Before You Subscribe

Subscribing with us means you accept our terms of service and fair use policy below. Please read these thoroughly before you subscribe.

Note that all PayPal subscriptions are automatically rebilled unless cancelled.

Fair Use Policy

Our Fair Use Policy is designed to make sure that your service is great value, fast and reliable whenever you use it.

Why do we have a Fair Use Policy?

At peak times, a lot of customers use the shared network bandwidth at any one time.

A very small number of our customers use their service inappropriately, for example when sending or downloading very large files, or using 'peer to peer' and file sharing software (which may be sending and receiving video and other large files constantly). This means that service quality for all users is affected, making it slower for everyone to access the internet or send and receive emails, especially at peak times.

The vast majority of our customers use their service considerately and their usage levels during peak hours don't disproportionately affect the shared network capacity. Even though only a very small number of our customers use the service inappropriately, their activity does greatly affect the service. Our Fair Use Policy manages inappropriate use and makes sure the service can be used fairly by everyone.

How does the Fair Use Policy work?

If you regularly use the service inappropriately during peak hours, and we believe this is unfairly affecting other customers' use of the service, we'll manage your bandwidth during peak times (which could result in reduced service speeds).

How do I know if the Fair Use Policy affects me?

Our Fair Use Policy applies to all our customers but it'll only actually affect you if you're one of the very few customers who make inappropriate use of our service.

If you don't use peer to peer or file sharing software and you're not, for example, constantly downloading videos or very large files, you're unlikely to be affected by our Fair Use Policy.

What else do I need to bear in mind?

All users must comply with relevant copyright and intellectual property laws.

Please note that some activities, such as using peer to peer or file sharing software, may contravene these laws. Under our terms and conditions, any illegal use of your service will be a breach of your contract and will allow us to end your service.

Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Introduction

For the Internet to operate in a manner that satisfies the majority of its users, all users need to observe some rules and behaviours governing their use of it. These requirements are usually contained or referred to in the relevant terms and conditions governing the particular Internet service as well as the law.

To enable our customers to have a better understanding of what is and is not acceptable when using the Internet, and to help you get the best out of the Internet, we have developed a number of Acceptable Usage Policies. These policies should help you benefit from safer surfing and minimise the risk of suffering "online abuse".

We have also included some general advice on how to protect you and your computer to each of these policies which we encourage you to follow.

Illegal and inappropriate activities

As an Internet user, whilst connected to the Internet via our service you must comply with the relevant laws that apply in the UK and Germany. You should also be mindful of the fact that the Internet is a global medium and is regulated by the laws of many different countries. Material which is legal in your country may be illegal in another and vice versa.

These are some of the things that you must not do whilst connected to the Internet:

You must not, by using the service, download, possess or transmit in any way, illegal material (for example indecent images of children).

You must not send, publish, distribute, circulate or otherwise propagate any material that may be deemed to be grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene nature or menacing in character.

You must not send, with the intention of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety a message that you know to be false, or to cause such a message to be sent or to persistently make use of our service for that purpose.

You must not gain or attempt to gain unauthorised access to any computer systems for any purpose, including accessing the Internet.

You must not, without authorisation intentionally impair or attempt to impair the operation of any computer, prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer or to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data (this could include deleting files, changing the desktop settings introducing viruses etc.).

You must not infringe the rights of others, including the right of privacy and copyright (an example would be sharing without permission of the copyright owner protected material such as a music or video file.

Many of these activities could result in legal action, a fine or a term of imprisonment or both.

If you are in any doubt as to the legality of anything, take independent legal advice before proceeding.

Connection restrictions

While you may use any computer to connect to our VPN service each active subscription allows you to make only a single concurrent connection at any time. Multiple concurrent connections to the VPN may be terminated at any time without notice.

Continuous use of multiple connections will result in a warning being issued via email, if the use of multiple connections continues despite a previous warning your account may be terminated. Any account terminated due to the continued use of concurrent connections will not be liable for a refund of subscriptions paid.

Our obligations

In instances of abuse of this fair use policy we may be required to notify the police or relevant law enforcement agency.

We cannot and does not monitor content of  webspace or content of chat rooms, instant messaging, email, newsgroup or indeed of any communications and therefore cannot and do not guarantee that all of these are free of illegal material or other content considered unacceptable by others including the Internet community.

Changes to the Acceptable Use Policies

We may change the Acceptable Usage Policies’ from time to time and will inform you on this website when we do so. To make the most of the guidance contained in the AUPs, please keep up to date with changes and look at them on a regular basis. We hope you will find them useful and informative.
Please note that our AUP's were last updated in January 2007.

Breaches of Acceptable Use Policies

GTS VPN may operate systems to ensure compliance with these acceptable use policies, including without limitation network scanning and testing of open servers and mail relays.