Welcome to Baud Town!

We are genuinely honored to have you as a user in Baud Town. This
document sets forth the agreement under which you make use of Baud
Town.

It is important that users remember that being in Baud Town is not a
matter of right, but a privilege. Your being in Baud Town is governed
by contract law. Each time you call Baud Town you are agreeing to
this contract, whether asked or not.

From time-to-time this contract will automatically appear and you
will be asked if you agree to it. It is your choice as to whether or
not you agree to the following terms.  Be forewarned however, that
you will be denied access to our system until such time as you do.

By answering yes to the end prompt you are accepting and agreeing to
this contract and you are stating that you find our terms reasonable
and will abide by them.  If at any time after this you wish to review
this contract please do so by entering the "Information Center"
section from the main menu. You will find our system fees there as
well.


                   ********************************
                   * ACCESS AND SERVICE AGREEMENT *
                   ********************************


ACCESS AND SERVICES:
--------------------

Access to this system is granted, if at all, only to those people
providing us with their true names, age, date of birth, addresses and
phone numbers. A person may have only one single account and shall
not have access to any other account on this system. No one is
allowed to access this system for the purpose of making an account
with a fake name or other inaccurate information or to access the
account of another user.

New Users have limited access to our system until they are validated.
Until that time you may peruse our system but you will be limited to
read access only and granted only 10 minutes per call with a 30
minute daily limit.

We use several methods of validating new users and verifying existing
accounts. All users are subject to validation or revalidation at
*ANY* time. You agree that you will maintain your true name, address
and phone number with us at all times.

Baud Town can require you to answer various polls and questionnaires
regarding its operations. We use polls to determine issues relating
to line-planning, features and operations.  We will attempt to make
optional any such poll or questionnaire which may, in our opinion, be
viewed as invasive of your right to privacy.

Baud Town may chose to change any and all parts of the system in
order to do what we feel is best for us and the clients we serve.
Notification of any major changes to access and/or services will be
posted as far in advance as is feasible on our part.

Instability is the hallmark of any communications system; we exist at
the mercy of the telephone companies and internet carriers. We do our
best to maintain a stable and dependable system but we do not accept
any liability for failures of any sort and you agree that you will
not hold us liable for such failures.

If you are a paid user and, in the event of the system being down
more than 24 consecutive hours you may, upon written request to the
Sysop, receive a day's extra paid access for each full day lost.
Users with free access agree they have no claim for lost time.

Baud Town may, for any reason and at any time terminate the right of
any user to be on Baud Town. If the user is a paid user the sole
remedy shall be a refund of any unused subscription.

All paid subscriptions are for CONSECUTIVE days of access. If you
have a vacation period and advise the Sysop of that fact, Baud Town
may, in its discretion, either suspend your account for the vacation
period or grant you an extension. This is a courtesy that is extended
to paid users and not an adjustment as a matter of right.

While often describing subscription periods in terms of numbers of
months, the system counts subscription length on a daily basis. We
use the following in setting number of days:

                    One month       31 days
                    Two months      62 days
                    Three months    92 days
                    Six months     183 days
                    One year       366 days

Baud Town counts its days from its daily boot-down for maintenance
which happens around 5:00 AM local time. Per-day time limits start
over *AFTER* each boot-down.

ACCESS, PRICES & FREE ACCESS
----------------------------

Our prices are those in effect at the time you place an order for
subscription. You may check those prices in our Information Section
which you access by typing H from the main menu, after which you type
either an E for an explanation of our different levels or a $ for the
current charges.

Free access accounts can be logged-off the system ("bumped") whenever
necessary to make lines available for our paying users. Within the
paying users, users in a lower account class can, from time-to-time,
be bumped to make lines available to users in a higher account class.
If you wish to be exempt from the bump, you must purchase access in
an account class that has the appropriate exemption, if such class is
offered for sale.

Baud Town, founded by Fred and Linda Gernand, has always provided
limited free access to those who choose not to pay for our services
and we hope to continue the tradition but, at anytime or from
time-to-time, with or without notice, we may change the privileges
granted to non-paying users or cancel free access completely.

SYSTEM RULES:
-------------

We believe in freedom of speech as long as it is respectful to others
on our system.  We ask you not to use  profanity or sexual references
of any kind in the forum, global, game or teleconference sections of
the system before midnight; after midnight our rules "relax" but
never allow the harassment of others.

Not agreeing with somebody else's opinion is one thing, a personal
flame is quite another.  Please feel free to express yourself and
your opinion, but do not do anything that will abuse, injure or harm
another user.  If you should find yourself at odds with a
particular user there are ways that you can avoid that person here
and NO reason you need to subject that user or others to abuses.

Do not use our system for anything that is or may be illegal.  This
system may not be used to encourage anything to do with illegal
drugs, gambling, child pornography, prostitution, robbery, spreading
computer viruses, cracking into private computer systems, software
infringement, trafficking in credit card codes, or other crimes.

Do not underestimate the meaning of the previous paragraph. We are
profoundly opposed to any illegal operation on this board and, if we
determine that our system has been used for such purposes, we may
advised the proper authorities as well as terminating the offending
account.

People sometimes have trouble figuring out whether certain activities
are illegal. It's usually not that hard. If it's illegal out there,
it's illegal in here!  Using a bulletin board system to commit a
crime does not make it less of a crime.  In fact, if you use a
bulletin board system to commit a crime, you're exposing the
operators of the system, and its other callers, to legal risks that
should be yours alone.

If you genuinely do not know whether something you'd like to do is
legal or illegal, please discuss it with the our SysOps or _staff_
before you proceed and if we tell you we do not want you to pursue
your plans on our system, you must absolutely respect our decision.

Respect the security of our system.  DO NOT try to gain access to
system areas private to ourselves, or to other callers.  Some callers
try to crack system security just to show it can be done.  Don't try
to demonstrate this on our system. California law explicitly makes
any such attempt a crime.

If we receive complaints about a user or see the user ignoring the
rules ourselves, we will take appropriate action.  This action may be
in the form of instantly removing the offending user from the
system, suspension and/or deleting the user account, depending on
the severity of the offense.

PRIVACY:
--------

We offer private electronic mail on our system as a service to our
callers. We will endeavor to keep all of your e-mail private,
viewable only by you and the person to whom you address it, EXCEPT:

We, as System Operators, may need to look at your electronic mail if
we believe it is necessary to protect ourselves or other callers from
injury or damage.  For example, if we have reason to believe a caller
is involved in illegal activities, which creates a risk that our
system could be seized by the authorities, we will review his or her
electronic mail for our own protection.  We will NOT, however,
monitor electronic mail unless we believe it is being misused.

We will not deliberately disclose electronic mail to other callers.
If we believe certain electronic mail is connected with illegal
activities, we may disclose it to the authorities to protect our
system, ourselves and other callers.

Remember that the person to whom you send electronic mail does not
need to keep it secret.  The sender or receiver of electronic mail
has the right to make it public.

If the authorities ever search or seize our system, they may gain
access to your private electronic mail. In that case, we cannot
assure they will not review it.  Remember that you have personal
rights of privacy that even the government cannot legally violate,
though you may have to go to court to enforce these rights.


EDITORIAL CONTROL:
------------------

We want our system to be a worthwhile place for all our callers. This
does not mean everyone can do whatever they choose on this system,
regardless of its effect on others.  It is our job to accommodate the
common needs of all callers while striving to meet our own goals for
the system.

We will not monitor all messages and file transfers.  However, if we
see (or hear about) messages or other activities that violate the
rules, threaten the order or security of the system, or use the
system in ways we do not agree with, we will take appropriate action.

Our editorial control includes normal housekeeping activities like
changing subject headers and deleting profanities in public messages
and selecting among uploaded files for those we wish to make
available for download.  It also goes beyond that.

If a caller persists in posting messages or transferring files that
we previously warned him should not be on the system, those messages
will be deleted, and he or she may be locked out.  If we discover any
caller violating the rules, especially the prohibition against
illegal activities, we will act firmly and swiftly.  Depending upon
the circumstances, the caller involved will be warned, or simply
locked out.  If the caller has done anything to put us or other
callers in jeopardy, we may contact the authorities.

We do not plan on doing any of these things.  If all callers act with
respect and regard for us and for other callers, there will never be
any problems.  But, if problems arise, we will assert control over
our system against any caller who threatens it. And in this Contract,
you acknowledge that control.

OWNERSHIP OF MATERIALS:
-----------------------

You shall retain all rights to all original messages you post and all
original files you upload.  Likewise, you must respect the ownership
rights of others in their own messages and files. You may not post or
upload any messages or files unless you own them, or you have full
authority to transmit them to this system.

We own certain things you will find on this system, including the
"look and feel" of the system, the name of our system, and the
collective work copyright in sequences of public messages on our
system.  You cannot reproduce any message thread from our system,
either electronically or in print, without our permission and the
permission of all participants in the thread. This is not a complete
list. Other things on the system are also our property.  Before you
copy anything from our system with plans of reproducing it or
distributing it, contact the SysOps.


LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND INDEMNITY:
--------------------------------------

The great danger for us, and for all operators of bulletin board
systems, is that we might be held accountable for the wrongful
actions of our callers.  If one caller libels another caller, the
injured caller might blame us, even though the first caller was
really at fault.  If a caller uploads a program with a computer
virus, and other callers' computers are damaged, we might be blamed
even though the virus was left on our board by a caller.  If a caller
transfers illegal credit card information to another caller through
private electronic mail, we might be blamed even though we did
nothing more than unknowingly carry the message from one caller to
another.

Accordingly, all callers must accept responsibility for their own
acts, and to accept that an act by another caller that damages them
must not be blamed on us, but on the other caller.  These needs are
accomplished by the following paragraph:

You agree that we will not be responsible to you for any indirect,
consequential, special or punitive damages or losses you may incur in
connection with our system or any of the data or other materials
transmitted through or residing on our system, even if we have been
advised of the possibility of such damage or loss.  In addition, you
agree to defend and indemnify us and hold us harmless from and
against any and all claims, proceedings, damages, injuries,
liabilities, losses, costs and expenses (including attorneys fees)
relating to any acts by you or materials or information transmitted
by you in connection with our system leading wholly or partially to
claims against our system by other callers or third parties.

CHOICE OF LAW:
--------------

Baud Town can be reached by callers from all fifty states, and around
the world.  Each of these places has a different set of laws.  Since
we cannot keep track of all these laws and their requirements, you
agree that the law of our own state, California, will apply to all
matters relating to this Access and Service Agreement and to our
bulletin board system. In addition, you agree and consent that if you
ever take legal action against us, the courts of our own state,
California, will have exclusive jurisdiction over any such legal
actions.



GENERAL:
--------

This Access and Service Agreement is the entire understanding between
you and us regarding your relationship to our bulletin board system,
the SysOps and the users.  If either you or we fail to notify the
other of any violations of this agreement, this will not mean that
you or we cannot notify the other of future violations of any part of
this agreement.

By establishing or having already established an account on this
bulletin board service you acknowledge that you have read and agree
to this Access and Service Agreement.

Your typing yes to indicate your acceptance of this ACCESS AND
SERVICE AGREEMENT, when requested, indicates that you have read the
entire agreement, understand all of its provisions and accept and
agree to all of its terms and conditions.
