Information Policies: NSF

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Coalition for Networked Information 
Information Policies:  A Compilation of Position Statements, Principles,
Statutes, and Other Pertinent Statements


National Science Foundation

1800 G Street, NW
Washington, DC  20550
202-357-5000
Mission Statement
Source:  National Science Foundation Annual Report 1988, 
Washington, D.C. (U.S. Government Printing Office), page 13.
The mission of the National Science Foundation is to support and encourage research, both collaborative and independent. NSF also promotes broad-based science and mathematics education programs, as well as special efforts to ensure that a continuing supply of talented scientists and engineers is available for research.

NSFNET Acceptable Use Policy
Source:  NSF Network News, National Science Foundation, 
Washington, D.C., pages 4 and 11.
The purpose of NSFNET is to support research and education in and among academic institutions in the U.S. by providing access to unique resources and the opportunity for collaborative work.

This statement represents a guide to the acceptable use of the NSFNET backbone. It is only intended to address the issue of use of the backbone. It is expected that the various middle level networks will formulate their own use policies for traffic that will not traverse the backbone.

All use must be consistent with the purposed of NSFNET.

The intent of the use policy is to make clear certain cases which are consistent with the purposes of NSFNET, not to exhaustively enumerate all such possible uses.

The NSF NSFNET Project Office may at any time make determinations that particular uses are or are not consistent with the purposes of NSFNET. Such determinations will be reported to the NSFNET Policy Advisory Committee and to the user community.

If a use is consistent with the purposes of NSFNET, then activities in direct support of that use will be considered consistent with the purposes of NSFNET. For example, administrative communications for the support infrastructure needed for research and instruction are acceptable.

Use in support of research or instruction at not-for- profit institutions of research or instruction in the United States is acceptable.

Use for a project which is part of or supports a research or instruction activity for a not-for-profit institution of research or instruction in the United States is acceptable, even if any or all parties to the use are located or employed elsewhere. For example, communications directly between industrial affiliates engaged in support of a project for such an institution is acceptable.

Use for commercial activities by for-profit institutions is generally not acceptable unless it can be justified under (4) above. These should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the NSF Project Office.

Use for research or instruction at for-profit institutions may or may not be consistent with the purposes of NSFNET, and will be reviewed by the NSF Project Office on a case-by-case basis.

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