Effective date: February 16, 2026
You may not use our Services to store, distribute, or transmit any content that:
Is illegal under United States federal law or the laws of the State of North Carolina. Contains, distributes, or facilitates child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in any form. Infringes on the intellectual property rights of others, including unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material. Contains malware, ransomware, viruses, or other malicious software. Promotes or facilitates terrorism, violence, or threats against individuals or groups.
You may not use our Services to:
Network Abuse: Conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, port scanning, or any form of network attack against any target, whether on our network or external networks.
Spam and Bulk Email: Send unsolicited bulk email, spam, or messages that violate the CAN-SPAM Act. This includes operating open mail relays or using our Services as a source of spam.
Unauthorized Access: Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any server, account, network, or system, whether ours or belonging to third parties. This includes brute force attacks, credential stuffing, and exploitation of vulnerabilities.
Cryptocurrency Mining: Run cryptocurrency mining software on shared or virtual server resources. Mining operations consume excessive CPU and I/O and degrade service quality for other customers.
Fraud: Use our Services in connection with any fraudulent activity, including phishing, identity theft, financial fraud, or impersonation of any person or entity.
Tor Exit Nodes: Operate Tor exit nodes or open proxies that relay traffic to obscure the source of malicious activity.
Resource Abuse: Intentionally consume excessive server resources (CPU, memory, bandwidth, disk I/O) in a manner that degrades service for other customers on shared infrastructure.
Each service includes a specified bandwidth allocation. While we do not charge overage fees, we reserve the right to throttle or restrict network access for accounts that consistently exceed their allocation or engage in abusive traffic patterns.
Inbound DDoS attacks targeting your server that impact our network infrastructure may result in temporary null-routing of your IP address to protect other customers.
You are responsible for ensuring that your use of our Services complies with all applicable local, state, federal, and international laws and regulations. This includes, but is not limited to, export control laws, data protection regulations, and intellectual property laws.
We take abuse reports seriously. If you believe a Piedmont Hosting customer is violating this AUP, please report it to:
Please include as much detail as possible, including IP addresses, timestamps, log excerpts, and a description of the abusive activity. We will investigate all reports and take appropriate action.
Upon identifying a violation of this AUP, we may take one or more of the following actions at our discretion:
Issue a warning and request that the violation be corrected within a specified timeframe. Temporarily suspend the offending service until the violation is resolved. Permanently terminate the customer's account and all associated services without refund. Report the activity to relevant law enforcement authorities.
For severe violations — including but not limited to CSAM, DDoS attacks originating from our network, or active distribution of malware — we may terminate services immediately without prior warning.
You are responsible for all activity on your servers, including actions taken by any users you grant access to. If a third party compromises your server and uses it to violate this AUP, you are still responsible for resolving the issue promptly once notified.
We strongly recommend keeping your server software up to date, using strong passwords, disabling unused services, and implementing a firewall.
We may update this AUP from time to time to address new threats or clarify our policies. Material changes will be communicated via email or account notification. Continued use of our Services after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
For questions about this Acceptable Use Policy, contact us at: