Rules for Users of
Penn's Electronic Resources
Penn's Policy on Acceptable Use of Electronic Resources is the
framework within which the Penn community understands its rights
and responsibilities with respect to the electronic environment.
It is the responsibility of the
Vice President for
Information Systems and Computing to publish specific rules
that interpret the policy.
Rules governing the following topics have been established:
Username Changes on E-mail Accounts
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| Rule |
Effective July 1, 1997:
Individual PennNames and usernames on
systems synchronized with PennNames will not be altered once
assigned unless an individual's legal name changes, a PennName
is judged offensive to the Penn community, or e-mail harrassment or threats warrant a change.
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| Notes |
Usernames on major e-mail systems are derived from
PennNames, a central, consolidated database of username
information. PennNames was created to provide individuals
a single username that will be valid for all Penn accounts
and information systems. The integrity of PennNames is crucial
to Penn's evolving electronic environment.
To request a PennName change due to a change in legal name,
report a possibly offensive username for review or report an incident of electronic harrassment or threat
contact your local support provider.
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Operation of Large Mailing Lists |
| Rule |
Effective July 1, 1997:
Large mailing lists must be administered
by their creators to minimize adverse impacts on campus systems,
list recipients, and users sharing electronic resources. Users
creating a large mailing list must:
- Permit no more than two authorized e-mail accounts to send messages
to the list;
- Configure the list to prevent recipients from responding to the
whole list;
- Send messages that do not exceed 1KB, contain only text, and
refer recipients to NetNews or web postings for more
information when appropriate;
- Comply with special handling requests from
administrators of large e-mail systems offering alternate
delivery mechanisms -- i.e. administrator receipt of the message
text and a list of the recipients on specified hosts for special
handling; and
- Configure the "sender" and/or "reply-to"
address of list messages to point to a mail alias so that the true
sender's e-mail account is not flooded with responses from
recipients. A message must always have a
valid "reply-to" alias address.
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| Notes |
A large mailing list is one where:
- The total number of addresses in the list exceeds 750, or
- The total number of addresses bound for a single e-mail server exceeds
500, and the list is not an ISC, School or department-created
class list.
Rules governing the maintenance of large mailing lists apply regardless of
whether they were created manually (by collecting the addresses and
building the list by hand) or automatically (by accessing a database,
data warehouse, or directory and building a list based on a query or set
of criteria). For information about automatic list creation, contact the
appropriate Data Steward or ISC
Data Administration.
Schools, centers, or departments may impose these rules on lists of
varying sizes. Creators of lists exceeding 100 recipients are encouraged to
follow these rules.
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Rights of List Participation |
| Rule |
Effective July 1, 1997:
Users have the right to unsubscribe
from any e-mail list except those in which they are informed
that participation is mandatory, i.e. faculty class lists,
public-service lists, or work-group lists. Recipients
may justifiably object if inappropriate messages are sent to
any list.
To facilitate these rights, list creators must:
- Make available instructions on how to unsubscribe;
- Create an e-mail alias of the form listname-request@host.upenn.edu
to facilitate communication about subscribing and unsubscribing;
- Create an e-mail alias of the form "list-owner@host.upenn.edu"
to facilitate communication about inappropriate messages; and
- Allow users to unsubscribe themselves if possible.
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| Notes |
From a recipients point of view, list messages
can be solicited (where the recipient has voluntarily
subscribed to a mailing list) or unsolicited (where the
recipient has not voluntarily subscribed to a list).
Users who subscribe to lists may, however, not view
each and every message as solicited. On the other hand,
some unsolicited list mail may be appropriately sent to
users by virtue of their participation in the electronic
environment (e.g. system messages to users and public
safety messages).
To further facilitate unsubscription rights, list creators
should also consider attaching the following footer
to all list mail:
This message was sent to you by the listname
mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a message with the word
"unsubscribe" in the body of your message to listname@host.domain.upenn.edu
For additional perspectives on unsolicited e-mail see information
on spamming.
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Maintenance of Message Archives |
| Rule |
Effective July 1, 1997:
To protect the privacy rights of
individuals, creators of collaborative environments -- whether
by means of e-mail, listserv, NetNews, class lists, or any other
means -- must post clearly to all new users the existence of any
message archives, the duration of time for which the archives
are kept, the individuals who have access to the archives, and under
what circumstances the archives are made available. Changes
to the archive rules must be publicized promptly. |
| Notes |
For an overview of collaborative technologies, see the document
Collaborating via the Internet.
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