Acceptable Use Policy
The following documents outlines the Acceptable Use Policy for user home pages on the Pristine Web server. To maintain such a page, you need to own an Internet account at Pristine Communications in Taipei, Taiwan.
Introduction
As one of our users, you are entitled to put up a free WWW home page. If you choose to accept this mission, you will be entirely responsible for your page's upkeep and beauty. This is your big chance to express yourself to the world! To encourage everyone to get their home pages up, we're moving home pages from zeus (www) to neptune (www1). What this means is that you'll have direct access to your home pages on our system. You'll be able to edit your pages and put them up on our web server all by yourself. However, this does NOT mean that you have carte blanche to post anything you want on the WWW. Here are some rules that MUST be obeyed:
1. Legal Issues:
We at the PIG have no interest in infringing your right to "free speech", but since this public forum is made possible in part through the efforts of various governments (including the R.O.C.) you MUST obey the legal limitations on self expression, as recognized by international and R.O.C. Law. Here's the short list of things NOT to have in your WWW page:
a. Calumny (aka: libel)
The common-law definition of this is (more or less) doing damage to someone else's reputation or livelihood with false words. As an example, saying something like, "Joe's Bar & Grill puts worms in their food!" is close to the line, if not over it. (You're stating a falsehood, in a deliberate attempt to hurt Joe's business.) But if you simply say, "Every time I eat at Joe's I get sick", that's probably okay. You're simply stating a fact.
b. Pornography
R.O.C. law is very specific on this point, so keep it clean.
c. Inciting others to violence
Similar to "Calumny", above: it's okay to say, "I don't like Joe's Bar & Grill, because..." but you can't say "Let's all fire-bomb Joe's Bar & Grill."
d. Copyright violation
We save the most important for last. Be EXTREMELY CAREFUL about what you post. Check your sources thoroughly; make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it's okay to quote them; and then MAKE SURE you credit the author/photographer/etc in your page.
Basically, these rules are the same ones that apply to all 'free speech'. We just don't normally think about our 'speech' in these terms, because one doesn't normally get sued for casual words between friends over coffee. Just remember that you're in a different environment on the web. The people who read your WWW page are not necessarily your friends. You have no idea of and no control over who reads your WWW page. You don't know what they might do with the information you put there. So be cautious.
Also, be aware that since the WWW is so new, many legal issues have not been clearly resolved yet. In the current legislative environment, the responsibilities & liabilities of the user and those of the Internet Service Provider are not well defined. In any case, a lawsuit would be bad for everybody concerned. Thus, if it seems that some of the content of your page is unacceptable, we may ask you to alter it.
Finally, Pristine Communications reserves the right, at any time and at its sole discretion, to unilaterally revoke or suspend any and all WWW posting priveleges for any or all of its users. The posting of any WWW material on the Pristine Internet Gateway's server(s) constitutes legal acceptance of these terms by the poster. These terms are subject to change at the sole discretion of Pristine Communications without prior notice.
2. Internal Rules & Restrictions:
a) Access Limitation
Because this is a free service, we can not allow it to become too much of a strain on system resources. If your WWW page attracts enough attention to become an imposition upon our system, a limit will be placed on the number of "hits" allowed per day.
b) Quotas
The space that your web pages take up counts towards your disk storage quota. You are allowed 2 megabytes of storage space on Neptune (our server). This amount comes standard with your account. If you need more space you can raise your quota for only 50NT$ per month. (Contact angel@pristine.com.tw)
The items that count towards your quota include mail in your mailbox, files in your home directory, and your web page. If you reach your quota, you will no longer be able to store files on neptune (and you will have problems downloading your mail, too!). If you need to delete files from your home directory you find tips on how to do this in the instructions, below. If you'd like to have a larger quota, you can increase it as stated above.
c) Support
The provision of user-home-pages is a free extra service, which many other providers charge extra for, or do not offer at all. Since we do not charge extra for it, we will not go out of our way to support it. What this means is, if you want to post a WWW page, you are expected to learn HTML coding on your own time, and with your own resources. Our technical support staff will NOT respond to questions about HTML or WWW page design.
d) Caveat Utens
Since Pristine does not take active control over the content of your WWW pages, Pristine shall not be held accountable for any loss of data, encumberance to communication, or any other inconvenience or damages caused by or in any other way related to your WWW page or its contents. Poorly written HTML and CGI code can cause such damage! And it is YOUR responsibility, not Pristine's, to ensure that this does not happen.
Furthermore, you are solely responsible for the legal consequences of what you post. Pristine Communications will not be held legally responsible or otherwise liable for any illegal, fraudulent, or damaging material posted to the WWW by its users.
e) Format
Your WWW page must "begin" with an HTML file called either index.html or index.htm (DOS-based machines do not allow a 4-letter filename extension like "html"). This file must be in a directory called "public_html" which must be located in your home directory. From within this index.html file, you can have links to an entire www structure. But the starting point must have this name, exactly.
If you want to have a description of your home-page posted along with your name on the Pristine Users Page, you can include it in a file called "abstract.txt" in your "public_html" directory. This file can be no more than 256 bytes in length. (If it's longer, only the first 256 bytes will be posted.) That's about 50 words, which should be plenty.
Do not include any HTML code in your abstract! Any abstract.txt files that contain either a "<" or a ">" will be ignored.
Note: The names "index.html", "index.htm", "abstract.txt" and "public_html" are all lower-case. You MUST observe this convention!
That said, here's how you "post" your WWW home-page. Jump the correct page by selecting your operating system:
- Windows 3.1
- Windows 95
- Macintosh
Once you have successfully installed your WWW page, here's how you can check it out.