For the purposes of this policy, a user is any person using computer resources;
Computer Operations is the organization that supports academic computing in
SEAS; A system manager is usually a graduate student hired by Computer Operations
who is acting in an official capacity as a staff member. This same person may
be considered a system manager during part of the day and a user during other
parts of the day.
The terminology used in this policy tends to reflect the UNIX operating system,
which is used on the majority of computers in the Lyle School of Engineering. However,
these polices are applicable to all other computational platforms.
Computer Operations will not normally monitor individual usage of any computational
facility. However, Computer Operations reserves the right to monitor and record
the usage of all facilities for which it is responsible. If threatening or abusive
behavior is being investigated, Computer Operations reserves the right to use
information gained in this way in disciplinary or criminal proceedings.
In general, a user of SEAS computer facilities is expected to follow the following
guidelines.
General Use
Many resources, such as file space, CPU cycles, printer queues, batch queues,
login sessions, and software licenses, are shared by all users. No user should
monopolize these shared resources.
Account Management
An account is assigned to an individual, and must not be used by others without
explicit permission from Computer Operations. The individual user is ultimately
responsible for the proper use of their account, including proper password protection.
Access to Files
Files owned by individual accounts or group members are to be considered as
private, whether or not they are accessible by other users. The ability to read
a file does not automatically give you permission to read that file. Files belonging
to individuals are to be considered private property and should be treated accordingly.
Under no circumstances should you alter a file that does not belong to you.
In the same sense the ability to alter a file does not give you the right to
alter a file.
Disk Space
Use as little file space as practical. Make use of all available means for
compressing and archiving files. Deletion of old files, especially files that
can be quickly recreated, such as executable and compiler intermediate files
.o's is strongly encouraged.
Disk files not related to SEAS's missions and which consume large amounts of
space are subject to removal. When users exceed their disk allocation, they
will be notified via email by the system. The message will indicate disk usage
at the time disk accounting was performed, and the user's disk space allocation
limit. However if the disk allocation is exceeded for an extended period, the
account may be disabled. This way one may temporarily use a larger amount of
disk space. The general guideline is that disk space used for unrelated and
personal interest work should be less than 10 per cent of the user's total disk
usage.
Temporary Storage
Files and directories may be stored in /usr/tmp for short periods of time,
although they are subject to removal without notification. If your program requires
the usage of temporary storage, it is suggested that you use the /usr/tmp area.
Storing files anywhere else, besides your home directory, or project shared
areas is not allowed without prior authorization.
CPU Usage
Unix provides many useful ways to manage background jobs and users are encouraged
to take advantage of these features. You must, however, be considerate. If you
leave a large background job running, you are responsible for it and all the
cpu time it uses. Unattended background jobs may be killed at any time by the
System Manager. Frequent abusers may have priority limits imposed.
In general, terminate all background jobs before logging out. Long running,
non-interactive jobs should be started with a lower than normal priority via
the nice command.
Multiple logins
While UNIX provides for the ability to login several times to one machine,
it is expected that a user will not tie up resources with multiple, unused login
sessions.
Restricted Use Software
Relinquish licensed software, such as FrameMaker or ProEngineer, when you no
longer are using the license.
Workstation consoles
Respect the resources of workstations located in public labs. Do not login
to such a workstation and run programs that would interfere with use of that
workstation by others currently using it.
Non-academic use
Do not make use of University computing facilities for any activity that is
commercial in nature. Commercial activities include: consulting, developing
software for sale, and in general, any activity for which you are paid from
non-University funds and is not part of the Universities academic mission.
The license agreements for some pieces of software may specifically restrict
the software to academic use. It is a violation of this policy to use any software
inconsistent with its license agreement. If you are in doubt of the status of
a particular piece of software please check with computer operations.
Email
Mail should only be used to send messages to people you know or who need to
know something from you. Do not use mail to send large, useless files to random
users or generally annoy people with unsolicited messages. Sending mail as another
user (either real or imagined) is not permitted and is considered a serious
offense.
The United States Government as part of the E.C.P.A., Electronic Communications
Privacy Act., includes electronic mail (email) in the same category as messages
delivered by the United States Postal Service. This means that tampering with
email, interfering with the delivery of email, and the use of email for criminal
purposes may be felony offenses.
Security
In general, the staff allows the users great freedom in use of the facilities.
However, there are certain kinds of threatening or damaging behavior against
which the staff will take action. For example: owning or using burglar's tools,
worms, viruses, or trojan horses.
A user who feels that he or she has legitimate reason to experiment with security-related
aspects of the computer facilities should discuss the project with the Computer
Operations manager before embarking on the experiment. This will help prevent
a perhaps embarrassing situation for the student.
These systems are for the use of authorized users only. Individuals using this
computer system without authority, or in excess of their authority, are subject
to having all of their activities on this system monitored and recorded by system
personnel.
In the course of monitoring individuals improperly using this system, or in
the course of system maintenance, the activities of authorized users may also
be monitored.
Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised
that if such monitoring reveals possible evidence of criminal activity, system
personnel may provide the evidence of such monitoring to law enforcement officials.
Non General-Use
Computing Facilities
Research Machines
Not all the computer facilities in SEAS are public resources. Users found
using non-public facilities will be summarily logged-off those resources.
Fileservers
Some machines are designated as "file servers", and carry login
messages asking users to not use these machines for login purposes or indicating
restricted access. Do not attempt to login or otherwise access these resources.
Faculty and/or Staff machines
Workstations on faculty and staff desks should not be used without the specific
permission of the faculty or staff whom those machines belong.
Software Piracy
Because this is an educational environment, computer systems are generally
open to perusal and investigation by users. This access must not be abused either
by attempting to harm the systems, or by stealing copyrighted or licensed software.
System Files
System-level files (not owned by individuals) may be used and viewed for educational
purposes if their access permissions so allow. The same standards of intellectual
honesty and plagiarism apply to software as to other forms of published work.
Treat system software is if it were a library you were browsing. Acknowledge
borrowing code, algorithms, or data structures from the work of other people.
Application Software
Most application files are part of copyrighted or licensed software, and therefore
you should not make your own copies of these files, in whole or in part, except
as needed as part of an educational exercise. Removing copies of copyrighted
software from the system on which it is licensed may be a violation of the copyright
or license.
Computer software protected by copyright is not to be copied from, into, or
by using campus computing facilities, except as permitted by law or by the contract
with the owner of the copyright. This means that such computer and microcomputer
software may only be copied in order to make back-up copies, if permitted by
the copyright owner. The number of copies and distribution of the copies may
not be done in such a way that the number of simultaneous users exceeds the
number of original copies purchased or licensed. Under Texas Law, making
your own copies of software having a restricted use license is theft.
Explicit permission must be obtained before access to licensed sources,
unix, suprem3, etc will be granted. People making use of these sources may have
to fill out a non-disclosure agreement with the appropriate company.
Printers
There are several printers located throughout the Engineering School. Users
should also be aware that hard copy output devices are expensive to maintain
and that wasteful usage of such devices must be avoided. Printer quotas have
been established to discourage unreasonable usage.
Facility/Laboratory/Terminal
Area Use
Facilities are often available on an un-monitored basis. It is the responsibility
of every user to act in such a manner as to not cause damage to the physical
equipment. Eating, drinking and smoking are not allowed in any of the
terminal rooms or computer labs . The University currently has a policy
prohibiting smoking inside buildings except in designated areas.
Accidental damage, or damage caused by other parties, should be reported to
computer Operations as soon as possible so that corrective action can be taken.
College facilities are paid for and operated in part with student money. Please
help take care of them! Please bring problems to our attention.
Internet Usage
Excerpted from the NSFNET General Use Document:
"The purpose of the NSFNET is to advance education, research and public
service by assisting in the exchange of information among research and educational
institutions by means of high-speed data communication techniques and to assist
those institutions in gaining access to scientific and educational resources.
The network will support collaborative instruction, research and public service;
facilitate access to regional, national and international networks and hence
to such resources as supercomputer centers; and generally support the education
and research mission of the members.
Use which is consistent with the purposes above is acceptable.
Activities in direct support of acceptable use are also acceptable, such
as administrative communications, which support the infrastructure needed
for education and research.
Use by for-profit organizations for collaborative activities with education
and research institutions is acceptable.
Communications which violate state, federal or international laws are not
acceptable.
Activities designed to interfere with the ability of other users to make
effective use of the network are not acceptable."
Penalties
A person in violation of this policy may be subject to administrative action,
with a penalty of a fine, restitution for services used, or loss of computer
privileges. Some actions covered by this policy are also covered by University
regulations or all-University policies, the violation of which could lead to
academic judicial proceedings. Some actions covered by this policy are also
covered by City, State, or Federal law, the violation of which could lead to
civil or criminal prosecution. Violation of some of these polices may cause
you to lose your access to some or all of our computational facilities. Loss
of your account or printer access does not eliminate any responsibility for
completing course work or research.
Violations of these policies will be dealt with in the same manner as violations
of other university policies and may result in disciplinary review. In such
a review, the full range of disciplinary sanctions is available including the
loss of computer use privileges, dismissal from the University, and legal action.
Violations of some of the above policies may constitute a criminal offense.
