2002-06-26 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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. . C. Copyrights, patents and trademarks Cities can reduce the risk of violating copyright, patent and trademark laws by adopting a policy for employee use oftechnology and the Internet. In addition, cities can reduce the likelihood of exposing their technology systems to an outside virus by adopting and enforcing this type of policy. The policy should include procedures for handling infonnation downloaded from the Internet and prohibit employees from downloading and distributing software or infonnation from business computers and the Internet that are covered by copyright, patent and trademark laws. There are several statements that a city may want to include in its policy. . Prohibit access to remote bulletin boards and online services for downloading software using City computer resources unless the City has approved the software in advance. Provide that all software, documents, graphics or other data downloaded must be business oriented and must be immediately scanned for viruses by the City's technology staff. . Subject employees to disciplinary procedures for violation of the policy, and indicate that a violation may also include prosecution under the copyright, trademark and patent laws. . State that the City will monitor employee e-mail, computer files and Internet use as it determines necessary and may disclose information from these sources to third parties without providing notice to employees. D. Data maintained on a city Web site Cities may risk liability for claims related to information that is maintained on a city Web site. For example, cities could risk defamation claims for placing fitlse data on a city Web site or claims for violation of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act for placing private or confidential data on a city Web site. Example: City X wants to make as much infonnation as possible available on its Web site as a service to its citizens. City X decides to make all the electronic files stored on its local Intranet accessible on its Web site. Joe the Internet surfer is doing a general search of the Internet for information about performance reviews. He links to City X's Web site and discovers that he has access to perfonnance reviews for individual employees of City X. Reducing the risk of liability for data maintained on a city Web site Cities can reduce the risk of liability for claims related to information maintained on a city Web site by using a disclaimer on their Web sites (sample in Appendix). More importantly, cities should develop procedures for determining what type of information to make available on their Web sites. For example, cities may want to avoid putting drafts of works in progress available on their Web sites in order to avoid confusion about the status of the information. Cities should also develop procedures to ensure that information is reviewed for accuracy and compliance with the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act before it is placed on the Web site. Cities should 5