The SEED Citizen Science Hub Terms and Conditions of Use

Definitions

Code of Conduct means clause 16 of these terms and conditions of use.

Content means any data (including metadata), text, software, images, graphs, attachments or any other kind of communication.

Intellectual Property means all intellectual property rights including current and future registered and unregistered rights in respect of copyright, designs, circuit layouts, trademarks, trade secrets, confidential information, patents, invention and discoveries and all other intellectual property as defined in article 2 of the convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organisation 1967.

Third-Party Sites means an internet site that is external to the Site, including any social media platforms.

User/You means the person using or accessing the Site.

Terms and Conditions of use

The Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data (SEED) Citizen Science Hub (the Site) is administered by the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (the Agency).

The Site is a user-driven platform, which seeks to connect people, projects and data contributing to citizen science across NSW. It will facilitate the sharing of citizen science resources, participation opportunities and visualisation of data contribution and impact.

These terms and conditions provide information about the rules that apply when you access or use the Site. This includes:

• intellectual property rights for contributors to the Site
• the Code of Conduct
• obligations and rules when you register a User Profile
• obligations and rules when you register a Project Profile  
• the extent you can rely on information in a Project Profile or linked or shared Content
• how the Agency’s liability is limited
• what happens if you breach these terms and conditions.

You should read these terms and conditions in full to understand the scope of your obligations and what you agree to before you access or use the Site.

General Conditions

The following general terms and conditions apply to the Site:

1. When you use or visit the Site, you affirm that you agree to these terms and conditions.
2. The terms and conditions may be amended by the Agency at any time. The Agency will notify you if these terms and conditions are amended if you are a registered user of the Site.
3. The Agency reserves the right to limit the functions of the Site for certain users, or access, remove, alter, store or restrict access to Content you contribute to the Site.
4. These terms and conditions are legally binding.  Specific Content on the Site may also be subject to an Intellectual Property licence that is legally binding.
5. To the extent of any inconsistency between these terms and conditions and the terms of a licence agreement, the licence agreement prevails. The terms of the licence are specified in clause 10.

Breach of these Terms and Conditions 

6. If the Agency suspects any breach of these terms and conditions, the Agency may remove, restrict or temporarily deactivate your User Profile or Project Profile, or refuse the registration of future User Profiles or Project Profiles.
7. If the Agency reasonably suspects that any Content, including communications made available on the Site, is in breach of these terms and conditions, the Agency may remove your User Profile, or Project Profile or any Content contributed to the Site immediately.
8. If the Agency suspects that any communication may be in breach of any applicable laws, the Agency will report the behaviour to the relevant law enforcement authority. 

Additional information about breach of specific terms is included below.

How intellectual property rights work for the Site

The Site allows you to create Profiles, communicate with other Users, and contribute the Content you have collected through citizen science projects to the Site.

Licencing your Intellectual Property Rights

9. If you own the Content prior to contributing the Content to the Site, and that Content is subject to Intellectual Property rights, you retain ownership of those rights.
10. Unless otherwise agreed with the Agency, you agree to licence Content you contribute to the Site under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). The legal code for the license is available at Creative Commons.

Your obligations when using or contributing Content to the Site

11. You must check and comply with the Intellectual Property licence terms that attaches to each piece of Content you access through the Site. If you are unsure about the conditions that may be attached to a specific piece of Content, please contact the Agency on [email protected] before using the Content.
12. When using or contributing to the Site, you warrant that:                  
    • Content you use or contribute to the Site, including linking Third-Party Sites, is done so in accordance with relevant licences and permissions as required under law.
    • You will not use any registered trademarks made available on the Site, including the Agency’s trademark, without the permission of the party to whom the trademark is registered.   
    • You will not edit, remove or alter trademarks or identifying language that attributes the owner of the Content.
    • You will not represent the Agency, either expressly or through implication, in a way that indicates the Agency formally endorses any project created through Project Profiles or other activities associated with the project.

Breaches of Intellectual Property rights

13. You are accountable for your actions in relation to the adaption, appropriation, modification, disbursement or any other use of Content accessed through or contributed to the Site. You are required to ensure that information you contribute or use is appropriately attributed, and all necessary permissions and consents have been obtained. The Agency may at its discretion take such steps it considers appropriate where it determines that this obligation has not been met by the User.
14. If you:             
    • become aware that information has been made available on the Site, and has not been properly attributed or has otherwise been made available without the necessary permissions; or       
    • would like the Agency to remove Content you have made available on the Site;  

you may contact the Agency on [email protected]

15. You indemnify the Agency under clause 35 against any liability which arises due to a dispute regarding your use of the Content.

Code of Conduct 

This Code of Conduct forms part of these terms and conditions  

16. You are responsible for the contributions of Content you make on the Site, whether on the Site’s public domain or through private messaging. This includes sending messages and emails using the Site either to another User (including Project Organisers) of the Site or to the Agency as the Site administrator. When using the Site, you warrant that:                  
    • you have made all reasonable endeavours to ensure any Content, including personal information, contributed by you is complete and accurate, and is in no way misleading, inaccurate, fraudulent or otherwise in breach of any laws.        
    • you will not use the Site to facilitate the promotion of commercial goods or services, or any other type of solicitation unrelated to the purposes of the Site, including spam or other commercial advertising.      
    • you will not make available on the Site or use the Site to facilitate, either directly or indirectly, any Content that is unlawful, threatening, harassing, discriminatory, defamatory, libellous or otherwise harmful in any way.

Obligations when creating a User Profile

A User Profile is created when you register. You must create a user profile in order to use some services, such as linking Content or creating a Project Profile.

Your obligations when registering a User Profile

17. When registering a User Profile you will be required to provide personal information. The personal information you provide when registering a User Profile must be accurate and up to date and will be managed in accordance with the Privacy Policy (https://citizen-science.seed.nsw.gov.au/privacy-policy).
18. If your User Profile has been removed, restricted or temporarily deactivated, you warrant that you will not attempt to register a new User Profile.

The Agency may moderate your use of a User Profile, refuse to register you, or remove your User Profile from the Site  

19. The Agency may refuse to register a User Profile, or immediately remove a User Profile at any time, including where the Agency:                 
    • reasonably believes the User Profile name to be inappropriate; or    
    • reasonably suspects that a User Profile is being registered or has been registered by a person who has previously registered a User Profile that was removed, restricted or temporarily deactivated; or
    • reasonably suspects that a User Profile is being registered or has been registered on behalf of a person without that person’s consent; or
    • reasonably suspects that a User Profile is intending to impersonate or has been impersonating another person.
20. If you are under 18, you must have your parent or guardian’s consent to use the Site and participate in projects. The Agency may require you to provide evidence of consent at any time.
21. The Agency may limit or restrict the functions of the User Profile at any time for any reason.

Project Profiles are User Driven

Project Profiles can be created by users who register a User Profile.

Project Profiles are user-driven and are not formally endorsed, supported or sponsored by the Agency    

22. Project Profiles may display project partners associated with the particular project on the Site. You acknowledge that this display does not imply that the Agency endorses the project partner or is associated with the project partner in any way.
23. Project Profiles may display project partners associated with the particular project on the Site. You acknowledge that this display does not imply that the Agency endorses the project partner or is associated with the project partner in any way.
24.  You warrant that you will not represent the Agency as endorsing your project in any way.
25. The Agency may remove a project partner displayed on a Project Profile at any time.
26. The Site is user driven and the Agency does not formally endorse or support a project because it is relevant to a Project Profile.

Agency may remove or restrict access to a Project Profile

26. The Agency may remove or restrict access to a Project Profile at any time, including where the Agency reasonably believes the project promoted by the Project Profile:             
    • Is carried out in a way that has a detrimental impact on the environment;
    • Is unethical or facilitates the breach of any laws; 
    • Is otherwise inappropriate or detrimental to the reputation of the Agency.    
    • Is inactive for a period of more than a year. In this case the project will be marked as abandoned.        
    • Facilitates abusive or otherwise unethical and/or illegal behaviour. In this instance user profiles may also be restricted or removed.     

Conditions relating to linked or shared Content from Third-Party Sites

Linked or Shared Content from Third-Party Sites are accessible through the Site. The Site operates as a data connector that can share or link Content from and to Third-Party Sites such as social media platforms. This is to benefit the user and increase the resources available to the citizen science community.

Linked or shared Content and Third-Party Sites are not endorsed by the Agency  

27. Linked or shared Content may be Content external to this Site and if you use the links, you may leave the Site. If accessing any external Site, we recommend you read the terms and conditions of that Site. You can also link your Project Profile with Third-Party sites for the purpose of sharing data. The Agency  disclaims all liability under clause 33 of these terms and conditions for Content displayed on, or risks associated with, Third-Party Sites.   
28. The Agency reserves the right to prevent any User from linking Content or Third-Party Sites for any reason. The Agency can remove, suspend or restrict access to any link provided on the Site at any time.
29. The Agency does not formally endorse Third-Party Sites or Content.

Project Profiles may be shared by the Site to other Third-Party Sites

30. You acknowledge that your Project Profile and information with which a particular project profile could be identified may be shared with Third-Party Sites, such as Atlas of Living Australia or SciStarter.

Liability, Disclaimer, and Warranties

The Agency does not make any warranties relating to Content

31. Whilst the Agency will make reasonable endeavours to ensure the accuracy, authenticity and completeness of the content on the Site, the Agency makes no warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, regarding the quality of the Content, including, but not limited to, the accuracy, authenticity, completeness or suitability of the Content for any particular purpose.

The Agency Disclaims Liability

32. If the Agency makes a decision to remove, restrict, deactivate or suspend a User’s access to the Site for any reason, whether through the User Profile or a Project Profile, the User affected by this decision is not entitled to any kind of compensation and the Agency is not subject to any liability towards the affected User regarding the decision.  
33. The Agency disclaims all liability to the extent permitted by law in relation to:                  
    • Usage of the Content, including any breaches of Intellectual Property rights or any other condition which attaches to the Content.        
    • Any claim, loss or damage, including consequential loss of any kind, that results from any of the following:                              
      • relying on, accessing, contributing or downloading any Content,            
      • accessing, linking or sharing Content            
      • linking or sharing Content with Third-Party sites,             
      • using any functions available on the Site, or any action that results from use of the Site, including volunteering for a project,              
      • server issues or spread of sensitive or confidential Content.            
      • viruses, disabling codes or any other risks associated with using the internet when accessing the Site.             

You are responsible for how you interact with the Site

34. You are responsible for your decision to contribute to the Site or use the Site (including Site content), or participate in a Project. You must rely on your own due diligence and skill when determining:                  
    • whether or not to rely on or access any Content provided on the Site, including Third-Party linked or shared Content;       
    • what Content you make available on the Site; and      
    • whether you volunteer with a project.    

You indemnify the Agency regarding your use of the Site

35.  You agree to indemnify the Agency from any claim or action related to or in connection with a breach of these terms and conditions. This includes liability arising from any action, dispute, loss, compensation, damages, legal costs, or other charges.

Security    

36. The internet is an insecure platform. Whilst the Agency will make reasonable endeavours to ensure that Content provided on the Site will be securely held, the Agency does not warrant that any Content will be free from risk regarding security threats or any other kind of interference.
37. You acknowledge that by making Content available on the Site, you accept any risks associated with using the Site, including security risks associated with downloading or providing Content on the internet.

Procedural Conditions

38. These terms are governed by the law of New South Wales and by using this Site you are agreeing to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of New South Wales courts.
39. If any term of these terms and conditions is judged invalid or unenforceable, it is severed, and the remainder of the terms and conditions will continue to operate.
40. Any delay on behalf of the Agency to enforce these terms does not constitute a waiver of the Agency’s right to rely on these terms.
41. These terms and conditions constitute the entire Agreement between you and the Agency on the subject matter for the Site.