NYU Blogs Terms of Use (Interim)
Effective Date: May 16, 2007
Date of Latest Revision: May 16, 2007
Contact: blogs.help@nyu.edu
Statement of Terms of Use
A blog—short for “web log”—is a collection of public postings that permit the primary and contributing authors to create a running commentary that may address any topics the authors wish. Information Technology Services (ITS) provides NYU Blogs Services in support of scholarly, curricular, extra-curricular, and personal communications conducted by eligible members of the University community. Blogs are, by default, visible to the public (see Features and Defaults, Access Restriction). Each blog is associated with an individual’s NetID. This individual, hereafter known as the “primary author” of the blog, is responsible for the information posted to the blog.
As a user of NYU’s computing services, you must comply with all federal, New York State, local, and other applicable law; all University rules and policies, including the Policy on Responsible Use of NYU Computers & Data, the Responsibilities of All NYU Computer, Data, and Network Users, and the World Wide Web Policies and Procedures, found at http://www.nyu.edu/its/policies; all applicable contracts and licenses; and these Terms of Use which describe rules and settings specific to the NYU Blogs Service. NYU reserves the right to change, at any time, at its sole discretion, the provisions of the service and these Terms of Use.
Eligibility
Any degree student or employee with an active NYUHome account is eligible to be a blog primary author. Blog primary authors may continue to use the NYU Blogs Service as long as they retain active NYUHome accounts. NYUHome termination rules apply (http://www.nyu.edu/its/accounts/students/grad.html for additional information). Upon departure from the University community, blog primary authors may request to have their blog content exported or deleted.
Departments, offices, or programs of the University, pending approval and sponsorship by an authorized departmental official, may maintain blogs explicitly approved for official University business. The authorized departmental official is either the dean of the college or an equivalent campus official whose name and affiliation are maintained for this purpose by the NYU Web Team. The authorized departmental official may request a departmental blog at blogs.request@nyu.edu.
Responsibility for Content
Each blog has a specified primary author who is solely responsible for the information posted on the blog. The primary author may designate additional eligible individuals as contributing authors of that blog and may allow or disallow readers to post comments within the blog.
Creation of blogs may involve incorporation of original works of third parties (e.g., literature, photographs, music, software, film, and video works) that are covered by copyright laws. Blog primary authors and contributing authors are responsible for obtaining all permissions that may be necessary to incorporate works of third parties in their blog. Use of such works may be permitted by principles of fair use, consistent with copyright laws (see, for example, http://www.nyu.edu/oaa/policies.html, and http://library.nyu.edu/copyright/).
Both individual blogs and departmental blogs should reflect the positive and respectful learning and working environment of New York University within which basic rules of conduct for the entire University community, as well as the general community, prevail. Such rules of conduct are discussed in the University Policy on Student Conduct, the Faculty Handbook, and the Administrative and Professional Handbook.
Monitoring
Although NYU does not routinely pre-screen, monitor, or regularly review posted blog content, it reserves the right to remove, at any time, at its sole discretion, any content that it considers to violate these Terms of Use or the terms of any other campus user agreements that may govern use of the campus networks, or that it deems in violation of University policy or local, state, or federal law. Should the University receive reports regarding a blog site on which it is felt that inappropriate content has been posted, NYU will investigate and contact the blog’s primary author to initially discuss the issue. In exceptional cases, where the content is obviously unacceptable, ITS will immediately remove the entry, prior to contacting the blog’s primary author. Unacceptable entries of this sort also may cause a blog to be suspended, and in extreme cases, may result in disciplinary proceedings against the primary author and/or contributing authors. Reports regarding inappropriate blog content may be sent to blogs.abuse@nyu.edu.
Service Availability
Availability of the NYU Blogs Service may be interrupted for maintenance and other updates and is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis only.
Service Enhancements
NYU offers a set of ancillary software that is available to all primary and contributing authors, such as shareware plug-ins, databases, and/or script languages that those authors may wish to use in their blogs. We accept suggestions for additional software for consideration at a later date.
NYU Disclaimer
By default, blogs will be available on the Internet and, therefore, can be indexed and searched unless the blog’s primary author disables this feature. Each NYU Blogs page (blogs.nyu.edu) must carry this disclaimer or contain a link to this disclaimer:
“These pages do not in any way constitute official New York University content. The views and opinions expressed in the pages are strictly those of the page authors. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by New York University. NYU makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the site’s operation or the information, content or materials included on this site. To the full extent permissible by applicable law, NYU hereby disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose. NYU will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of or inability to use this site. You expressly agree that you use this site solely at your own risk. Questions or concerns about page content should be directed to the page author. For copyright inquiries, follow the procedure outlined on the NYU Copyright Communications page.”
Features and Defaults
The NYU Blogs Service is characterized by a large number of features and defaults, notably:
Multiple Blogs
An individual can create up to five blogs under the primary author’s NetID namespace, i.e.,
http://blogs.nyu.edu/NetID/blogname1
http://blogs.nyu.edu/NetID/blogname2
http://blogs.nyu.edu/NetID/blogname3
http://blogs.nyu.edu/NetID/blogname4
http://blogs.nyu.edu/NetID/blogname5
Templates
Blog primary authors will have full access to customize their blog templates.
Search Engine Indexing
By default, all sites will be accessible by commercial search engines for indexing. Blog primary authors will be provided with the ability to disable indexing. Note: the main NYU Search (based on Google technology) will NOT index sites on blogs.nyu.edu.
Access Restriction
By default, all blog sites will be available on the Internet. However, primary authors are provided with a utility to restrict access to their site.
File Uploads
Authors may upload media files (e.g., images, video, audio) for display on their blog.
Comments
Comments are used to enable dialogue about a blog post between author and readers directly on the blog. Comments are enabled by default. Anyone may post a comment; however, all comments first must be approved and published by the primary author before they are visible. The primary author may put access restrictions to the site into place (see section Access Restriction above). A primary author may disable commenting on a per post or per blog basis. Comment moderation is available for identifying and removing spam or inappropriate comments.
TrackBacks
TrackBacks are used to facilitate communication between blogs, enabling blog authors to keep track of who is linking to or referring to their posts. TrackBacks are disabled by default. A primary author may enable Trackbacks on a per post or per blog basis. TrackBack moderation is available for identifying and removing spam or inappropriate TrackBacks.
Syndication
Syndication is a publishing format that lets people view headlines of the latest updates from their favorite blogs and web sites all from within a single newsreader program. Syndication feeds in both the Atom and RSS XML file formats are produced by default. Feeds can be disabled on a per blog basis.
Archives
By default, all blog content is archived on a monthly basis in order to provide the ability to browse older entries that may not be present on the blog’s front page, unless the blog primary author explicitly deletes the content.
Limits
NYU may establish size limits on blog content and may modify these limits at any time. This includes, but is not restricted to, the total size of the blog content and the size of individual images, videos, or other material uploaded to a blog. The system is monitored for large-scale use and individual blog primary authors may be subject to specific restrictions in the interest of preserving the smooth functioning of the NYU Blogs Service.