TAIAO Community Platform Terms of Use

Last Updated: 19 November 2021.

These terms of use (Terms of Use) govern your use of the TAIAO Community Platform web application and this website.

Terminology

For the purposes of these Terms of Use, “we”, “us” and “our” are reference to The University of Waikato and its subcontractors, and “you” and “your” refers to the user of the Website, whether a Casual User or Registered User (as defined below) as the context requires.

Acceptance and amendments

By accessing and using the Website, including the materials and data available on this Website, you are required to agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not accept these Terms of Use, you must refrain from using this Website. If you are accepting these Terms of Use on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind such entity and its affiliates to these Terms of Use, in which case the terms “you” and “your” shall refer to such entity and its affiliates.   If you do not have such authority or if you do not agree with these Terms, you may not use the Website.

We reserve the right to amend these Terms of Use from time-to-time and any changes will be effective immediately once published and notified on the Website. Your continued use of the Website following such notification will represent an agreement by you to be bound by the amended Terms of Use.

If you have any comments or questions regarding the Website, please contact support@taiao.ai.

Please refer to our Privacy Policy for information on the way we collect, use and share personal information about you when you access and use this Website. Our Privacy Policy can be found here.

Resources and Licenses

The Website provides a platform for the TAIAO project which provides links to repositories of open datasets and notebooks (Resources) to improve reproducibility in environmental data science, and build capability in fundamental and applied data science, and make that data accessible to all New Zealanders.

The Resources are subject to licences specified by the owners or contributors of the Resources. All intellectual property rights (including copyright, trade marks (whether registered or unregistered), designs, know how or otherwise) in the Resources are subject to the contributor’s licence. You may only use or otherwise deal with the Resources in accordance with the specified licence terms and conditions. The Website provides a platform for sharing Resources, however the licence shall always be between the contributor of the Resources and the user and we shall have no liability in relation to the content of the Resources, or breach of any licence or sub-licence in relation to the Resources whatsoever.

If you have any questions or queries regarding a licence or sub-licence to use the Resources for any purpose whatsoever, please contact the licensor or sub-licensor of the Resources directly.

Your use of the Website
Casual User

If you are a casual user or browser of the Website (Casual User) you may access and view the publicly available parts of our Website, and use the Resources subject to the license terms and conditions identified by the contributor on the Website.

It shall be your sole reasonability at all times to read and/or accept the applicable licence before you use the Resources.

Registered users

If you wish to contribute Resources to the Website, you will need to set up an account on the Website (Account), you will be required to accept and be bound by these Terms of Use, and on creation of such Account you will become a registered user (Registered User).

Provided you comply with these Terms of Use and subject to any access restrictions granted to you by the registered administrator (Administrator), as a Registered User you will be able to:

(a) submit Resources to the Administrator for review and publication on the Website; and

(b) communicate in real-time with other Registered Users by leaving comments and points for discussion within the communication facilities on the Website (Communication Facilities).

Registered Users shall review and adhere to the relevant guidelines and codes developed by us from time to time and which relate to the submission of Resources and interactions with the Communication Facilities. Where in our sole discretion we have determined that you have not complied with any codes or guidance in relation to the Website we reserve the right to remove without notice any Resources you have submitted to the Website as a Registered User. The current relevant code and guidelines can be found here.

When you become a Register User, you agree and acknowledge that:

(a) your login credentials, including your user name and password, must not be shared with any third party and must comply with the security requirements. Please keep your login, password and/or other authentication information secure. Do not write this information down or use details which could be easily guessed by any person. We take a number of steps to safeguard the security of the Website but you are responsible for protecting your login and password and for the security of your computer (and any network which you are responsible for), including anti-virus and other relevant security measures to prevent unauthorised use of, and access to, your Website account;

(b) you must not permit any third party to log in to, or use, your Account;

(c) you will not, or attempt to, or allow anything to be attempted or done which may disable, damage, provide unauthorised access to or otherwise interfere with the proper functioning of the Website;

(d) you are responsible for all activity undertaken by or through your Account, including without limitation all Resources uploaded to the Website and all content submitted through the Communication Facilities;

(e) you are only entitled to have one Account;

(f) all information that you have provided to us, is true, correct, complete and up to date, including your contact details, and complies with applicable law; and

(g) you must inform the Administrator (by email to support@taiao.io) if you no longer require your Account.

Submitting Resources or using a Communication Facility as a Registered User

If you are permitted to edit or add content on this Website as a Registered User, this Website records those changes and identifies which Registered User has made such changes and participated in a Communication Facility.

All Registered Users:

(a) shall retain ownership and intellectual property rights in the Resources the Registered User uploads to the Website;

(b) represent and warrant that they own or have all necessary rights, licences and approvals to grant the licenses or sublicense to the Resources to Casual Users and Registered Users as set out above, and to upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available the content that you upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available on or using the Website;

(c) shall provide the Resources subject to a licence specified by you as the Registered User and provide for the details of the licence on the Website. Registered Users may use the TAIAO Open Licensing Guidelines as a guide to selecting the appropriate licence for the Resources. Identifying and selecting a licence shall be the sole responsibility of the Registered User uploading the Resources and we shall have no responsibility whatsoever in relation to the form, content or acceptance of any licence or sub-licence; and

(d) grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual right to use any content you submit to us or you post on this Website for the purpose of providing this Website and or marketing the Website. If you do not have the rights to upload any content to this Website or grant the licence to us referred to above, please do not post the relevant content on the Website.

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless to the maximum extent permitted by law, against all actions, proceedings, losses, liabilities, damages, claims, demands, costs and expenses (including all legal costs and expenses on a solicitor and own client basis) suffered or incurred by us arising directly out of, or in connection with, any claim in relation to the Resources or that the any content posted by you to the Website infringes the intellectual property or other rights of any third party.

Where you, as a Registered User have submitted content to the Website which is subject to any Licence, you agree that we have no responsibility regarding the enforcement or compliance by any Registered User or Causal User of the Website with regard to the licence you have identified. You shall at all times as a Registered User be responsible for enforcing any licence or sub-license as between you and the user of the Resources.

Communication Facilities

Registered Users may contribute communications through the Communication Facilities provided on the Website. The Communication Facilities operate in real time and are not monitored by us. You agree that we have no obligation to you to review, screen or monitor any Communication Facility, or to edit, delete or refuse to post such content. However, if we become aware of any content on a Communication Facility that is in breach of these Terms of Use, we reserve the right to edit, delete or refuse to post any further content. You expressly acknowledge and agree that any content which a Registered User uploaded to the Communication Facilities may be able to be viewed by all users of the Website and you as a Registered User are responsible for any content which you have submitted to the Website.

While we will use all reasonable endeavours to remove any content from the Communication Facilities which are in breach of these Terms of Use, we do not monitor Communication Facilities in real time or approve content before it is posted within the Communication Facility.

Exclusion from use and termination

We may terminate or suspend access to the Website immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, if you breach these Terms of Use. All provisions of the Terms of Use shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, disclaimers, indemnities and limitations of liability. We are not responsible for any damages arising from such termination, suspension or amendment.

We reserve the right to monitor and review your access to and use of the Website to ensure compliance with these Terms of Use and we may revoke or amend your access rights at any time. You agree that you must not:

(a) use this Website for any purpose other than as specified in these Terms of Use and as permitted by the scope of access rights granted to you as a Casual User or Registered User;

(b) post information which you are not authorised to post or post any personal information about any person, unless you have express consent from that person to do so;

(c) use this Website for any activity which infringes a third party's rights, is unlawful, or breaches these Terms of Use;

(d) upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any content that:

\ (i) is unlawful, abusive, defamatory or harassing;

\ (ii) is false, misleading or deceptive;

\ (iii) is in breach of any copyright or trademark law, privacy or other personal or proprietary or moral rights;

\ (iv) is objectionable (including but not limited to profanity, indecent/inappropriate jokes, material derogatory to any ethnic, gender-based or other groups of people, or sexually explicit material); and

\ (v) infringes, breaches or misappropriates any third party’s intellectual property (including but not limited to any copyright or trademark law), proprietary, contract or tortious rights, privacy rights and/or rights to confidentiality;

(e) use this Website to send spam or any unsolicited messages (commercial or otherwise);

(f) attempt to gain unauthorised access to this Website or use another person's name, registration account or password;

(g) knowingly provide false registration information;

(h) knowingly transmit any virus or other disabling feature to this Website;

(i) collect information that could be considered personal data about others without their explicit consent and/or appropriate lawful basis;

(j) introduce, or seek to introduce, any virus, malware or other malicious code into the Website; or

(k) circumvent the user authentication or security of the Website or any related host, network, or account. If we determine in our sole discretion that you are in breach of these Terms of Use we shall suspend or terminate your access to the Website with immediate effect.

Security of Information Disclaimer and liability

The Information on this Website is subject to change at any time, without notice to you and your use of the Website is at all times at your own risk.

To the maximum extent permitted by law and without affecting our legislative and regulatory obligations, we (and our officers, employees, agents or related bodies corporate) exclude all liabilities (including in contract, for negligence or otherwise) for any loss, damage (whether direct, indirect or consequential), costs or expenses suffered by you or claims made against you in connection with, however caused: (a) your use of this Website;

(b) your inability to access or use this Website;

(c) your use of the Resources or any Communication Facilities or any other information whatsoever contained on the Website; or

(d) a third parties use of the Resources or compliance with any licence or sub-licence. You agree to indemnify and keep indemnified us (and our officers, employees, agents and related bodies corporate) against all damages, liabilities, losses (including, without limitation, loss of profits), costs or expenses of any kind, whether direct or indirect, whether in tort, contract, equity or otherwise, which arise out of or result from your access to or use of this Website in contravention of these Terms of Use, or otherwise from our relationship with you.

No warranties

The Website, Communication Facilities and the Resources have been made available for the purpose of the TAIAO project and are not tailored to your specific needs or requirements. We do not warrant or guarantee the results you will obtain or receive from using the Website, Content or Resources.

The Website, Communication Facilities and Resources are made available on an “as-is” and “as-available” basis, and we make no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the Website, the Website content or the Resources, including without limitation warranties relating to title, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of defects, errors or omissions.

We do not warrant that the Website and Resources are true, correct or complete nor do we warrant that the Website will be available, free from errors, malfunctions, or other failures.

We do not accept responsibility for any loss, damage, however caused (including through negligence) which you may directly or indirectly suffer in connection with your use of the Website, the Website’s content, the Communication Facilities or the Resources or any website that is linked to, nor do we accept any responsibility for any loss arising out of your use of or reliance on the Website, the Website’s content or the Resources.

To the extent permitted by law, any condition or warranty which would otherwise be implied into these terms and conditions is hereby excluded. This disclaimer does not attempt or purport to exclude liability arising under statute if, and to the extent, that such liability cannot be lawfully excluded.

No information or content on this Website constitutes advice as to the appropriateness or suitability of Resources. Resources made available to you through the Website may contain additional terms and disclaimers. The information contained in those reports is subject to those terms and disclaimers and you should make sure you review those terms and disclaimers together with the Resource you are relying on.

Availability of the Website, updates and maintenance

While we will aim to make the Website available on a reasonably continuous basis we may update the content of the Website at any time, without notice to you. The Website will be temporarily suspended from time to time for maintenance and updates

This Website is made available on an "as is" and “as available” basis and we make no guarantees or representations in relation to the continuity of the availability of the Website, or any particular functionality of the Website. There may be times when access to the Website is limited or unavailable. We have no responsibility to you for any consequences resulting from the unavailability of the Website or your inability to access the Website at any time.

We can suspend or terminate your access to the Website at any time without notice, for any reason and at our discretion (including as a result of your failure to comply with these Terms of Use).

Third-party websites and products

This Website might contain links to other third-party websites. Those links are provided for your convenience and do not mean that we endorse the website. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third-party websites or services linked to this Website. We strongly advise you to review the privacy policy and terms of use of every site you visit.

Jurisdiction

This Website is governed by, and is to be interpreted in accordance with, New Zealand law. Any disputes relating to it will be resolved by the New Zealand courts. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we shall not be responsible for the compliance of this Website or any Information contained in it with the laws of any country other than New Zealand even if you are accessing the website or any Information contained in it from outside New Zealand. Any such access is at your own risk and you are responsible for compliance with all laws in the country in which you are located.

General

Each term of these Terms of Use is separately binding. If for any reason any term is not effective or binding, all other terms remain effective and binding.

If we do not exercise or enforce any right available to us under these Terms of Use or otherwise arising at law or in equity, this does not constitute a waiver of those rights.