Terms & Conditions

Please read these “Terms of Use” before using this web site. You agree that by using the SCGIS website, you are entering into a legally binding agreement with The Society for Conservation GIS (hereafter “SCGIS”) based on this Terms of Use (hereafter “Agreement”). If you do not want to enter into this agreement, do not access, view, download, or otherwise use any SCGIS webpage, information, or services (hereafter “Services”).

1. Introduction

SCGIS is committed to respecting and upholding the intellectual property of others and we expect site users to do the same. This Agreement describes the ownership and use of content on our website, as well as our guidelines to uphold the rights of the intellectual property of others. This Agreement applies only to the SCGIS international website (www.scgis.org). This Agreement does not apply to websites that are linked to our site or the websites of any SCGIS chapters or affiliated organizations.

2. Your Obligations

2.1 Applicable laws and this Agreement

You must comply with all applicable laws and this Agreement, as may be amended from time to time with or without advance notice, and the policies and processes explained in the Privacy Policy.

2.2 License and warranty for your submissions

You own the information you provide SCGIS under this Agreement, and may request its deletion at any time, unless you have shared information or content with others and they have not deleted it, or it was copied or stored by other users. Although you retain all ownership rights to the information you provide, by submitting your information to a public domain, you grant SCGIS a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, unlimited, assignable, sublicenseable, and royalty-free right to us to copy, prepare derivative works of, distribute, publish, remove, retain, add, process, analyze, and use in any way now known or in the future discovered, any information you provide, directly or indirectly to SCGIS, including, but not limited to, any user generated content, ideas, concepts, techniques and/or data to the Services, you submit to SCGIS, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or to any third parties. Any information you submit to us is at your own risk of loss. By providing information to us, you represent and warrant that you are entitled to submit the information and that the information is accurate, not confidential, and not in violation of any contractual restrictions or other third party rights. It is your responsibility to keep your SCGIS profile information accurate and updated.

2.3 Service eligibility

To be eligible to use the SCGIS website, you must meet the following criteria and represent and warrant that you: (1) are the “Minimum Age” (defined below) or older; (2) are not prohibited from having an SCGIS account, (3) will only maintain one SCGIS member account at any given time; (4) will use your real name and only provide accurate information to SCGIS; (5) have full power and authority to enter into this Agreement and doing so will not violate any other agreement to which you are a party; (6) will not violate any rights of SCGIS or third party, including intellectual property rights such as copyright or trademark rights; and (7) agree to provide, at your cost, all equipment, software, and internet access necessary to use the Services.

“Minimum Age” means (a) 18 years old for the People’s Republic of China, (b) 16 years old for the Netherlands, (c) 14 years old for the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Australia and South Korea, and (d) 13 years old for all other countries. However, if applicable law requires that you must be older than such ages in order for SCGIS to lawfully provide the Services to you (including the collection, storage, and use of your information in accordance with our Privacy Policy) then the Minimum Age would be such older age. The Services are not intended for use by children under the age of 13.

2.4 Your membership

The profile you create on the SCGIS website is owned by SCGIS. However, between you and others, your account belongs to you. You agree to: (1) keep your password secure and confidential; (2) not permit others to use your account; (3) not use other’s accounts; and (4) not sell, trade, or transfer your SCGIS account to another party. Further, you are responsible for anything that happens through your account until you close down your account or prove that your account security was compromised due to no fault of your own. To close your account, please contact us.

2.5 Indemnification

You agree to indemnify us and hold us harmless for all damages, losses, and costs (including, but not limited to, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs) related to all third party claims, charges, and investigations, caused by (1) your failure to comply with this Agreement, including, without limitation, your submission of content that violates third party rights or applicable laws, (2) any content you submit to the Services, and (3) any activity in which you engage on or through the SCGIS website.

2.6 Payment

If you purchase any Services that we offer for a fee, either on a one-time or subscription basis (“Paid Services”), you agree to SCGIS storing your payment information. You also agree to pay the applicable fees for the Paid Services as they become due plus all related taxes. Depending on where you transact with us, the type of payment method used, and where your payment method was issued, your transaction with us may be subject to foreign exchange fees or differences in prices, including differences due to exchange rates. SCGIS does not support all payment methods, currencies, or locations for payment. All applicable taxes are calculated based on the billing information you provide us at the time of purchase. We do not guarantee refunds for lack of usage or dissatisfaction. You also acknowledge that SCGIS’s Paid Services are subject to this Agreement and any additional terms related to the provision of the Paid Service. SCGIS will send you an email invoice upon completion of your transaction, however, if you require a copy of your invoice, you may contact us.

2.7 Notification and service messages

For purposes of service messages and notices about the Services, SCGIS may send you an email to the email address associated with your account. You also agree that SCGIS may communicate with you through your SCGIS Member Account. You acknowledge, consent, and agree that we shall have no liability associated with or arising from your failure to maintain accurate contact or other information, including, but not limited to, your failure to receive critical information about the Service.

2.8 User-to-User Communication and Sharing

SCGIS offers various forums for members to communicate such as the SCGIS Listserv, Discussions, and Member Messaging, where you can post your observations and comments on designated topics. SCGIS also enables sharing of information by allowing users to post updates including news, events, job opportunities, projects, chapter profiles, and chapter events. Please note that ideas you post and information you share may be seen and used by other Members and SCGIS cannot guarantee that other Members will not use the ideas and information that you share on SCGIS. Therefore, if you have an idea or information that you would like to keep confidential or do not want others to use, or that is subject to third party rights that may be infringed by your sharing it, do not post it to the SCGIS website. SCGIS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANOTHER’S MISUSE OR MISAPPROPRIATION OF ANY CONTENT OR INFORMATION YOU POST ON THE SCGIS WEBSITE.

3. Your Rights

On the condition that you comply with all your obligations under this Agreement, we grant you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nonassignable, nonsublicenseable license and right to access the Services, through a generally available web browser, or mobile device (but not through scraping, spidering, crawling, or other technology or software used to access data without the express written consent of SCGIS or its Members) to view information and use the Services that we provide on SCGIS webpages and in accordance with this Agreement. Any other use of SCGIS contrary to our mission and purpose (such as using information gathered from SCGIS commercially unless expressly authorized by SCGIS) is strictly prohibited and a violation of this Agreement. We reserve all rights not expressly granted in this Agreement including, without limitation, title, ownership, intellectual property rights, and all other rights and interest in SCGIS and all related items including any and all copies made of the SCGIS website.

4. Our Rights & Obligations

4.1 Services availability

For as long as SCGIS continues to offer the Services, SCGIS shall provide and seek to update, improve and expand the Services. As a result, we allow you to access the SCGIS website as it may exist and be available on any given day and we have no other obligations, except as expressly stated in this Agreement. We may modify, replace, refuse access to, suspend, or discontinue SCGIS Services, partially or entirely, or change and modify prices prospectively for all or part of the Services for our Members at our sole discretion. All of these changes shall be effective upon their posting on the SCGIS website or by direct communication to you unless otherwise noted. SCGIS further reserves the right to withhold, remove or discard any content available as part of your account, with or without notice if deemed by SCGIS to be contrary to this Agreement. For avoidance of doubt, SCGIS has no obligation to store, maintain, or provide you a copy of any content that you or other Members provide when using the Services.

4.2 Third party sites

SCGIS may include links to third party web sites (“Third Party Sites”) on www.scgis.org. Third party content and third party sites are not under our control, and we do not endorse, assume any liability for, or make any representations or warranties regarding third party sites, third party content, or any products or services offered by any third parties. You are responsible for evaluating whether you want to access or use a Third Party Site. You should review any applicable terms or privacy policy of a Third Party Site before using it or sharing any information with it. SCGIS is not responsible for and does not endorse any features, content, advertising, products, or other materials on or available from Third Party Sites. Accordingly, if you decide to use Third Party Sites, you do so at your own risk.

A website that links to our site does not suggest or imply our endorsement or approval of any product, position, entity, or individual. The linking site may not portray us in a false, misleading, or derogatory manner, and the linking site may not contain any adult or illegal material or any material that is offensive, harassing, or otherwise objectionable. Any right to link may be revoked at any time.

4.3 Disclosure of user information

You acknowledge, consent, and agree that we may access, preserve, and disclose your registration and any other information you provide in accordance with the terms of the Privacy Policy if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary in our opinion to: (1) comply with legal process, including, but not limited to, civil and criminal subpoenas, court orders, or other compulsory disclosures; (2) enforce this Agreement; (3) respond to claims of a violation of the rights of third parties, whether or not the third party is a Member, individual, or government agency; (4) respond to customer service inquiries; or (5) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of SCGIS, our Members, or the public.

4.4 Connections and interactions with other members

You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Members. SCGIS may, in certain circumstances, prohibit you from contacting other Users through use of the Services or otherwise limit your use of the Services. SCGIS reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other Members and to restrict, suspend, or close your account if SCGIS determines, in our sole discretion, that doing so is necessary to enforce this Agreement.

4.5 Intellectual property notices

The Service includes the copyrights and Intellectual property rights of SCGIS and except for the limited license granted to you in Section 3, SCGIS reserves all of its intellectual property rights in the Service. SCGIS logos and other SCGIS trademarks, service marks, and graphics are trademarks or registered trademarks of SCGIS. This Agreement does not grant you any right or license with respect to any such trademarks and logos.

5. Disclaimer

Some countries and jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of implied terms in contracts with consumers and as a result the contents of this section may not apply to you.

Do not rely on the continuation of the SCGIS website or any information therein. We provide the platform for SCGIS and all information and services on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

SCGIS does not control or vet user generated content for accuracy. We do not provide any express warranties or representations. To the fullest extent permissible under applicable law, SCGIS disclaims any and all implied warranties and representations, including, without limitation, any warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, accuracy of data, and noninfringement. If you are dissatisfied or harmed by SCGIS or anything related to SCGIS, you may close your SCGIS account and terminate this agreement in accordance with Section 7 (“Termination”) and such termination shall be your sole and exclusive remedy.

SCGIS is not responsible for, and makes no representations or warranties for the delivery of, any messages (such as internal messaging, posting of answers, or transmission of any other user generated content) sent through SCGIS to anyone. In addition, we neither warrant nor represent that your use of this Service will not infringe the rights of third parties. Any material, service, or technology described or used on the website may be subject to intellectual property rights owned by third parties who have licensed such material, service, or technology to us. SCGIS does not have any obligation to verify the identity of the persons subscribing to its services, nor does it have any obligation to monitor the use of its services by other users of the community; therefore, SCGIS disclaims all liability for identity theft or any other misuse of your identity or information by others.

SCGIS does not guarantee that the services it provides will function without interruption or errors in functioning. In particular, the operation of the services may be interrupted due to maintenance, updates, or system network failures. SCGIS disclaims all liability for damages caused by such interruption or errors in functioning. Furthermore, SCGIS disclaims all liability for any malfunctioning, impossibility of access, or poor use conditions of the SCGIS website due to inappropriate equipment, disturbances related to Internet service providers, saturation of the Internet network, or for any other reason.

6. Limitation of Liability

Some countries do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability in contracts with consumers and as a result, the contents of this section may not apply to you.

Neither SCGIS nor any of our affiliated chapters shall be cumulatively liable for (a) any damages in excess of five times the most recent membership or conference fee that you paid, if any, or US $100, whichever amount is greater, or (b) any special, incidental, indirect, punitive or consequential damages or loss of use, profit, revenue or data to you or any third person arising from your use of the Service, or any of the content or other materials on, accessed through or downloaded from SCGIS. This limitation of liability is part of the basis of the bargain between the parties and without it the terms and prices charged would be different. This limitation of liability shall:

Apply regardless of whether (1) you base your claim on contract, tort, statute, or any other legal theory, (2) we knew or should have known about the possibility of such damages, or (3) the limited remedies provided in this section fail of their essential purpose; and Not apply to any damage that SCGIS may cause you intentionally or knowingly in violation of this Agreement or applicable law, or as otherwise mandated by applicable law that cannot be disclaimed in this Agreement.

7. Termination

7.1 Mutual rights of termination

You may terminate this Agreement, for any or no reason, at any time, with notice to SCGIS. This notice will be effective upon SCGIS processing your notice. SCGIS may terminate this Agreement and your account for any reason or no reason, at any time, with or without notice. This cancellation shall be effective immediately or as may be specified in the notice. For avoidance of doubt, only SCGIS or the party paying for the services may terminate your access to any Paid Services. Termination of your SCGIS account includes disabling your access to the SCGIS website and may also bar you from any future use of the SCGIS website.

7.2 Misuse of the Services

SCGIS may restrict, suspend or terminate the account of any Member who abuses or misuses the Services. Misuse of the Services includes abusing the SCGIS messaging services; creating multiple or false profiles; using the Services commercially without SCGIS’s authorization; infringing upon any intellectual property rights; violating any of the Community Guidelines listed in Section 8; or any other behavior that SCGIS, in its sole discretion, deems contrary to its purpose. In addition, and without limiting the foregoing, SCGIS has adopted a policy of terminating accounts of Members who, in SCGIS’s sole discretion, are deemed to be repeat infringers under the United States Copyright Act.

7.3 Effect of termination

Upon termination of your SCGIS account, you lose access to the Services. The terms of this Agreement shall survive any termination, except Section 3 (“Your Rights”) and Sections 4.1., 4.2., and 4.3. (“Our Rights and Obligations”).

8. Community Guidelines

As a condition to access the SCGIS website, you agree to these Terms of Use and to strictly observe the following Community Guidelines:

8.1 Do undertake the following:

Comply with all applicable laws, including, without limitation, privacy laws, intellectual property laws, export control laws, tax laws, and regulatory requirements;
Provide accurate information to us and update it as necessary;
Review and comply with our Privacy Policy;
Review and comply with notices sent by SCGIS concerning the Services;
Use the Services in a professional manner;
Use your real name on your profile; and
Protect sensitive personal information such as your email address, phone number, street address, or other information that is confidential in nature.

8.2 Don’t undertake the following:

Act dishonestly or unprofessionally by engaging in unprofessional behavior by posting inappropriate, inaccurate, or objectionable content;
Create a Member profile for anyone other than a natural person;
Harass, abuse, or harm another person, including sending unwelcomed communications to others;
Upload a profile image that is not your likeness or a head-shot photo;
Use or attempt to use another's account or create a false identity on the SCGIS website;
Upload, post, or transmit any content that: (1) Falsely states, impersonates, or otherwise misrepresents your identity; (2) is unlawful, libelous, abusive, obscene, discriminatory, or otherwise objectionable; (3) includes information that you do not have the right to disclose or make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships; (4) infringes upon patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, or other proprietary rights; (5) includes any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation; (6) contains software viruses, worms, or any other computer code, files, or programs that interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment of SCGIS or any user of the SCGIS website;
Duplicate, license, sublicense, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, display, sell, rebrand, or otherwise transfer information found on SCGIS (excluding content posted by you) except as permitted in this Agreement.
Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, decipher, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for any underlying intellectual property used to provide the Services, or any part thereof;
Adapt, modify, or create derivative works based on the SCGIS website or technology underlying the Services or other Members’ content.
Rent, lease, loan, trade, or sell/re-sell access to the SCGIS website or any information therein, or the equivalent, in whole or part;
Collect, use, copy, or transfer any information, including, but not limited to, personally identifiable information obtained from SCGIS except as expressly permitted in this Agreement or as the owner of such information may expressly permit;
Share Members’ information without their express consent;
Use manual or automated software, devices, scripts robots, or other means or processes to access, “scrape,” “crawl,” or “spider” any web pages or other services contained in the site;
Use bots or other automated methods to access the SCGIS website, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages, or perform other similar activities through the SCGIS website;
Engage in “framing,” “mirroring,” or otherwise simulating the appearance or function of SCGIS’s website;
Attempt to or actually override any security component included in or underlying the SCGIS website;
Engage in any action that directly or indirectly interferes with the proper working of or places an unreasonable load on the infrastructure of the SCGIS website, including, but not limited to, sending unsolicited communications to other Members or SCGIS personnel, attempting to gain unauthorized access to the site, or transmitting or activating computer viruses through or on the site; and/or
Interfere or disrupt or game the SCGIS website or the Services, including, but not limited to, any servers or networks connected to the SCGIS website or SCGIS's search algorithms.

9. Copyright

9.1 Copyright Policy

SCGIS desires to offer a website where our Users share truthful and accurate information. We respect the intellectual property rights of others and desire to offer a website which contains no content that violates those rights. Our Terms of Use requires that information posted by Users be accurate, lawful, and not in violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties.

In accordance with our Terms of Use, and regardless of whether SCGIS may be liable for any alleged violation of rights or inaccurate or unlawful content, SCGIS may remove or disable access to specified content appearing on the SCGIS website upon receipt of a verified notice asserting that the content infringes intellectual property rights, is inaccurate, or is otherwise unlawful. Our policies and procedures for removing or disabling access to content alleged to be infringing, inaccurate, or otherwise unlawful are and remain at our sole discretion. It is also our policy, in appropriate circumstances and in our discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of Members, or groups as the case may be, who may infringe or repeatedly infringe the intellectual property rights of others, or who otherwise post inaccurate or unlawful content.

9.2 Copyright Ownership

The content on the SCGIS website, unless otherwise credited or unless posted in a public forum, is property of SCGIS. “Content” includes but is not limited to text, graphics, photos, sounds, music, videos, and the trademarks and logos contained within them. All trademarks and logos (“Marks”) displayed on this site are the property of SCGIS or other third parties. You are not permitted to use these Marks without the prior written consent of SCGIS or such third party that may own the Mark.

9.3 Copyright/Trademark Information

10. Privacy

You should carefully read our full Privacy Policy before using the SCGIS website as it is hereby incorporated into this Agreement by reference and governs our treatment of any information, including personally identifiable information you submit to us.

Changes to this Policy

This policy was established December 2013.

This Policy may be changed in the future and such changes will be reflected on this site. Users are responsible for staying updated on current versions of this policy.