This is copied from the University of Pittsburgh's User's Guide to Academic Computing, September 1987 (the latest handy). Policy in Computer Resources Computing and Information Systems serves a large number and variety of users -- students, faculty, staff members and outside clients. Every member of the University of Pittsburgh has two basic rights regarding computing -- privacy and a fair share of resources. It is unethical for any other person to violate these rights. All users, in turn, are expected to exercise common sense and decency with regard to the public computing resources, thereby reflecting the spirit of community and intellectual inquiry at the University. Some guidelines: - All files belong to somebody. They should be assumed to be private and confidential unless the owner has explicitly made them available to others. - Respect the privacy of other users. Do not intentionally seek information about, obtain copies of, or modify tapes, files, or passwords belonging to other users unless explicitly authorized to do so by those users. - Computing resources should be used in a manner consistent with the instructional and research objectives of the academic community. - Respect the financial structure of the computing systems by not intentionally developing or using any unauthorised mechanisms to alter or avoid charges levied by the University for computing charges. - Do not deliberately attempt to degrade or disrupt system performance or to interfere with the work of others. - Computing and Information Systems resources are community resources. Theft, mutilation, and abuse of these resources violate the nature and spirit of the academic environment. - The distribution of programs and data bases is controlled by the laws of copyright, licensing agreements, and trade secret laws. These should be observed. (See below for CIS micro-computer software copyright policy.) Copyright Policy Software documentation and disks used in the University computing labs are licensed to the University of Pittsburgh. Failure to return software to the computing lab operator will be considered theft of University property and will be dealt with accordingly. Furthermore, with the exception of Kermit, PCWrite and WATCOM FORTRAN, all software in the computing labs is protected by U.S. copyright laws. Any attempt to duplicate this software is a violation of U.S. Title 17, the federal copyright law protecting rights of authors to their works. Any person found making unauthorized duplicates of copyrighted software will be subject to prosecution. Users may legally duplicate Kermit, PCWrite and WATCOM FORTRAM.