Conditions of Use and Code of Conduct for the use of FirstClass
You must read the Conditions of Use
and Code of Conduct set out below.
FirstClass users are expected to abide by these and breaches may result in
restrictions for offenders.
Conditions of use for the British
School of Osteopathy's FirstClass System
By using the FirstClass
System each user accepts and agrees to abide by the conditions set out below.
The
FirstClass is provided for
education, research and administration. Commercial use of FirstClass
is forbidden. Those using FirstClass are personally
responsible for their contributions to the system (as they would be for any
written communication which is sent to others) and shall indemnify the BSO
against any liability incurred by the BSO (including liability in defamation
and for breach of copyright), which arises out of any such contribution.
Contributions
to conferences should be regarded as the intellectual property of the authors
or of the BSO. If they are to be quoted by another person in a publication
(electronic or printed), proper acknowledgment must be given.
Where
the contribution of any FirstClass user to a
conference incorporates material of which that user is not the author, proper
acknowledgment to the author of that material shall be given in the
contribution.
Contributions
must not consist of, or contain, illegal or offensive material. Any material
which is considered by a conference moderator, or
other nominee of the board of the BSO, to be illegal or offensive may be
removed from the system. For this purpose the expressions 'illegal' and
'offensive' include (without limitation) material
the publication of which is defamatory
that would infringe the copyright of a third party
which contravenes Data Protection legislation or the Telecommunications Act
which constitutes incitement to racial hatred or which is offensive or
obscene (see also the footnote below)
The originator of any such material may be excluded
from further participation in FirstClass by the ICT
Manager.
Each
FirstClass user undertakes that he or she will not
hold the BSO liable for any material contributed to a conference by another
person, which is defamatory of that FirstClass user.
Each
individual is responsible for the security and use of their Username and
password. The use of someone else's account, Username (or password) is not
allowed. Any user found using someone else's Username, or impersonating another
user of the system, may be excluded by the ICT Manager from further
participation in FirstClass. Any user whose account
is repeatedly being used by another user may also be excluded by the ICT
Manager from further participation in FirstClass.
The
administrators of the FirstClass system may need to
access any areas of your FirstClass account in order
to investigate technical problems, or in response to a complaint. This may
include a necessity to access private mail. This data may be passed to the BSO's Data Protection Officer(s) in response to an official
request.
FirstClass is not provided for personal purposes but if private mail messages are
so used and intended to be private, they should be marked accordingly (using the
message, "Sensitivity Personal" option). Any personal information in
such messages, provided the facility is properly used, will not be provided to
non-recipients. Messages sent to any
conference, cannot be deemed as private personal information.
Information
regarding your use of the FirstClass system will be
used to generate statistics on system usage. These statistics may be used in
BSO research or publications. Information about individuals will not be
referenced in such material without their prior consent.
All
users must comply with the FirstClass Code of
Conduct.
June 2003
Legal Footnote - Relevant legislation
includes: The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, The Human Rights
Act, The Data Protection Act 1998, The Copyright, Designs & Patents Act
1988, The Computer Misuse Act 1990, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act
1994 and all subsequent legislation pertaining to these areas. Laws relating to
theft would also apply in cases of "stolen" software. (The Criminal
Justice and Public Order Act 1994, for example, amends the Obscene Publications
Act 1956, the Protection of Children Act 1978 and the telecommunications Act
1984, to extend their provisions to transmission over a data communications
network. The potential 'let out' of transmission in coded form is ruled out by
the concept of a 'pseudo photograph', i.e. electronic data that can be rendered
into an image that has the appearance of a photograph.)
Code of Conduct for the use of FirstClass
This Code of Conduct relates specifically
to FirstClass but the general principles involved
apply to all electronic and non-electronic communications systems supplied by
the BSO and apply to staff and students alike.
The BSO's
general rules and regulations apply to users of FirstClass
(and all other electronic communication systems) just as they do in any other
BSO environment. Specifically, the BSO has a published policy on harassment and
has an equal opportunities policy. These policies are contained in the student
and staff handbooks. These rules, policies, regulations and the disciplinary
procedures associated with them apply within the FirstClass
system and breaches of them, or this Code of Conduct, may result in
restrictions being placed on your use of the system and ultimately your removal
from the system (in addition to the penalties referred to in the general policy
statements).
FirstClass is a conferencing
system for people connected with the
FirstClass is a social
environment. Normal rules of social interaction are in force. The remoteness of
the recipients must not be used as an excuse to communicate in an anti-social
manner. Examples of such anti-social behaviour are :
Harassment or intimidation of
another user
Person to person aggression within
conferences
Deviation from the spirit of a
conference
Excessive or inappropriate use of
jargon, banter or graffiti
The sending of SPAM ( this includes sending one email to
more conferences than is necessary to reach the intended audience )
None of these is considered acceptable behaviour on FirstClass.
FirstClass users should not
contribute to a conference unless their contribution is intended to further the
aims of the conference.
Conferences
exist for major groupings of people ( such as: all BSO
email users--students, staff and alumni; all staff; all students; all in a
particular year group etc etc ). FirstClass users
should address messages to ONLY the ONE all-encompassing group that includes
their target audience ( ie
not to an all-encompassing group and also to sub-groups of that
all-encompassing group ).
Personal
exchanges should be directed to a user's mailbox (i.e. an e-mail), not to a
conference.
Personal
comments about other users and their views should not be placed in public
conferences.
Copying
or forwarding of private messages to another person without the author's
explicit permission is a breach of confidentiality.
All
FirstClass preferred names must be a true
representation of your student record as held on the BSO's
central records.
FirstClass is more than a simple
email system; it
includes conferencing, electronic announcement noticeboards
and discussion forums. Users are therefore
required to login to FirstClass regularly as it is
not possible to have all relevant content automatically forwarded to some other
email system.
The
Code of Conduct applies equally for Private or Public Chat as for mail
messages. Misuse of the chat facility will result in this facility being
removed from your FirstClass account.
The
primary responsibility for the management of any conference lies with its
moderator. The moderator must ensure that the conference meets the above
guidelines. If in doubt moderators will
refer to the ICT Manager.
Complaint Procedures
If you feel that other users are not
following the Code of Conduct, refer to the Complaints Procedure.
June 2003
Updated September 2010