Durham University IT services regulations

[fanf]

Some amusing or odd features:

• Blasphemy and racism are forbidden, along with the usual porn. This probably covers some fortune(1) jokes.
• You can get permission to look at porn for research purposes, but there is no such exemption for reverse engineering software (so no software security research).
• You are not allowed to "access, download, store, or process" comercial spam, or anything that causes "annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety".
• Durham ITS takes a cut of research grants which have provision for computing costs.
• Durham claims all "intellectual property" you create and must be involved in any commercial exploitation.
• For the purpose of these regulations, "any remote IT facilities are deemed to be [Durham] University IT facilities".

Comments

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

Yeah that really is shocking isn't it? Are such restrictions legal?

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Given that blasphemy is illegal anyway, it'd be hard to see why it would be.

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

Is blasphemy of any kind illegal?

[korenwolf.livejournal.com]

Only against the Christian religion in the UK, hence the plans to bring in the religious discrimination bill.