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Back Next Contents LEGAL ISSUES RELATING TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF WORLD WIDE WEB TECHNOLOGY AT EDUCATIONAL SITES

Draft Campus Wide Information Server (CWIS) /Official Institutional Webserver Committee Guidelines.

1. The CWIS should have a properly constituted Committee or Editorial Board within which responsibility for particular administrative action is clearly allocated. In particular, an individual or individuals with responsibility for handling complaints about the content of the CWIS and the power to remove or amend such content as necessary, and an individual or individuals with responsibility for maintaining the register described in section 7 should be clearly prescribed.

2. The CWIS must meet the standards set in the [name of institution]'s Code of Practice for its Webservers, notably that it is free from material which is defamatory, infringes intellectual property rights, infringes the Data Protection Act, or is sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, pornographic, or similarly discriminatory and/or offensive.

3. With regard to copyright, the CWIS Committee or Editorial Board should endeavour ensure that the [name of Institution] obtains all intellectual property rights in the material to be used. Where the owner of the intellectual property rights in material cannot be definitely ascertained, that material should not be used, and this applies especially to material obtained from the Internet.

4. The copyright in work carried out on the CWIS by the [name of institution]'s employees during the normal course of their employment will normally vest in the [name of institution]. Where there is any doubt as to whether the work is carried out during the normal course of their employment, agreement of ownership of the intellectual property rights should be obtained in advance.

5. When external providers of information and other materials are used, agreement of ownership of the intellectual property rights should be obtained in advance. Ideally the [name of institution] will ask for an assignment of all intellectual property rights from the external provider. Where this is not possible permission to use the material by way of licence should be obtained in writing.

6. When external providers of information and other materials are used, indemnities should be sought in advance by the [name of institution] that the material is free from third party intellectual property rights, and that it is not of a defamatory nature. Such indemnities should, in the event of legal action, endeavour to pass as much of the liability as possible to the external provider.

7. A centrally maintained register of all third party supplied materials should be kept by [name of individual or administrative position], containing relevant assignments of intellectual property rights, the terms and conditions of any intellectual property licences obtained, and all indemnities.

8. Guidelines for all external providers of information and other materials with regard to the [name of institution]'s position on intellectual property rights and indemnities should be produced and supplied to the external providers, in advance of material being commissioned.


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