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; 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 hosting

Where we host email for you (Axigen mailboxes and Microsoft 365 Business accounts), you must use those mailboxes lawfully and in accordance with this AUP.

You must not use hosted mailboxes to send unsolicited commercial electronic messages or other spam. Any commercial electronic message you send from a mailbox we host must comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), including by ensuring you have the recipient’s express or inferred consent, clearly identifying yourself as the sender, and including a functional unsubscribe facility.

We may suspend a hosted mailbox or your account where complaint rates exceed 0.1% or bounce rates exceed 5%, pending remediation.

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. Copy the template below, replace the bracketed placeholders with your details, and send it from your email client. Reports must include evidence supporting the alleged violation; we cannot act on unsupported allegations. We respond to actionable reports within one business day.

Subject: Abuse report — [domain or URL]

Reporter details
Name: [Your name]
Email: [Your email address]
Phone: [Your phone number — optional]
Organisation: [Your organisation — optional]

Reported content
URL: [Full URL of the offending page, file, or service]
Date and time observed: [DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM timezone]

Description
[Describe the AUP violation: what you observed, why it violates this policy, and any impact.]

Evidence (required)
[Provide screenshots, message headers, email source, log excerpts, or other material that shows the alleged abuse. Attach files to your email or include links to evidence you host.]

Declaration
I believe the information in this report is accurate and submitted in good faith.