Access to the University of British Columbia Virtual Commons for Education and Research (UBC-VCER) in OpenSim is conditional upon your affiliation with the UBC and the information you provided when you created your account. By visiting and using the UBC-VCER in Opensim, you agree to abide by all applicable university policies while visiting this virtual space.
You must agree an
d comply with the following code of conduct and terms of use. This policy applies to the UBC-VCER and any other website associated with the project.
1. HELP CREATE A RESPECTFUL COMMUNITY
The UBC-VCER is a great place to exchange ideas, debate issues, and expend creativity, but it is expected that you will be respectful of differing opinions and backgrounds. The UBC-VCER affirms the principles set forth in the UBC-VCER Initiative, particularly as it relates to behavior in virtual spaces such as the UBC-VCER :
– Celebrate the Uniqueness of Each Individual by respecting individual differences and promoting common interests
– Practice Civility by extending to those we meet the same respect, cooperation, and caring that we expect from others
– Embrace Freedom and Openness by working to create an environ
ment that is safe and affirming, one that nurtures independent thinking and the free and open expression of ideas
2. You agree to use an Account Name in UBC-VCER that is not misleading, offensive or infringing.
You are responsible for activities related to your Account Name, and for keeping your password for this Account secure.
You may not select as your Account Name any name that may cause deception or confusion; may violate any trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right or mislead other users regarding your identity or affiliation; or any name in its discretion to be vulgar, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate. UBC-VCER reserves the right to delete or change any Account Name that violates this paragraph, and will have no liability regarding the use or deletion of any Account Name.
3. NO GRIEFING OR HARASSMENT OF OTHER USERS
Griefing is the act of causing “grief” to other members of an online community, or intentionally disrupting their enjoyment of the environment. Harassment can be any physical, virtual, or verbal abuse of a person because of her race, religion, age, gender, disability or any other legally protected status. Other forms of harassment may include behaviors such as using the “push” function to shoot, trap, eject, or otherwise assault another user’s avatar without their consent, creating self-replicating objects that degrade performance of the virtual campus, wearing obscene or threatening objects etc. Failure to abide by this policy may result in your avatar being banned from the UBC-VCER and, if you are employee or student of the university, may result in disciplinary actions being taken if your behavior is found to be in breach of the University’s policies cited above.
4. DO NOT DISTURB CLASSES & EVENTS IN SESSION
In general, the expectation is that you would behave in the virtual environment as you would at a gathering or class in real life. Disrupting scheduled events, repeated spamming or undesired advertising, playing sounds, or otherwise disturbing classes and events in session will be considered a form of “griefing”.
5. RESPECT PEOPLE’S PRIVACY
Though UBC-VCER itself is not a secure or private environment, users have a reasonable expectation that others will not intentionally violate their privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, using scripts which spy on others without their knowledge, posting/sharing chat logs, extracts from email messages or ‘Personal Messages’ without consent are all prohibited.
6. BUILD & REZ OBJECTS ONLY IN SPACES DESIGNATED OR ASSIGNED FOR BUILDING
The UBC-VCER has a large sandbox available for users to experiment with building and rezzing objects. Feel free to use the sandbox, but be sure to clean up your items when you are done. Items left in the sandbox for more than 48 hours may be returned to your inventory to free up prims for other users.
Unless you have been assigned an office, classroom, residence, or other designated space for your use, building and rezzing items elsewhere on UBC-VCER is prohibited except for temporary use (i.e. rezzing a vehicle or opening a box). All items that you rez outside of your designated space or the sandbox should be picked up before you leave the campus.
Under no circumstances should users edit, modify, deface, delete, or otherwise alter the buildings, infrastructure, objects, or other items on the virtual campus that do not belong to them.
7. SELLING ITEMS
Selling both virtual and real items in UBC-VCER is strictly prohibited.
8. CONDUCTING RESEARCH IN OPENSIM
UBC-VCER presents a wide range of possibilities for conducting research in human behavior. All applicable policies related to conducting human research also apply in UBC-VCER , including receiving IRB approval.
9. REPORTING VIOLATIONS
Users who witness violations of this policy should email sandrine.han@ubc.ca for assistance. All reports will be thoroughly investigated.
BUILDING CODE FOR LAND PARCELS
Users who have been assigned a parcel of land, must abide by the Building Code set forth below. The purpose of this policy is to ensure good performance of the UBC-VCER .
1. YOU AGREE TO RESPECT THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF OTHER USERS, UBC-VCER , AND THIRD PARTIES.
You agree that you will not upload, publish, or submit to any part of the Service any Content that is protected by Intellectual Property Rights or otherwise subject to proprietary rights, including trade secret or privacy rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from the rightful owner to upload, publish, or submit the Content and to grant Linden Lab and users of the Service all of the license rights granted in these Terms of Service.
You copy and use Content at your own risk. You are solely responsible and liable for your use, reproduction, distribution, modification, display, or performance of any Content in violation of any Intellectual Property Rights.
2. CONTENT LICENSES AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
You agree that by uploading, publishing, or submitting any Content to or through the Servers for display In-World in any publicly accessible area of the Service, you hereby grant each user of UBC-VCER and UBC-VCER a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to photograph, capture an image of, film, and record a video of the Content, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the resulting photograph, image, film, or video in any current or future media.
3. EDUCATIONAL APPROPRIATE
Please remember that the UBC-VCER is an extension of the University of British Columbia Department of EDCP. Buildings, structures, objects, and items should be appropriate within that context. Please keep in mind, this is an educational environment, K-12 students are encouraged to explore in this virtual world. Keep your building objects PG friendly.
4. MEDIA TEXTURES
Creating many subdivisions of land and setting independent media textures for each parcel of land can lead to reduced performance for the entire sim, which may adversely affect other users. Therefore, there should be only one (1) audio/video stream per 512 sq meter parcel of land.
5. BUILDING HEIGHT RESTRICTIONS & SKYPODS/SKY PLATFORMS
Users may build skypods or sky platforms above their parcel, so long as they are at least 500 meters above ground level and are built only within the boundaries of your parcel. Overlapping prims or items that cross parcel boundaries will be returned to the user.
6. SOUND & PARTICLE EFFECTS
The use of particle generators and other particle emission systems are permitted, so long as the particle emissions and effects stay within the parcel boundaries. This includes leaves, smoke, fires, and other particle effects. Likewise, sound emitting scripts, objects, loops, animations, or other sound emitting devices must be limited to the parcel boundaries.
7. GREETERS & AUTOMATED NOTICE DISTRIBUTORS
Scripted objects that greet visitors, distribute notecards or items, or otherwise interact with an avatar as it approaches must be scripted to only interact with avatars within the parcel boundaries. This can be set within the script itself based on the diameter range at which the script detects an avatar.
8. PRIM BUFFER
To ensure that visitors and users can reasonably “use” the UBC-VCER , all parcel sizes must keep a minimum buffer of 20 unused prims available at all times.
Exemptions to the above Building Code policies may be granted on a case-by-case basis to facilitate classroom or research activities, but the exemption must be granted in writing prior to the event.
For questions or concerns related to these policies, please contact Sandrine Han at sandrine.han@ubc.ca .
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