Policy on the Use of Computer Games on Department of Computer Science Facilities The computer systems operated by DCS are intended primarily for academic-related computing needs. The support of recreational computer programs (e.g., games) is not a primary mission of DCS. Uncontrolled playing of games consumes costly resources in the following manners: + Games consume expensive CPU time. + People playing games often monopolize user stations in the various labs for long periods of time. + Interactive game playing often involves the frequent use of of specific keys on a keyboard. This results in additional wear and tear on the mechanism behind those keys, and increased failure rates. + Game playing can consume limited and costly network resources such as dialup lines and network bandwidth. DCS recognizes, however, that game playing does offer some bene- fits to the community, specifically: + Games provide an introduction to the RIT computing facili- ties. + They provide programming experience to users who develop game programs. + Games can provide a quick break from a period of intensive study. + The use of a common system-supplied games library provides an alternative to keeping multiple copies of the games in user accounts. + The use of a system-supplied games library allows for a review mechanism to ensure that games programs are free of virus and trojan horse attacks. Accordingly, DCS allows playing of games from a DCS-provided library under the following conditions: + Games are playable only at times when the overall load in the various labs is low enough to prevent game playing from impacting serious work in any manner. DCS Games Policy - 1 - Revised: 910823 + DCS faculty and/or staff will support the games in the sup- plied library on a time-available basis. + Efforts to subvert the DCS games control mechanisms in any way, shape, or form will be considered a violation of the Code of Conduct for use of DCS Facilities. + Game playing is forbidden from dialup lines between the hours of 8:00 am and 11:00 pm Monday through Friday, and at all times from remote systems (via "rlogin" and similar mechanisms). + Using DCS resources to access games on computer systems at other sites is strictly forbidden. + Games are not to be played for any reason when any DCS faculty or staff member requests that you do not. + The playing and storing of game programs residing in indivi- dual accounts is forbidden. If it is determined that these games exist to circumvent the games control mechanisms, the owner of the account in question will be considered to be in violation of the Code of Conduct. + DCS reserves the right to adjust the user load lim- its enforced by the games preprocessor to reflect system loads, hardware capabilities and software requirements. + DCS considers the use of this software to be a privilege, not a right. Accordingly, violations of these conditions may result in the loss of this privilege. DCS accepts submissions for inclusion into the games library under the following conditions: + All game submissions must be in program source form. There will be no exceptions. All game executables will be built by DCS personnel from the supplied sources. + All game submissions must be either original work from the submitter or bona fide public domain programs. Copyrighted or licensed programs will not be accepted. + Games are placed in the games library on an install-and- forget basis. Games requiring ongoing administration or maintenance will not be accepted. + Game submissions requiring special privileges to run will not be accepted. + Games which depend upon a specific release of a particular operating system will not be accepted. DCS Games Policy - 2 - Revised: 910823 Qualifying submissions approved for installation will be installed in the games library on a time available basis. This means that considerable time may elapse from the time of submission to installation. Revisions to previously submit- ted games will be considered with the same scrutiny as original submissions. If a user wishes to develop an original game program within a personal account, he or she may do so under the following conditions: + Under the terms of our UNIX[1] license, any software developed on our systems must be freely distributable; thus, any software developed on DCS systems cannot be sold commer- cially, and must be distributed free of charge (with the exception that a reasonable charge for duplication of materials is acceptable). + No additional disk quota will be granted for such an effort. A user found using additional quota requested for an academic purpose to develop games shall be considered in violation of this policy. + The game in its development stages will be at all times properly protected from all access (including execution of the game) by any account other than the owner's. + If the developer wishes to allow program testing of the game by a specific group of users, he or she may do so by making the game generally executable after embedding statements within the game's startup code which will only allow execution by members of the specific group. Such verification must be done by UID or account name, and may not include more than ten accounts. + If a test period is established, it is the responsibility of the owner to ensure that testing is done only when general game playing is allowed on the system as determined by the standard games control mechanism. + At no time during the development of the game will the source, object, or executable images of the game be copyable (readable) by any other user. + After testing for no more than one academic quarter, the testing period will terminate, and the general execute per- missions must be removed from the game image. ____________________ [1]UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. DCS Games Policy - 3 - Revised: 910823 + When development is complete, the owner may submit the game for inclusion in the DCS games library or remove the game files from his or her account. + Upon submission of the game to DCS, the program and files shall be considered to have been entered into the public domain. DCS Games Policy - 4 - Revised: 910823