Conditions of Use

SAPAC Conditions of Use (Acceptable Use Policy)

All use of SAPAC Facilities is subject to the "General conditions of use" shown below and will be classified as either (i) acceptable research use, (ii) acceptable education use, or (iii) acceptable commercial use. It is the responsibility of the user to establish the classification of each of their activities by first consulting with the SAPAC Helpdesk and/or the SAPAC Business Manager.

General conditions of use

SAPAC acceptable use policy is broadly aligned with and assumes the Acceptable Use policy of Information Technology Services at SAPAC's host organisation, the University of Adelaide. Users must conform to these conditions.

Unacceptable use includes:
1. any violation of state or federal law;
2. installation or de-installation of software or a database without prior written/email approval of the User Services specialist [helpdesk];
3. use of communications infrastructure for activities that have not been authorised by SAPAC;
4. sharing passwords or accounts for any reason; and
5. any anti-social behaviour or harassment.

Unacceptable use can, at SAPAC's discretion, result in immediate suspension of the account for a minimum of 10 days; repeated unacceptable use will result in a personal ban for a period to be determined by SAPAC management; in these cases, users have the right of review by the SAPAC Steering Committee.

SAPAC user services and system management staff reserve the right, without notice, to:
1. assign priority to particular jobs;
2. assign computing, storage and communications resources to jobs;
3. suspend or delete a job or process;
4. monitor jobs, including input and output files;
5. collect usage statistics about any accounts;
6. enquire about the nature of any jobs or other usage; and
7. request users to leave SAPAC venues.

Costs incurred to SAPAC through unauthorized or unacceptable use will be passed onto the user concerned. Damage other than normal wear and tear and theft of SAPAC property is the responsibility of the user who will be liable for replacement.

Acceptable Research Use

SAPAC encourages the acceptable research use of its facilities and services in all ways that are consistent with SAPAC's mission and with the research objectives of its partner Universities. Acceptable use is therefore defined as any use of SAPAC facilities and services to directly support legitimate university research and development. There is currently no charge for acceptable research use of SAPAC facilities.

On behalf of its partner Universities, the management of SAPAC reserves the right to determine what is and what is not 'legitimate' research (subject to appeal through the SAPAC Steering Committee) or what is a reasonable use of SAPAC facilities and services for research purposes.

Acceptable Educational Use

The use of SAPAC Facilities for acceptable (non-research) educational and training purposes by any of the three partner universities or other accredited educational institutions is possible and may be negotiated with SAPAC.

However, as the SAPAC mission does not include support of non-research activities and as it is not funded to do so, such use will necessarily involve modest charges.

Acceptable Commercial Use

SAPAC charges modest fees for the commercial use of its facilities and services. These fees are published elsewhere. Commercial use includes use both by companies and organisations outside SAPAC's partner Universities and also use undertaken for commercial clients by researchers at the partner Universities. State and Federal government agencies are considered to be a special class of 'commercial' users.

University-based 'commercial' use includes but is not limited to contract research for external agencies, fee-for-service research, research undertaken under the auspices of a CRC or Research Centre substantially funded by external organisations, and research directed at the commercialisation of a product. On behalf of its partner Universities, the management of SAPAC reserves the right to determine what is (and what isn't) 'commercial' research (subject to appeal through the SAPAC Steering Committee).

Note that software, including compilers and other tools, on SAPAC systems might be subject to educational use conditions. Typically these explicitly forbid using the software for commercial projects. By submitting a job, account holders accept sole and personal responsibility for their legal use of any software installed on SAPAC systems.

All 'commercial' jobs must be notified to SAPAC management and must be subject to a written agreement, without which SAPAC assumes no responsibility and will accept no liability for an account or job. Running 'commercial' jobs without prior permission (generally in the form of a written agreement) from SAPAC management is considered unacceptable use; the account will be suspended immediately and the account holder will be invoiced at the current full commercial rate.

This policy is effective from May 2005 and has been authorised by Professor Anthony Williams, Director, SAPAC. For enquiries, please contact SAPAC's Business Manager.