• Hosted Chat Terms and Conditions

  • General Terms
    • By signing up for or otherwise accessing any of the services or products provided by GChat Limited, you agree to be bound by all these Terms and Conditions. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU READ THESE TERMS PRIOR TO PURCHASING A HOSTED CHAT. If you have any questions about these terms, please contact us.
    • GChat reserves the right to modify its Hosted Chat Terms and Conditions when necessary. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are up to date with all of our Terms and Conditions.
    • These are specific service terms for hosted chats. Due to the dynamic nature of the service and the constantly evolving company profile, product portfolio and market orientation of GChat Limited, there may happen to be an eventuality where specific terms may be inconsistent with the other general terms and conditions of the company. In such cases, specific terms in this text override the general terms.
    Acceptable Usage
    • You may use the hosted chat software instance given to you to run a multi-user chatroom with voice and video streaming, and plugins where applicable.
    • You may not use the chat software for illicit collection of personal details with the intention to spam, by e-mail or otherwise.
    • You will undertake the responsibility of ensuring legal compliance of your chat community's activities, private or commercial, under local, national and international law. GChat reserves the right to cooperate with legal authorities in the investigation and stopping of any illegal activities brought to its attention, pending swift removal of all software and services, without refund or further notice, extended to individuals found guilty of breaking the law.
    • You cannot use the hosted chat service to share copyrighted materials without explicit written consent of or official license from the copyright holder(s) of such materials.
    • You may not store, share or otherwise re-distribute user-recorded content without knowledge and consent of its creator. In countries where it is required to display a notification to consumers whose live communications may be recorded, you are solely responsible for providing this notice wherever appropriate or prescribed by law.
    • You may not use the hosted chat software instance to seek to subvert, damage or otherwrise circumvent the software, GChat licensing mechanisms and Terms and Conditions, or other hosted chats.
    Installation and Activation
    • GChat will install and activate your hosted chat, after your order has been successfully processed. It is your responsibility to notify the technician in charge of your installation of the name you want for your chat. Alternatively, you can supply a domain name from which the name of your chat can be generated.
    • GChat reserves the right to withhold installation for processed orders pending a chat name or domain name from the customer. Orders that are missing vital information and with no further communication from the customer will be cancelled automatically after a period of one month, and a refund will be issued using the payment details supplied with the original order.
    • You may only use the plugins that come with your hosted chat package. If you downgrade your hosted chat package, GChat reserves the right to deactivate any plugins which fall outside the new package's specification.
    • At the time of chat installation, you may request your old chat data to be imported into your new hosted chat. It does not matter if the data comes from another hosted chat or a third party host. Importing of data is subject to the one-time incident technical support fee, as defined on the Technical Support page.
    Software Management and Access
    • You may access and manage your chat through the admin panel and chat links sent to you at your chat's activation.
    • You may embed your chat in a webpage of your choosing, using the codes provided in the admin panel, either as a static or floating frame or via javascript.
    • You may forward one domain to the chat address issued to you by GChat.
    • It is your responsibility to manage access to your admin panel, and to keep your admin password(s) safe. GChat is not responsible for any data loss or other damages incurred due to an insecure admin panel password or it being freely shared with others.
    • GChat does not provide FTP, root level or SSH remote access to its hosted chats servers. GChat fully manages its servers on your behalf as a part of the hosted chat service. You can however upload mp3s, skins, smileys, and other allowed types of files through the chat control panel without first notifying GChat.
    Payments and Subscriptions
    • Hosted chat subscriptions can be paid for in advance as a single, one-time order. But it is your responsibility to make note of the end date of this custom subscription period, and to renew appropriately at that time.
    • GChat has no obligation to keep expired chats. If your chat has expired, it is your responsibility to ensure that you settle any outstanding balance on your account to continue using the server within one month of the stated expiration date. Expiration dates can be found in your customers portal account for each subscription you hold.
    • Expired subscriptions which have not been renewed within one week of their expiration date are subject to removal. The chatrooms affected will be closed automatically after expiry date without further notice from GChat. The data, settings and backups for these chatrooms will then be deleted. This clause also applies to unpaid subscriptions, bounced payments and cancellations.
    • It is your responsibility to ensure that you have valid payment arrangements with GChat.
    • If you cancel subscription for any reason, it falls upon you to either make regular monthly payments in a timely fashion or to reinstate your subscription, to avoid the closure of your hosted chatroom.
    Maintenance and Support
    • As a hosted chat customer you are entitled to access the GChat technical support service for free. Jobs and requests not covered by the technical support department may still be possible but may be subject to a separate charge.
    • GChat will automatically update all hosted chats to the latest version of the software when new releases become available. You may request for the regular update to be postponed or not to be applied; however, if the update contains critical system or security patches, these will be applied regardless so as not to expose your chat to known vulnerabilities.
    • As a part of regular server maintenance, GChat may temporarily close down your hosted chat or restart the server. Unfortunately, some processes are automated, and it is not always possible to supply advance warning. Major updates, service outages or data migrations will always be announced in the company news, blog, forums, or regular newsletter. It is your responsibility to ensure you're aware of any incoming changes or disruptions, and to make arrangements with your users to re-enter the chatroom after maintenance has finished.
    • A backup of the hosted chat may be requested once a month free of charge.
    Breach of Terms and Conditions
    • GChat reserves the right to move chats affected by external threats to different servers to protect its network security.
    • GChat reserves the right to suspend chats found to be posing a serious risk to the network, servers, service, other chats, or other third parties, pending an internal investigation. Such chats may be removed from the affected servers at GChat's discretion, without a refund or further warning.
    • If you breached GChat Terms and Conditions, or had your hosted chat terminated, in the past, GChat reserves the right to decline any future orders from you.
    • GChat reserves the right to suspend services extended to you when a breach of its Terms and Conditions is suspected for the time necessary to complete its internal review procedures.
    Last updated: 16 Apr 2013
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