NYU Web Hosting Terms of Service
Description
NYU Libraries offers the Web Hosting service, powered by Reclaim Hosting, to support teaching, learning, and research at NYU by providing users with access to flexible web space and customizable hosting platforms, including Omeka, WordPress, Scalar, and to core web development technologies such as MySQL and PHP. As a user of NYU’s computing services, you must comply with all federal, New York State, local, and other applicable laws; all University rules and policies, including the Policy on Responsible Use of NYU Computers & Data, the World Wide Web Policies and Procedures, the Website Accessibility Policy, the Electronic Data and System Risk Classification Policy, and all applicable contracts and licenses, and these Terms of Use which describe rules and settings specific to Web Hosting. NYU reserves the right to change, at any time, at its sole discretion, the provisions of the Service and these Terms of Use.
Eligibility
Web Hosting is available to full time and part time NYU faculty and researchers, administrators, and current students with current and active NYU NetIDs. Alumni and other affiliated members of the NYU community are not eligible for this Service. Web Hosting sites must support the user’s teaching, learning, or research activities at NYU.
Users lose access to their Web Hosting account when they are no longer affiliated with NYU (e.g. after graduation, end of employment). In such cases, users have the following options:
- Users can transfer their account to our vendor, Reclaim Hosting. You will not need to migrate your content, but you will assume responsibility for paying hosting fees. Email webhosting@nyu.edu if you are interested in this option.
- Users can migrate to another hosting service. Users are responsible for migrating their content.
- Users can close their account. No action is required, however, your content will not be archived and will be deleted.
Responsibility for Content
Each account is associated with a person’s NYU NetID. This specified “primary owner” is solely responsible for the information posted through Web Hosting. While only the primary owner has administrative access to the account, the owner may give others (including non-NYU users) access to edit the websites created within the account. For example, if the owner is creating an Omeka site, they can create user accounts within the Omeka dashboard so that others can contribute to the Omeka site. In addition, the primary owner can make sites offered through this Web Hosting visible to the public or make them private by limiting access to specific individuals who also are eligible to participate in this Service.
Creation of sites may involve incorporation of original works of third parties (e.g., literature, photographs, music, software, film, and video works) that are covered by copyright laws. Primary site owners and contributing users are responsible for obtaining all permissions that may be necessary to incorporate works of third parties in their site. Use of such works may be permitted by principles of fair use, consistent with copyright laws (see, for example, NYU’s Copyright and Fair Use Statement, and NYU Libraries’ research guide, Copyright: Applying Fair Use).
Both individual sites and departmental sites should reflect the positive and respectful learning and working environment of New York University within which prevail basic rules of conduct for the entire University community, as well as the general community. Rules of conduct are discussed in the University Policy on Student Conduct, the NYU Faculty Handbook, and the Administrative and Professional Handbook.
Do not collect or display sensitive information on your account or associated sites. You should never create content that contains or collects information that is restricted under NYU’s Data Classification Policy. On occasion, protected data may be added to the Web Hosting site but only after permission to collect or display this data is requested and received from the appropriate department. At all times, you should ensure that all appropriate safeguards are in place (access restriction, etc.) before any site is deployed.
Monitoring
Although NYU does not routinely pre-screen, monitor, or regularly review content, it reserves the right to remove, at any time, at its sole discretion, any content that it considers to violate these Terms of Use or the terms of any other campus user agreements that may govern use of the campus networks, or that it deems in violation of University policy or local, state, or federal law. Should the University receive reports regarding a site on which it is felt that inappropriate content has been posted, NYU will investigate and contact the site’s primary owner to initially discuss the issue. In exceptional cases, where the content is obviously unacceptable, NYU will immediately remove the content, prior to contacting the site’s primary owner. Unacceptable content of this sort also may cause a site or account to be suspended, and in extreme cases, may result in disciplinary proceedings against the primary owner and/or contributing authors. Reports regarding inappropriate site content may be sent to webhosting@nyu.edu.
NYU Disclaimer
Web Hosting sites will be available on the internet and, therefore, can be indexed and searched unless the site’s primary owner disables this feature. Each Web Hosting site must carry this disclaimer or contain a link to this disclaimer:
“These pages do not in any way constitute official New York University content. The views and opinions expressed in the pages are strictly those of the page authors. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by NYU. NYU makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the site’s operation or the information, content or materials included on this site. To the full extent permissible by applicable law, NYU hereby disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose. NYU will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of or inability to use this site. You expressly agree that you use this site solely at your own risk. Questions or concerns about page content should be directed to the page author. For copyright inquiries, follow the procedure outlined on the NYU Copyright Communications page.”
Features and Defaults
- Service Updates: NYU Libraries may make changes to the Web Hosting service at any time.
- Customization and Technical Support: The Web Hosting environment allows a certain degree of customization by account owners. Primary owners have FTP and command line access to their accounts, meaning they have the ability to install and customize themes, plugins, modify the underlying databases, etc., within the restrictions of the overall Web Hosting environment. However, primary owners take responsibility for their accounts and sites. Support is available for basic technical issues (e.g. assistance resetting passwords, resolving network outages), via our support page. NYU will not provide technical support for issues related to customizations made to your sites (e.g., troubleshooting database design, fixing coding or scripting problems, customizing themes, PHP or CSS modification, etc.). NYU does offer documentation for getting started with Web Hosting via our support page and additional training through LinkedIn Learning.
- Archives: Web Hosting does provide users with self-archiving options and the ability to generate backups of your content. Prior to leaving the University community (and losing access to Web Hosting), you may export your content or choose to delete it. We cannot provide content migration to our service, or from our service to any other services.
- Retention: All Web Hosting sites will remain on the Service unless:
- the primary owner is no longer an affiliate or eligible for the Web Hosting (see Eligibility above). (Note: All sites must have a primary owner. If a site does not have a primary owner, the Web Hosting Team takes appropriate action for removing the site or identifying a new site owner.)
- The primary owner requests the site be removed
- The site is in violation of the Web Hosting Terms of Use
Service Availability
Availability of Web Hosting may be interrupted for maintenance and other updates and is provided on an ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis only.
To request to participate in Web Hosting fill out the Request Form to set up an appointment with Digital Scholarship Services staff.
Questions should be directed to webhosting@nyu.edu.