Terms of Service, VPS.SC

These Terms of Service are the agreement between you and Jooule LLC, which does business as VPS.SC. VPS.SC provides virtual machines, storage and networking to businesses and private people. These Terms explain who may use the Services, how Accounts work, the terms for paid service when introduced, consumer cancellation rights, your responsibilities, our access to your Account and Machines, personal data in your Content, ending the agreement, and the limits of our liability. Our Acceptable Use Policy is part of these Terms. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data about you.

Free launch. At launch, the Services are free for invited customers and charging is off. We do not accept payments, deduct usage charges, or suspend or delete Resources because of a Balance while charging is off. Sections 4 and 5 describe paid service when it is introduced, subject to section 4.12. We will tell you the prices and paid terms in advance and obtain your agreement before charging you. Free-launch use is not charged retroactively.

1. The agreement

1.1 Who it is with. These Terms are an agreement between you and Jooule LLC, a New York limited liability company that does business under the trade name VPS.SC.

1.2 Words with a set meaning. These words have the same meaning in these Terms, in our Privacy Policy and in our Acceptable Use Policy:

“VPS.SC”, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Jooule LLC doing business as VPS.SC.
“you” and “your” mean the person who accepts these Terms and, when that person acts for a business or other legal entity, that entity too.
“Services” means everything we provide under the VPS.SC name: Machines, storage, networking, DNS hosting, the content delivery network (CDN), the Workspace, our programming interfaces and our support.
“Account” means one person’s own login to the Services.
“Content” means the software, files and data that you, or anyone acting through your Account or your Machines, store on or send through the Services: what is on your Machines and volumes and in their snapshots and backups, the files in your CDN zones, and your DNS records.
“Machines” means the virtual machines (virtual servers) created through the Services.
“Resources” means Machines and everything else created through the Services, such as volumes, snapshots, backups, IP addresses, firewalls, DNS zones and CDN zones.
“Workspace” means our customer panel at my.vps.sc.
“Project” and “Organization” mean the groups in the Workspace that hold Resources and the people who work on them.
“Balance” means the prepaid amount, in US dollars, held for an Account.
“Credits” means value we add to a Balance free of charge, such as a gift card or a promotional code.

1.3 Accepting these Terms. You accept these Terms by agreeing to them when the Workspace asks you to: when you create your Account through an invitation and, for an Account created before these Terms applied, when you next sign in. When you accept these Terms, you also accept our Acceptable Use Policy, which is part of them. If you do not agree to them, do not create an Account or use the Services.

1.4 Acting for a business. If you accept these Terms for a business or other legal entity, you confirm that you have the authority to bind it.

1.5 Who may use the Services. You may use the Services for your trade, business, craft or profession, for the business or other legal entity you act for, or for yourself as a private person. When you accept these Terms, you confirm that you are at least 18 years old. If you are an individual and use the Services for purposes wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession, you use them as a consumer, and the law gives you rights that these Terms do not take away (sections 4.13, 13.4, 15.4 and 15.5). You may not use the Services if the laws of the United States, or of the place where you are, bar you from receiving them, for example under trade sanctions or export controls. You must follow the export control and sanctions laws that apply to your use of the Services.

1.6 The other documents. Our Acceptable Use Policy is part of these Terms. Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and keep personal data. If these Terms and our Acceptable Use Policy conflict, these Terms apply.

2. The Services

2.1 What we provide. Through the Services you can:

create and run Machines, each with virtual processors (vCPUs), memory, a boot disk, a network port, a public IPv4 address and a public name (section 2.9);
add storage volumes, and take snapshots and backups of your Machines;
use networking features such as firewalls and floating IPv4 addresses (addresses you can move from one Machine to another);
host the DNS records of your domains, where we offer it;
deliver files through our CDN, from an address under cdn.sc (section 2.10) and with your own domains if you wish;
manage all of this in the Workspace and through the programming interfaces we make available.

The Workspace shows what is offered at any time.

2.2 Regions. You choose the region of each Machine, volume, firewall and floating IP address when you create it. The region cannot be changed afterwards.

2.3 Changes to the Services. We may add, change or remove features, Resource types, operating system images and regions. If we stop offering something you use, we tell you in advance where we reasonably can, so that you can move your Content.

2.4 Software made by others. Operating systems and other software that come with the Services are made by others and come under their own license terms. You must follow those terms.

2.5 Phone app. We do not offer a phone app at present.

2.6 Limits. We set limits on the Services, for example on the number of CDN zones, custom domains and upload logins, and on how many requests you can make in a given time. You may not get around them. If you need a higher limit, ask us.

2.7 IP addresses. The IP addresses we assign to your Resources are not yours: they belong to us or to our providers. You have no right to keep an IP address once the Resource it is assigned to is deleted or it is released as section 5.4 says. If we need to change an IP address that is assigned to you, we tell you first where we reasonably can.

2.8 Not for high-risk use. Do not use the Services where a failure or interruption could lead to death, personal injury, or serious physical or environmental damage, for example to run medical devices, vehicles or the control systems of a plant.

2.9 Machine names. Each Machine gets a public name under ssh.sc, our own domain. The name is made from the hostname you choose for the Machine and a short code, and it points at the Machine’s IP address. Anyone can look it up in public DNS. We remove it when the Machine is deleted, but copies kept by others, such as DNS caches and archives, may remain after that. Do not put personal data, or anything else you want to keep private, in a hostname.

2.10 CDN addresses. Each CDN zone gets a public address under cdn.sc, our own domain, made from the name you choose for the zone. Anyone can look it up in public DNS and download the zone’s files from it. We remove it when the zone is deleted, but copies kept by others, such as DNS caches and archives, may remain after that. Do not put personal data, or anything else you want to keep private, in a zone’s name.

3. Your Account

3.1 By invitation. Accounts are opened by invitation, from us or from someone who may invite people to a Project. Accept an invitation only if it was meant for you.

3.2 Accurate information. Give us accurate and complete information, including your name, your email address and your billing details, and keep it up to date. We send important notices to your Account’s email address.

3.3 One login per person. Each Account is for one person. Do not share your login. Anyone else who needs access should get their own Account through an invitation.

3.4 Two-step verification. Use two-step verification and keep your backup codes safe. Where the Services require two-step verification, you cannot sign in without it.

3.5 Keeping your Account safe. Keep your password, your two-step and backup codes, and any SSH keys, API keys and upload passwords you use with the Services secret. Tell us at once at hello@vps.sc if you think someone else has used your Account or your keys. You are responsible for what happens under your Account, except where it results from our breach of these Terms or from what our team does in your Account (section 7.3).

3.6 Projects, Organizations and roles. Your work is organized in Organizations and Projects. People join a Project by invitation, with a role that sets what they may do in it. The Workspace shows the roles and what each allows. Depending on their role, the people in a Project may be able to see, change or delete its Resources, including Resources that others created. Choose carefully whom you invite and which role you give them.

3.7 Who may act for an Organization. The people who manage an Organization or a Project decide who is invited and with which role. We may act on what anyone does through the Workspace within their role, without checking their authority inside your business.

3.8 When someone leaves. When a person leaves a Project, or their Account is closed, the Resources they created in it may pass to an Owner, Admin or Member of the Project, or be deleted. Whoever is responsible for a Resource pays for it (section 4.4).

4. Paying for the Services

4.1 Paid in advance. When charging is introduced and you have agreed to paid service under section 4.12, the Services are paid in advance. You add money to your Balance, and we take the cost of what you use from it. All amounts are in US dollars. Section 4.12 controls sections 4 and 5 while charging is off.

4.2 By the second. We measure use by the second and take its cost from your Balance as you go.

4.3 What is charged.

A Machine’s vCPUs, memory and network port, while it is running.
A Machine’s boot disk, for as long as it exists, running or not.
Volumes, floating IP addresses and files stored in the CDN, for as long as they exist, used or not.
Outbound data transfer above the monthly allowance included with a Machine, and CDN traffic and requests, by how much is used.

Stopping a Machine stops the charge for its vCPUs, memory and port, but not for its disk. To stop paying for a Resource altogether, delete it.

4.4 Who pays. Each Resource is charged to the Balance of the Account responsible for it. That is normally the Account that created it, in whichever Project it is.

4.5 Prices. You pay the prices on our price list at the time of use. The price list is published at vps.sc/pricing, and the Workspace shows the prices, with an estimate of the cost, when you create a Resource. An estimate is a guide: what you pay is your measured use at the prices in effect. We may change our prices. Before a price rises, we tell you by email to your Account’s email address at least 30 days before it applies, and the higher price applies only from the date we give. If you do not want to pay it, you may close your Account before that date (section 10.1), and we refund the money you paid and have not used, as section 10.4 says. A lower price may apply at once. A changed price applies from the moment it takes effect, also to Resources that are already running.

4.6 Enough Balance to start, and a Balance below zero. A new Machine starts only when your Balance covers its first minutes of use; the Workspace shows the amount needed. Volumes, floating IP addresses and CDN zones are charged from the moment you create them, and their charges can take your Balance below zero. An amount below zero is money you owe us for Services you have used. The next money you add pays it first, and you must still pay it if your Account closes while your Balance is below zero.

4.7 Adding money. When paid top-ups are available, you add money to your Balance (a “top-up”) on the payment page of Stripe, our payment provider. We never see or store your full card details. The Workspace shows the smallest and the largest amount you can add in one top-up; to add more, make several top-ups. The money reaches your Balance once Stripe confirms the payment. We take money only when you make a top-up: there is no automatic top-up. Payments are made to Jooule LLC, so your card statement may show Jooule’s name rather than VPS.SC.

4.8 Taxes. Before you order paid Services, we show the applicable taxes and total price, or, where a total cannot reasonably be calculated in advance, how it is calculated. Consumer prices include taxes wherever the law requires; any other price is clearly marked if taxes are extra. Taxes we collect appear on your invoice. You are responsible for other taxes on your use of the Services only to the extent the law makes them your responsibility, excluding taxes on our income.

4.9 Invoices and receipts. Each top-up you pay gets an invoice and a receipt. We send them to your Account’s email address, and you can find them in the Workspace. They name Jooule LLC as the seller and show the billing details you entered, so keep those details accurate. Your use of the Services appears in your Balance’s history in the Workspace; there is no monthly invoice. Credits do not get an invoice.

4.10 Credits.

A Credit is worth the US dollar amount stated with it. Once added, it is part of your Balance and pays for the Services like any other money in it.
Credits do not turn into cash: they cannot be exchanged for cash or paid out.
A gift card can be used once, for its whole amount, and only before any end date it carries. We may cancel a gift card that has not been used.
A promotional code can be used once per Account, while its offer runs and within any limit on the number of uses. It may need a confirmed email address.

4.11 Refunds. Money you have paid and not yet used stays in your Balance for later use. When your Account closes, we refund it on request, as section 10.4 says. If you are a consumer in the UK or the European Economic Area, you may also cancel a top-up within 14 days, as section 4.13 says. To ask for any other refund, open a support ticket in the Workspace or write to hello@vps.sc: we review each request. If we refund a top-up, or your bank or card issuer reverses a payment (for example after a dispute), we take the refunded or reversed amount back from your Balance, even if that takes your Balance below zero. Deleting a Resource does not refund what it has already cost. Please contact us before you dispute a payment with your bank. Nothing in these Terms takes away a right to a refund that the law gives you.

4.12 Free launch and other free use. At launch, all invited customers use the Services free and charging is off. Top-ups are unavailable. While charging is off, we take no payments or usage charges, no debt arises from that use, no minimum Balance is required to start a Resource, and the Balance suspension and deletion rules in section 5 and section 10.2(e) do not apply. This paragraph controls any contrary wording in sections 4 and 5. Before paid service starts, we give you the prices, start date and paid terms at least 30 days in advance and obtain your express agreement. Keeping an existing free Resource does not by itself authorize charging, and we do not charge for earlier free use. If you decline, you may copy your Content and close your Account (section 10). If we end the agreement, section 10 applies. We may also offer other free Accounts or use, which the Workspace identifies.

4.13 Your right to cancel a top-up (consumers in the UK and the European Economic Area). If you use the Services as a consumer and live in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, each top-up you pay is a contract for the Services that money pays for, and the law gives you the right to cancel it:

Within 14 days. You may cancel a top-up within 14 days, without giving any reason. The 14 days end 14 days after the day of the top-up.
How to cancel. Tell us that you cancel, in a clear statement: open a support ticket in the Workspace, write to hello@vps.sc, call +1 (347) 837-7382, or send a letter to the address at the end of these Terms. Any other clear statement also counts. You may use the model form below, but you do not have to. You are in time if you send your statement before the 14 days end. If you cancel through a support ticket, we confirm by email, without delay, that we received it.
Starting at once. When you add money, we ask whether you want the Services it pays for to start at once, within the 14 days. If you do, you also confirm that you know you lose your right to cancel that top-up once those Services have been fully provided. Before you ask, we tell you about your right to cancel and what you pay if you cancel after asking. A Balance that reaches zero, for example because a top-up paid an amount you owed, does not by itself mean that the Services have been fully provided.
Your refund. If you cancel and you asked us to start at once, we refund the top-up less the cost of the Services it paid for before you told us. That cost is in proportion to the agreed price, or to the market value of those Services if the agreed price is excessive. If you did not ask us to start at once, we refund the top-up in full. We also refund it in full if, before you asked us to start, we did not tell you about your right to cancel and what you pay if you cancel. We refund you without undue delay, and no later than 14 days after the day you told us, using the same means of payment you used, unless you expressly agree to something else. You pay no fee for the refund. If we did not tell you about your right to cancel, the law can give you longer to cancel, and that longer time applies.

Model cancellation form (fill it in and send it only if you want to cancel a top-up):

To: Jooule LLC, doing business as VPS.SC · 41 State Street, Suite 112, Albany, NY 12207, United States · hello@vps.sc
I hereby give notice that I cancel my contract for the supply of the following service: a top-up of my VPS.SC Balance.
Amount of the top-up:
Ordered on:
Name:
Address:
Signature (only if this form is sent on paper):
Date:

5. If your Balance runs out

5.1 Keep your Balance topped up during paid service. This section applies only once charging starts with your agreement under section 4.12. It does not apply to the free launch. During paid service, it is your responsibility to keep enough money in your Balance. When your Balance is running low, we warn you in the Workspace and by email. If you think a Balance decision is wrong, write to hello@vps.sc and a person will look at it.

5.2 Suspension. If your Balance runs out, so that it no longer covers what you owe, we suspend your running Machines and switch off your CDN zones, so that their files are no longer delivered. This normally happens within about 4 hours. A suspended Machine is switched off at once, without a clean shutdown, as if its power were cut, so data it has not yet written to its disk can be lost. We tell you in the Workspace and by email. While a Machine is suspended, its vCPUs, memory and port are not charged, but its disk still is, and so are your volumes, floating IP addresses and the other Resources that remain.

5.3 Getting your Machines back. When your Balance is above zero again and covers what you owe, we start your suspended Machines again and switch your CDN zones back on, automatically. This can take a few hours.

5.4 Deletion after 7 days. If your Balance still does not cover what you owe 7 days after a Machine was suspended, we delete that Machine. Its snapshots are deleted with it, and its backups about a day later. Its IP address, and any floating IP addresses attached to it, may be released and given to another customer. Its boot disk may be kept as a volume. Deletion cannot be undone.

5.5 What remains. Your other Resources, such as volumes, boot disks kept as volumes, floating IP addresses that were not released and CDN zones, are not deleted with your Machines. They go on being charged while they exist, so your Balance can keep falling below zero, and the amount below zero stays owed (section 4.6). If your Balance stays below zero, we may delete them, after telling you by email to your Account’s email address, with reasonable notice. Deletion cannot be undone.

6. Your responsibilities

6.1 Your Content. You are responsible for your Content and for how you and your users use the Services. You must have all the rights you need in your Content. We do not check Content before it is stored or published.

6.2 Lawful use. Use the Services only lawfully and as our Acceptable Use Policy allows. You are responsible for the people you invite, and for anyone who uses your Machines or your Content (such as your own customers), as if their acts were yours. Our Acceptable Use Policy also says how anyone can report abuse.

6.3 Security of your Machines. You control your Machines and what runs on them, and you are responsible for securing them: their software and updates, their logins, passwords and keys, and their firewall rules.

Our firewalls let all traffic through to a Machine until you add rules that block it.
If you set a root password through the Workspace, or we generate one because you ordered a Machine with neither an SSH key nor a password, we store it encrypted so that it can be shown to you again, and our team can see it too. For full control, sign in with SSH keys and change the password from inside the Machine.
SSH keys and passwords you set in the Workspace reach a Machine when it is created or restarted. Removing a key from your Account does not remove it from your Machines: remove it there yourself.

6.4 Domain names. Add only domain names you are entitled to use. Before we host the DNS of a domain, we ask you to prove that you control it.

6.5 Backups are your job. Keep your own copies of your Content outside the Services, and check that you can restore them. Snapshots and backups made through the Services are a convenience, not a guarantee. Snapshots stay in the Machine’s region. Backups are kept on storage hosted by Lagrange in London, United Kingdom, which may be outside your Machine’s region (section 5.2 of our Privacy Policy). When a Machine is deleted, its snapshots are deleted with it, and its backups about a day later.

6.6 Tell us about problems. If you find a security weakness in the Services, or see your Account being misused, tell us at hello@vps.sc.

6.7 Services for your own customers. You may use the Services to provide services of your own to others, for example to host your clients’ sites. If you do, you remain responsible to us for that use as if it were your own, you hold your users to rules at least as strict as our Acceptable Use Policy, and you deal promptly with any report we pass on to you. You may not give anyone else access to your Account (section 3.3), or offer the Services as if you were us.

6.8 Copyright complaints. Section 5 of our Acceptable Use Policy says how to tell us that Content infringes someone’s copyright, and how to answer such a notice. When we receive a notice that meets its requirements, we may ask you to remove the Content concerned, or stop access to it, for example by stopping a Machine or switching off a CDN zone. We may close the Account of anyone who infringes other people’s rights again and again.

7. How we access your Account, Machines and Content

7.1 Only for these reasons. We access your Account, your Machines and your Content only as needed to provide, run, secure and support the Services; to prevent or look into abuse, fraud or a breach of these Terms or our Acceptable Use Policy; to comply with the law; or when you ask us to or agree.

7.2 What our systems do. To run the Services, our systems:

measure what each Resource uses, including for billing when charging is enabled;
check regularly whether each Machine answers on the network;
where the guest agent (a small helper program that can run inside a Machine) is running, read the Machine’s disk use and network settings, and run the commands that set up the floating IP addresses you attach.

7.3 What our team can do. For the reasons in section 7.1, members of our team can sign in to your Account, see what you have set up in the Workspace (including the root passwords stored there) and open the console of a Machine. They can also stop, restart, switch off or delete Resources, change a Machine’s network speed, switch off CDN zones and suspend your Account. When a member of our team signs in to your Account, the sign-in appears among your sessions in the Workspace while it lasts, and it is recorded in your Account’s activity records. Our Privacy Policy says more about how we handle the personal data involved.

8. Data protection

8.1 Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and keep personal data about you and the other people who use the Services. For that personal data, we decide how it is used (in UK and EU law, we are its controller).

8.2 Personal data in your Content. You decide what personal data you put in your Content, for example on your Machines or in your CDN zones, and you are responsible for handling it lawfully, including giving any notice and getting any consent the law requires. For that personal data, we act on your behalf: in UK and EU law we are your processor, and under US state privacy laws your service provider.

8.3 Our commitments for personal data in your Content. For personal data in your Content, we:

(a) process it only to provide the Services, following your instructions as you give them through your use of the Services and as these Terms set out, unless the law requires us to do otherwise, in which case we tell you first unless the law forbids it;
(b) do not sell it, do not share it for advertising, and do not use it for any purpose of our own, except the limited records about abuse or a claim that section 12.2 of our Privacy Policy describes;
(c) let only the people who need it to run the Services reach it, and make sure that they are bound to keep it confidential;
(d) protect it with technical and organizational measures suited to the risk, such as those section 7 of our Privacy Policy describes;
(e) help you, as far as the Services allow, to answer requests from people about their data, and to meet your own duties on security, on reporting breaches and on assessing risks;
(f) tell you without undue delay after we become aware of a breach of security that affects it;
(g) when this agreement ends, delete it as section 10.4 says, after the time that section gives you to copy it, unless the law requires us to keep it, or section 12.2 of our Privacy Policy allows us to keep a limited record; and
(h) give you the information you reasonably need to show that we meet these commitments, and answer your reasonable questions about them.

8.4 Other companies. You allow us to use other companies to provide the Services, such as the hosting and network providers that section 4 of our Privacy Policy names. We remain responsible to you for what they do with personal data in your Content. Before another company starts to handle personal data in your Content, we add it to that section. If you object to a change, tell us; if we cannot meet your objection, you may close your Account (section 10.1).

8.5 Where the law requires more. We and those companies may process personal data in your Content in the United States, in the United Kingdom and in other countries. If the law that applies to you requires terms that this section does not contain, for example for a transfer of personal data out of the UK or the European Economic Area, write to hello@vps.sc before you put such data on the Services.

9. Availability and support

9.1 Uptime target. We aim to keep each Machine available 99.9% of the time in each calendar month. This is a target, not a guarantee: we do not promise that the Services will always be available, uninterrupted or free of errors, and there is no compensation for downtime, unless we agree it with you in writing.

9.2 Maintenance and interruptions. We may need to interrupt parts of the Services, or restart your Machines, for maintenance, upgrades, security or to deal with a problem. Where we reasonably can, we tell you in advance.

9.3 Support. You can reach us through a support ticket in the Workspace, at hello@vps.sc or at +1 (347) 837-7382. We send a first reply to a support ticket within one business day (Monday to Friday, except US federal holidays, New York time).

10. Suspension and ending the agreement

10.1 Ending by you. You may stop using the Services at any time. Before you close your Account, copy any Content you want to keep (section 10.5). To close your Account, open a support ticket in the Workspace or write to hello@vps.sc from your Account’s email address. Before an Account is closed, the Resources it holds in Projects shared with others may pass to an Owner, Admin or Member of the Project, or be deleted (section 3.8).

10.2 Suspension by us. We may suspend or restrict all or part of the Services, for example stop a Machine, switch off a CDN zone or suspend your Account, if:

(a) you break these Terms or our Acceptable Use Policy;
(b) your use puts the security or working of the Services at risk, or harms us, other customers or anyone else;
(c) we suspect fraud or use of your Account by someone not entitled to it;
(d) the law or an authority requires it; or
(e) your Balance does not cover what you owe.

A suspension under (e) follows section 5. For the other grounds, the next paragraph applies.

Where we reasonably can, we tell you first and give you time to fix the problem. We may act at once, without telling you first, when the harm is ongoing or serious, when the law requires it, or when telling you first would put people at risk or get in the way of an investigation. When we act without telling you first, we tell you afterwards what we did and why, unless the law does not allow it or it would put people at risk. We lift a suspension once we are satisfied that its reason has gone.

10.3 Ending by us. We may close your Account and end this agreement:

(a) if you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms or our Acceptable Use Policy;
(b) if the reason for a suspension is not put right within a reasonable time;
(c) if the law requires it; or
(d) if we stop providing the Services, with at least 14 days’ notice.

10.4 What happens when the agreement ends.

Your right to use the Services ends.
Copy any Content you want to keep before your Account is closed, as section 10.5 says. If we end the agreement under section 10.3(d), you have at least 14 days from our notice to do this. If we end it under section 10.3(c), we give you reasonable time to do this first, unless the law does not allow it.
Then we delete your Machines, volumes and other Resources, with the Content on them. Copies can remain in the backups of our central systems for up to 30 days (section 6.3 of our Privacy Policy). DNS zones stay until you or we delete them: delete them before your Account is closed, or ask us to. Deletion cannot be undone.
If your Balance holds money you paid and have not used, we refund it on request, less any amount you owe us. Credits are not paid out (section 4.10). If your Balance is below zero, you must still pay that amount (section 4.6).
We keep the records we need for legal, tax, accounting, security and dispute purposes, as our Privacy Policy describes.
Rights and duties that arose before the end continue, and so do sections 4.6, 4.11, 8, 11 to 15, 17 and 18, and any other part of these Terms that by its nature should continue.

10.5 Taking your Content with you. You can copy your Content at any time while your Account is open, and we charge no fee for leaving:

the software and files on your Machines and volumes: copy them yourself, for example over SSH or another protocol you set up on the Machine;
the files in your CDN zones: download them over HTTPS, in the form you uploaded them;
your DNS records: copy them from the Workspace;
your Account’s own data: use “Export your data” in Settings (section 8.1 of our Privacy Policy). It does not copy Machine disks or volumes.

There is no self-service export of a whole disk, snapshot or backup. If you need one, write to hello@vps.sc before your Account is closed, and we tell you what we can do. We close your Account when you ask, so copy what you want to keep first; when we end the agreement, section 10.4 gives the time you have. During paid service, the Resources you keep while you copy, and their outbound data transfer, are charged as section 4.3 says.

11. Intellectual property and feedback

11.1 Your Content stays yours. You keep all rights in your Content. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, transmit, display and otherwise process your Content, only as needed to provide the Services and as these Terms allow. This license lasts while your Content is on the Services.

11.2 What is public. Files you put in a CDN zone are public: anyone who has their address can download them. DNS records you publish are public too, and so are your Machines’ names under ssh.sc, with the IP addresses they point at (section 2.9), and your CDN zones’ addresses under cdn.sc (section 2.10).

11.3 Our property. The Services, including the Workspace, our software and our documentation, and the VPS.SC name and logo, belong to us or to those who license them to us. We give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use them while this agreement lasts, as these Terms allow. You may not copy, change or reverse engineer them, except as far as the law allows.

11.4 Feedback. If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them freely, with no duty to you.

12. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent the law allows, the Services are provided “as is” and “as available”. We give no warranties or conditions, express or implied, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title or non-infringement, and no warranty that the Services will be uninterrupted, secure or free of errors, or that Content will not be lost. Some places do not allow these exclusions. There, they apply only as far as the law allows.

13. Limitation of liability

13.1 Indirect losses. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill or data, even if we were told they were possible.

13.2 Our total liability. To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us for the Services in the 12 months before the claim arose and $100. Credits do not count as amounts paid.

13.3 What we do not limit. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability that the law does not allow to be limited or excluded, such as liability for fraud, gross negligence or willful misconduct.

13.4 If you are a consumer. If you use the Services as a consumer, the limits and exclusions in these Terms, such as those in sections 9.1, 12 and 13, apply to you only as far as the consumer law that protects you allows, and they do not take away the rights that section 15.4 keeps for you.

14. Indemnity

To the extent the law allows, you will defend us against a claim by someone else, and pay the reasonable losses, damages, costs (including reasonable lawyers’ fees) and liability that we suffer from it, where the claim arises from your breach of these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy or the law, or from your negligent or intentional misconduct in providing Content or using the Services. This also covers such a breach or misconduct by the people you are responsible for under section 6.2. It never covers losses to the extent that we caused them, through our breach of these Terms, our negligence or our misconduct, or that the other people this section protects caused.

This also protects our owners, officers, employees and agents. We will tell you promptly about such a claim, let you control its defense, and help you as reasonably needed, at your cost. You may not settle a claim in a way that admits fault for us or binds us without our written consent.

15. Governing law and courts

15.1 Talk to us first. If you have a complaint, please contact us first: most problems can be solved quickly.

15.2 Law. These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Services, are governed by the laws of the State of New York and the federal laws of the United States that apply there, without regard to rules on conflicts of laws.

15.3 Courts. Subject to section 15.4, the state and federal courts located in the State of New York have exclusive jurisdiction over any such dispute, and you and we agree to their jurisdiction.

15.4 Mandatory consumer law. If you use the Services as a consumer, nothing in these Terms takes away the rights that consumer law gives you and that cannot be given up by contract. These can include the protection of the consumer law of the place where you live and, where that law gives it, the right to bring a claim in the courts there.

15.5 California consumers. If you are a consumer in California, California Civil Code section 1789.3 entitles you to this notice. The Services are provided by Jooule LLC, doing business as VPS.SC, 41 State Street, Suite 112, Albany, NY 12207, United States, telephone +1 (347) 837-7382. The charges for the Services are those of our price list (section 4.5), and nothing is charged for use that section 4.12 covers. To make a complaint about the Services, or to get more information about them or their charges, write to hello@vps.sc or call us. The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (916) 445-1254 or (800) 952-5210.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may change these Terms, for example when the Services, the law or our business change. We publish each new version with its “Last updated” date. If a change materially affects you, we tell you by email to your Account’s email address at least 30 days before it takes effect. We may also ask you to accept the new version in the Workspace. A change does not apply to a dispute that arose before it. Subject to the express agreement required before charging starts (section 4.12) and any other agreement the law requires, if you keep using the Services after a change takes effect, you accept the changed Terms. If you do not agree to them, stop using the Services and close your Account (section 10.1). Price changes follow section 4.5.

17. Notices

17.1 To you. We send notices to your Account’s email address or show them in the Workspace. You agree that we may give you notices, these Terms and other communications electronically, and that they meet any legal requirement that they be in writing. Subject to mandatory law, an email notice counts as received when delivered to your designated email address, not merely when sent. If delivery fails, we use another available contact method. Where law requires a durable copy or express consent to electronic communications, we provide or obtain it as required.

17.2 To us. Send notices to hello@vps.sc. Legal notices may also be sent by post to the address at the end of these Terms.

18. General

18.1 Assignment. You may not transfer your rights or duties under these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours as part of a merger, an acquisition or a sale of all or part of our business, and we will tell you if we do.

18.2 The whole agreement. These Terms, with our Acceptable Use Policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about the Services, unless we agree other terms with you in writing. They include our commitments for personal data in your Content (section 8). They replace any earlier agreement or understanding about the Services.

18.3 If part is invalid. If a court finds part of these Terms unenforceable, that part is changed as little as needed to make it enforceable, and the rest stays in force.

18.4 No waiver. If we do not enforce a right at once, we have not given it up.

18.5 Events outside our control. We are not responsible for failures or delays caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as failures of power, networks or suppliers, natural disasters, war, cyberattacks, or acts of government. This does not remove nonwaivable consumer remedies, including any right to a refund for Services not supplied.

18.6 Independent parties. These Terms create no partnership, employment, agency or joint venture between you and us. Apart from the people protected by section 14, no one else has rights under these Terms.

19. Contact us

Questions about these Terms, or anything else:

Email: hello@vps.sc
Phone: +1 (347) 837-7382
Site: vps.sc

By post:

VPS.SC is a trade name of Jooule LLC,
a New York limited liability company.
41 State Street, Suite 112
Albany, NY 12207 · United States