Acceptable Use Policy
This policy outlines what is and is not permitted when using LightYear Cloud services. Violations may result in immediate account suspension.
Last updated: April 12, 2026Effective: April 12, 2026
1. Overview
This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") governs your use of all services provided by LightYear Cloud Ltd. ("LightYear"), including cloud compute, storage, networking, managed databases, and all related services (collectively, "Services"). This AUP is incorporated by reference into the LightYear Terms of Service.
LightYear provides infrastructure for legitimate business and personal use. We are committed to maintaining a safe, reliable, and lawful platform for all customers. Violations of this AUP may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account without refund.
This policy applies to all users of the Services, including account holders, authorized users, and any third parties accessing services through your account.
2. Prohibited Activities
The following activities are strictly prohibited on the LightYear Cloud platform:
2.1 Illegal Activities
- Any activity that violates applicable local, national, or international laws or regulations.
- Hosting, distributing, or facilitating child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or any content that sexually exploits minors.
- Engaging in or facilitating human trafficking, slavery, or exploitation.
- Fraud, identity theft, phishing, or other deceptive practices.
- Unauthorized access to computer systems, networks, or data ("hacking").
- Distribution of malware, ransomware, spyware, trojans, or other malicious software.
- Facilitating or participating in money laundering or financing of terrorism.
2.2 Harmful Activities
- Conducting or facilitating Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks or any other form of network attack against any target.
- Port scanning, vulnerability scanning, or penetration testing of systems you do not own or have explicit written authorization to test.
- Intercepting or monitoring network traffic without authorization (packet sniffing).
- Operating botnet infrastructure, command-and-control servers, or related tools.
- Exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party systems or software.
3. Network & Security
3.1 Network Abuse
You may not use the Services to:
- Generate or facilitate unsolicited network traffic that degrades the performance of LightYear's infrastructure or third-party networks.
- Forge TCP/IP packet headers, email headers, or any part of a message in order to disguise the origin of information transmitted through the Services.
- Operate open network proxies or Tor exit nodes without prior written approval from LightYear.
- Conduct IP spoofing or ARP poisoning attacks.
- Operate services that amplify DDoS attacks (e.g., open DNS resolvers, open NTP servers configured for amplification).
3.2 Security Research
Legitimate security research is permitted on systems you own or have explicit written authorization to test. You must not conduct security research on LightYear's own infrastructure or other customers' systems without our prior written consent. Responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities discovered in LightYear's platform should be reported to [email protected].
3.3 Firewall & Access Controls
You are responsible for properly configuring firewalls and access controls on your deployed instances. LightYear provides firewall tools to help you secure your infrastructure, but the responsibility for configuration lies with you.
4. Content Restrictions
You may not store, host, transmit, or distribute content that:
- Is illegal under applicable law, including content that infringes intellectual property rights, defames individuals, or violates privacy rights.
- Constitutes child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or any content that exploits or harms minors.
- Promotes, glorifies, or facilitates violence, terrorism, or hate crimes.
- Contains malware, viruses, or other malicious code.
- Facilitates phishing, social engineering, or credential harvesting.
- Violates the privacy of individuals, including unauthorized publication of personal information ("doxxing").
LightYear does not proactively monitor customer content but reserves the right to remove content and suspend accounts that violate this policy upon notification or discovery.
5. Resource Usage
5.1 Fair Use
You may use the resources allocated to your plan for legitimate business and personal purposes. You must not attempt to exceed your allocated resources or interfere with the resources of other customers.
5.2 Bandwidth
Each plan includes a monthly bandwidth allocation. Bandwidth overages are billed at the rates listed on our pricing page. Sustained high-bandwidth usage that impacts other customers may result in rate limiting or traffic shaping.
5.3 Automated Abuse
You may not use automated scripts or tools to create excessive load on LightYear's control plane APIs beyond what is reasonably necessary for legitimate automation. Rate limits apply to all API endpoints.
5.4 Reselling
You may resell or provide access to LightYear Services to third parties, provided that: (a) you remain responsible for all use under your account; (b) your customers comply with this AUP; and (c) you do not misrepresent the nature of the underlying services.
6. Email & Messaging
You may not use the Services to:
- Send unsolicited bulk email (spam) or engage in any form of email abuse.
- Operate open mail relays that can be used to send spam.
- Harvest email addresses from the internet for the purpose of sending unsolicited messages.
- Send email that falsifies the sender's identity or violates CAN-SPAM, GDPR, or other applicable anti-spam laws.
- Operate services that facilitate spam campaigns for third parties.
Legitimate transactional email and marketing email sent to opted-in recipients is permitted. We recommend using dedicated email service providers (e.g., Resend, SendGrid, Mailgun) for high-volume email rather than sending directly from compute instances.
7. Cryptocurrency Mining
Cryptocurrency mining is not permitted on LightYear Cloud without prior written approval. Mining operations consume disproportionate CPU and network resources, degrade performance for other customers, and are inconsistent with our infrastructure design.
If you have a legitimate use case involving blockchain technology (e.g., running a node, validator, or related infrastructure), please contact [email protected] to discuss your requirements. Such use cases may be approved on a case-by-case basis.
8. Reporting Violations
If you become aware of any activity that violates this AUP — whether by a LightYear customer or involving LightYear infrastructure — please report it to us immediately:
We take all abuse reports seriously and will investigate promptly. We may request additional information to process your report.
9. Enforcement
9.1 Investigation
LightYear reserves the right to investigate any suspected violation of this AUP. We may monitor network traffic, server activity, and account behavior to detect and prevent violations.
9.2 Actions We May Take
Depending on the severity of the violation, we may take one or more of the following actions:
- Issue a warning and require remediation.
- Temporarily suspend the offending service or account.
- Permanently terminate the account without refund.
- Report the activity to law enforcement authorities.
- Pursue civil or criminal legal action.
- Disclose information to third parties as required by law or to protect LightYear and its customers.
9.3 No Liability for Enforcement Actions
LightYear will not be liable for any damages or losses resulting from enforcement actions taken in good faith in response to AUP violations.