NORTHWESTNET ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
NorthWestNet is a regional data communications network serving a consortium of universities and research groups in the northwest- ern part of the United States. Its goals are summarized in the Articles of Incorporation for the Northwest Academic Computing Consortium, Inc. All use of NorthWestNet facilities must be consistent with the goals and purposes of NorthWestNet. The intent of this statement is to describe certain uses which are consistent with the purposes of NorthWestNet, not to exhaustively enumerate all such possible uses.
Some acceptable uses of NorthWestNet facilities include:
o use for scientific research or instruction at member and
associate member institutions through the provision of
high-speed data communications;
o use as a vehicle for scholarly communications;
o use as a means for NorthWestNet members to access remote
computing resources for the purpose of scientific
research or instruction. Notable examples of such
resources are the NSF supercomputing facilities;
o use necessary to support other acceptable uses. For
example, administrative communications which are part of
the support infrastructure needed for research and
instruction are acceptable. Similarly, communications
directly between non-member institutions in support of
research or instruction at member institutions is
acceptable;
o use required by agreements with NSF, the primary funding
agency for NorthWestNet;
o use by member institutions as a laboratory for research
and experimentation in computer communications, where
such use does not interfere with production usage.
However, any experimental use requiring modification to
router software or protocol layers below ISO layer 4
requires prior review by the Technical Committee.
In general, commercial and general administrative use are prohib- ited. Use for scientific research or instruction at non-member institutions and at for-profit institutions may or may not be consistent with the purposes of NorthWestNet, and will be re- viewed on a case by case basis.
Use of NorthWestNet for any illegal purpose, or to achieve unauthorized access to systems, software, or data is prohibited.
NorthWestNet is a production communications network on which many researchers depend. Uses that significantly interfere with the ability of other users to make effective use of the network are not acceptable.
05/12/88