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Mike Harrison · 16-10-2003, 20:41

When I read the small print, it seemed very vague, my interpretation was that it meant "it's for home users, we accept no liability for loss of business if you use it for anything else". i.e. it's a consumer product and we only offer a consumer quality service (some hope!).
Here's what it says :
"The Services and the Equipment are only provided under this Agreement for residential customers and for residential use only. The Services or any part of them cannot be sold for money or monies worth. We have no liability, whether due to our negligence or otherwise, for any losses incurred by any business, trade or profession carried on by you or any other person using the Services or the Equipment."

I see nothing here to prohibit any business uses short of reselling bandwidth/access.
As far as The Oxford Dictionary is concerned, 'Redidential' just means pertaining to a place of residence. If I run a business from home, this is residential.
Furthermore I would interpret the last sentence above about liability as an implication that business use was allowed, as if it wasn't, why would they need to disclaim liability for any losses?

I'm sure a large proportion of users use it for business to some extent, whether it's accessing work emails from home, hosting their website or running a business with Ebay. If NTL canned all these users they'd be even further up $#!t creek than they are at the moment, so I suspect that they would only do anything if you were actively causing problems - excessive usage etc.

I certainly never clicked 'I agree' to anything that explicitly prohibited business use when I signed up for BB, and would have no hesitation in taking them to Trading Standards for selling under false pretences if they made a fuss.

My guess is they have made it deliberately vague, to encourage users to sign up while allowing them to drop anyone taking liberties.

16-10-2003, 20:41	#3
Mike Harrison Inactive Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 124	Re: What is Residential Use? When I read the small print, it seemed very vague, my interpretation was that it meant "it's for home users, we accept no liability for loss of business if you use it for anything else". i.e. it's a consumer product and we only offer a consumer quality service (some hope!). Here's what it says : "The Services and the Equipment are only provided under this Agreement for residential customers and for residential use only. The Services or any part of them cannot be sold for money or monies worth. We have no liability, whether due to our negligence or otherwise, for any losses incurred by any business, trade or profession carried on by you or any other person using the Services or the Equipment." I see nothing here to prohibit any business uses short of reselling bandwidth/access. As far as The Oxford Dictionary is concerned, 'Redidential' just means pertaining to a place of residence. If I run a business from home, this is residential. Furthermore I would interpret the last sentence above about liability as an implication that business use was allowed, as if it wasn't, why would they need to disclaim liability for any losses? I'm sure a large proportion of users use it for business to some extent, whether it's accessing work emails from home, hosting their website or running a business with Ebay. If NTL canned all these users they'd be even further up $#!t creek than they are at the moment, so I suspect that they would only do anything if you were actively causing problems - excessive usage etc. I certainly never clicked 'I agree' to anything that explicitly prohibited business use when I signed up for BB, and would have no hesitation in taking them to Trading Standards for selling under false pretences if they made a fuss. My guess is they have made it deliberately vague, to encourage users to sign up while allowing them to drop anyone taking liberties.