Terms of use for the BioCollect application comprise:

General terms of use

Introduction

This Biocollect Terms of Use augments the Terms of Use for the main Atlas of Living Australia and should be read in conjunction with those terms which are herewith applicable in their entirety. Some clauses from the Atlas Terms of Use are repeated below for the purpose of context and emphasis. In the event of any inconsistency between these terms and those of the Atlas in respect to repeated text, the main Atlas version will prevail.

By using the BioCollect application and the Content available on and through it, you are agreeing to be bound by these Terms of Use, the Atlas Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

Content that you access through the BioCollect website and/or associated mobile applications (apps) may also be subject to specific terms and conditions imposed by a data provider (Data Provider Terms). These Data Provider Terms may include certain licences to use the Content, such as Creative Commons licences.

The Data Provider Terms and this Terms of Use form the legally binding agreement between you, the Atlas and/or the data provider. If there is any inconsistency between these Terms of Use and the Data Provider Terms then the Data Provider Terms will prevail, but only to the extent that it applies to the particular Contents and to the extent necessary to resolve any conflict.

We may change these Terms of Use or a data provider may change their Data Provider Terms at any time without giving you notice, so please check them each time you visit the Atlas website.

Terminology

BioCollect – means the BioCollect application which is owned and hosted by the Atlas of Living Australia. BioCollect is one of the Atlas suite of software applications and tools. The Biocollect application is included within the definition of the ‘Atlas’.

The ‘Atlas’ means the definition as made in the Atlas of Living Australia Terms of Use.

You/user – means you as a  website/application user, Content/Data user, or Content/Data provider.

Contribution/Data – means information submitted electronically via projects and associated surveys or activities in BioCollect and/or associated mobile applications. This includes but is not limited to project metadata (ie. information associated with and describing projects), information submitted in data collection forms (as activity/survey forms), images and other electronic media uploaded in association with projects except where such images or media are subject to existing copyright.

Data contributor – means an individual who submits Data via Biocollect and/or associated mobile applications.

Data provider – means an individual or organisation that makes Content available on or via the Biocollect application and/or Atlas website. In the context of BioCollect, the primary organisation responsible for a project is the Data provider. The Data provider is the owner of the copyright on all Data submitted into a BioCollect project for which they are responsible. They are also responsible for the material which comprises the Content and that it complies with these Terms of Use.

Atlas website – means the  website with the URL www.ala.org.au (or any URL replacing it or containing it within the URL including but not limited to spatial.ala.org.au) and associated web services, internet publishing tools, software, tools, etc., including the BioCollect application and associated mobile apps.

Content – means content defined in the Atlas of Living Australia Terms of Use plus Data contributions.

Project – means an entity in BioCollect which is created by or on behalf of a Data provider to describe a survey(s) or suite of activities being undertaken by the Data provider. A project may contain surveys/activities which produce data.

Survey or Activity – means a data collection form which represents information collected at a specific data collection event.

Registration

In order to submit or use Content on the Atlas website or to utilise certain Atlas services or software you may be required to register to establish an account/user profile with the Atlas.

When registering, a genuine email address must be provided.

Please refer to the Atlas Terms of Use for additional important registration information.

Contributing or uploading Content

The BioCollect application is provided as a public data collection facility on the expectation and condition that data collected and stored in it will, at some point, become publicly available under Creative Commons license and may be freely shared with other parties in accordance with these Terms. For more information see  FAQ Licensing or Creative Commons.

You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post, display, upload etc on the Atlas website.

You are free to make available, use or publish your Content elsewhere.

You warrant that you own or created the Content or have the necessary rights, licenses or permissions to make the Content available on the Atlas website.

You will make reasonable efforts to ensure your Content is accurate at the time you collected or created it or made it available on the Atlas website.

Where you contribute more detailed or extensive data sets, eg Data, you should enter into a ALA Data Provider Agreement with the Atlas.

Where you have not identified any specific terms or licences or Data Provider Terms on the use of Content you contribute to the Atlas, then you grant to the Atlas a non-exclusive, worldwide, free, perpetual, irrevocable licence to:

a)      reproduce, copy, store, cache, manage, display, publish, distribute, use, reproduce, adapt, modify, make derivatives, change into other formats and incorporate it into other works or collections, for non commercial purposes and the activities that the Atlas undertakes; and

b)      make available the Content and derivatives in accordance with the ALA Terms and a Creative Commons – Attribution 3.0 Australia licence.

Note in some cases Content may be in the public domain, in the sense that it is not subject to copyright protection because copyright has expired or it does not qualify for copyright, eg individual species sightings, ideas, facts, names, styles, titles, slogans. Neither you nor the Atlas will seek to assert any intellectual property rights over this public domain Content. The Atlas and data users will be free to use such public domain Content in any way, although attribution where appropriate is appreciated.

The ALA uses cookies in order to maximise your user experience of the website. These cookies (small files stored on your computer) hold information about the state of certain programs as you use them. They do not hold personally identifying information.

The BioCollect website records all system activities, including the user id, the action undertaken, the date and time of the action and the project and activity ids in which actions were undertaken. These data are stored for the purpose of tracing issues and managing data restoration requirements; monitoring and analysing system usage statistics and patterns; workflow process monitoring, reporting and improvements for specific government clients where applicable; providing evidence to authorised parties in the event of any responsible legal obligations on the Atlas of Living Australia; and any other purpose deemed appropriate by the Atlas of Living Australia subject to any relevant ethics approvals as required by CSIRO. In some cases this may include use by the Atlas or other research bodies of aggregated deidentified data for the purpose of analysis and research.

Contributing to forums, making comments, posting information (Contributions, sharing)

Children’s Contributions and use of Content should be supervised by an adult.

You are legally responsible for all of your Content and Contributions.

The Atlas may decide in its sole discretion what Content and Contributions are published on the Atlas website.

You must not submit Content or Contributions that:

  • are defamatory, malicious, threatening, offensive, abusive, obscene, or otherwise unlawful or that violates laws regarding harassment, discrimination, racial vilification, privacy or contempt
  • are intentionally false or misleading
  • are an infringement of copyright or other intellectual property rights
  • seek to promote or endorse commercial products or services or to solicit business
  • deliberately provoke other community members, or are inappropriate, repetitive or off topic
  • compromise your privacy or that of other contributors or that contain inappropriate personal information
  • compromise sensitive data or confidential information around a particular species or observation.

You should be aware that your Contributions may remain online indefinitely.

Copyright

This Atlas website and its Content are protected by copyright law. Copyright in this material resides with the Atlas or various other data providers as indicated.

The Atlas has accessed Content from many different sources. All reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that we have properly acknowledged/attributed the source of the Content and obtained the necessary permissions. If however you believe that we have not properly accessed your Content please do not hesitate to contact data_management@ala.org.au and we will address your concerns.

Many of the trademarks or logos displayed on the Atlas website such as the Atlas of Living Australia or CSIRO logo or name are the registered trademarks of CSIRO. The trademarks of third parties are also displayed on this Atlas website. All these trademarks cannot be used without the express written permission of the Atlas or the relevant third party.

Disclaimer

The BioCollect application, Atlas website, linked websites and Content are intended to provide information for general and scientific use, to assist research and public knowledge, discussion and policy development.

The Atlas makes these software tools and Content available on the understanding that you use them in accordance with the Terms and at your own risk – they are provided ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ and you exercise your own skill, judgement and care with respect to their use or your reliance on them.

The Atlas and data providers give no warranty regarding the quality, accuracy, completeness, currency, relevance or suitability for any particular purpose of the Content or the Atlas website.

Users understand that the provision of BioCollect and associated mobile apps does not infer any responsibility or accountability on the Atlas to maintain or continue these services and that it is the responsibility of Users to manage their own risks in respect to data management and the expectations of their communities.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Atlas (including its employees and contractors), the Commonwealth of Australia and data providers exclude all liability to any person for any consequences, including but not limited to all losses, damages (including indirect, special or consequential damages, loss of business, revenue/profit, loss of time etc), costs, expenses and any other compensation, arising directly or indirectly from your use of the Atlas website or Content or inability to access the Atlas website.

If you find any inaccurate, out of date or incomplete Content on the Atlas website, or if you suspect that something is an infringement of intellectual property rights, you must let us know immediately by contacting data_management@ala.org.au or the data provider of the Content.

Personal information

Our Privacy Policy also forms part of the Atlas Terms of Use and it describes how we use your personal information when you use the Atlas website.

Whenever you give us personal information you are consenting to its collection and use in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

As a user of the Atlas and BioCollect websites you must not use any personal information made available to you on the Atlas website for any purpose other than:

  • in the case of an individual who made a particular record, eg sighting/observation data, to verify the details of that record and/or to acknowledge them as the relevant creator, and
  • in the case of an individual administering a dataset, to contact them directly to request greater access, further information and/or support.

Links to external websites

The Atlas generally and individual projects in BioCollect both provide links to a range of external  websites; however, we do not have direct control over the content of the linked websites nor the changes that may occur to content on those websites.

It is your responsibility to make your own decisions about the accuracy, completeness, currency, relevance or suitability for any particular purpose of the content on external websites.

The Atlas is not responsible for, and does not endorse, the content on external websites.

The Atlas publishes links to external websites at its discretion, and reserves the right to remove user-posted links to external websites for any reason and at any time.

Sharing of project metadata

The Atlas reserves the right and sole discretion to share project metadata content from BioCollect with other project registries and search engines within Australia or overseas for the purpose of enabling projects to be globally discoverable.

Linking to BioCollect website pages

We encourage use of links on external websites to the BioCollect project finder and to specific project pages.

Such links should not suggest that your website, organisation or services/products are endorsed by the Atlas.

Please advise us of any links you make to the BioCollect website.

Security of the Atlas website

The internet exists across insecure, public networks and there is a risk that transmissions to or from this website may be intercepted and modified by third parties or that files obtained from or through this website may contain computer viruses, disabling codes, worms or other defects.

The Atlas accepts no liability for any interference with or damage to your computer system, software, or data occurring in connection with or relating to the Atlas website or its use including the tools provided. You are encouraged to take appropriate and adequate precautions to ensure that whatever is selected from this website is free of viruses or other contamination that may interfere with or damage your computer system, software or data.

You must not try to circumvent the security features of this Atlas website, or tamper with, hack into, or in some other way disrupts any computer system, server,  website, router or other device used to host this website or make it available.

Email addresses on the Atlas website

The presence of email addresses on the Atlas website does not infer consent to send unsolicited commercial electronic messages (email) to those addresses.

General

These Terms of Use are governed by the law applicable to the Australian Capital Territory and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that Territory.

No delay, neglect or forbearance on the part of Atlas in enforcing these Terms of Use will be, or deemed to be, a waiver. Nor will it prejudice any rights of the Atlas .