Terms of Use for the Operation of Mailing Lists at KIT

Terms of Use for the Establishment and Operation of Mailing Lists at SCC

Before a mailing list can be set up at Scientific Computing Center (SCC) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), hereinafter referred to as "SCC", certain requirements must be met.

 

§1 Prerequisites

  1. The creation of mailing lists is only possible for members of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) or for persons who are connected to this institution by an agreement and who have a valid KIT account. A personal KIT e-mail address must be used to manage the list.
  2. The establishment of a mailing list on a server of the SCC requires a valid and comprehensible justification. For this purpose, the topic of the list must show a connection with the research and educational mission of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
  3. The data required here must be submitted correctly and completely via the associated web form, since necessary queries or incorrect information may lead to delays in the establishment or to the rejection of the mailing list.

 

§2 Rules to be observed

In addition to the regulations governing the use of the information and communications infrastructure (IuK-Ordnung) , the following rules apply in particular:

  1. At least one personal KIT e-mail address must always be entered as the owner of a mailing list. In addition, functional addresses may also be entered as list owners.
  2. Via the e-mail address(es) entered as list owner(s), responsible persons must be reachable in a timely manner. In particular, not all list owners may select the "nomail" option and a substitute must be provided in times of absence.
  3. All e-mail addresses registered as list owners are automatically entered in the mailing list listowner-announce∂lists.kit.edu, through which the SCC informs about relevant changes in connection with the operation of mailing lists.
  4. The person whose personal email address is entered as the mailing list owner is responsible for the mailing list. He/she is also responsible for all actions of third parties who may have access to the mailing list through the function of the functional address.
  5. The list of subscribers to a mailing list must be carefully maintained by the Responsible Person pursuant to Paragraph 4, Sentence 1 or by a person designated by the Responsible Person. In particular, e-mail addresses that are not (no longer) functional must be removed from the subscriber list. Otherwise, the reputation of KIT's mail servers will suffer and the risk will increase that KIT's mail servers will be listed as spam sending addresses. For this purpose, the mechanism is activated by default for new mailing lists that e-mail addresses are automatically removed from lists if there are very many delivery errors for this e-mail address. In this case, the list owners are informed about the removal from the list.
  6. The owners of the mailing lists are prohibited from any actions in the use of the mailing lists that violate applicable law, infringe the rights of third parties, or violate the principles of KIT. In particular, the following actions are prohibited:
    • posting, distributing, offering and advertising pornographic content, services and/or products that violate youth protection laws, data protection laws and/or other laws and/or are fraudulent;
    • the publication or making available of content that insults or defames other participants or third parties;
    • the use, provision and distribution of content, services and/or products that are protected by law or encumbered with third-party rights (e.g. copyrights) without being expressly authorized to do so;
    • making copyrighted works publicly available or other acts in violation of copyright, in particular when using so-called "Internet file-sharing networks" or file-sharing services.

      Furthermore, the following activities are also prohibited irrespective of any infringement of the law:
    • the transfer of above-average amounts of data and, in particular, the sustained transfer of such amounts of data;
    • the distribution of viruses, Trojan horses and other harmful files;
    • the distribution of lewd, offensive, sexually explicit, obscene or defamatory content or communication, as well as content or communication that is likely to promote or support racism, bigotry, hatred, physical violence or illegal acts (in each case explicitly or implicitly);
    • soliciting other users or third parties to disclose passwords or personal data for commercial or unlawful purposes.

      Also prohibited is any action that is likely to impair the smooth operation of the SCC, in particular to place a disproportionately high load on the relevant systems.
  7. For third parties other than KIT, as well as for private purposes, a mailing list may only be requested after consultation with DE RECHT.

 

§3 Data Protection

  1. The person whose personal email address is entered as the owner of the mailing list is responsible for ensuring that the list is configured in accordance with data protection. It should be noted that responsibility for the content posted to the mailing list may also arise.
  2. In particular, only subscribers who have explicitly given their consent beforehand (opt-in) may be entered in mailing lists. Revocation of this consent must be possible at any time and must be taken into account immediately. The list must be configured in such a way that subscribing to the list is only possible with the user's consent. (Double opt-in; in this case, a confirmation e-mail with a link is sent to the e-mail address concerned).
    An exception are mailing lists where subscribers are automatically included for a specific purpose, such as the list mitarbeiter∂lists.kit.edu.

 

§4 Duties and rights of the SCC

  1. The functions provided by the mailing list software used may be restricted by the SCC for operational reasons.
  2. Likewise, the KIT/SCC reserves the right to deactivate a list if the terms of use for a mailing list are not complied with.

 

§5 Deprovisioning of Mailing Lists

  1. Mailing lists on which no e-mails have ever been sent, or on which no e-mails have been sent within a period of two years since a last mailing, and whose configuration has not been changed within the last year, will be deactivated and deleted 6 months after deactivation if no response is received from the owner(s) of this mailing list even after three requests for the need for this list.
  2. Also, active lists where no owner can be reached by email or where there is no response by an owner in the form of an email even after three requests by email will be deactivated and deleted 6 months after their deactivation.

If you are willing to comply with these rules, you can submit your request to create a mailing list after registering on the website https://www.lists.kit.edu. If you have any further questions, please contact the listmasters.