<NIC.MERIT.EDU> /acceptable.use.policies/cren.txt
 
 
 
 CREN Information Center               CREN NET_USE             October 3, 1990
 Suite 600, 1112 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036      (202) 872-4200
 
 
             Corporation for Research and Educational Networking
 
                         Acceptable Use Policy
 
      CREN networks are for the use of persons legitimately affiliated with
 CREN Member or Affiliate organizations, to facilitate the exchange of
 information consistent with the academic, educational and research purposes
 of its members.  All individuals affiliated with CREN Member or Affiliate
 organizations are responsible for seeing that their communities are aware
 of these guidelines, and that the guidelines are followed, both in letter
 and in spirit.
 
      CREN networks are, at the discretion of the institutions involved,
 open to use by students enrolled at participating CREN Member or Affiliate
 educational institutions.
 
      Use of CREN networks shall:
          * Be consistent with the purposes and goals of the networks
          * Avoid interfering with the work of other users of the
            networks
          * Avoid disrupting the network host systems (nodes)
          * Avoid disrupting network services
 
 Acceptable Use of the Networks
 
      The following examples may help users of the networks apply these
 principles in particular cases.
 
          * Messages that are likely to result in the loss of recipients'
            work or systems are prohibited.
          * CREN networks are not to be used for commercial purposes, such
            as marketing, reselling bandwith, or business transactions
            between commercial organizations.
          * Advertising is forbidden.  Discussion of a product's relative
            advantages and disadvantages by users of the product is
            encouraged.  Vendors may respond to questions about their
            products as long as the responses are not in the nature of
            advertising.
          * CREN networks may be used for the provision of services which
            support the needs and purposes of the CREN networks, and for
            which a charge is made, if the network is an optional mechanism
            for provision of this service for which no additional charge is
            made, and as long as the use of the service is consistent with
            the bandwidth of the network and the forwarding hosts.
            Providers of such information may be non-profit or for-profit
            organizations.
          * Any communication which violates applicable laws and regulations
            is not allowed.*
 
      Users of CREN networks are expected to be responsible in their use:
 
          * "Chain letters," "broadcasting" messages to lists or
            individuals, and other types of use which would cause congestion
            of the networks or otherwise interfere with the work of others
            are not allowed.
          * Bitnet files will be limited to sizes determined and reviewed
            periodically.  (Note:  The current limit is 300,000 bytes per
            file transmitted.)
 
      CREN Members or Affiliates are expected to take reasonable measures
 (given the constraints of technology and management) to ensure that traffic
 using gateways between CREN networks and other networks conforms to these
 guidelines.
 
      Final authority for CREN acceptable use policies lies with the CREN
 Board.  It is the responsibility of member representatives to contact the
 CREN Board, in writing, regarding questions of interpretation.  Until such
 issues are resolved, questionable use should be considered "not
 acceptable."
 
 ___________
 *  In particular, messages and data sent to destinations outside the US
     must satisfy the Department of Commerce regulations (either be within
     the GTDA guidelines for information which may be generally
     transmitted or have the required license).