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Information Resources Management Committee

Responding to Identified Instances of Inappropriate Use of Electronic Resources

Vendors of electronic resources may contact us when they learn that someone at UW is using a resource in a manner that is inconsistent with the licence. As of November 2003 we have experienced four such instances. Based on our experience, we can anticipate that the vendor will:

  1. know what IP address is associated with the inappropriate use
  2. have already cut off access to that particular IP address
  3. threaten to cut off campus wide access if the matter is not resolved by a specified date
  4. not necessarily be very precise about the nature of the inappropriate use

In addition the vendor will expect us to:

  1. contact the user in question to find out what was going on
  2. advise the user that there was a breach
  3. obtain assurances from the user that they understand and accept that there was a problem, and that they will not repeat the problem
  4. respond to them by a specified date

Steps to follow to resolve such situations include (depending on the circumstances some of the steps may not be necessary and the order in which the steps are taken may vary):

  1. check our licence to see if you can get a sense of what the violation might relate to. Debbie Tytko will probably have a copy, or it may be on-line at the vendor’s site)
  2. contact Charles Woods to find out who is responsible for the IP address (see number 8 if the IP address is for the Proxy Server)
  3. contact the person responsible for the IP address, explain the situation, and ask them who usually has access to the computer in question
  4. contact the user (preferably by phone), explain the situation and ask for their explanation of what was going on; might be good to ask them to follow-up by sending you an explanation by email (can be handy for the response that you need to send to the vendor but make sure that the user knows you’ll be doing this)
  5. if you’re not sure what the user was doing that was inappropriate, contact the vendor and ask – might be best to do this by phone
  6. once you’re confident that the user understands and accepts that something they did was inappropriate and will not repeat it, get back to the vendor with assurances that the matter has been resolved
  7. send a copy of your response to Susan Routliffe who will maintain a file of complaints and responses
  8. if the IP address is for the Proxy Server we will also need the patron ID number in order to identify the user. Chris Gray will provide the number. If you cannot establish contact with the user by the end of the day, contact Susan Routliffe so that she can ask User Services to suspend the patron's privileges. An email message will then be sent to the patron explaining that privileges have been suspended and asking them to contact us so that we can resolve the matter.

Prepared by Susan Routliffe, April 14, 2003 and updated on November 28, 2003 (the update is based on experience gained when a user accessed resources via the proxy server).

Information Resources Management Committee
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December 14, 2006