As of 14th April 2008 the separate organizations formerly known as AVIEN and AVIEWS have been consolidated into a single organization which retains the name AVIEN but is, to all intents and purposes, a new organization. All members in good standing of both AVIEN and AVIEWS automatically became members of the new organization, including:

• those who were formerly full members of AVIEN as well as of AVIEWS
• those who were formerly members of AVIEWS only.

The terms of this document apply to AVIEN as it now exists following the consolidation, and to all its current members. Unless otherwise stated, the name AVIEN is used here to refer to the existing, reconstituted organization, not to the original organization.

Over the next few months there will be a consolidation of all the old resources, websites and lists under the single entity of http://avien.net, which shall become the official website of the new AVIEN organization.

General Terms

• The Anti-Virus Information Exchange Network (hereinafter referred to as "AVIEN") shall be hereinafter taken to mean any part of the operations of aviews.net, avien.org and avien.net (and such other domains that may be or may have been set up and used by the network) and its systems, including but not restricted to the entire websites, publications, email lists, email aliases, and any related data personal or otherwise that may be stored in any form, and all archival and historical copies of such information.
• Unless specific exclusion or inclusion be made, these Rules shall apply to all lists, e-mail addresses, websites, forums and aliases administered by or on behalf of AVIEN, including but not limited to all permanent mailing lists, temporary lists, websites, web-forums or forms of communication that now or might in the future exist, or have in the past existed in the course of the operations of AVIEWS or AVIEN. (Hereinafter referred to as “The Network”.)
• Unless specific exclusion or inclusion is made, the rules regarding data privacy shall apply to all areas of the Network and shall be governed by current United Kingdom Data Privacy rules. Specifically, the information including access passwords and usernames within the "members/subscribers" area of the avien.net website shall not for any reason be disseminated to any non-member/subscriber entity either while membership/subscription is current, nor in the event it should lapse or be revoked in the future.
• These general rules shall be extended in (but in no way overridden by) the specific rules for AVIEN member groups, and acceptance of these Terms and Conditions explicitly implies acceptance of all published rules of AVIEN, Rules of Order and Rules for specific groups within AVIEN.

Subscription Fees

AVIEN is not a profit-making organization, but AVIEN members are required to pay a subscription fee. This goes towards meeting the costs of maintaining the organization, including a full time administration role, but should also discourage unsuitable, frivolous, or clearly malicious individuals and groups from applying for membership. The subscription allows AVIEN to maintain the organization to a higher, more professional standard, and also demonstrates commitment on the part of the subscriber to the AVIEN aims and ideals. Failure to renew membership subscriptions in a timely manner will result in removal from all lists.

Before the consolidation, membership of AVIEN was restricted to anti-virus professionals to whom the following applied.

1. Neither they nor the organization they worked for were involved in any way with the commercial production, sales or marketing of Anti-Virus software, hardware or related products
2. They supported a minimum of 1500 end-users.

Within AVIEN there may exist self-maintaining, affiliated sub-groups with similar aims and interests but having a narrower focus than AVIEN has in general. New members of such groups may be required to meet more restrictive criteria. Where sub-groups within AVIEN impose membership criteria, rules and conditions over and above those specified within this document, they may not impose criteria, rules and conditions that conflict with the aims and ideals of AVIEN as a whole. Sub-group members are required to meet all the requirements for general membership of AVIEN, as set down in this document. These subgroups may not publicly represent themselves as representing AVIEN as an organization in a wider sense.

The terms and conditions set down here are as complete as we can reasonably make them. However, the fact that a condition of membership is not explicitly laid down in this document does not excuse a member or member organization from meeting the behavioral and ethical standards implicit in the aims and ideals of AVIEN in all respects.

General Requirements

Members agree to conform to a very high level of professional and ethical behavior, as a condition of membership. No flaming, put downs, foul language, or name calling. It is okay to disagree, but, we do it in a courteous and respectful manner. The Rules are strictly enforced by a Management Committee, when necessary.

It is a condition of membership that all AVIEN participants read, agree to and abide by these terms and conditions.

It will be assumed that even the newest members will have a general idea of what is and isn’t acceptable, and will understand that all violations will be dealt with by the Management Committee.

The Management Committee is comprised of AVIEN members, who have the authority to censure or expel the offending party. Any member of AVIEN may report cases of perceived unprofessional conduct to the Management Committee for investigation. The Committee will report their findings to the original petitioner once the matter has been investigated, and a decision reached. Decisions of the Management Committee are final and binding.

Here is a very general overview of our expectations: however, we expect members to act in accordance with the spirit of AVIEN, not just according to rules specifically laid down in this document.

• E-mail addresses and other personal information about group subscribers/organizations obtained through being a member of the group must stay within the group, and are not to be used for private commercial gain (for instance by spamming AVIEN lists, or sharing such information so as to allow others to misuse it).
• Copyright material from other alert sources is not to be distributed on AVIEN lists unless explicit permission has been given by the copyright holder.
• Information exchanged amongst subscribers of the AVIEN network will not be disseminated outside the group, nor published for general release to the public unless explicitly excepted in the Rules (for example, the Rules governing the sharing of alerts and advisories) or by the member who posts a specific message.

AVIEN at its sole discretion may refuse membership to or withdraw membership from any individuals and organizations whose conduct is considered inappropriate to the aims and ethos of AVIEN, or whose affiliation is perceived as likely to bring AVIEN’s name into disrepute.

Hosting Company Requirements

AVIEN is hosted and administered by a hosting company ByteMatrix Limited.

ByteMatrix Limited shall at its sole discretion reserve the right to revoke any membership where fees and invoices have not been remitted in a timely manner.

ByteMatrix Limited is administered in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom and the European Community, as a registered Limited Company in England and Wales and, where the actions of a member may bring ByteMatrix Limited into conflict with those legal requirements, that membership will be revoked.

In accordance with UK data protection legislation, no information about members of AVIEN will be given to any other party outside of ByteMatrix, whether or not a member of AVIEN, unless

• it is a representative of the management committee and such information is to be used in the normal course of conducting AVIEN business
• ByteMatrix Limited is officially required to do so by law enforcement authorities
• the member concerned has explicitly given permission to share that information.

Any information published by members by posting to lists or using the Network shall be considered for legal purposes as being in the public domain, subject to the Network’s restrictions on the sharing and forwarding of posted and implicitly or explicitly copyrighted information. In the event of any member’s misuse of information posted to the lists, ByteMatrix will press for whatever disciplinary or restorative action is feasible, including termination of the offending party’s membership, but cannot be held responsible for damage or loss to others resulting from that misuse.

The information provided to ByteMatrix Limited, or parts thereof, for the purposes of subscription to AVIEN may be held in Electronic format on various computers and networks. Any data provided will be stored with all reasonable security, and limited to only such data as is needed for providing the service. Members may request the removal of any such information should they wish to terminate their membership in AVIEN, however many external services store information in cached format, and ByteMatrix Limited explicitly only undertakes to remove such data as is under its own control. Paper records will be stored according to current United Kingdom laws.

Under no circumstances are any of the Network resources to be used for illegal practices, nor to send unsolicited commercial email. ByteMatrix Limited will take legal action to recover any losses to its business or reputation owing to the violation of these terms by any member.

Revision 3.4.1 2008_04_15