Draft Institutional Guidelines for Personal Webpages

1. You may not set up WWW servers, or place WWW pages on any University Computing equipment, other than that designated by the University. If you wish to place WWW pages on designated University Computing equipment you must register to do so, and have signed a declaration that you have read and understood both the Code of Practice and Guidelines for Users. All pages must include your name (real name, not just username) and must be linked (by means of <a href=<"">) to the hypertext tree that has your home page at its root.

2. Only official institutional Webpages may use University logos, or other copyrighted or trademarked University materials. Thus, you may not incorporate the University logo or any School, Departmental, Unit, Institute or Centre logo into your webpage. Equally materials published by the University, including the contents of brochures, handbooks and other publicity materials may not be used. You are not permitted to designate, represent or hold out your pages as being official institutional University webpages, to use your pages for official University business, or to use your pages to enter into contracts which purport to bind the University.

3. Personal webpages may not:

• contain, or be used to distribute, or have direct links to, material which is sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, pornographic, or similarly discriminatory and/or offensive
• contain, or be used to distribute, text or images to which a third party holds a intellectual property right, without the express written permission of the rightholder. Thus copyrighted material, such as novels, poetry, non-fiction books, letters, memoranda, directories, e-mail messages, photographs, paintings, films, video, sound recordings, cartoons etc. should be used with only where you are sure that copyright has expired, or that you have explicit permission to use them; and trademarked logos such as those used by Microsoft®, Coca Cola®, and Camel® should not be used without permission.
• contain, or be used to distribute, or have direct links to, defamatory material,. That is, they may not contain material which falsely states or implies something about an identifiable individual that will result in that individual being held in lower esteem by others as a result.
• contain, or be used to distribute, or have direct links to, material that could be used in order to breach computer security, or to facilitate unauthorised entry into computer systems. This includes, but is not limited to: viruses; virus creation kits; User IDs and passwords obtained without authorisation, or which you have no authority to disclose to others; and "hacker manuals".
• contain, or be used to distribute, or have direct links to, material which is likely to prejudice or seriously impede the course of justice in UK criminal or civil proceedings. This includes: material which prejudges a case, especially where it makes the express or tacit assumption that the accused in a criminal trial is guilty; material which is emotive or disparaging, especially where there is an insinuation of complicity or guilt by association; material which is likely to be inadmissible at trial, such as previous convictions, or mention of evidence likely to be excluded as having been improperly obtained; material such as a photograph of the defendant, where the issue of identification forms part of the trial proceedings; material hostile or abusive towards potential witnesses with the intention of coercing them into not testifying, or disclosure of witnesses' names following a court order that their names should not be disclosed material disclosing information about jury deliberations; material breaching reporting restrictions in cases such where in open court there is identification of children involved in the proceedings, or identification of rape victims; material relating to court proceedings closed to the public, including where there is an issue of national security.
• contain personal data (as defined by the Data Protection Act 1984) about third parties, unless their explicit permission has been given, or the information is properly registered with the Data Protection Registrar, or the information is covered by a relevant exemption.

In particular, personal webpages may not contain material which breaches, or is likely to likely to breach:
The Obscene Publications Act 1959, The Sex Discrimination Act 1975, The Race Relations Act 1976, The Protection of Children Act 1978, The Contempt of Court Act 1981, The Data Protection Act 1984, The Telecommunications Act 1984, The Public Order Act 1986, The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, The Computer Misuse Act 1990, The Trademarks Act 1994.

If you are in any doubt as to the acceptability or legality of material which you wish to place on your personal webpages you should contact [insert individual's name or position here] for advice.

6. Personal webpages may not be used for placing and distribution of commercial advertisements.

6. If advertisements are placed on personal homepages, then they must comply with the Code of Practice for Advertisers issued by the Advertising Standards Authority which requires in summary that all advertisements should be `legal, decent, truthful and honest'.

7. You should be aware of and abide by the regulations that apply to you as a user of a Web Server at the [name of institution] and as a user of University Computing Services. These include:

• UKERNA's JANET Acceptable Use Policy.
• The University Code of Practice with regard to the setting up and use of Webservers and Webpages.
• Such University regulations as govern the use of University Computer resources.

Failure to observe the University Code of Practice by either students or staff will be considered a serious matter by the University. Where University Regulations are breached the University will invoke the appropriate disciplinary procedures. For students this could involve fines, suspension of access to computing facilities or, in extreme cases, termination of their studies. Any breaches of the criminal or civil law are beyond the remit of the University, but where criminal offences have been committed, the University will report these to the authorities. If the DPP decides upon a criminal prosecution this will be a matter for the department or individual concerned.. Similar considerations apply to any civil law cases.

8. If you believe that a member of the University has personal web pages which contravene these conditions, you should report your concern by email, indicating the location and nature of the offending material, to [insert individual's name or position here] who will ensure that it is are promptly dealt with by the relevant individual responsible for the area at issue, and that any necessary disciplinary action is taken.

Graphics     Multimedia      Virtual Environments      Visualisation      Contents