ONet Association Acceptable Use Policy December 12, 1990 Introduction The ONet network exists to facilitate the exchange of information in support of research, development, education and technology transfer. The network and its connections to other networks are to be used only in a manner that is consistent with these purposes within the spirit of this "Acceptable Use Policy". Each member organization is responsible for taking appropriate action to communicate this policy within its organization and to rectify the behaviour of its users who disregard this policy. Notification of any perceived violation of this acceptable use is to be directed to the member's Management Committee representative. The member will promptly investigate and take whatever appropriate remedial action is within its jurisdiction. Failure to resolve such an incident will be referred to the ONet Management Committee. Organizations within Ontario that wish to make use of the ONet network should become members of the ONet Association. A member providing connections to other Ontario-based organizations that are not members of the ONet Association, must guarantee that no traffic will be accepted over or generated onto ONet resources to or from such non-member organizations. Authentication An ONet member must ensure that it can trace any use of the ONet network from within its organization to the individual who initiated that use. Identification of the individual might be achieved through a mechanism such as unique user-ids or passwords, or through the ownership of the node in question. Examples of non-authenticating nodes include nodes with public-use user-ids or multiple-user user-ids. Traffic originating from any and all such non-authenticating nodes within the member's network must not be transmitted from the member's network into or through the ONet network. Acceptable Uses of the ONet Network The intent of this "Acceptable Use Policy" is to clarify by example the guidelines that apply to determining whether a given use is acceptable or not. These guidelines are not intended to be exhaustive. The final authority for determining whether or not a use is acceptable is the ONet Management Committee. Members are responsible for raising any questionable use with the committee. Until any use referred to the committee is determined to be acceptable, it should be considered as unacceptable. Uses that fall under one of the following descriptions are, in general, acceptable: 1. Uses consistent with the purposes of ONet; 2. Uses related to instruction, research, development and technology transfer at not-for-profit organizations; 3. Uses by for-profit organizations in support of research, development and technology transfer. 4. Uses related to the administrative and other support of activities considered consistent with the purposes of ONet; 5. Uses relating to billable services, such as the sale of machine time, provided that the use of the service in question is itself related to activities consistent with the purposes of the ONet network. 6. Uses relating to the investigation and support of vendors' products, such as the distribution of information or technical support material on request or the discussion of products' relative advantages and disadvantages. Uses that fall under one of the following descriptions are, in general, not acceptable: 1. Uses that unduly interfere with the work of other users of the network or with their host systems, or that seriously disrupt the network, or that result in the loss of a user's work or system; 2. Uses related to commercial activities such as the unsolicited distribution of advertising material; 3. Uses that are considered by the ONet Management Committee to be malicious or unethical; 4. Uses that violate federal or provincial laws; 5. Uses related to "chain letters" or broadcasting to lists of individuals in such a manner that might cause congestion of the network; 6. Uses of the ONet network that result in traffic to any connected network which violates published acceptable use specifications for that network. (For example, although there is no limit on the size of files that may be transferred within the ONet network, or within the CA*net or NetNorth national networks, there is a specification that prohibits files larger than 300K bytes from being transferred from the NetNorth network into or through the BITNET network.)