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STUDENT
DEVELOPMENT
Social
Policies and Regulations:
Ethics of Computer Usage
The
College seeks to provide the computing resources needed to meet
the academic and educational needs of our students, faculty, and
staff. We believe that users should be encouraged to learn about
the systems beyond just those things needed to do the job at hand,
that they should be secure in the privacy of their files from inspection,
modification, or deletion by others, and that the available resources
should be shared equitably among the users. In order to realize
these goals it is essential that the users themselves observe reasonable
standards of responsible and ethical behavior. These standards derive
from notions of common sense and decency that apply in any situation
involving a limited shared public resource.
While a distinction must be made between irresponsible behavior
arising from ignorance and unethical behavior stemming from malicious
intent, it is the obligation of every user to acquire knowledge
of the system that will minimize the likelihood of unintentional
offenses. Willful departures from community standards of ethical
behavior cannot be accepted.
While some computer software is in the public domain and can be
legally copied, most software on College computers is copyrighted.
Copying this software is theft. In general, one copy of software
must be purchased for every computer, whether or not the
computers are networked.
Since our computers are connected to national and international
networks of computers, all users must be aware of the rules governing
use of these networks. Just like the computers on campus, our access
to the networks and off-campus resources must be shared equitably.
Some examples of unethical behavior involving the use of computer
resources are:
- deleting,
renaming, or modifying application files on the microcomputers
so that other users are hampered in their ability to use them
- using
computer resources for non-academic work when this interferes
with users who have coursework to do
- accessing
accounts belonging to others without explicit permission
- copying
software in the microcomputer labs for use on a personally owned
microcomputer
- sending
chain letters or unwanted mail (including "mail bombs" and "SPAM")
over the computer networks
- taking
paper from the computer labs to use with your own printer
- using
College computer resources for personal profit
- knowingly
bringing a virus-infected disk into the computer labs
- treating
computing equipment so roughly as to damage it
These examples are intended as illustration of unethical behavior
and are not intended to constitute an all-inclusive list of them.
For a more complete listing of computing rights and responsibilities
or if in doubt as to the propriety of some behavior or action,
see Information Services. Every person who receives computer usage
privileges at Kalamazoo College is required to sign a policy compliance
statement. A copy of the entire computing policy is available
upon request.
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