November 21, 1996

1. Purpose.
1. To ensure that use of access to the Internet and associated equipment is consistent with the Colorado General Assembly's legal responsibility and business interests.
2. To encourage responsible, efficient use of Internet access to increase the productivity of the Colorado General Assembly.
3. To discourage Internet usage for nonbusiness purposes that may adversely affect the responsiveness of critical business systems on the network.
4. To make users of the Legislative Computer Network aware of their rights and responsibilities as regards Internet access.
2. Scope.
1. Any and all information transactions performed from the Legislative Local Area network to another PC or network via an Internet connection shall be considered Internet access.
2. Although not considered part of the Internet, this policy applies equally to access of bulletin board systems, direct dialup information sources, and third party commercial access points whether or not they are directly connected to the Internet.
3. This policy applies to Internet electronic mail communications as well as other types of Internet transactions. However, for more specific acceptable use guidelines for electronic mail, see the Colorado General Assembly's electronic mail policy.
3. General Provisions.
1. Under no circumstances shall equipment, supplies, or other similar items, including Internet access accounts, equipment, and software, which is the property of the Colorado General Assembly, be used for private business purposes, for political purposes of a partisan nature, for campaign purposes, or for personal gain of a legislative member or staff of the General Assembly.
2. The Legislative Computer Network and its accompanying Internet access facilities and equipment are intended for official use by authorized employees of the included Legislative Agencies for the sole purpose of conducting the business of the State of Colorado.
3. Any connection between the Colorado General Assembly Local Area Network and the Internet presents the opportunity for non- legislative employees to attempt to gain access to internal systems and information. It is therefore extremely important that such a connection is secure, controlled, and monitored.
4. The nature of the Internet poses the opportunity for vast amounts of information to be accessed in a short period of time. However, access to this information utilizes network hardware and bandwidth resources, and the balance between critical internal application functions and Internet access should always be kept in mind.
5. There are literally thousands of computer networks attached to the Internet worldwide, and most of them have their own "acceptable use policy" (AUP) which they post and expect compliance with. Users of the Legislative Local Area Network are expected to abide by the AUP on not only this network, but of all the networks that their communications pass through. Theoretically, keeping track of all these possible rules and expectations would be quite an impossible task. However, in reality, most AUP's are very similar and an exercise of good judgement, courtesy, and professionalism will usually facilitate compliance.
4. Specific Provisions.
1. NSFNET Backbone. Much of all Internet traffic flows through the NSF (National Science Foundation) backbone system and therefore must comply with NSF's AUP, which is a rather conservative set of rules. By following the NSF's AUP you can feel relatively safe that you are complying with the other networks' AUP's. Please see Appendix A for the National Science Foundations' Network Acceptable Use Policy.
2. Acceptable Conduct. Users will be held to the same standards of professionalism, good taste, and judgement when utilizing the Internet as with any other business function.
3. Specific Usage.
1. Permitted Use.
1. Sending and receiving electronic messages with reasonably sized attachments for business purposes, provided that:
1. Any file attachment received via an electronic mail message is scanned for viruses prior to opening/executing such file.
2. Any software program file attachment is approved prior to installation on any PC on the Legislative Local Area Network.
2. Any user approved for World Wide Web (WWW) access may connect to and view any WWW page for well-defined business purposes.
3. Any user, respecting all appropriate copyright and intellectual property laws, may print or copy WWW pages for their use.
4. Any user approved to download files from a WWW or File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site may download such files, provided that:
1. Any such file is scanned for viruses prior to introduction on the network.
2. Any software program file downloaded is approved prior to installation on any PC on the Legislative Local Area network.
3. All software licensing requirements are fulfilled prior to downloading or installing any software program files from an Internet source.
2. Prohibited Use.
1. Creating or forwarding electronic mail chain letters.
2. Sending or arranging to receive electronic mail attachments of an unreasonable size.
3. Sending sensitive or confidential information by electronic mail over the Internet.
4. Opening or executing any file received from the Internet without first performing a virus scan on such file.
5. Installation of Web Server or Bulletin Board System (BBS) software on any PC attached to the Legislative Local area network.
6. Downloading and/or installing Web browser software on any PC attached to the Legislative Local Area Network without having secured permission and complying with licensing requirements in advance. This includes any Beta release browser software offered and distributed for evaluation purposes.
7. Downloading and/or installing any other software program file from a WWW site, an FTP site, or received as an Internet mail attachment without prior approval to do so.
8. Connecting to WWW or FTP sites or to Usenet Newsgroups whose content would not be considered 'for business purposes'. Examples of such sites are, but are not limited to:
1. sex or pornography.
2. Sales or purchasing of illegal drugs.
3. Criminal 'how-to' skills.
4. Hate or blatantly discriminatory speech.
5. Online gambling.
6. Sports scores, statistics, standings, etc.
7. Entertainment or games.
8. Online merchandising.
9. Humor or jokes.
10. Job search.
4. Privacy Rights.
1. Authorized network administrators and agency management, from time to time and without prior notice, may monitor the use of Internet access. Such monitoring may include tracking, cataloging, and verification of Internet sites accessed by users.
2. Because the Colorado General Assembly contracts for Internet Access through the General Government Computer Center's arrangement with a commercial Internet provider, users should be aware that monitoring of Internet access may be occurring at these locations under policies that are not within our control.
3. The Colorado General Assembly, through its designated representatives or agency management, reserves the right to discipline or terminate employees based on information obtained from monitoring or inspection of Internet usage where such information is grounds for such action.
4. The Colorado General Assembly, through its designated representatives or agency management, reserves the right to discipline or terminate employees for any software licensing violation resulting from an unauthorized Internet file download.
5. The Colorado General Assembly, through its designated representatives or agency management, reserves the right to disclose Internet access monitoring information to law enforcement officials, without the consent of the employee and without giving prior notice to the employee where such action is deemed appropriate.
6. The Colorado General Assembly, its designated representatives, and agency management will make every attempt, where possible, to respect an objection to disclosure of Internet access monitoring information based on a claim that disclosure will result in personal embarrassment.
7. The Colorado General Assembly, its designated representatives, and agency management will make every attempt, where possible, to respect an objection to disclosure of Internet access monitoring information based on a claim that the disclosure would result in an invasion of a privacy right.
8. When there are overriding management concerns regarding office policy, compliance with the public records law, compliance with requests from law enforcement officials, or other purposeful disclosure, individual privacy rights may not exist and the provisions of paragraphs 6 and 7 of this subsection D, may not apply.
5. System Responsibility. The effective use of Internet access resources and the efficiency of network resources as a whole is dependent upon the good judgement of the system's users. All Internet access requires network system resources and individual PC resources which are necessary for the function of normal internal applications and processes. The following Internet access guidelines should be followed at all times.
1. Use your Internet access software on an 'as-needed' basis. There should never be a need to run Internet access software in a minimized state, and placing such software (ie: WWW browser) in the Windows startup group is prohibited.
2. The installation and operation of any 'real-time' Internet notification software (ie: sports-score updates, Dow Jones ticker-tape, etc.) is prohibited.
3. If you are downloading a file which is unusually large, or files which are unusually numerous, please do so at off-peak work hours (ie: before 8:00 am, after 5:00 pm, during the lunch hour, etc.) so as not to interrupt or slow down normal network application performance.

General Principle:

Specifically Acceptable Uses:

Unacceptable uses.

This statement applies to use of the NSFNET backbone only. NSF expects that connecting networks will formulate their own use policies. The NSF Division of Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure will resolve any questions about this policy or its interpretation.

November 20, 1996