Classmates.com 2007 Annual Report Download - page 17

team monitors the performance of our customer support vendor and provides feedback to improve their skills and establish consistency
throughout our customer support functions.
Technology
Our services are generally provided through a combination of internally developed and third-
party software, industry standard hardware and
outsourced network services. We have developed software to enhance the functionality of certain components of our services, including
connectivity, Web services, billing, email, customer support, customer loyalty applications, and targeted advertising. We maintain data centers in
multiple locations around the country with, in many cases, redundant systems to provide high levels of service availability and connectivity. We
host the majority of our data center services in third-party co-location facilities and outsource all of our bandwidth and managed modem
services.
We license a number of our software applications and components, including applications for our billing, customer support, advertising and
database systems, our client and server applications, and portions of our dial-up Internet access accelerator services. These licenses generally
have terms ranging from several years to perpetual.
Government Regulations
We are subject to state, federal and international laws and regulations applicable to online commerce, including user privacy policies, terms
and conditions, product pricing policies, Web site content, and general consumer protection and contract laws. Laws and regulations have been
adopted, including the ones described below, and may be adopted in the future, that address Internet-related issues, including online content,
privacy and data protection, security, online marketing, unsolicited commercial email, terms and conditions, notice, taxation, pricing, and quality
of products and services. We may also be subject to laws and regulations not specifically related to the Internet, including laws affecting direct
marketers and advertisers. In addition, the United States Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, and many state attorneys general are applying
federal and state consumer protection laws to the online collection, use and dissemination of personal information and the presentation of Web
site content. In the European Union member states and other foreign countries, data protection is even more highly regulated and rigidly
enforced.
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, or the CAN-
SPAM Act, regulates the distribution of
commercial emails. Among other things, the CAN-SPAM Act provides a right on the part of an email recipient to request the sender to stop
sending certain categories of email messages and establishes penalties for the sending of email messages which are intended to deceive the
recipient as to source or content or are otherwise sent in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.
The Child Online Protection Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act restrict the distribution of materials considered harmful
to children and impose additional restrictions on the ability of online services to collect and use information from children under the age of 13.
The Internet Tax Freedom Act, which was recently extended until November 2014, places a moratorium on taxes on Internet access and
multiple, discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce. However, future state and federal laws imposing taxes or other regulations on Internet
access and electronic commerce may arise, any of which could increase our cost of providing Internet-related services.
Proprietary Rights
Our trademarks, patents, copyrights, domain names, and trade secrets are important to the success of our business. We principally rely upon
patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and contract laws
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