Our Appropriate Use Policy (AUP) is designed to help protect our customers (defined as registered students, faculty and staff) and the Internet community, from irresponsible or illegal activities. As good net citizens, we prohibit the impersonation of others, unsolicited commercial appeals, and any disruption of Internet services. Examples of such activities are given below:
- E-mail
Commercial e-mail: Sending unsolicited commercial e-mail is prohibited. Using a WLU e-mail address to collect responses from unsolicited commercial e-mail is prohibited.
Harassment: Sending threatening or harassing e-mail after being requested to stop, is prohibited. Extremely threatening or harassing e-mail is prohibited always.
- Peer-to-peer file sharing
Peer-to-peer file sharing where the customer’s computer is used to serve music or video files to the Internet is not appropriate use. The bandwidth demands of this usage can be excessive and transfer of copyrighted material without appropriate permission is illegal.
- Viruses, Worms, Trojan horses, etc.
Customers are responsible to maintain their computers so that they do not become a source of virus infection for others. Inaction or refusal to remove viruses and the like that pose a threat of infection will result in the deactivation of the responsible customer’s account.
- News
Newsgroup spamming: Excessive cross-posting, or posting the same article to several newsgroups, is prohibited. Generally accepted standards allow no more than ten newsgroups, or cross postings, for a single article or substantially similar articles. Such articles may be cancelled. Off-topic or inappropriate postings: there is no restriction on content, except as defined by each newsgroup. Continued posting of off-topic articles is prohibited. Please note that commercial advertisements are off-topic in the vast majority of newsgroups.
- Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
The use of IRC bots is prohibited, as is the violation of any accepted policies on IRC servers. If WLU is banned from a server, the offending account will be terminated.
- General
Impersonation: Attempting to impersonate any person, using forged headers or other identifying information, is prohibited. The use of anonymous remailers and nicknames does not constitute impersonation.
Network unfriendly activity: Activities which adversely affect the ability of other people or systems to use WLU services or the Internet is prohibited. Privacy violations: Attempts, whether successful or not, to gain access to any computer system, or customer’s data, without consent is prohibited.
- Web Hosting
West Liberty University will not host web sites which involve illegal activities such as the illegal transfer or use copyrighted materials or any fraudulent solicitation.
West Liberty University will not host web sites of an offensive nature such as ones involving pornography, gambling, extreme violence, racial or ethnic hatred.
West Liberty University reserves the right to protect its system and its customers by not hosting sites that would be deemed generally offensive and be likely to provoke responses such as Denial-of-Service attacks upon its servers and system.
- Financial
Re-selling service without express written consent from WLU is prohibited. Offering any public information service, such as running a web server or FTP server, is also prohibited without express written consent from Information Technology Services (ITS). Using programs to defeat system timers limiting inactivity is prohibited. Untimely payment of any and all amounts due may result in account cancellation.
- Privacy
It may be necessary for ITS employees to examine system accounting logs and other records to resolve system problems. West Liberty University reserves the right to access an account’s mailbox to resolve system problems or mail system errors.
In addition, WLU will cooperate with the appropriate legal authorities in investigating claims of illegal activity, including but not limited to illegal transfer or use of copyrighted material, postings or e-mail containing threats of violence, or other illegal activity.
West Liberty University makes no guarantee and assumes no liability for the security of any data on any server including “secure servers.”
Our customers are reminded that no computer system should be considered safe from intrusion. E-mail may pass through many computer systems, and should not be considered a secure means of communication unless encrypted. Even then, information is only as secure as the encryption method.
- Rationale
This document provides a general understanding of WLU’s policy on the Appropriate Use of WLU’s information technology services. Common sense and judgment are a necessary part of any system of rules, and this AUP is no exception. Of course, flagrant or repeated violations of the Policy are viewed in a very different light than minor infractions.
Protection of our customers and our resources, the ability to provide quality service to our customers, conformance with existing law, and the protection of our reputation as a service provider are all contributing factors to decisions on AUP violations.
If a WLU account is used to violate the AUP, the following actions may include, but not necessarily be limited to:
- suspension or revocation of computing privileges
- reimbursement to WLU for resources consumed;
- other legal action including action to recover damages;
- referral to law enforcement authorities;
- computer users will be referred as follows:
- Faculty – To College Dean then to Provost
- Staff – To Human Resources Administrator
- Students – To Instructor (or College Dean)