Policies
More than fifty thousand members of the UW community use and rely on UW computer resources for their daily work and education. This shared, interconnected system can continue to meet our needs only if each user understands and follows UW policies.
Creating a Web site involves three major policy topics:
Proper Use
University Web servers and networks are provided to faculty, staff, and students to support teaching and learning, research, and administration.
To better understand the complexities of proper use of these important services, try the Proper Use Quiz.
Improper use of these resources can get you into trouble and could even result in loss of access to them. It is your responsibility to know the rules.
Also, please keep in mind that any Web page you create on UW servers may be seen by viewers around the world. Strive for quality and professionalism that reflects well on the University.
Appropriate Uses
- A faculty member creating a class home page which includes the syllabus, schedule, and sample study questions.
- A staff member creating a Web site for a UW committee to post schedules, minutes, and documents.
- A student posting draft versions of a report his seminar team is working on.
Inappropriate Uses
- A staff member using UW servers for political campaigning.
- Use of UW servers for personal gain.
- Plagiarism or other misuse of the intellectual property of others.
Proper Use Resources
- Know the Rules - A page with links to the specific Washington State laws relating to proper use of UW resources and services.
Accessibility
While HTML offers many complex capabilities for graphics, forms, image maps and much more, the documents you create must be usable by your audience. Your documents may be inaccessible to your audience for a number of reasons.
Basic Access
- Limited Computer or Network Access
Information available only on the Web is unavailable to people who do not have Web access. For example, many students do not have computers at home and commute to campus. The only opportunities they have to view class materials on the Web are when they can get to one of the campus computer labs, which are often heavily used during the day.
Consider The Disabled
It is UW policy to provide reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities.
- Visual Disabilities
Visually impaired persons can navigate the Web by using a voice browser which reads the page out-loud or a browser that enlarges the page. Documents relying on imagemaps, tables, or graphics can be uninterpretable for such persons. Also, some types of visual impairments make it difficult for a person to sort out strong patterns or to interpret low contrast graphics. - Motor-Control Disabilities
Some persons have limited motor control of their bodies, making it very difficult for them to do fine control of the position of a mouse or to do combined actions such as exactly positioning the pointer on a screen and simultaneously clicking the mouse.
Making UW Web Sites Accessible To Everyone
Extensive information about accessible Web site design has been assembed on the Information Technology Accessibility pages.
Accessibility Resources
- World Wide Access: Accessible Web Design - UW's DO-IT Program
- The Equal Opportunity Office - University of Washington
- Desiging Universal/Accessible Web Sites - The Trace Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- HTML Unleashed: Creating Widely Accessible Web Pages - Dmitry Kirsanov
- Equal Access to Software and Information (EASI) - National Science Foundation
- WebAIM (Web
Accessibility In Mind) - Excellent resources, including
a detailed tutorial and articles on how to use Web
publishing programs such as FrontPage and DreamWeaver to
create accessible sites.
- WebAIM Quick Tips For Developers
- WebAIM Tutorials - How To Implement The W3C Recommendations
- Cynthia Says - An easy to use program that will help you make Web pages accessible to those with disabilities.
- JAWS - An expensive voice browser
- Window-Eyes - Another voice browser
Intellectual Property
The Web makes it easy to connect to the creative works of others and to make your own works available to anyone who is interested. At the same time, the Web makes it easy to copy the works of others and for others to copy your works. Plagiarism is easy on the Web.
Types of Intellectual Property
| Copyright | Any original work is automatically copyrighted. The owner of the copyright holds certain specific rights relative to the work, including the right of distribution and the right to create derivative works. |
|---|---|
| Trademarks | Trademarks are about how products are uniquely identified in the market and include protections from anyone trying to use similar identification for a similar product. Unlike copyrights, trademarks must be actively defended. |
| Trade Secrets | Trade secrets are information protected by contractual agreements. Here at the UW information collected by a research project may be protected by such an agreement. |
| Licensing Agreements | Software in general cannot be copyrighted, so it is usually protected by licensing agreements. When you buy software you are actually only buying a license to use the software under specified conditions, such as not making copies of the software. |
Important Points About Intellectual Property
- UW Policy
It is the policy of the University to respect intellectual property protections. - Most Works Are Protected
Under current law, all "works of authorship" are copyrighted automatically at the time of creation. Some works on the Web are "public domain," but it is usually best to assume anything you find on the Web is owned by somebody. - Get Permission First
Obtain permission first if you are planning to copy someone else's work into your Web site, such as an essay from a book or a graphic from a Web site. Often, permission can be obtained quickly by email. If you can't get permission, do not use the material. - Linking Usually Does Not Require
Permission
Linking to an existing Web site generally does not require permission, although it is courteous to inform the site owner of your intention to do so. - Fair Use
The legal principle of "fair use" does allow some use of the works of others, but only in certain ways and for specific purposes.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property Rights
To protect your intellectual property, consider the following:
- Declare your copyright.
Actually, under current copyright law you do not need to have text in your document declaring that it is copyrighted. Any new work is inherently copyrighted by the person or organization that created it. However, if you want to make clear that you have an interest in how your work is used, it is a good idea to include a copyright declaration. Put a copyright symbol (©) followed by the year and your name at the beginning of each of your documents. For example, the following HTML
© 1998 John Smith
would create the following copyright declaration:
© 1998 John Smith - Do not post your works on the Web if you do not
want to risk losing control of them!
Remember, anyone who can view your document can keep a copy.
Intellectual Property Resources
- The Copyright Court - Online video developed by UWTV
- Copyright Issues
- Copyright Information for Educators - University Libraries
- U.S. Copyright Office Home Page
- Intellectual Property Law Primer For Multimedia Developers
- The Copyright Website
- The Perkins Coie Internet Case Digest