TECNet Acceptable Use Policy

Tennessee Board of Regents
Tennessee Education Cooperative Network
(TBR/TECnet)

Acceptable Use Policy

The Tennessee Board of Regents/Tennessee Educational Cooperative Network (TBR/TECnet) mission is stated as:

"It is the primary purpose of TBR/TECnet to provide data connectivity to nonprofit institutions/agencies in the Tennessee region which have as their primary purpose academic and research activities and to state and local governments."

The TBR/TECnet is for the use of persons legitimately associated with current institutional members and other institutions/agencies in the Tennessee region that choose to join the TBR/TECnet and agree to abide by the appropriate usage conventions and any terms and conditions of membership and affiliation of the TBR/TECnet, as they may be amended from time to time.

The TBR/TECnet will support the primary functions of the academic and research institutions, that is, instruction, research, public service, and the accompanying administrative support functions by facilitating the exchange of information consistent with the purposes of the cooperating institutions/agencies. Functions of state and local government members may likewise be facilitated by the use of the TBR/TECnet.

The TBR/TECnet is open to use, at the discretion of the individual educational institutions, by faculty, students, and staff affiliated with that institution/agency and by state and local government members. Users of the TBR/TECnet are expected to be responsible in their use and are subject to approval of their institution/agency. Each institution/agency is responsible for seeing that this acceptable use policy is widely distributed, that TBR/TECnet users are aware of the policy, and that these policies are followed. Each institution/agency is responsible for exercising any control they deem necessary to maintain usage within the confines of the acceptable use policy.

Information that is transmitted over the network is not routinely encrypted or made private between the sender and the addressee. Anyone who can intercept the transmission has access to the information as if it were addressed to the interceptor. To intercept any transmission is a criminal offense.

Guidelines for use of the network are as follows. Other acceptable and unacceptable usage can be derived from these examples.

Individual usage of the TBR/TECnet should be consistent with the goals and purposes of the TBR/TECnet.

The TBR/TECnet should not be used for any activity that does not support the mission and purposes of the individual institution/agency. If a particular usage is not in the best interest of the institution/agency or if it does not support the mission and purposes, then it should not be done.

Deliberate disruption of anyone's work or system is prohibited.
The TBR/TECnet should not be used for any unlawful purposes. It is NOT acceptable to use TBR/TECnet to transmit threatening, obscene, or harassing materials. Attempts to penetrate a remote site without proper authorization is strictly forbidden and also violates the Tennessee Code Annotated which state suitable punishment for violators.

If institutions/agencies are authorized to use gateways to other networks, all rules and conventions of the other networks must be followed. The institution/agency having access to other networks should obtain and abide by that other network's acceptable use policy.

Institutions/agencies are forbidden to use the TBR/TECnet to gain access to any other network which requires membership if the accessing institution/agency does not have proper membership, rights, and privileges in the other network.

Disruption of any activity on a remote node is forbidden. Users should not do anything concerning remote nodes that will cause the loss or corruption of data, the abnormal use of computing resources, or the introduction of computer viruses by any means.

Authority for the TBR/TECnet acceptable use policies lies with the senior computing officers of the participating institutions/agencies as advised by the TBR/TECnet Advisory Committee and the TBR/TECnet Network Operations Center. Interpretation of questionable acceptable usage will be determined by the TBR/TECnet Advisory Committee, and recommendations will be made to the senior computing officers of the participating institutions/agencies. Until an issue is resolved, questionable use should be considered "not acceptable."


Approved by TAC 12/15/1994 Updated 10/1/1999