Imperial College Department of Computing New User Form

Please tick one of the following:

Your supervisor or tutor should sign below to authorise your application:

1. Use of the computing facilities (including the network) must be for the purpose of University research, teaching, coursework or associated administration only. No work of a commercial nature or for reward may be performed on these facilities.

2. Other than any statutory obligation the College will not be liable for any loss, damage or inconvenience arising directly or indirectly from the use of any computing facility provided and/or managed by the College.

3. It is and will be the USER's responsibility to comply with all statutory and other provisions, regulations, rules and Notes of Guidance for the time being in force and applicable to the field of computer systems and information.

4. The COMPUTER MISUSE ACT 1990 makes provision for securing computer material against unauthorised access or modification, and for connected purposes. USERS are required to familiarise themselves with and undertake not to act in breach of the provisions of the said Act. It is an offence to access a computer for which permission has not been granted. It is also an offence to facilitate unauthorised access by, for example, disclosing an authorised Login Name/password combination to any other individual.

5. The USER is required to respect the copyright of all material and software made available by the College and third parties. This requirement is laid out in the COPYRIGHT, DESIGNS and PATENTS ACT 1988 which makes it an offence for USERS to copy copyright materials including software without the permission of the owner of the copyright.

6. USERS are required to familiarise themselves with and undertake not to act in breach of any requirement of the DATA PROTECTION ACT 1984. The Act is "To regulate the use of automatically processed information relating to individuals and the provisions of services in respect of such information".

In brief, all persons using computers to hold data about living individuals are, with very few exceptions, required to register that fact either directly with the Data Protection Registrar or via the institute to which they are attached. Users are required to comply with the Data Protection Principles. The USER may incur severe penalties for failure to either register or comply with the principles and may be held legally responsible for any liability arising from that failure. USERS should check to see if their computer files hold personal data and if so register. The following requirements apply to student use of personal data:

i) Student USERS must not construct or maintain computer files of personal data for use in connection with their academic studies/research without the express authority of an appropriate member of staff.

ii) When giving such authority, the member of staff should make the student aware of the Act's requirement, inform them that they must abide by the Data Protection Principles, and of the appropriate level of security arrangements which should attach to a particular set of personal data.

7. Whilst the College takes appropriate security measures against unauthorised access to, alteration, disclosure, destruction or accidental loss of personal or other data it does not operate a high security system and cannot and does not give any warranties or undertakings to the USER about security or confidentiality of data, personal or other. The same applies to other material submitted to or processed on facilities provided or managed by the College or otherwise deposited at or left on its premises.

8. Although the College takes reasonable care to prevent the corruption of information the College cannot and does not give any warranties or undertakings to the USER about the integrity of information.

9. The College reserves the right to withdraw permission to use the facilities provided and take any other relevant action in the event of any abuse of the facilities by the USER.

10. The use of a Login Name and knowledge of its associated password is restricted to the individual to whom it has been assigned.

11. USERS should note that assignment of permission to use the Computing Facilities will result in their name and address being stored in computerised form for use in administrative and mailing purposes.

12. Computing resources, such as workstations, printers, the network and the facilities associated with it (e.g. e-mail, World Wide Web (WWW), bulletin boards, databases), but not excluding any other part of the College computing system, are to be used for research, teaching, coursework or associated administrative purposes only. They must not be used to display, store or transmit text or images which could be considered offensive, for example material of a sexual, pornographic, racially abusive, libelous or terrorist nature. In particular a very serious view will be taken of the misuse of e-mail (harassment, forging of e-mail signatures), or the posting to bulletin boards or WWWs (College or external) of material that is illegal, offensive, of a terrorist nature, or likely to bring the college into disrepute. Contravention of these rules may also be an offence under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 or the Race Relations Act 1976. The electronic transmission of "chain-letters" and unsolicited "junk" mail is also unacceptable.

Computing Support Group (doc-help@imperial.ac.uk - phone 46664)