Acceptable Use Policy

1. General Principles

1.1. The Client must use the Services responsibly, without degrading the performance, stability, or security of other clients.

1.2. The Client must comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and industry standards.

1.3. The Client is responsible for securing their systems, software, and credentials. This includes maintaining proper security measures such as firewalls, up-to-date software, and strong passwords.

1.4. The Client must report any security incidents or suspicious activity to Akenai support.

1.5. The Client must ensure that all hosted content and software is lawful, including compliance with copyright, data-protection law, and any other applicable legal requirements. Content must also comply with the laws of the jurisdiction where the server is physically located — Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, or the United Kingdom, depending on the location selected at the time of order — in addition to any other applicable law.

1.6. The Client must not use rented Services for bulk email (spam), phishing, or any other form of abuse.

1.7. Bulk email may be permitted in limited cases after prior written approval from Akenai, but approval is not guaranteed. The Client must provide full details of the campaign, including the nature of the content, the intended recipient list, and proof of recipient consent.

1.8. Content or activity that is lawful in one location may be unlawful in another. The Client is responsible for selecting a location compatible with their intended use and for monitoring changes in the law of that location. Where content becomes unlawful in the location hosting it, we may — at our discretion and subject to Section 9 — offer migration to another location instead of suspension, subject to capacity and to the price of the destination location.

2. Prohibited Content and Activities

The following content and activities are prohibited on Akenai servers. Violations are classified by severity.

Category A — Immediate account suspension

The following result in immediate and final termination of the account without refund.

• Any content or activity prohibited by applicable EU law, UK law, or the law of the jurisdiction where the server is physically located (Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, or the United Kingdom), or by other relevant law.
• Botnet command-and-control software, ransomware, phishing kits, or other malware designed to compromise systems or networks.
• Brute-force tools, DDoS tools, network scanners, proxy checkers, and similar utilities designed to disrupt or compromise systems.
• Creation, distribution, or hosting of tools primarily intended for unlawful activity.
• Services facilitating tax evasion, money laundering, or other financial crimes.
• Operation of forums dedicated to cybercrime, including hacking communities, exploit-development forums, or other services facilitating unlawful activity.
• Content inciting violence, terrorism, or other unlawful conduct.
• Content or activity that promotes, supports, or facilitates the actions of any government, military, or intelligence body subject to sanctions under EU, US, UN, or other applicable law.
• Phishing, impersonation, identity theft, or use of false information.
• Use of Akenai Services to host, operate, or facilitate access to darknet marketplaces, Tor exit nodes, or similar services primarily used for anonymous access to unlawful content or services.
• Bulk-email (spam) software.
• Interference with, or circumvention of, usage limits, monitoring, or security controls.
• Unauthorized streaming or content-distribution services that infringe media licensing.
• Operation of unlicensed financial services, including payment processors, payment gateways, or other financial services.
• Operation of unlicensed gambling services, including sports betting, casinos, or other gambling.
• Child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including creation, distribution, storage, or facilitating access to such content.
• Vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, or other security testing of third-party systems without their explicit permission. This does not prevent you from testing your own Services, provided that such testing does not affect shared infrastructure or other clients.
• Intentionally fabricated content presented as factual that creates a clear, demonstrable risk of harm.
• Activity that deceptively suggests affiliation with, or endorsement by, Akenai.
• Hosting or operating command-and-control (C2) infrastructure for malware, botnets, or other malicious networks.
• Operation of SEO-spam networks, link farms, doorway pages, or similar schemes designed to manipulate search-engine rankings.
• Doxxing, swatting, or publishing private information with intent to threaten, harass, or intimidate.
• Content subject to a formal removal request from a competent government or regulatory authority in your jurisdiction, where such content is found to violate the law of that jurisdiction. We will notify the Client and provide a reasonable opportunity to remediate before taking action, except where the nature of the violation or terms of the request require immediate removal.

Category B — Warning and remediation window

The following result in a written warning with a 24-hour remediation window. If the violation is not remediated within that window, the affected Service will be suspended until resolved. Excessive violations may result in earlier suspension or full account termination.

• Content infringing copyright under EU, UK, Japanese, or other applicable copyright law, including the copyright law of the jurisdiction where the server is physically located.
• Cryptocurrency mining without explicit written permission from Akenai. Where permission is granted, it will be in writing and will be subject to specific resource limits and additional fees set by Akenai.
• Sustained heavy CPU workloads that materially affect Akenai infrastructure.
• Automated scraping operations that violate third-party terms of service.
• Torrent seeding or other file-sharing services that infringe copyright.
• Hosting deepfakes, AI-generated content, or other content infringing third-party rights, including intellectual-property rights.
• Operation of passive-income services such as bandwidth-sharing, disk-space rental, or similar services that do not match the plan’s intended use case.
• Pornographic content, including links to such material.
• Ad fraud, click fraud, or other deceptive schemes designed to inflate advertising metrics or generate fraudulent revenue.
• Operation of open DNS resolvers, open SMTP relays, or other misconfigured services that can be abused for amplification attacks.
• Operation of public or open proxy servers (including HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS, anonymizing, or residential-style proxies) that are accessible to unauthorized third parties or offered as a public proxy service. Private proxies restricted to the Client’s own use and properly secured against third-party access are permitted.
• Content subject to substantiated DMCA-style copyright takedown requests.

We reserve the right to escalate any Category B violation to Category A based on severity, intent, or repeat nature.

Notwithstanding the above, Akenai may, at its discretion, apply mitigated remedies on a case-by-case basis in line with internal policy. In particular, if the violation is a first offense, not inherently unlawful, and not of a serious nature, we may — but are not required to — issue a warning, apply a temporary suspension, or impose a lighter sanction in place of immediate termination. This is to allow reasonable handling of cases where a Client’s Services may have been compromised by unauthorized third parties, misconfiguration, or other circumstances outside the Client’s direct control. Exercising this discretion in any single case does not waive our right to apply the full terms of this Policy in any subsequent or parallel case.

3. Fair-Use Policy for Server Resources

3.1. Akenai infrastructure uses shared CPU resources for VPS on a single hypervisor, on the assumption that most VPS instances do not run at full capacity. This allows efficient resource allocation.

3.2. Short spikes and sustained workloads are allowed, but continuous use of all allocated vCPU near 100% for extended periods is not permitted.

3.3. For purposes of this section, “extended periods” means continuous use exceeding 90% of allocated vCPU capacity for more than 12 consecutive hours, or more than 72 cumulative hours within any 7-day period.

3.4. If use threatens platform stability or significantly degrades service quality for others, Akenai may temporarily throttle resources, request workload changes, suggest an upgrade, or take other reasonable steps to restore normal operation.

3.5. The Client must cooperate with reasonable requests to optimize CPU, memory, disk-I/O, and network use.

3.6. The Client must observe reasonable I/O limits within allocated resources and implement caching and optimization for high-traffic applications.

3.7. Short transient spikes above these limits are permitted without penalty; Akenai retains flexibility to support Client workloads.

3.8. “Short periods” generally means occasional spikes not exceeding 4 hours within any 24-hour window.

4. Network and Traffic Policy

4.1. Network performance

Akenai provides shared network connectivity of up to 10 Gbps for virtual servers unless otherwise stated in the plan specs. Network speed is not guaranteed and may vary based on network conditions, infrastructure load, routing, and other factors outside our control.

4.2. Traffic allowance

Each plan includes a monthly traffic allowance specified in the plan details. When the allowance is exceeded, the server’s network speed is throttled to 25 Mbps until the first day of the following calendar month. No overage charges are applied automatically — throttling is used instead. You may restore full speed at any time by purchasing additional traffic or upgrading the plan as described in Section 4.5.

4.3. Fair-use of traffic

Traffic allowances are determined per plan tier, plan price, and server location. They are always displayed on our website in the plan specifications. Higher-tier plans include more traffic. Both inbound and outbound traffic counts toward the allowance.

4.4. Throttling on overage

If the sum of inbound and outbound traffic for a virtual server exceeds its allowance in a calendar month, we will:

1. Notify the Client via the Client Area that the server has reached or is approaching its traffic threshold, where possible before throttling is applied.
2. Reduce the server’s network speed to 25 Mbps until the first day of the following month. During throttling there is no cap on traffic volume; only the inbound and outbound speed is reduced.
3. Automatically restore full speed on the first day of the next calendar month without requiring any further action.

4.5. Remedies available to the Client

A Client whose server is being throttled under Section 4.4 may:

1. Wait for automatic reset at the start of the next month.
2. Purchase additional traffic. Additional traffic increases the plan’s allowance; throttling is removed as soon as the new allowance covers the current month’s usage. Pricing and availability are shown in the Client Area.
3. Upgrade to a higher plan with a larger allowance via the Client Area. If the new allowance covers the current month’s usage, throttling will be lifted automatically within 30–60 minutes of the plan change.

All options will be detailed in the notification ticket per Section 4.4(1).

4.6. Traffic monitoring

We monitor traffic per VM to enforce this Policy, maintain quality of service for all clients, and prevent abuse. Monitoring data covers only traffic volume per VM per calendar month and does not collect any personal or identifying information.

4.7. Abuse or unfair use

We reserve the right to apply additional traffic-shaping measures — including shaping, deprioritizing bandwidth for specific servers, or temporarily suspending network access — where a server’s use is abusive or imposes unfair load. Abuse includes:

• Traffic significantly and consistently exceeding the plan’s allowance.
• Sustained use of bandwidth at maximum levels that measurably degrades service for other clients.
• Usage patterns that systematically consume an unfair or excessive share of shared network resources on the hypervisor.

Except for immediate security threats — including DDoS attacks or network-level abuse — we will attempt to give advance notice before applying measures under this section.

5. Software Licensing

5.1. Akenai does not sell or provide software licenses. Clients must independently obtain and maintain valid licenses for all software installed on their Services.

5.2. Unless the invoice explicitly states “SPLA Licensed”, all software is provided on a Bring-Your-Own-License (BYOL) basis.

5.3. The Client represents and warrants that they hold valid, lawful licenses for any software running on the Service.

5.4. Any unactivated OS images or installation media supplied by Akenai are provided for convenience and testing purposes only; the Client is solely responsible for activation with valid keys.

5.5. The Client agrees to indemnify and hold Akenai harmless from any claims, fines, or audit costs arising from improper software licensing.

6. Email, Anti-Spam, and Port Policy

6.1. For anti-spam protection, outbound port 25 (SMTP) is closed by default on all plans.

6.2. The Client may request port 25 to be opened via a support ticket. Approval is discretionary and subject to additional verification and anti-spam conditions.

6.3. The Client must comply with applicable anti-spam law (e.g., providing recipients with consent, opt-out, and identification). We may require proof of recipient consent and may consider the rate of email complaints when evaluating requests.

6.4. The Client must maintain SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for email authentication.

6.5. The Client must monitor sending patterns to prevent abuse and remain compliant with anti-spam law.

7. Contact Information and Account Integrity

7.1. The Client must provide accurate, current contact information at registration and within the Service control panel.

7.2. To ensure continuity of communication, disposable email addresses (DEAs) are not permitted as contact addresses. A DEA is any temporary or untraceable email address used to bypass our registration requirements.

7.3. We will notify the Client before suspending an account due to a suspected DEA and provide 48 hours to update the contact information. Privacy-focused email services with persistent mailboxes (e.g., ProtonMail) are not considered DEAs.

7.4. The Client must maintain at least one alternative contact method available at all times for emergency notifications.

7.5. Any change to the Client’s contact information must be reflected in the account within 7 days.

8. Security and Incident Response

8.1. If the Client’s Service is compromised or involved in abuse, we will notify the Client when practical and may apply remedies set out in the Enforcement section.

8.2. The Client must promptly remediate vulnerabilities, remove malware, reinstall the OS, and rotate credentials on request.

8.3. The Client agrees to cooperate in good faith with investigations and to provide relevant logs or data within the limits of the law.

8.4. Akenai may comply with lawful requests from regulators, law enforcement, and judicial authorities in applicable jurisdictions.

9. Enforcement

9.1. Akenai may warn, throttle, filter, temporarily suspend, or terminate Services for breach of this Policy, depending on severity and impact.

9.2. Akenai may act immediately without notice where necessary to protect the network, other users, or third parties, or to meet legal obligations.

9.3. If the Client believes a measure was applied in error, they may contact support with relevant evidence for review.

9.4. Repeat violations may result in final termination of the account.

10. Abuse Reporting and Handling

10.1. Abuse reports should be sent to abuse@akenai.host with timestamps, logs, and affected IPs or domains. If email is unavailable, reports may be submitted via support tickets.

10.2. Akenai will acknowledge receipt and begin investigation within 24 hours for standard cases, or within 48 hours for cases requiring in-depth technical analysis.

10.3. If the reported Client does not respond or remediate within the investigation window, the affected Service — or, for serious violations, the entire account with all associated Services — will be suspended until resolution.

10.4. Malicious abuse reports are prohibited and may result in account suspension.

10.5. The Client must cooperate with abuse investigations involving their Services and carry out requested remediation.

10.6. Abuse reports generated solely by generative AI, large language models, or other automated content-generation tools will not be considered. Such reports often contain fabricated evidence, inaccurate technical data, and invented claims, which wastes investigative resources and may itself constitute abuse. All abuse reports must be prepared, reviewed, and substantiated by a natural person with direct knowledge of the alleged violation. We may decline any report that we reasonably determine was prepared without human review.

10.7. Akenai is not obliged to respond to every abuse report and may, at its discretion, decline to respond. We are also not obliged to disclose findings, results, or details of any internal investigation. Requests to disclose investigation results will be considered only if submitted as a formal legal request through the legal channel at legal@akenai.host.

11. Changes to This Policy

Continued use of the Services constitutes acceptance of this Policy. Clients will be notified of changes via the Client Area. For material changes, Clients will need to review and explicitly accept the updated Policy by ticking a confirmation checkbox in the Client Area before continuing to use the Services. The checkbox constitutes the Client’s electronic signature and expresses explicit consent to be bound by the amended Policy, with the same legal effect as a handwritten signature under applicable electronic-signature and e-commerce law.