Terms of Service

All users of the Digital Commons service (http://web.unc.edu) must agree to the following terms of service before creating, or contributing to a site.

Important Information

The UNC Digital Commons Project

While we do not anticipate problems, we reserve the right to take down any and all websites without prior consent. That being said, we will try to give you at least 30 days notice so you can move your content to a new platform.

It is also possible that your website will experience periodic downtimes while we upgrade, install, configure, or optimize the site. If we are aware such an outage will occur will we attempt to notify all users in advance.

Acceptable Use Policy

UNC Digital Commons (http://web.unc.edu) is set up to allow people to create their own sites on any sub-domain they need for university related project. This service is not for personal projects, or to sit on domain names that others might need. Please do not register department names, or special names unless you are the official representative for that department, or project. Sites that are registered to unauthorized users, or for unauthorized uses will be deleted and assigned to appropriate departments and or projects. Repeat offenders may be asked to not use the service.

UNC Digital Commons should NOT be used for any student groups and other non-university related groups. UNC regulations require that any student groups be officially recognized before using any campus resources. If you are part of a student group and would like to create a website please go to Student Orgs or contact the union and they will walk you through the process or getting certified and setting up a website. If your group is not a University sanctioned group you can use a service like WordPress.org.

The UNC Digital Commons project requires users to authenticate using their Onyen. As such, all content should adhere to Onyen policies outlined on this page. It is partially excerpted below.

Ethical Standards
People are expected to follow conventional standards of ethics and polite conduct in their use of the computing resources. It is expected that users will behave responsibly, ethically, and politely, even in the absence of reminders or enforcement.

Terms of Agreement for Onyens
You, the customer, are solely responsible for the use of your UNC Onyen, the resources to which your Onyen provides access, activity on the network that can be traced back to your account or computer, and for the content of any information you make available through use of these resources. All such activity is subject to the laws of the State of North Carolina and the United States, as well as the policies governing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. By accepting computing and network privileges and continued access to these resources, you are also accepting the following terms of agreement:

Access to computing and network resources granted through the issuing of a UNC Onyen may be used only by the specific individual to whom the Onyen is issued and may not be shared with other individuals.

An individual’s personal data and use of the network are considered private, but personal data and network activity may be reviewed by ITS staff under certain circumstances. Such circumstances include, but are not limited to, the specific request of the owner of data for staff to examine content; the administration of a system or the network requiring special intervention; and suspicion of ethical or legal violations that staff members with proper security authorization are compelled to investigate.

Access to computing and network resources is intended to support the University mission and must be used in an ethical and legal manner consistent with all University policies.

Legal, Ethical, and University Policy Prohibitions

The following list of prohibitions is meant as a representative sampling and is by no means intended to provide a comprehensive collection of legal, ethical, and University policy violations.

Activities prohibited when using UNC computing and network resources include, but are not limited to:

  • Harassment (which is defined in the Campus Honor Code)
  • Any commercial or for-profit ventures (such as running a business using your campus web space, email account, or network access)
  • Disrupting a system or the network, consuming excessive system or network resources, or preventing authorized access of such resources for use by others;
  • Access, attempted or successful, to resources for which you do not have proper authorization
  • Distribution of pornography
  • Possession, accessing, or distribution of obscene material
  • Copyright violation (including possession or distribution of written, graphic, video, music or other media, such as MP3 files, which you are not legally authorized to possess or distribute).

Consequences of Misuse

Violations of the above terms of agreement may result in suspension of computing privileges, disciplinary review, termination of employment, and/or legal action. UNC will refer serious violations to the appropriate department for disciplinary action.

Classroom and Student Use

If you are going to use a web.unc.edu site as part of your class you should inform students of, and follow the online class statement that is required to be on all class syllabi.