Regulations governing the use of Garching Computer Centre of the Max-Planck-Society as of May, 7th 2001

In keeping with Clause 1, Sec. 5 of Regelungen für den gemeinsamen Betrieb des Rechenzentrums Garching der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft of 1 March 1992, the Garching Computer Centre (RZG) Committee issues the following regulations governing use:

§ 1 Sphere of validity

These regulations govern the use of the information processing infrastructure of RZG, comprising the data processing equipment, communications systems, and other facilities for computer-aided information processing which RZG is in charge of.

§ 2 Organisation of RZG

(1)RZG is run by Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik (IPP) for the Max Planck-Society (MPG), which as an institution funded by the federal and state governments in accordance with § 1, Sec. 2 of the MPG Implementation Agreements also includes the legally independent entities, Max-Planck-Institute für Kohlenforschung und Eisenforschung GmbH.
RZG provides personnel of the backing institutions with computing, archiving, network, and personell services as well as peripheral facilities for their scientific activities.

(2) Particulars of organisation and the bodies of RZG are stipulated in Regelungen für den gemeinsamen Betrieb des Rechenzentrums Garching der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

§ 3 Duties of RZG

(1) The duties of RZG are primarily as follows:

1. Planning, realisation, and operation of RZG'sdata processing facilities, particularly high-grade computers, as well as filing and archiving systems.
2. Operation of data processing facilities at IPP and other institutes of MPG by agreement.
3. Coordination of purchase of data processing equipment at IPP.
4. Purchase, administration, documentation, and maintenance of basic and standard software.
5. Application support.

(2) RZG is also responsible for planning, installing, and operating computer-aided information and communications networks, including the necessary networks, central servers, and data communication systems at IPP. In addition, RZG provides other institutes with internet access.
This entails the following duties in particular:

1. Provision and maintenance of faultless operation of the communications network.
2. Coordination of expansion and serving of the communications network.
3. Administration of the address and name spaces.
4. Provision of network services and central network servers.

(3) In order to ensure proper operation of the information and communications network and the data processing systems assigned to RZG, the head of RZG can issue further regulations governing the use of DP facilities at RZG, e.g. specifications governing the technical organisation of data network operation or corporate regulations governing publications on RZG servers (as far as they concern the RZG operations).

§ 4 Entitlement and permission to use

(1) Permission to use DP facilities and services of RZG can be granted to:

1. Personnel of MPG and IPP.
2. Personnel of other public research institutions and universities funded solely by the state, insofar as they are demonstrably obliged to use RZG for research projects conducted jointly with other Max-Planck-Institutes and/or entitlement to use is there fore applied for my MPI personnel to RZG.

(2) Permission is granted solely for scientific purposes in research, teaching, training, and execution of other duties of MPG.
Commercial use of RZG services is not permitted.

(3) Permission to use facilities and services of RZG to be applied for in writing and is granted by issue of a personal permit by RZG.
Every institution or division using RZG appoints a representative as authorised signatory to RZG who can apply for permits for personnel of his/her institution or division.
These regulations govering use do not entitle individual personnel to an individual right to a permit

(4) Applications, submitted on a form issued by RZG, should give the following particulars:

1. Name, adress, telephone number, and signature of the applicant and his/her status as employee, guest, or PhD student.
2. User's nationality.
3. Description of purpose of use or of objective planned.
4. Declaration by user not to store or process any person-related or person-relatable data.
5. Recognition of these regulations and corporate regulations according to § 3, Sec. 3 as basis governing use.
6. Confirmation of the institute/division head that funding for the project concerned is available.
7. The users consent to process his/her person-related data.
8. Notification of the user of the possibilities of documenting his/her user habits and of access to his/her user files in accordance with these regulations (see 8).

Further particulars may only be requested insofar as they are necessary for approving the permit application.

(5) Permits are restricted to the project applied for and can be of limited duration. It is also allocated to an individual person. Permits for groups of persons are not issued.

(6) In order to ensure proper and faultless operation, permits can also be subject to limitation of the computing time and other use-related conditions and terms.

(7) By virtue of regulations of the export authorities of the United States of America, nationals or organisations of certain countries are not allowed to use US supercomputers.

(8) Permits can be partly or wholly denied, rescinded, or subsequently restricted, particularly when

1. no proper application is submitted or the particulars in the application are not or no longer correct;
2. the conditions for proper use of DP facilities are not or no longer present;
3. the entitled person is barred from use in accordance with §7;
4. the project planned by the user is not compatible with the duties of RZG and the purposes stated in §4, Sec. 2;
5. the DP resources available are unsuitable for the use applied for or are reserved for special purposes;
6. the use applied for is likely to be unduly detrimental to other justified projects.

(9) Entitlement expires when

1. this is requested by the user or institute representative, or
2. the user leaves the institute; this must be immediately notified to RZG by the institute representative, or
3. the duration stipulated has expired, or
4. permission has been withdrawn.

§ 5 Deletion of data on expiry of permission

The data of a user (home directory) whose permit expires will be stored for another 6 months.
If an institute has rights to a user's data, it must arrange with the user to secure these data prior to expiry of the permit.
Upon expiry of the permit e-mails for the user will no longer be accepted.

§ 6 Rights and obligations of users

(1) Entitled persons (users) have the right to use facilities, DP equipment, and information and communications systems of RZG under the terms of the permit and in accordance with these regulations governing use and with the regulations according to § 3, Sec. 3.
Any use deviating therefrom shall require a separate permit.

(2) Users are represented by the User Committee befor the RZG Head and the RZG Committee. Particulars are stipulated in Regelungen für den gemeinsamen Betrieb des Rechenzentrums Garching der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

(3) Users are required

1. to comply with the provisions of the regulations governing use and adhere to the restrictions of the permit, particularly to observe the purposes of use according to § 4, Sec. 2;
2. to avoid everything detrimental to proper operation of DP facilities of RZG;
3. to treat all DP equipment, information and communications systems, and other facilities of RZG with care and consideration;
4. to work solely with the user identifications assigned to them under the terms of the permit;
5. to ensure that no other persons acquire knowledge of user passwords, and to make provisions so that unauthorised persons are denied access to DP resources of RZG; this includes exclusion from access by means of a secret and suitable, i.e. not readily guessed, password that should be regularly changed;
6. neither to divulge nor to use third parties user identifications and passwords;
7. not to acquire unauthorised access to information of other users and not to divulge, use themselves, or change acquired information of other users without their consent;
8. to comply with legal stipulations, particularly copyright, when using software, documentation, and other data, and to observe the licensing conditions under which software, documentation, and data of RZG are provided, as well as to use licensed software solely for research and teaching work.
9. neither to copy nor to divulge to third parties software, documentation, and data provided by RZG, insofar as this is not explicitly allowed, nor to use them for purposes other than those approved;
10. not to interfere in RZG's written consent and not to change the configurations of the operating system, system files, system-relevant user files, and network;
11. not to operate without RZG's written consent any computer on the network which is not administered by RZG or the persons specifically authorised by the institutes. If a computer is connected to the network, connections to other networks may only be established through the network connection administered by RZG. Other connections, e.g. by modem, are prohibited.
12. to provide at the request of RZG in justified individual cases - particularly in the event of justified suspicion of misuse and for elimination faults - with information on programs and methods for control purposes, and to allow inspection of programs;
13. to avoid unnecessary network use; insofar as the RZG provides proxy servers for certain services, these must be used;
14. to be economical with working materials;
15. not to process any person-related data on RZG systems, to observe data protection provisions, and where applicable, to comply with existing corporate agreements.

(4) Special attention is drawn to the following criminal offences:

1. Pilfering of data (§ 202a StGB).
2. Changing of data (§ 303b StGB)
3. Computer fraud (§ 263a StGB).
4. Dissemination of pornographic depictions (§ 184 StGB), particularly retrieval and possession of paedophilic depictions (§ 184 Abs. 5 StGB).
5. Dissemination of propaganda material of unconstitutional organisations (§ 86 StGB); racial incitement (§ 130 StGB).
6. Personal offences such as insult or libel (§§ 185 ff StGB).
7. Criminal violations of copyright, e.g. duplicating software in violation of copyright (§§ 106 ff. UrhG).

§ 7 Disqualification from use

(1)Users can be temporarily or permanently restricted in the use of DP facilities and services or disqualified from using them if they

1. culpably infringe these regulations governing use, particularly the obligation stipulated in § 6 (improper conduct), or
2. misuse DP facilities and services of RZG for criminal acts, or
3. cause disadvantage to RZG or its backers through otherwise unlawful user conduct.

(2)Action in accordance with Sec. 1 is not to be taken till after unsuccessful admonishment. The person concerned should be given the opportunity to respond. he/she can request the Chairman of the Users' Committee to arbitrate. In any case, he/she should be given the opportunity to secure his/her data.

(3)Temporary restrictions of use, which are decided by the RZG Head, should be rescinded as soon as proper use appears to be ensured again.

(4)Permanent restriction of use or complete disqualification of a user from further use will only be contemplated in the event of serious or repeated infringements in the sense of Sec. 1 where proper conduct is no longer to be expected in the future either. Decisions on permanent disqualification are taken by the RZG Committee upon application from the RZG Head.
The RZG Committee will in such cases immediately report to the directorates of the institutes backing RZG.
Possible claims of RZG arising from the agreement on use remain unprejudiced.

§ 8 Rights and obligations of RZG

(1)RZG maintains a user file on permits issued which lists user and mail identifications as well as the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of entitled users. This file will be used for system administration and fault elimination only.

(2)Insofar as this is necessary for fault elimination, system administration and expansions or for reasons of system security and for protection of user data, RZG can temporarily rectrict use of its resources or temporarily block individual user identifications. Wherever possible, users concerned are to be notified in advance.

(3)Insofar as there are actual grounds for believing that a user is holding unlawful contents ready for use on servers of RZG, the latter can prevent further use till the legal situation has been sufficiently clarified.

(4)RZG is entitled to check the security of system/user passwords and user data by regular manual or automated measures and to implement necessary safeguards, e.g. changing readily guessed passwords, in order to protect DP resources and user data from unauthorised access by third parties. In the event of necessary changes of user passwords, access rights to user files, and other use-related safeguards, the user is to be immediately notified accordingly.

(5)RZG is entitled, for the sole purpose of data security, to make copies of user files (backup).
A mechanism is provided that entitles users to exempt individual files or data trees from backup.

(6)RZG reserves the right to delete e-mail over six months old from the mail spool (inbox, electronic mailbox).

(7)RZG is entitled in accordance with the following provisions to document and evaluate utilisation of DP systems by individual users, but only insofar as this is necessary for

1. ensuring proper system operation,
2. resource planning and system administration,
3. protecting person-related data of other users,
4. accounting purposes,
5. detecting and eliminating faults, and
6. investigating and preventing unlawful or improper use.

For the rest § 31 BDSG takes affect.

(8)In accordance with Sec. 7 RZG is also entitled to inspection of user files in compliance with data protection law, insofar as this is necessary for eliminating faults present or for detecting and preventing misuse where there are actual grounds for believing this to be the case.
Inspection of messages and e-mail boxes is only permissible, however, insofar as this is essential for eliminating faults present in the mail service.
In any case, inspection should be documented and the user concerned notified immediately after such intervention.

(9)In accordance with Sec. 7 connection and use data of communications (particularly mail use) can also be documented. However, only the immediate circumstances of telecommunications -but not the non-public communications contents- be perused, processed, and used.

Connection and use data on online activities in the internet and other teleservices provided by RZG for use or to which RZG provides access for use should be deleted as soon as possible, at the latest right after termination of the particular use, insofar as accounting data are not involved.

(10)In accordance with legal provisions RZG is committed to maintaining telecommunications and data secrecy.

§ 9 Liability of user

(1)The liability and exoneration obligations of users in the emloy of MPG are subject to the liability regulations agreed by contract of employment and to the general principles of liability according to labour law. Users not in the employ of MPG are covered by Secs. 2 to 4 below.

(2)The user is liable for all disadvantages arising for RZG through improper or unlawful use of DP resources and entitlement to use, or resulting from the fact that the user culpably neglects his/her obligations as stipulated in these regulations for use.

(3)The user is also liable for damage arising from third-party use in connection with the privileges of access and use accorded to him/her if he/she approves such third-party use, particularly in the event of divulging his/her user identification and password to third parties. In this case, RZG can charge the user a fee for third-party use according to § 11.

(4)The user shall exonerate RZG from all claims if any such are made on RZG by third parties because of the user's improper or unlawful conduct to obtain damages, or restraining orders, or for any other purpose. RZG will explain the dispute to the user insofar as third parties take legal action against RZG.

§ 10 Liability of RZG

(1)RZG provides no guarantee that DP facilities, networks, and services operate without fault and at all times without interruption. Possible data losses due to technical defects and divulging of confidential data through unauthorised access by third parties cannot be ruled out.

(2)RZG accepts no responsibility for the correctness of the programs provided. RZG is not liable either for the content, particularly the correctness, completeness, and topicality of information, to which it merely provides access for use.

(3)Furthermore, RZG is only liable in the event of intent or gross negligence of its personnel, unless culpable infringement of major cardinal obligations is committed. In such cases RZG's liability is restricted to typical damage foreseeable on settlement of the agreement on use, insofar as deliberate or grossly negligent conduct is not involved.

§11 Fees

(1)By virtue of the application for use the user institution declares its willingness to meet all costs incurred through utilisation of RZG's service under the terms of the permit.

(2)The costs for use will be calculated from the running costs in accordance with utilisation of the whole centre or parts thereof. Running costs include expenditure for personnel, working materials, energy, insurance, equipment rental, servicing fees, and infrastructure and miscellaneous costs.

(3)The provisional costs are determined on the basis of the valid scale of charges and charged monthly to the user by the administration of IPP. RZG reserves the right to change the accounting procedure at one-month's notice, for the purpose of a more appropriate allocation of costs.

(4)The costs provisionally charged are determined by estimating the annual running costs and the entire annual utilisation of RZG's services. The final costs are determined for one year from the actual running costs and the actual utilisation of services.