Computers are a University resource and their use is
subject to the regulations of the University.
Computer Services are provided by the Information Technology Services
Centre to all members of the University on the understanding that they
are used only for University courses and University approved or related
works projects.
On joining the University, all members whose function requires them
to have access to computer facilities will normally be registered as
users. User account and its corresponding password must be kept confidential.
All users are expected to use computing facilities in a productive
and efficient manner commensurate with the University's interests. ITSC
reserves the right to make inspection of user's ID in any computer labs
and premises.
Only those software products available from the Centre will be supported
by the Centre. Users are reminded that the software in Information Technology
Services Centre are proprietary products with copyrights and should
not be copied in any form. Users should take care to prevent overwriting
or damaging of the software provided.
Users shall not copy in any form the software provided, without the
specific written approval of the Director of Information Technology
Services Centre. Users should note that they are fully responsible for
all licensing requirements for software products that they may have
brought along themselves to use.
Users shall be responsible for the care and use of the Centre's equipment
and may be liable for the cost of repair of any damage to the equipment
caused by negligence or failure to follow the proper operating procedures
on their part. Users are also responsible for replacement at cost of
loss or damage to any media or documentation on loan from the Centre.
Theft is a serious criminal offence and such act will be reported to
the Police.
The computing facilities may not be used for private purposes, including
private consultancy, without the written permission of the President
of the University. Upon obtaining such permission, the user will be
personally responsible for reimbursing the University by a specified
date, at a rate to be determined by the University.
Users must leave the computer labs immediately at the closing time
or at any other time when instructed to do so by ITSC Staff.
Users must not smoke, eat or drink or play any form of game in the
labs. The labs are not for social gatherings.
Any user who violates any of the Information Technology Services
Centre rules may be requested to leave the ITSC / computer labs immediately
by any ITSC staff and may be denied further access pending consultation
with his/her Department Head.
The Director of the Information Technology Services Centre may temporarily
exclude from the services of the Centre any person who acts in a way
that may interfere with the convenience of other users or with the work
of the Centre. The exclusion will be reported to the appropriate Academic
Dean and Head of Department, and the exclusion will not be lifted without
the written permission of the Academic Dean and Department Head concerned.
ITSC facilities and network connections cannot be used
for the purpose of making unauthorised connections in breaking into the
campus network or adversely affecting the performance of other communication
systems connected to the network irrespective of whether these systems
are University owned or not. The ability to connect to other systems via
the network does not imply the right to make use of or connect to those
systems unless properly authorised by the owners of those systems.
Other organisations operating the computer and network facilities
that are accessible via the campus network may have their respective
policies governing the use of those resources. Under these circumstances,
users are responsible for observing the guidelines and policies set forth
in both organisations. The ITSC will not be responsible for any consequences
that arise.
ITSC will refuse or restrict access of the campus network facilities
to any person who have violated the guidelines and policy of the ITSC
or who have violated the guidelines or policy of other computer facilities
belonging to the University. Similarly for the systems connected to
the network without prior testing and consent of ITSC, and turns out
to affect the traffic pattern, other user's access or create security
problems, ITSC will take appropriate actions to stop or abort the connection
without prior notice.
The content of the notices should be addressed to either all staff
members or all students, but not to any individual or special group.
The size of the notices should not be longer than an A4 size paper.
Notices for posting should be in the following formats: free text
with an expiration period, the user's full name and delivered to Information
Technology Services Centre either by hand with soft and hardcopy or
by electronic mail with attachment.
Information Technology Services Centre reserves the right to reject
any notice which does not conform to this Policy.
Note : It is encouraged that notice for an individual
or a specific group be posted on Home pages.
All staff and students living in the HOSTELS must read the
information on HOSTNET and follow the instructions for registration
if connection to the Network is desired.
Each student or staff living in the hostel is eligible
to ONE personal data outlet and should register the information
ONLY ONCE using the University's Home Page on-line registration
form.
After registration, the students or staff will receive
confirmation from ITSC authorising the connection of their
PC in the HOSTEL to the Campus Network.
All students and staff should re-register their information
if they change the network card on their PC.
If students or staff move rooms or flats, they must re-register
their information and this registration is limited to THREE
times per semester.
No unauthorised network address should be used other than
those provided by ITSC in the HOSTELS.
Students and staff are responsible for licenses of all
the software installed on their computer systems.
User's computer should not produce excessive network traffic
such as broadcasting, massive e-mailing, etc.
User's PC should only be configured as a CLIENT when accessing
the network. Server for provision of any Internet services
(such as E-mail, ftp, WWW, etc.) and remote access service
(such as dial-up service, routing or any network function)
is forbidden.
Users should not develop networking software of any kind
on the Hostel network unless approved by the ITSC.
Users must adhere to the general rules and regulations
governing the use of computing facilities in the University.
HARNET (Hong Kong Academic and Research
Network) is managed and operated by the Joint Universities
Computer Centre (JUCC) to provide quality, equitable, and
cost-effective information and communication resources to
JUCC Members and to promote innovation, research and educational
excellence in Hong Kong. HARNET is for the use of persons
legitimately affiliated with JUCC Member or Affiliate Organisations,
and to facilitate the exchange of information consistent
with the academic, educational, research, collaboration and
other official purposes of the JUCC Members. All individuals
affiliated with JUCC Member or Affiliate Organisations are
responsible for seeing that computing and networking resources
are used in an effective, ethical and lawful manner, and
that the guidelines provided in this document are followed,
both in letter and in spirit. (ITSC is a full member of this
company).
Use of HARNET shall conform to the
following principles:
Be consistent with the goals and purposes of the Network
Avoid interfering with the work of other users of the
Network
Avoid disrupting the network host systems (nodes)
Avoid disrupting network services
Avoid violating any applicable laws and regulations
governing the access to systems, information and data
on HARNET & Internet, and transmission of information
and data through HARNET & Internet.
Acceptable Use of the Network
Use of the network must be authorised
HARNET is, at the discretion of the institutions
involved, open to use by staff and students enrolled at participating
JUCC Members or Affiliate Organisations, by other persons
legitimately affiliated with the JUCC Members; and at the
discretion of JUCC, by approved non-profit-making organisations
or individuals in accordance with the "Guideline for
Access to Internet Through JUCC's HARNET"
Guidelines
The following guidelines may help HARNET
users to apply the above mentioned principles of acceptable
use of the network in particular cases:
HARNET is not to be used for commercial purposes, such
as marketing, or business transactions between commercial
organisations.
Commercial advertising is forbidden. Discussion of a
product's relative advantages and disadvantages by users
of the product is encouraged. Vendors may respond publicly
to questions about their products as long as the responses
are not in the nature of advertising.
A user is not allowed to transfer or resell the network
resource, which has been allocated by a JUCC member institution
or a HARNET participating affiliated organisation, in various
possible forms, such as network bandwidth and connection
time, access rights, computer budget, etc.
Any waste of network resources is unacceptable, e.g.
repetitive retrieval of copies of the same files by a user
who does not keep a copy on his own system.
Activities which will interfere the intended use, cause
congestion or impair the healthy state of the network are
unacceptable and prohibited. Experiments on the network
which will lead to exhaustively flooding its available bandwidth
should be avoided.
Irresponsible use of electronic mail, e.g. chain letters,
broadcasting messages, and the use of other network communications
to harass or offend other users of the network are prohibited.
Research and experimentation on network should be carried
out with great caution. Negligence in the conduct which
will lead to contrary of the aforementioned guidelines is
irresponsible and unacceptable.
Users of HARNET must not compromise the confidentiality
and privacy of other users of the network and the integrity
of data and information mounted on or transmitted through
the network. A breach of these principles is generally considered
a legal offence. Unauthorised reading, altering, intercepting
of, electronic eavesdropping on, any network communications
over the network or data kept on systems on the network
are examples of violation of these principles.
Any communication which violates applicable laws and
regulations, including but not limited to those related
to copyright, data privacy and transmission of obscene and
indecent materials, is not allowed.
JUCC Members and Affiliated Organisations are expected to
take reasonable measures (given the constraints of technology and management)
to ensure that usage are conformed to these guidelines. Acting on complaint
is considered as a reasonable measure.
Final authority for HARNET Acceptable Use Policy lies with
the JUCC Steering Committee. It is the responsibility of HARNET Member
representatives to contact the JUCC Steering Committee, in writing, regarding
questions of interpretation. Until such issues are resolved, questionable
use should be considered "not acceptable?
/ Guidelines
For Access to Internet Through JUCC's HARNET \\
JUCC has been receiving enquiries on getting
access to Internet through our HARNET from different sectors
of community in Hong Kong as well as from elsewhere. We have
allowed educational institutions to connect to HARNET as a node
for an annual subscription, but have turned down other applications.
Thus, it is important for us to have guidelines for handling
requests to connect to our network consistently.
JUCC has been the leader in Hong Kong in establishing network connection
to the outside world. While the Steering Committee has firmly indicated JUCC
is not prepared to accommodate any commercial traffic through our network,
it would be good community service that JUCC should be offering such network
services to some non-commercial sectors of the community in Hong Kong, and
to educational and research institutions in China and other neighbouring countries.
It is the purpose of this paper to propose some guidelines in allowing access
from outside organisation to our network.
User Categories
The enquiries that we have received, other than commercial,
could be classified into the following categories:
Locally in Hong Kong
Requests from local educational/research organisations for leased
line connection.
Requests from local educational/research institutions for an account
on the network.
Requests from departmental nodes in institutions interested in
hosting other parties.
Elsewhere
These are usually academic institutions and research organisations,
the majority of them are from China.
Guideline
The following guidelines is set up for the JUCC member
institutions so that when they received enquiries from outside bodies, there
would be some uniformity in handling those requests. While JUCC itself should
be handling most of these requests, however, in view of the limited manpower
that we have in JUCC, it would be advantageous that the member institutions
could handle some of these requests on their own, since very often the requests
arise because of personal contacts in the institutions themselves.
Since the Steering Committee has decided that JUCC is not ready to handle
requests for the use of a commercial nature on our network, we should categorically
refuse such applications and refer them to Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
whenever appropriate.
For those that we admit them into the use of HARNET, they would be asked
to pay an annual fee and to strictly observe the HARNET Acceptable Use Policy
in force.
For application from users in Hong Kong
On an institutional basis (connected by leased network link with
their own nodes by means of either fixed or virtual circuit)
The institutions should be non-profit-making organisations,
presumably of the education or research nature. They should provide their
own connection to HARNET and be responsible for all the communication
costs in connecting to our network (including line and communication equipment
on the HARNET side). In addition, they will be asked to pay a fee to JUCC,
on an annual basis to defray the cost of the HARNET operation.
Creation of accounts in host systems
Since these applications have to be created on host systems
in JUCC institutions, they could determine the creation of accounts on
their host systems for access to HARNET and Internet. It would be advisable
to create accounts only for those users who can be identified in organisations
that do not contravene the general acceptable guidelines, e.g. not of
commercial nature, of our network, but is not ready to have their own
nodes that can be attached to our network. The institution creating these
user accounts should inform JUCC the account information on annual basis
and could charge them according to the policy of individual institution.
For application for connection from institutions in China
For requests from China, they should only be considered
on an institutional basis. It would be ideal to handle them by JUCC in
a fashion that could be applicable to all requests. However, in order
to help the institutions in China to connect to use and to the outside
world, it is proposed that if they are willing to pay for the costs of
connecting to us, that we could allow these institutions to get started
with the network, at least for an initial period of, say, one year, after
which we may have to decide whether we should charge them, or simply
let their traffic route through us. It is also proposed that JUCC institutions
should have a free contacts with China in the institutions. As the network
growth in China can be, and will be, enormous, the possible traffic problem
will have to be addressed sometime later when we have gathered more experience
on their usage pattern, the traffic demand etc.
For institutions elsewhere
As for institutions in other countries, they should
be treated on the same basis as the currently established procedure for
the University of Macau. They would be asked to provide all the line
and equipment cost for connecting to us and to contribute a fee on an
annual basis determined by JUCC.
For purposes hosted by departments
No matter what the category of such departmental
arrangement will be, the HARNET services and bandwidth are non-resalable
and non-transferable. Any departments/units in institutions should follow
this same guideline as discussed in the above and inform JUCC via their
Computer Centres of any external access to Internet through HARNET, which
is established by the department in reference to (A)1, (A)2, B or C described
above.
INTERNET services are provided to support open research
and education among research and instructional institutions, and the research
arms of non-profit firms when engaged in open scholarly communication and
research. Use for other purposes is not acceptable.
Acceptable Uses
Communication with foreign researchers and educators in
connection with research or instruction, as long as any network
that the foreign user employs for such communication provides
reciprocal access to other users world-wide.
Communication and exchange for professional development,
to maintain currency of ideas, or to debate issues in a field
or subfield of knowledge.
Use for disciplinary - society, university - association,
government - advisory, or standards activities related to the
user research and instructional activities.
Use in applying for or administering grants or contracts
for research or instruction, but not for other fund-raising
or public relations activities.
Any other administrative communications or activities in
direct support of research and instruction.
Announcement of new products or services for use in research
or instruction, but not advertising of any kind.
Communication incidental to otherwise acceptable use, except
for illegal or specifically unacceptable use.
Unacceptable Use
Use for pro-profit activities, unless covered by the General
Principle or as specifically acceptable use.
Extensive use for private or personal business.
Harassing or defamatory material may not be sent via electronic
mail or posted to electronic bulletin boards and news groups.
It is illegal to download or view pornographic materials.
