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Code of Conduct

[The terms "society", "us", "we" etc. all mean "Manchester CompSoc".The terms "you", "users", "members" all refer to members of the society]

  1. USE OF LOCAL FACILITIES
    1. All of the computing resources operated by the society (that is all machines registered under compsoc.man.ac.uk, with a few exceptions) are available for the use of its members.
    2. Members may store files on society machines, provided that they are legally entitled to be in possession of them. In particular, unlicensed copies of copyrighted or trade secret material, especially pirated software, may not be stored. Files containing databases of personal information (e.g. name & address lists) must be exempt from the Data Protection Act. Note that members are expected to be sensible in the amount of disk space they use; at present, a quota system is not deemed necessary, but may be introduced later if the society feels it is necessary.
    3. Members must not execute programs on society machines which do notcomply with 2(above). The execution of computationally expensive software (e.g. raytracing) or memory-intensive software is not permitted unless cleared with one of the members of the System Administration team. Certain other types of program are not allowed; see "Abuse" below.
  2. USE OF NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

    3. The society is very grateful to Manchester Computing (MC) for providing an unrestricted link to the Internet. We have aresponsibility both to them and to the network community, so please read this section carefully.

    1. Members may use any Internet resource as long as it is legal to use in this country, and it is not explicitly banned by the society. Currently, IRC is not permitted due to complaints of abuse from the MC.
    2. Members are expected to conform to generally accepted guidelineswhen using the Internet, especially when it comes to posting articles to Usenet (see news.announce.newusers for information on this if you arenot sure).
  3. GENERAL
    1. The society has no problem with members playing games (whether locally or remotely) as long as they don't contravene the sections above.
    2. The use of the society's resources for commercial purposes is prohibited unless explicitly permitted.
  4. ABUSE

    5. The society defines abuse as one or more of:

    1. Exploiting a security weakness in the society's machines (we don't mind you looking for them, as long as you tell us so that we can fix it)
    2. Running programs that, either inherently or deliberately,cause a machine to crash or become unusably slow (such an action will be treated as a denial of service attack)
    3. Deliberately contravening one of the regulations in this Code of Conduct.

      4. In all cases, the society's decision is final, and the society always reserves the right to restrict or withdraw user accounts.

    4. If a complaint against a member from a local or remote user is received, typically the society will seek an explanation from the user concerned. If a member has a complaint against a local user, it should initially be directed toward that user; if no resolution is forthcoming, the administration should be contacted. Note that the society takes a very dim view of malicious complaints.
    5. If the society feels that action needs to be taken against a member,this action may take the form of a warning, withdrawal of certain privilidges (e.g. mail), restriction of account usage (e.g. quota), or complete withdrawal of the account. Such action would be discussed at a meeting of the Committee.

Where this Code of Conduct is silent, Committee rules.