Laguna College of Art + Design (henceforth referred to as LCAD) supports an IT environment for faculty, staff, students, and other users. This Acceptable Use Policy works in alignment with the school’s general policies and serves to supplement them in the areas controlled and maintained by the IT department.
Scope
The LCAD Acceptable Use Policy applies to all users of LCAD campus IT resources (referred to herein as “users”), including without limitation faculty, staff, students, alumni, and guests of LCAD.
The LCAD Acceptable Use Policy applies to all IT equipment and resources of the college including but not limited to:
All equipment, software, telecommunications equipment, and facilities owned, operated, or maintained by LCAD for the handling of digital information;
Any access to or use of LCAD’s electronic resources from a computer or other system not controlled by LCAD; and,
The creation, consumption, communication, distribution, storage, and destructino of information under LCAD’s control.
LCAD users also have access to third-party electronic resources via agreements in place between LCAD and the providers of the aforementioned, including but not limited to those available via ezproxy.lcad.edu. Use of third-party resources where access is provided by agreements between LCAD and a provider or other contracting party is governed by this policy in addition to any applicable policy or restriction disclosed by the third party provider.
The IT department staff of LCAD is responsible for the administration and enforcement of this Acceptable Use Policy.
Purpose
LCAD users may have differing purposes or methods for accessing and utilizing campus IT resources; however, each user shares the responsibility to properly utilize these resources appropriately and to protect the available resources from unauthorized access or use.
Authorized Uses
Campus IT resources may only be utilized for the purposes authorized and stated by LCAD. These purposes are generally comprised of work, study, research, service, or student residential activities consistent with LCAD’s mission and academic priorities.
The use of LCAD campus resources for outside business purposes is prohibited.
All use of LCAD information systems and resources must comply with the following:
All college policies, procedures, and codes of conduct
All laws and regulations applicable to the user and/or LCAD
All relevant licenses and/or other contractual commitments
LCAD information systems and resources may not be used, committed, or made available without prior written consent of the Chief Information Officer for any of the following:
Any commercial or business activity not administered by LCAD
The benefit of persons or organizations other than LCAD
Political or lobbying activities
LCAD has the sole deciding authority to determine what use of campus information systems and resources are acceptable and may prohibit or discipline use that is out of compliance with the terms stated within this policy or other applicable standards of conduct.
The use of VPN or proxy/anonymizing software and/or services is not permitted on school-owned networks and may result in a complete ban from campus networks and IT resources.
LCAD sends regular official correspondence to members of the college community via LCAD branded Gmail electronic mail. Students, staff, and faculty are expected to check their @lcad.edu email account regularly and are responsible for information sent there. LCAD employees are expected to use only their LCAD email accounts for all LCAD-related communications. Forwarding of LCAD email outside of the @lcad.edu domain is prohibited. IT does not recommend subscribing to personal services using your @lcad.edu email address.
Accounts and Access Restrictions
Your LCAD User ID and password is the primary method used to authenticate LCAD users for access to college information systems and resources. Physical access is controlled by RFID fobs built into LCAD campus ID cards. Users are not to share their account details or RFID fobs with any other person, whether an LCAD User or otherwise. Users will be held responsible for all activity conducted using their LCAD ID (both physical and electronic).
Without express written permission from the Director of IT, no user may:
Extend or modify LCAD’s network by adding a switch, router, wireless access point, or any other technology that permits additional devices to connect to the network;
Provide any other persons (LCAD User or otherwise) with access to LCAD information systems or resources;
Create or forward chain letters or mass mails for any purposes;
Modify, falsify, or remove email headers, addresses, messages, or communications or otherwise impersonate another individual;
Use LCAD’s electronic resources in a malicious manner to alter or destroy any materials which the user is not expressly authorized to alter or destroy;
Attempt to defeat restrictions or protections placed on accounts or LCAD information systems and resources (including but not limited to LCAD internet content filtering);
Damage LCAD information systems and resources, intentionally spread or propagate viruses or other malicious works, or attempt to degrade the performance of LCAD information systems and resources.
Intellectual Property Protection
Users of LCAD information systems and resources must respect intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyrights in all of their uses of said systems. All use of intellectual property content, including but not limited to text, images, music, and videos either retrieved from school resources, transmitted or obtained via the use of LCAD information systems and resources must comply with copyright and other applicable intellectual property laws. Copied material used legally must be given proper attribution in conforming with applicable legal and professional intellectual property standards.
User expectation of privacy
LCAD realizes the importance of student privacy in an academic setting and does not actively monitor a user’s email, data, software, or online activity with the exception of automated systems that monitor for activities that violate intellectual property laws or disturb or destabilize our ability to provide IT services. There are limited circumstances in which LCAD may access, monitor, limit, and/or disclose a user’s communications or other data/information without the user’s permission. The circumstances include but are not limited to the following:
To repair or maintain the integrity of our systems, network, and/or data;
When required by federal, state, or local law, administrative rules, court order, or other legal authority;
To preserve the health and safety of individuals within the LCAD community;
When there is cause to believe that a violation of law or a significant breach of LCAD policy may have taken place and investigation, inspection, and monitoring may produce evidence related to the breaches;
To facilitate legitimate business needs.
LCAD cannot absolutely guarantee the security of user-owned resources against unauthorized access or disclosure.
The use of VPN or proxy/anonymizing software and/or services is not permitted on school-owned networks and may result in a complete ban from campus networks and IT resources.
IT Resource Oversight
Authorized LCAD employees, including but not limited to the IT staff, may:
Take steps to preserve the availability and integrity of LCAD information systems and resources;
Reject or destroy electronic communications suspected of being spam or containing otherwise malicious materials;
Exercise authority over LCAD information systems to read, write, edit, or delete information in files or databases to establish protection for information and resources, or to address claims that intellectual property or other rights have been compromised or violated;
Utilize a wide variety of security monitoring devices and tools to identify misuse or unauthorized use of LCAD information systems and resources;
Temporarily shut off a user’s access to LCAD information systems and resources.
Disclaimers
LCAD information systems and resources are made available as-is and as-available. LCAD makes no guarantee that any resource will be completely free of objectionable material, errors, defects, bugs. LCAD is not responsible for any harm arising from users’ reliance on or use of LCAD information systems and resources, nor is LCAD responsible for any third party content accessed using LCAD information systems.
This policy is not and was not intended to be a complete statement of LCAD rights and remedies, and nothing in this policy waves said rights.
Changes to this policy
LCAD reserves the right to amend or modify this policy at any time.
HEOA COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Summary of Civil and Criminal Penalties for Violation of Federal Copyright Laws
Copyright infringement is the act of exercising, without permission or legal authority, one or more of the exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner under section 106 of the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the United States Code). These rights include the right to reproduce or distribute a copyrighted work. In the file-sharing context, downloading or uploading substantial parts of a copyrighted work without authority constitutes an infringement.
Penalties for copyright infringement include civil and criminal penalties. In general, anyone found liable for civil copyright infringement may be ordered to pay either actual damages or “statutory” damages affixed at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work infringed. For “willful” infringement, a court may award up to $150,000 per work infringed. A court can, in its discretion, also assess costs and attorneys’ fees. For details, see Title 17, United States Code, Sections 504, 505.
Willful copyright infringement can also result in criminal penalties, including imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 per offense.
For more information, please see the Web site of the U.S. Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov, especially their FAQ’s at www.copyright.gov/help/faq.
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright Law
To remain in compliance with state and/or federal guidelines, LCAD IT staff must make a best-effort to block/inhibit/report Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright violations. The use of Peer-to-Peer file sharing mechanisms including but not limited to bittorrent or other suspected mechanisms of Copyright violation is prohibited. The use of the aforementioned will result in a suspension of LCAD IT resource access.