The present Charter is applicable to all contracts for the purchase of services established through the intermediary of the e-mail planning site.
By entering into a contract through the intermediary of Clicplanning, the client undertakes to abide by the present Charter which forms an integral part of the general terms governing the contract.
Clicplanning is a division of the Sybex International SPRL Group. Contracts entered into through the Clicplanning website are made directly with
Sybex International SPRL
Head office : Avenue de la Couronne 311
1050 BRUSSELS
Belgium
Tel.: 00 32 2 626 16 88
Fax : 00 32 2 626 16 80
e-mail :info@clicplanning.com
NBR : 0435.430.129
VAT : BE 0435.430.129
Generally, the exchange of information with other Internet users is a matter of common sense and courtesy. The majority of Clicplanning's clients use their common sense to decide what in their behaviour is appropriate or not. However, from time to time, e-mails and/or SMSs of an undesirable nature (termed NET ABUSE) are sent and received.
Clicplanning offers its clients a software service designed mainly to manage authorised e-mail and/or SMS marketing campaigns.
Clicplanning only accepts authorised marketing practices and does not allow its services to be used for mass e-mail and/or SMS dispatching operations not authorised under law.
It is not always self-evident to detect whether or not such or such another e-mail or SMS is innocent, negligent or intentional. However, certain activities will require Clicplanning to intervene, as is described below in this document.
Our policy applies to the use of our systems by both users and our clients.
Terms used in this document are defined as follows :
«Client» - refers to the business entity with which Clicplanning has entered into an e-mail and/or SMS services purchase contract. Each client may have multiple accounts.
«User/end-user» - refers to the person, persons or entity using a specified account (indicated by a unique login) under the control of the client.
«E-mail» - refers to any transfer of information as from a client e-mail out of the Clicplanning application.
«SMS» - is the English abbreviation for "short message service" and refers to any transfer of information as from a client SMS out of the Clicplanning application.
«Clicplanning website» - refers to the public website available to all Internet users via their web browsers. The Clicplanning website is located at the following URL : «http://www.clicplanning.com/».
«Clicplanning web interface» - refers to the private part of the Clicplanning website. This is part of the Clicplanning website is only accessible to Clicplanning clients (duly authenticated) and is not public.
«Encryption» - is the cryptographic process through which the understanding of a document is only possible for persons in possession of the encoding/decoding key.
Without exception and independently of the type of service, Clicplanning will not accept the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails and/or SMSs, whatever may be the type or content, and will take every measure necessary to reduce the emission of this kind of traffic across the Internet. To ensure this, Clicplanning has instituted the following policy.
5.1. Unsolicited en-bloc e-mails and/or SMSs (also known as "spam").
A message is considered to be an unsolicited en-bloc e-mail or SMS (or "spam"), if :
a. The addressee has not, in any deliberate and explicit fashion, granted ever-revocable dispatch authorisation,
AND
b. The personal identity of the addressee and the e-mail and/or SMS context are not relevant because the message is also applicable to many other potential addressees.
The client or user/end-user sending unsolicited en-bloc e-mails and or SMSs, whether commercial or otherwise, may have their account suspended and their access to Clicplanning services blocked.
Clicplanning's clients are responsible for their users. They will ensure that all services obtained from Clicplanning are used appropriately and in compliance with national and international legislation. Therefore, clients must take all the measures necessary to control the use of Clicplanning services such as to keep to a minimum any abusive use of the message-transmission infrastructure. The client must also convey and make public a valid contact name and must provide opportune answers to all complaints. Clicplanning will consider any complaints concerning clients' users/end-users as being applicable to the client.
Clicplanning may suspend any user or client account with immediate effect in order to anticipate other abuses or damage to the message-transmission infrastructure without giving the client or the user/end-user prior notice. In this event, Clicplanning shall inform the client as soon as is possible.
Clicplanning reserves the right, inter-alia, to interrupt its services at any time without any form of entitlement to compensation being entailed :
Unsolicited en-bloc e-mails and/or SMSs sent from other networks referencing e-mail and/or SMS accounts hosted by Clicplanning will be processed as if they were from the referenced account, unless there were sufficient reason for Clicplanning staff to believe that the e-mails and/or SMSs were indeed coming from a third party independent of the client.
Similarly, postings made in discussion groups or other on-line fora, referencing e-mail accounts hosted by Clicplanning and which are considered inadequate against the moral standards established by the forum, may be processed in the same way as unsolicited en-bloc e-mails.
Other actions on the Internet are considered abusive and will not be tolerated on Clicplanning message-transmission platforms, viz. (and this list is not exhaustive) :
5.2. Chain letters or pyramid-sales type messages
Such messages operate in more or less the same way as their "paper" cousins. The most common example of this type of e-mail and/or SMS is "making money fast". In addition to being a waste of resources, such messages are illegal in many countries.
5.3. Unsolicited commercial e-mails and/or SMSs
Unsolicited commercial e-mails or SMSs constitute advertising material received by e-mail or SMS without the addressee having requested such information or having expressed an interest in the item advertised.
Many Internet users have a telephone connection and pay for it as a function of the time spent on-line. Thus, receiving unsolicited advertising via e-mail sometimes constitutes a major cost and proves to be most upsetting.
It is worth noting that a user does not express interest by merely drafting an article in a particular newsgroup, unless of course they makes a specific request to obtain information subsequently.
Clicplanning informs its clients that it may feel obliged to exclude, from actions implemented and managed by its clients, contacts included in the pusher lists managed by Clicplanning and partly based on a operations conducted by Clicplanning's on-line service clients as a whole.
5.4 Simulation of identity, source address or destination address
Simulation or usurpation of identity or address involves sending an electronic mail and/or an SMS in order to deceive the addressee as to the source person or address. It is also deemed that there is simulation when an electronic mail and/or an SMS reply is sent to an address or a user or an identifier other than the one its author believes he/she sent it to.
5.5. Mail/SMS bombing
"Mail/SMS bombing" involves sending multiple e-mails and/or SMSs, or a very voluminous e-mail, with the sole intent of harming another Internet user or taking revenge. This type of e-mail makes illegal use of Internet resources or telecommunication networks. Clicplanning will always react to complaints relating to this type of abuse emanating from clients, users/end-users or third-party users.
On account of the time taken to upload and send a voluminous e-mail, such a dispatch may harm the smooth operating of Clicplanning services. Clicplanning reserves the right to claim compensation for any resulting damage.
5.6. Causing server malfunctioning
Causing server malfunctioning involves any activity designed to prevent a specific Internet server from making full and effective use of its hardware.
This includes (and this list is not exhaustive) :
5.7. Subscribing to mailing lists
Registering anyone as a subscriber to a mailing list or any similar service without the person's.
5.8. Illegal content
Sending, storing or distributing via e-mail and/or SMS any article containing illegal content or content prohibited by virtue of various regulations and national or international laws, whatever be the type of telecommunication network used.
5.9. Infringement of copyright or intellectual property rights
Sending by e-mail and/or SMS any material subject to copyright or protected by legislation on intellectual property, unless after obtaining prior authorisation.
Clicplanning will always cooperate with judicial and/or police enquiries bearing on illegal activities making use of its message transmission infrastructure.
5.10. Unacceptably voluminous e-mails
Clicplanning reserves the right to delete any e-mail clearly considered over-voluminous transiting over its infrastructures, in order to guarantee quality of service in respect of all of its clients.
Should any other abuse relating to the e-mail content be observed, Clicplanning will contact the client with a view to solving the problem. However, in the event of the client not taking all the necessary measures to stop or prevent the user from repeating the action, Clicplanning will take all the appropriate measures in order to protect its other clients and allow them to make full use of its service potential.
5.11. Overload
Clicplanning is entitled to take all necessary measures should it be observed that one or more distribution lists is overloading its systems, servers or network.
The client shall ensure that such lists are removed in timely fashion so as not to overload our systems.
5.12. Accountability
Clients alone are responsible for the use they make of Clicplanning's web interface services.
Such responsibility applies both to content and size of e-mails and/or SMSs exchanged, as well as to the behaviour and the loading they produce on our systems and networks and those of third parties. Such accountability is independent of the type of service. The fact of clients not having control over the distribution list does not exonerate them from being responsible.
5.13. Confidentiality
Clicplanning will never disclose its clients' e-mail addresses and portable telephone numbers or any other information recorded on its servers by its clients and/or users.
The information stored on its servers will never be leased, transferred or sold to third parties. Clicplanning's priority is to protect your data.
5.14. Filtering incoming e-mails
In its capacity as owner of hardware and/or user of other resources used to supply its services, Clicplanning is entitled to block electronic communication from other Internet entities.
Clients must be aware that such blockages or filtering operations might occur should Clicplanning's personnel consider such operations necessary (or possibly a third party selected by Clicplanning but who will be obliged to make him/herself known to the client).
To every possible extent, the client or the user thus blocked will be informed ahead of time of any such action.
5.15. Illegal activities
Services offered by Clicplanning may be used for legal purposes only. Transmitting, distributing or storing information, data or material produced in violation of regulations or national, European or international laws, or common usage, is strictly prohibited. This includes, and the list is not exhaustive, material protected by copyright, authors' rights, trademarks, drawings and models, commercial secrets or any other similar status.
Clicplanning reserves the right to cooperate with the legal national or international authorities in the course of any enquiries relating to illegal activities. Clicplanning will not convey any information concerning its clients or their users to any third party, except on request from a national or international authority or in order to abide by its own fiscal and/or bookkeeping obligations. The client agrees that Clicplanning is the sole judge as to whether or not it is necessary to respond to requests from the authorities.
Clicplanning considers most of the examples of uses referred to in Article 5, particularly the dispatch of unsolicited en-bloc e-mails and/or SMSs ("spam") as service thefts and reserves the right to sue the perpetrators, the co-perpetrators or accomplices.
Clicplanning reserves the right to assess the damage caused (in terms of use of software, hardware, hours worked, etc.) by any harmful acts against its network and/or hardware, necessitating repairs to, or the reconfiguration of, our infrastructures (software and hardware).
The client will be held liable for the payment of a minimum compensation of €1,000.00, should it transpire that its infrastructure is blocked, slowed down or deficient following the sending of spams by its users.
Clicplanning shall warn the client whenever it has observed spam attempts or has received a complaint relating to such acts (client, user or third-party complaint). On the assumption the client is not able to stop the spams transmitted by its users, Clicplanning reserves the right to require compensation amounting to €500.00 for every further spam attempt observed.
A spam attempt is defined as being an e-mail and/or an SMS sent without the addressee having solicited it in any way and in respect of which Clicplanning has received at least one complaint.
Clicplanning reserves the right to demand financial compensation for any impairment of the reputation of its brand and/or its website.
In addition to damages, Clicplanning reserves the right to take any measures it deems necessary with a view to curtailing and/or suppressing the perpetrators' acts (suspending or permanently blocking the account, deleting our databases, etc.).
The Clicplanning web interface (located at URL : http://www.clicplanning.com/) is the gateway to the application, its content and its functionalities. Accessing this interface makes it possible to visualise the information entered into the database, as well as to actually use it (creation, deletion, dispatch, encryption, etc.).Consequently neither the client nor the user/end-user shall disclose access or access rights to this interface and shall maintain password secrecy. The client or the user/end-user has sole responsibility for detecting and using the passwords issued by Clicplanning.
To send messages, client and user/end-user shall use an e-mail address or a valid portable telephone number which they recognise as their own, have a mandate to use or of which they are an approved user, and take responsibility for its use. Each dispatch address shall form the subject of a prior check by Clicplanning which reserves the right to refuse to allow it to be created or used.
In the e-mail header, the client or the user/end-user shall ensure that the following fields are filled out correctly :
The e-mail addresses and portable telephone numbers used by the client or the user/end-user must accept the possibility of returns to sender.
The client using Clicplanning services shall supply an e-mail address and a valid telephone number so as to be contactable should there be any problem or complaint.
As an option, the Clicplanning encryption module enables the client or a user/end-user to guarantee the confidentiality of an e-mail attachment, between sender and addressee, by encrypting the file attached to the message. To achieve this, Clicplanning uses a private key/public key system hosted on the Clicplanning website. Every client, user/end-user or message addressee shall create a secure and encrypted private key by building into it a personal password for which he/she assumes full responsibility.
Any mis-use or loss of the password will make the attachment totally and finally unreadable and undecipherable.
The addressee of a secure message shall be in possession of a portable telephone in working order, the operator of which figures in the list of Clicplanning approved operators (see list of over 700 approved operators on the Clicplanning website).
Clicplanning makes systematic controls of addressees of secure messages by sending a unique password to the addressee's portable telephone. Except for stricter conditions set by the client or user/end-user, a secure e-mail attachment may only be read or downloaded after there there has been joint valid entry of both the password received by SMS and the password contained in the addressee's personal private key.
Excepté des conditions plus strictes fixées par le Client ou l'Utilisateur/end user, une pièce jointe à un e-mail sécurisé ne peut être lue ou téléchargée qu'après avoir valablement introduit conjointement le mot de passe reçu par sms et le mot de passe contenu dans la clef privée personnelle du destinataire.
It is always recommended that the client or the user/end-user store, on a personal medium, a copy of the attachment used over the Clicplanning web interface.