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IT Acceptable Use Policy

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The College network is made available for the use of students, fellows, staff, and visitors for
communication with others in Selwyn College, in the University of Cambridge, and on the
internet generally, subject to the following conditions of use. This policy is focused on nonacademic staff.

  1. Since the College is connected to the Cambridge University Data Network (CUDN), and
    thence to the Joint Academic Network (JANET), any user must conform to the
    Acceptable Use Policies of both the University and JANET. See
    https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/policies for applicable University policies.
  2. The network is to be used primarily for professional purposes, including academic and
    personal use. Recreational use is permitted, but only on the understanding that
    authorized professional and academic use must have priority at all times.
  3. No member of non-academic staff shall use IT facilities for private financial gain or for
    commercial purposes, including consultancy or any other work outside the scope of
    official duties or functions for the time being, without specific authorization to do so.
  4. There must be no interference with the work of another user or any activity which would
    jeopardize the integrity of data networks, computing equipment, systems programs, or
    other stored information, by any deliberate, careless, or unlawful act. This means in
    particular that each user must follow instructions for registering a computer, and must
    not attempt to use any other IP address than that which is allocated by the College. Also,
    a user is required to put in place, and keep up to date, appropriate security software
    including a personal firewall, an anti-virus program. Other programs, including the
    operating system, must also be kept up to date.
  5. Excessive use of the network is not permitted, as the College has finite capacity shared
    between all its users of the systems. Users are asked to be mindful of their use of
    bandwidth intensive applications, such as streaming media, and the possible impact on
    others.
  6. Unlawful activities are not permitted, including, but not limited to:
    1. any infringement of copyright. This means that downloads of video or sound are
      only permitted if the user has been granted, by payment of a fee or otherwise,
      permission to make a copy. The onward transmission to others of copyright
      material is also prohibited unless the copyright holder has granted permission for
      this.
    2. Distribution of offensive material and material intended to, or likely to, harass,
      distress or defame.
    3. Any infringement of the College’s obligations under the Prevent legislation.
  7. The use of peer to peer software for downloading or streaming copyrighted materials is
    strictly forbidden.

Breach of Conditions

In the event of a breach of the Acceptable Use policy the following process would normally apply:

  1. The College systems, or UIS, alerts the IT department to unreasonably high traffic or other apparent abuse.
  2. An initial investigation by the IT Department will be conducted to establish if there is evidence of network abuse, deliberate or negligent generation of excessive traffic, copyright infringement or other illegality.
  3. If, in the opinion of the IT Department, there is evidence of network abuse, deliberate or negligent generation of excessive traffic, copyright infringement or other illegality, the individual concerned may be warned or, dependent on circumstances, immediately disconnected from the network, or in the instance of possible illegality or misconduct, the case would be referred to the Head of Department, Operations Manager or Bursar as appropriate. Further disciplinary action would be under the College's normal disciplinary process.