Individuals and units using and publishing information on UCSF WWW servers or commercial servers funded by University budgets must abide by basic guidelines including all applicable University and campus policies and public laws. WWW users and publishers are bound by all University policies and public laws — these apply independent of the distribution/publishing medium. Supervisors shall apply necessary and appropriate corrective action whenever an employee fails to meet the required standards of conduct or performance. Though not exhaustive, the following section describes areas of particular relevance to the WWW.
A. Criminal and Civil Statutes
Users of the WWW are free to express themselves provided that they do not do anything to injure or harm others. Users may not use the UCSF WWW for acts that violate laws. The World Wide Web may not be used to encourage any activity associated with illegal drugs, gambling, pornography, prostitution, child pornography, theft, spreading computer viruses, cracking into private computer systems, software infringement, trafficking in credit card codes or crimes. Publishers must adhere to existing laws regarding defaming others and personal negligence. If in doubt about appropriate use of the WWW, individuals are encouraged to obtain the advice of campus counsel.
B. Use of University Name, Seal and Logo
It is not permitted to use the University name in conjunction with advertising or to list the University as a user of any product or service or as the source of research information on which a commercial program or publication is based, except that approval may be granted for institutional or goodwill advertising clearly regarded as being in the best interests of the University.
Use of the UC seal is restricted to official UCSF webpages, and even there should be incorporated only selectively as a background graphic, if at all. For most official UCSF webpages, in fact, use of the UC seal is not recommended. The primary graphic identity affiliation should be to UCSF rather than to the UC system as a whole, and accomplished through inclusion of one of the required standard banners.
C. Personal Financial Gain
Commercial activity for personal financial gain is not permitted. Advertising services and programs, within the purview of the UC Board of Regents, is permissible.
D. Advertising
Web publishers may acknowledge donations/contributions by creating links to selected organizations/corporations that are major contributors to the campus.
E. Appropriate Use of University Resources
The University provides access to Internet resources for the conduct of University business. Incidental and occasional personal use is permitted within the University so long as such use does not disrupt or distract the conduct of University business (due to volume or frequency). Incidental and occasional personal use of Internet resources is subject to campus regulations.
F. Copyright
Web publishers are responsible for compliance with current copyright laws and relevant UC policies. A copyright gives certain exclusive rights to their owner which are particularly important:
- the right to copy the work;
- the right to make modified versions of the work;
- the right to distribute the work;
- the right to transmit the work;
- the right to run computer programs on a computer.
Every time a file is moved within or between computer systems it results in “copying” and “distributing” that file to the other systems. Copyrighted information may not be posted without permission of the copyright holder (owner). Individuals transmitting or extracting information from UCSF pages are responsible for investigating copyright issues. Publication in electronic format rather than in print in no way changes the underlying (copyright) issues.
G. Confidential Information
You are required to use all information, in particular, confidential, medical or personal data, in accordance with University policy and to obtain permission when required.