material that is defamatory under Australian law; or content that breaches privacy law (including doxxing, unauthorised personal-data publishing, and non-consensual intimate imagery).
Prohibited activity
You must not use the service to: send unsolicited bulk email or SMS; operate phishing, credential-harvesting, or social-engineering infrastructure; distribute malware, ransomware, exploit kits, or stalkerware; run open relays, open proxies, or open recursive DNS resolvers; conduct port scans, vulnerability scans, brute-force attempts, or denial-of-service attacks against systems you do not own; mine cryptocurrency on shared resources; or attempt to evade resource limits via co-ordinated multi-account use.
Email and SMS
All transactional and marketing email and SMS sent through LochStudios infrastructure must comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth): you must have express or inferred consent, you must clearly identify the sender, and you must offer a working, prompt unsubscribe path. Bounce, complaint, and unsubscribe rates above industry-standard thresholds (typically 0.1% complaint, 5% bounce) may result in sender suspension.
Resource use
Shared hosting is shared. Workloads that materially impair other tenants — runaway CPU, runaway memory, runaway disk I/O, runaway connections — may be throttled or relocated. Where a workload consistently exceeds the limits of a shared plan, we will contact you to discuss a larger plan or dedicated resources before taking action.
Security obligations
You must keep applications you install (WordPress, CMS plugins, custom code) patched. You must not weaken our default security headers, disable HTTPS where we provide it, or use ciphers we have disabled. Credentials we issue (FTP, database, mailbox) must be treated as secrets; share them only with people who need them, and rotate them when staff leave.
Investigation and enforcement
If we receive a credible abuse report, we may inspect the relevant content or logs to assess the report. We try to contact you before taking action, but where the abuse is severe (active phishing campaign, live malware distribution, child safety) we may suspend immediately and notify you afterwards. Suspensions are lifted when the cause is remediated.
Reporting abuse
To report a LochStudios-hosted service for AUP violations, email abuse@lochstudios.com with the offending URL, a description of the issue, and your contact details. We respond to actionable reports within one business day.