1. Be CLEAR-Careful, Legal, Ethical And Responsible-about cyberculture.
2. Usage is a privilege, not a right.
3. Don't share your password. You are totally responsible for your account and the contents of your personal WWW home page site.
4. Respect other users--don't harass, snoop, hack or misuse resources.
5. Don't falsify your identity or behave dishonestly.
6. Comply with copyrights.
7. Don't run a business or a political campaign using your College account.
8. Be aware that your electronic privacy is limited.
9. Not following these rules and responsibilities may result in disciplinary action. Read the links to these pages to learn the details and know the rules.

1. Be CLEAR-Careful, Legal, Ethical And Responsible-about cyberculture.

• The broad electronic community, often called "cyberspace," has its own rules, customs and culture. Many of them are covered throughout this Web site. Here, we want to alert you to a few general principles, captured in the phrase "Be CLEAR about cyberculture."
• You should ALWAYS assume that EVERYTHING you send by e-mail, post to a newsgroup or LISTSERV or post via a Web site (including your own) is totally PUBLIC and might be read by many people other than the recipients whom you think will see it. Put another way, always imagine that what you write electronically might appear on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper.
• You should ALWAYS assume that any Web site you visit will at least know the Internet address you are coming from and that the same is true for e-mail that you send.
• Not everyone you "meet" in cyberspace is honest and friendly, even if they seem to be.
• If it's wrong in "real life," it's almost assuredly wrong in cyberspace.
• Electronic communication makes it easy to annoy many, many people all at once and even to endanger entire computer systems.
• If you wonder "should I do that," you probably shouldn't.

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2. Usage is a privilege, not a right.

• The use of computing and networking resources at the Edgecombe Community College is a privilege, and, like any other privilege, carries with it responsibilities.
• Only faculty, staff, currently enrolled students, and other authorized persons conducting College business may use the electronic communication systems. Of course, anyone has the legal right to send you e-mail or to access Web pages that are not password protected.
• Legally, Edgecombe Community College electronic network is not an open forum (such as a free-speech park), thus its use is limited. The systems and individual accounts must be used in a manner consistent with the instructional, research, and administrative objectives of the College community. All activities inconsistent with these objectives are considered to be inappropriate and may jeopardize your continued use of computing facilities and networks.
• The use of any College electronic resources should be related to College academic pursuits and/or business. However, incidental and occasional personal use of electronic resources may occur when such use does not generate a direct cost for the University.

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3. Don't share your password. You are totally responsible for your account and the contents of your personal WWW home page site.

• Your password is a valuable item that you must keep secure. It is against College policy to tell your password to another person or to let it become known through carelessness. Avoid storing it on or near your computer.
• "Stolen" passwords not only can be used to potentially compromise the system, but you are also compromised. If something wrong is done using your password, you are the first one to be held accountable.
• It is against College policy to use any means, electronic or otherwise, to discover others' passwords.
• Individuals shall not use any other individual's account unless explicitly permitted to do so by the person authorized to use that account.
• The College supports the concept of faculty, staff and students creating personal Web home page sites that contain information relevant to the individual's role at the University. The constitutional right to freedom of speech applies. However, you assume full, legal and moral responsibility for the content of your Web site and must abide by all College regulations as well as local, state and federal laws that pertain to communication and to publishing. This includes laws of libel and copyright law.

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4. Respect other users--don't harass, snoop, hack or misuse resources.

• Successful college computing and networking depends upon a spirit of mutual respect and cooperative attitudes to ensure that everyone has equal privileges, privacy, and protection from interference or harassment.
• You may not use e-mail or your personal home page to provide or communicate legally obscene materials, or to threaten, harass, intimidate or single out individuals or groups for degradation or harassment in violation of federal or State law, and other College policies and regulations.
• Electronic mail and computing resources shall not be used to harass any other person. Harassment means:

  - to intentionally annoy, terrify, intimidate, demean or threaten another person; and/or

  - to intentionally contact another person repeatedly in a way that annoys or bothers them, especially when the recipient has expressed a desire for the communication to cease.

• Do not display on screens in shared facilities images, sounds or messages which could create an atmosphere of discomfort or harassment to others.
• Users must respect the privacy of other users and thus not intentionally seek information on, obtain copies of, or modify files, tapes, passwords or any type of data belonging to other users unless specifically authorized to do so.
• You must not intentionally disrupt or damage the academic, research, administrative, or related pursuits of another.
• Individuals must respect the integrity of the system and not use IT resources to develop or execute programs that could infiltrate the system, tamper with security provisions, or damage or alter the software components of the system. Note that this also applies to systems maintained by others outside of CU that you access electronically or physically.
• Responsible use of computing systems includes the efficient and productive use of the resources. For example, users must not tie up resources:

  - through game playing or other trivial applications;

  - by sending frivolous or excessive mail, including chain mail;

  - by printing excessive copies of documents, files, images, or data; or

  - by keeping unnecessarily large files on shared systems.

5. Don't falsify your identity or behave dishonestly.

 E-mail "spoofing," i.e., constructing electronic communication so it appears to be from someone else is not allowed.

• Any instance of academic dishonesty-for example, using other people's files, gaining access to instructors' files, or electronic plagiarism-will be reported to the student's instructor and to the Vice President of Instruction.

• Software programs are protected by Section 117 of the 1976 Copyright Act. You do not have the right to make and distribute copies of programs without specific permission of the copyright holder.
• Copyright law pertains to all cartoons, pictures, graphics, text, song lyrics and sounds. Use of copyrighted materials without permission of the copyright holder is a violation of the laws of the United States. You may not electronically reproduce such material without prior permission of the copyright owner. This pertains directly to your personal Web site.
• It is illegal to place on a Web page any pictures or videos of people without the permission of the people in the picture or video and/or of the copyright owner.

• Under no circumstances may ITS resources (computers, software, networks, printers, plotters, scanners, etc.) or your account be used for personal financial gain and/or commercial purposes, whether for-profit or not-for-profit.
• You may not re-sell your access to the institution's network to anyone.
• The network and all computer resources are funded by the State of North Carolina. It is against State law for State resources or funds to be used for supporting political campaigns, candidates, legislation, or ballot issues.

• The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) makes it illegal to intercept electronic communications on a public or private network without proper authorization. The ECPA provides electronic transmission of messages the same privacy protection as telephone calls over the public telephone systems. System operators of public networks are not permitted to divulge the contents of messages except under a narrow set of circumstances. However, this is far from an absolute guarantee of privacy.
• Authorized personnel have the right to examine your stored information and communications when investigating cases of abuse of these rules and responsibilities, dealing with misaddressed e-mail, and when troubleshooting technical problems with the system.
• The College may routinely monitor the content of electronic communications or personal WWW home pages and will investigate properly identified allegations of misuse.
• The College reserves the right to access and disclose the contents of the electronic communications of its employees (e.g., faculty, staff) and other authorized users, but will do so only when it has a legitimate business need and after authorization from the President. The contents of electronic communications, properly obtained for legitimate business purposes, may be disclosed without permission of the employee. College access to student e-mail may be more limited than this under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 USCS ß1232g) .
• System administrators may routinely log usage data for system management purposes.
• The college does not archive contents of shared system disks or e-mail communications. However, disks on system computers are regularly backed up with "snapshot captures" for the purpose of being able to recover from crashes. These backups are only retained for a brief period. Note that this means that the College does not guarantee the integrity of material you store on system disks.

• You are responsible for knowing and following ALL of these rules.
• In accordance with established College practices, policies, and procedures, confirmation of inappropriate use of College technology resources may result in termination of access, disciplinary review, suspension, expulsion, termination of employment, legal action, or other disciplinary action. Anyone who breaks the law may face criminal and/or civil legal action.
• The College may temporarily remove material from personal home page sites or close any account that is endangering the running of the system or that is being reviewed for inappropriate or illegal use.
• Permanent revocation of an account or removal of home page material will only occur after the due process of relevant disciplinary procedures.