Policies

Please feel free to view Western Oregon University’s Full Acceptable Use Policy.

For your convenience, we have summarized the Acceptable Use Policy below, highlighting specific areas of relevant interest to residents.

• File Sharing
  • File Sharing is a complicated topic. Not all file-sharing is wrong, but some is. The real issue is whether or not the files you are sharing are copyrighted. The copying or sharing of ANY copyrighted material is against the law. It is a federal offense.
    Programs like Kazaa and Morpheus are not illegal to use. However, if you use these or other programs to download or share copyrighted material, you are breaking school policy. Students found to be downloading or sharing copyrighted material will lose all residential network privileges for 45 DAYS. Upon a second offense, you will be removed from the residence halls. As a general guideline for music and movies: If you downloaded the song/movie from the artist’s website (or paid for the song/movie), there is no problem. However, if you can purchase the song/movie in a store, and you got it online for free – it may not be legal. Copying or distributing unauthorized software from computer networks or computers makes the person liable for copyright infringement. Participating in these activities may result in revocations of WOU network services without refund and possible University judicial action and/or criminal charges. For your own protection, Residential Computing has banned the use of p2p (peer-to-peer) file-sharing programs in the residence halls. Please uninstall any file-sharing programs you may have. It is also highly recommended that you delete any content acquired illegally with them.
•  Personal Network Equipment (INCLUDING wireless equipment)
• • Please do not bring or use any personal networking equipment. This includes the use of hubs, switches, and/or routers. Setting up a private subnet is prohibited. Personal networking equipment is not allowed in the residence halls, as a piece of non-WOU-owned equipment can damage the functionality of our network. Students are not allowed to use any kind of personal networking equipment.

• Servers
  • Setting up servers or using traffic intensive applications that may cause problems within the network or diluting the level of service to other users in the residence halls is strictly prohibited. This includes web, gopher, email, game, and FTP servers (among others). Please call Residential Computing about questions concerning servers.

• Other Information
  • Exercise your freedom to speak out, but please do so responsibly and in a way that reflects creditably on the University. Be aware that using University computer resources to defame others or invade their privacy may result in you being sued. Students are not allowed to use any kind of personal networking equipment. Those wishing to use gaming devices (Xbox, PlayStation, etc�) on the WOU network can register their gaming device in the Residential Computer Lab.

If you have any questions about our policies, feel free to contact Residential Computing