Computing Resources Acceptable Use Policy

From Coder Merlin
Within these castle walls be forged Mavens of Computer Science ...
— Merlin, The Coder

Statement of Policy[edit]

This policy sets forth the rules for using computing resources on  Coder Merlin™ . While this policy describes prohibited uses of the services offered by  Coder Merlin™ , the examples described in this policy are not exhaustive. We may modify this policy at any time by posting a revised version here. By accessing and/or using our services you agree to abide by the latest version of this policy. If you violate the policy or authorize or help others to do so, we may suspend or terminate your use of our services.

Purpose[edit]

Access to computing resources is a privilege, not a right, and is granted with restrictions and responsibilities for use. This rule sets forth the rules for using computing resources on  Coder Merlin™ .

Scope[edit]

These rules apply to all users of  Coder Merlin™  computing resources and all computing accounts on  Coder Merlin™  infrastructure.

Rules[edit]

Account Sharing[edit]

Sharing your  Coder Merlin™  account information, or that of any other account is prohibited. You are responsible for all activity conducted with your  Coder Merlin™  or any other account which you use.  Coder Merlin™  account information must not be given to anyone else. Improper safeguarding of your credentials that results in unauthorized use of your  Coder Merlin™  will not be tolerated.

Resources[edit]

Use of computing resources must be in accordance with  Coder Merlin™  policies and codes of conduct. Files controlled by individual users are considered private. The ability to read, alter, or copy a file does not imply permission to do so.  Coder Merlin™  reserves the right to access and/or remove any files in violation of  Coder Merlin™  policies. The ability to connect to or make use of other systems through the network does not imply the right to do so unless properly authorized by the owners of these systems. To do so without proper authorization will result in disciplinary and/or legal action.

Special Duties[edit]

People with security access privileges to confidential data and/or data management systems shall not use those privileges for anything other than fulfillment of official duties. Use of those privileges for any other purpose will result in disciplinary and/or legal action.

Electronic Communication[edit]

Do not create or send unsolicited mass communications to people using the  Coder Merlin™  network or computing systems.

Electronic communications are not confidential and subject to disclosure in accordance with law and court procedures.  Coder Merlin™  reserves the right to access such communications information if  Coder Merlin™  suspects or is advised of possible breaches of security, harassment, or other violations of other  Coder Merlin™  policies, rules, regulations, directives, or law. Once a message has been sent, control over it is lost. It may be forwarded to others or displayed on other systems without the author's knowledge or consent. Never say anything in a communication that wouldn't be said publicly. Abusive or insensitive language, in public or in private, is an inappropriate use of computing resources. And, use of electronic means to send or post fraudulent, harassing, obscene, indecent, profane, intimidating, or unlawful is prohibited.

Intellectual Property Rights[edit]

Respect intellectual property rights. Do not access or copy software or data belonging to others without prior written authorization. Unauthorized duplication of copyrighted information, data and/or software is a direct infringement of the federal copyright law. Doing so subjects one to criminal prosecution or civil liability.

Commercial Use[edit]

Commercial use is prohibited. Computing accounts are provided for non-commercial, academic use only. Accounts found being used for commercial and/or personal gain will be disabled, potentially without warning. Electronic advertising using  Coder Merlin™  computing resources is strictly prohibited.

Non-Commercial Use[edit]

Non-commercial software encompasses a wide range of exciting possibilities—including artistic, educational, scholarly, and personal projects that will not be marketed, promoted, or sold.  Coder Merlin™  allows the development and execution of non-commercial software on its servers provided that no other provisions are violated and all code is freely available under the GNU public license and all source code files contain the following preamble:

Copyright (C) YEAR YOUR-NAME
This program was developed using codermerlin.academy resources.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Shared Resource[edit]

You may not use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Services, or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the Services; including by (a) uploading or otherwise disseminating any virus, adware, spyware, worm or other malicious code, or (b) interfering with or disrupting any network, equipment, or server connected to or used to provide any of the Services, or violating any regulation, policy, or procedure of any network, equipment, or server.

Do not negatively impact computing resources. Users share many resources including disk space, CPU cycles, batch queues, login sessions, software licenses, etc. Resources also include, but are not limited to, computing facilities, accounts,  Coder Merlin™  computing equipment, and network systems and connections. Do not monopolize these resources, especially for non-academic purposes.  Coder Merlin™  services are provided for academic work.  Coder Merlin™  reserves the right to limit the use of computing resources.

Harmful Software[edit]

Act responsibly and practice due diligence to prevent the spread of computer viruses. Have anti-virus software installed on your computer and keep your Virus Definition File up to date. Perform appropriate security updates for your specific hardware operating system in a timely fashion.  Coder Merlin™  reserves the right to remove infected or vulnerable computers from the network as well as block malware/spyware infected websites.

You may not use nmap or similar tools to scan or analyze other hosts on the internet unless such use has been previously authorized, in writing, by the controlling authority of the host and  Coder Merlin™  has the authorization on record.

You may not execute Dos or DDoS attacks unless such use has been previously authorized, in writing, by the controlling authority of the host and  Coder Merlin™  has the authorization on record.

You may not store illegal content in your account.

Illegal, Harmful, or Offensive Use or Content[edit]

You may not post or transmit Content on or through the Services that is harmful, offensive, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, defamatory, hateful or otherwise discriminatory, false or misleading, or incites an illegal act; You may not intimidate or harass another through the Services; and, you may not post or transmit any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age on or through the Services.

You may not use, or encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to use,  Coder Merlin™  services for any illegal, harmful, fraudulent, infringing or offensive use, or to transmit, store, display, distribute or otherwise make available content that is illegal, harmful, fraudulent, infringing or offensive. Prohibited activities or content include:

Illegal, Harmful or Fraudulent Activities[edit]

Any activities that are illegal, that violate the rights of others, or that may be harmful to others, our operations or reputation, including disseminating, promoting or facilitating child pornography, offering or disseminating fraudulent goods, services, schemes, or promotions, make-money-fast schemes, ponzi and pyramid schemes, phishing, or pharming. You may not (a) use any Service for any illegal purpose or in violation of any local, state, national, or international laws, (b) violate or encourage others to violate any right of or obligation to a third party, including by infringing, misappropriating, or violating intellectual property, confidentiality, or privacy rights.

Infringing Content[edit]

Content that infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property or proprietary rights of others.

Offensive Content[edit]

Content that is defamatory, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, or otherwise objectionable, including content that constitutes child pornography, relates to bestiality, or depicts non-consensual sex acts.

Harmful Content[edit]

Content or other computer technology that may damage, interfere with, surreptitiously intercept, or expropriate any system, program, or data, including viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, or cancelbots.

Security Violations[edit]

You may not use  Coder Merlin™  services to violate the security or integrity of any network, computer or communications system, software application, or network or computing device (each, a “System”). Prohibited activities include:

Unauthorized Access[edit]

Accessing or using any System without permission, including attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of a System or to breach any security or authentication measures used by a System.

You may not impersonate another person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity when using the Services; You may not use or attempt to use another’s account or personal information without authorization; and You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services, or the computer systems or networks connected to the Services, through hacking, password mining, or any other means.

Interception[edit]

Monitoring of data or traffic on a System without permission.

Falsification of Origin[edit]

Forging TCP-IP packet headers, e-mail headers, or any part of a message describing its origin or route.

Network Abuse[edit]

You may not make network connections to any users, hosts, or networks unless you have permission to communicate with them. Prohibited activities include:

Monitoring or Crawling[edit]

Monitoring or crawling of a System that impairs or disrupts the System being monitored or crawled.

Denial of Service (DoS)[edit]

Inundating a target with communications requests so the target either cannot respond to legitimate traffic or responds so slowly that it becomes ineffective.

Intentional Interference[edit]

Interfering with the proper functioning of any System, including any deliberate attempt to overload a system by mail bombing, news bombing, broadcast attacks, or flooding techniques.

Operation of Certain Network Services[edit]

Operating network services like open proxies, open mail relays, or open recursive domain name servers.

Avoiding System Restrictions[edit]

Using manual or electronic means to avoid any use limitations placed on a System, such as access and storage restrictions.

Consent to Receive Email[edit]

As a condition to using our resources, you must maintain a current, valid email with our service and consent to the receipt of email from us.

E-Mail or Other Message Abuse[edit]

You will not distribute, publish, send, or facilitate the sending of unsolicited mass e-mail or other messages, promotions, advertising, or solicitations (like “spam”), including commercial advertising and informational announcements. You will not alter or obscure mail headers or assume a sender’s identity without the sender’s explicit permission. You will not collect replies to messages sent from another internet service provider if those messages violate this Policy or the acceptable use policy of that provider.

Monitoring and Enforcement[edit]

We reserve the right, but do not assume the obligation, to investigate any violation of this policy or misuse of  Coder Merlin™  services. We may:

  • investigate violations of this policy or misuse of services; or
  • remove, disable access to, or modify any content or resource that violates this policy or any other agreement we have with you for use  Coder Merlin™  services

We may report any activity that we suspect violates any law or regulation to appropriate law enforcement officials, regulators, or other appropriate third parties. Our reporting may include disclosing appropriate customer information. We also may cooperate with appropriate law enforcement agencies, regulators, or other appropriate third parties to help with the investigation and prosecution of illegal conduct by providing network and systems information related to alleged violations of this policy.

Solicitation[edit]

You may not use the Services or any information provided through the Services for the transmission of advertising or promotional materials, including junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of unsolicited or unwelcome solicitation.

Data Retention Policy[edit]

  • Inactive accounts are those accounts for which a successful shell login has not occurred for at least thirty (30) days
  • Inactive accounts are subject to deactivation
    • Inactive account holders will be notified by email and/or text message
    • If the email bounces the account is subject to immediate deactivation
    • If the email does not bounce the account is subject to deactivation after no less than seven (7) days
    • Deactivated accounts will be locked out from logons and will require a support ticket to re-open
  • Deactivated accounts are subject to deletion after no less than thirty (30) days
    • Upon deletion account-associated data, including files, may also be deleted and no longer retrievable