Copyright & Disclaimer

The SEED Hubs Terms and Conditions of Use

Definitions

Agency means The New South Wales Government

Code of Conduct means clause 18 of these terms and conditions of use.

Consequential Loss

means any loss, not arising naturally, that is according to the usual course of things, from the relevant breach act or omission, whether or not such loss may reasonably be supposed to have been in the contemplation of the parties, at the time they use the services on the Site, as the probable result of the relevant breach; and
include loss of profit or loss of anticipated savings.

Content means any data (including metadata), text, software, images, graphs, attachments or any other kind of communication, including communication on the Site’s public domain or through the messaging functionality on the Site.

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.

Privacy Notice means the privacy notice disclosure document on the Site, which is accessible and available at https://water-hub.seed.nsw.gov.au/privacy, as amended from time to time.

Site means the Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data (SEED) Hubs administered by the Agency, which is accessible and available at https://water-hub.seed.nsw.gov.au/privacy, as amended from time to time.

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

Overview

The Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data (SEED) Hubs (Site) is owned and administered by the New South Wales Government (Agency).

The Site is a user-driven platform, which seeks to connect people, themes and data contributing to the NSW environment. It will facilitate the sharing of 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 engage in messaging or forum-based activity.
the extent you can rely on information in a profile, forum 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:

When you use or visit the Site, you affirm that you agree to these terms and conditions.
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.
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.
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.
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 11.

Breach of these Terms and Conditions

The Site employs a moderation feature to ensure the appropriateness of the Contents, if the Agency suspects any breach of these terms and conditions, the Agency may remove, restrict or temporarily deactivate your user profile, or refuse the registration of future user profiles.
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 immediately remove your user profile or forum post or any Content contributed to the Site.
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.

The decision to remove any Content is at the sole discretion of the Agency, including its administrators or moderators.

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 Content to the Site.
Except for your Content provided to the Site, all intellectual property rights in the Site, including any information, datasets, software and tools accessed via the Site, will remain vested in the Agency.

Licencing your Intellectual Property Rights

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.
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

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.
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 logos or registered trademarks made available on the Site, including the Agency’s logos or 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.
the Content you contribute does not infringe upon any Intellectual Property rights or violate any third-party rights.

Breaches of Intellectual Property rights

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.
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].

3. You indemnify the Agency under clause 42 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

You are responsible for the contributions of Content you make on the Site, whether on the Site’s public domain or through messaging on the Site’s online forum. This includes sending messages and emails using the Site either to another User 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, deceptive, 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.
you will not make available on the Site or use the Site to facilitate, either directly or indirectly, any Content that contains, or may reasonably be perceived to contain, offensive language, spam, hate speech, personal attacks, or personal or sensitive information.
you will not provide any information or content on the Site or through the messaging functionality on the Site’s online forum that is obscene or contain any material that, in the Agency’s absolute discretion, is in any way inappropriate or unlawful.
you will use your best endeavours to provide accurate and truthful information when contributing Content.
you will respect the privacy of other users and refrain from sharing personal information without explicit consent.
you will adhere to any specific rules or guidelines provided by the Agency or its administrators or moderators.

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, creating a profile, communicating on the Site’s public domain or using the messaging functionality on the Site.

Your obligations when registering a user profile

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 Notice.
If your user profile has been removed, restricted or temporarily deactivated, you warrant that you will not attempt to register a new user profile.
You must maintain control of your user profile at all times. This includes not allowing others to use your user profile, or by transferring your user profile or any of its content to another person.

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

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.
If you are under 16 years of age, 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.
Parents or guardians should always supervise their children and young people under 16 years of age. If you are a parent or legal guardian and you allow your child who is under 16 years of age to use the services, then these terms also apply to you and you are responsible for your child’s activity on the Site and use of the services.
The Agency may limit or restrict the functions of the user profile at any time for any reason.

Profiles are User Driven

Profiles can be created by users who register a user profile.

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

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

Agency may remove or restrict access to a profile

The Agency may remove or restrict access to a profile at any time, including where the Agency reasonably believes the Content is promoted by the 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 Content will be marked as abandoned;
violate the security, integrity, or availability of any user, network, computer or communication system, software application, or network or computing device;
facilitates abusive or otherwise unethical and/or illegal behaviour; or
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 is 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 users.

Linked or shared Content and third-party sites are not endorsed by the Agency

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 profile with third-party sites for the purpose of sharing data. The Agency disclaims all liability under clause 40 of these terms and conditions for Content displayed on, or risks associated with, third-party sites.
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.
The Agency does not formally endorse Third-Party Sites or Content.

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

You acknowledge that your profile and information with which a particular profile could be identified may be shared with Third-Party Sites, such as mailchimp.

Liability, Disclaimer, and Warranties

The Agency does not make any warranties relating to Content

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

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 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.
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.
the Site’s functionality, accuracy or suitability for any particular purpose.
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.
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.
communication, disagreement or transaction between users using the messaging functionality on the Site.
act, omission, misconduct, negligence of other users and third parties.

You are responsible for how you interact with the Site

You are responsible for your decision to contribute to the Site or use the Site (including Site content), or participate on the Site. 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 or otherwise.

You indemnify the Agency regarding your use of the Site

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.
You agree to indemnify and hold the Agency from and against any claims, liabilities, damages and costs (including reasonable legal and accounting fees) related to:
your access to or use of the Site and services; or
your content made on the Site or the Site’s online forum.

Security

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.
You acknowledge that by making Content available on the Site , the Site’s online forum or otherwise, you accept any risks associated with using the Site, including security risks associated with downloading or providing Content on the internet.

Procedural Conditions

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 the New South Wales courts.
If any part 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.
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.
These terms and conditions constitute the entire agreement between you and the Agency on the subject matter for the Site.
If any provision of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.