This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") governs your use of the Services and is incorporated by reference into HostGator's Terms of Service. Unless otherwise stated, defined terms in this AUP have the meanings provided in the Terms of Service. HostGator may modify this AUP at any time without notice.
The Services provided by HostGator may only be used for lawful purposes. You agree to comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations in connection with your use of the Services. HostGator reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. Any material that in our judgment violates this AUP in any manner may be removed from our servers (or otherwise disabled), with or without notice. Failure to respond to an email from our abuse department within the specified time period in our email to you may result in the suspension or termination of the Services.
Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights.
Using a shared account as a backup/storage device.
You may not use a shared hosting account as a backup/storage device with the exception of one cPanel backup of the same account. Please do not take backups of your backups.
Unacceptable material on our servers include without limitation:
Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) Prohibited.
Hosting, distributing or linking to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or content that is harmful to minors (CSAM will be suspended immediately without notice and reported to law enforcement or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children);
Other Prohibited Content.
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. Any material that, in our judgment, is obscene, threatening, illegal, or violates our Terms of Service or this AUP in any manner may be removed from our servers (or otherwise disabled), with or without notice.
You may not:
INODES.
The use of more than two hundred and fifty thousand (250,000) inodes on any shared or reseller account may result in a warning, and if no action is taken to reduce the excessive use of inodes, your account may be suspended. If an account exceeds one hundred thousand (100,000) inodes it will be automatically removed from our backup system to avoid over-usage, however, databases will still be backed up as a courtesy in our sole discretion. Every file (i.e. a webpage, image file, email, etc.) on your account uses up one (1) inode.
User accounts that constantly create and delete large numbers of files on a regular basis, have hundreds of thousands of files, or cause file system damage may be flagged for review and/or suspension. The primary cause of excessive inodes is typically due to Users leaving their catchall address enabled, but never checking their primary account mailbox. Over time, tens of thousands of messages (or more) build up, eventually pushing the account past an acceptable amount of inodes. To disable your default mailbox, login to cPanel and choose "Mail", then "Default Address", "Set Default Address", and then type in: ":fail: No such user here".
Databases.
Shared and reseller accounts may not run any database queries longer than fifteen (15) seconds. Shared or reseller cPanel accounts using more than five thousand (5,000) database tables or hosting a single database that is larger than five (5) gigabytes, or any number of databases that total more than ten (10) gigabytes in size may be reviewed and receive a warning after which the account’s databases may be excluded from HostGator generated backups. All database tables should be indexed appropriately. High database usage may also impact CPU and RAM resource usage limits, as set forth in Section 15 of the General Terms of Service, which may result in the Subscriber’s cPanel account being flagged for review and/or suspension.
Websites hosted on HostGator's servers in the U.S. are regulated by U.S. law. Accordingly, pursuant to Section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act, HostGator's policy is not to remove allegedly defamatory material from websites hosted on our servers unless the material has been found to be defamatory by a court, as evidenced by a court order. As a webhost, HostGator is not a publisher of User content and we are not in a position to investigate the veracity of individual defamation claims. We rely on the legal system and the courts to determine whether or not material is indeed defamatory. In any case in which a court order indicates that material is defamatory, libelous, or slanderous in nature, we will disable access to the material. Similarly, in any case in which a U.S. court has placed an injunction against specified content or material being made available, we will comply and remove or disable access to the material in question.
Resellers.
If there is a violation of this AUP by one of a reseller's client's account, HostGator will suspend the website in question and will notify the reseller so that the reseller can terminate the account. HostGator may, but is not obligated to, monitor the account or website for any subsequent violations. The occurrence of additional violations may result in the immediate termination of your reseller account.
Direct customers.
Your Services may be terminated with or without notice upon any violation of this AUP. If applicable, violations will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
This file was last modified: 9/8/2020