Terms of Use for LabInfrastructure@Geo.X

LabInfrastructure@Geo.X is a search portal under the URL https://www.geo-x.net/geox-laboratory-infrastructure-search/ (in the following “the Services”) that enables scientists and all other interested visitors to find relevant information about the laboratory infrastructures of all partner institutions of the Geo.X network.

The Geo.X network is the geoscientific competence network in Berlin and Potsdam. Our network activities focus on developing collaborative projects, promoting the next scientific generation, fostering synergies in teaching, and shared use of scientific infrastructure. The aim is to provide visibility of the existing scientific infrastructure of the partner institutions for collaboration and proposal applications and supports its joint use.

The Geo.X Head Office and the Service are hosted by the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (“GFZ”), a Public Law Foundation under the laws of the Federal State of Brandenburg/Germany, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany, Mail: info@geo-x.net, in the following “GFZ” or “We”/”Us”.

By using the Services you agree to the following terms of use:

I. Usage of the Services

(1) Third Party Content

As a visitor of the website of the Services (“visitor”), you can search for and read information on laboratory infrastructure.

The information on specific laboratories has been provided by the according partner institutions of the Geo.X network (“institutions”). This information includes a description of the laboratory infrastructure belonging to the specific institution, a link to the institution’s infrastructure website, contact data and further information (in the following “Third Party Content”). Only employees of institutions of the Geo.X network are authorized to update or change this Third Party Content (“authorized users”).

To update or change Third Party Content of their institution, authorized users can send Us a change request via a link provided in the detail page for each listed laboratory.

We are not liable for the Third Party Content. But we reserve the right to delete or change Third Party Content in case we are notified of its incorrectness or unlawfulness (see also paragraph I. (3)).

(2) Not covered

We operate LabInfrastructure@Geo.X as a cooperation project of the Geo.X network: Our search portal compiles the laboratory infrastructure of all Geo.X-partners in consistent systematics and quality. Please note the individual terms of use for each laboratory.

The Services don’t cover the usage, reservation or organization of usage of the listed infrastructure. If you are interested in access to a laboratory please contact the responsible lab manager or point of contact as specified in the Third Party Content.

Please note that a possible classification provided by the Services regarding a potential scientific or commercial usage of the infrastructure, is not legally binding. For the usage of the infrastructure only the conditions of the providing institution apply that are not part of the Services.

(3) Unacceptable Use

a) The following uses of the Services are strictly forbidden and can lead to IP blocking when doing so:

commercial use of the Services, especially the database
making the data available for download elsewhere
heavy use of the Services from an application or individual person; examples for heavy use are: using our Services as a fallback for your own services, more than 500 requests within one minute, more than 5000 requests within one hour
sending the same request multiple times in a short amount of time
monitoring the Services in a periodically manner
bulk downloading, if not explicitly permitted (see next paragraph I. (4))
attempting to circumvent administrative authorisations and security mechanisms

b) When providing Third Party Content in the Services, in addition to the above the following conditions must be complied with:

You shall not knowingly place incorrect or otherwise misleading or unlawful Content in the Services;
No uploading of private content
No uploading of illegal content
No uploading of content that breaches copyright regulations, personality rights, or confidentiality undertakings signed in connection with your work
You shall only include links to URLs and third party material that you are legally allowed to do so and under observance of copyright issues (i.e. giving copyright attribution); in case you receive the information that the third party URL or Content is not lawfully or not with legal allowance included in your account, you shall delete it with immediate effect;

The respective home institution will be notified in the event of any of these conditions being breached. The institution will then decide on any legal action that may be necessary in addition to legal steps we reserve. We reserve the right to delete any Third Party Content without notification of the institution in case We are made aware of illegal, unlawful or incorrect information.

If you as a visitor or rights owner discover unlawful Third Party Content, please inform Us via info@geo-x.net. In regard of personal data included in the Services, please note the Privacy Policy and the specific point of contact stated there, see Art. VI.

(4) Bulk Downloading

As a general rule, bulk downloading of larger amounts of data is not allowed. Smaller one-time bulk downloads may be possible if you ask the system administrators for permission to do so. For those bulk downloads following additional rules apply:

limit your request to a single thread
request from one machine only, no distributed scripts (for example a cluster or cloud service)
results must be cached on your side, so clients sending repeatedly the same request may be blocked

II. Citation

If you use the Services and/or data sets in a presentation or publication, for instance by linking in your website, then You have to acknowledge the Services as the source of the material. The Services or data sources can be cited as defined by the copyright attributions of the metadata of the Service or underlying datasets. You may not use the Services in a way that suggests any official status or that GFZ or the Geo.X network endorses any particular application of the Services by You. You may not mislead others or misrepresent the Services and its sources.

III. Interface for Websites and Applications

(1) You can access the data or integrate the data via the interfaces provided by the Service. You use the Services at your own risk and under your own responsibility.

(2) When calling the Services from a web application or by programmatic script (like Shell, Python or R) please be sure to provide a valid HTTP referer and/or user agent identifying the application or client. The HTTP requests should contain at least one of the headers “Referer” or “User-Agent” as it is shown in the following examples:

in case of a request from a web application: Referer: example.org
in case of a script (for example a request from cURL): User-Agent: curl/7.37.0

IV. No Warranty, Disclaimer

(1) We do not warrant that the Services will function without errors or interruptions. We reserve the right at any time to change or discontinue any aspect or feature of the offered Services, including, without limitation, the content of the Services, hours of availability, and equipment needed for accessing or using the services, as well as to terminate the Services themselves.

(2) The Services are provided “as is” without warranty or representation of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of accuracy, completeness, quality, topicality, fitness for a particular purpose or the absence of any infringement of any proprietary rights of third parties.

(3) Therefore, You shall in all cases be entirely and solely liable for the use to which You put such information and material. We shall not be held responsible for the performance of or output obtained from the Services nor for any liability to any party arising out of use of the Services.

(4) We shall only be liable for willful misconduct and gross negligence. For slight negligence, We shall only be liable in the event of breach of a material contractual obligation (cardinal obligation), the fulfilment of which is essential for the proper performance of the contract and on the enhancement of which You may regularly rely, as well as in the event of damage resulting from injury to life, limb or health or statutory liability.

(5) In no event We shall be liable to You for any incidental, consequential or indirect damages (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of data, cost of procurement of substitute services or service interruptions) arising out of the use or inability to use the Services.

(6) Information on the Geo.X laboratory infrastructure is provided free of charge in this portal. The use of the information is at users own risk. We do not assume liability of the general suitability of the information for the intended purposes. We are not responsible for any kind of damages resulting from the use of the information. Furthermore, We are not responsible for the accuracy and correctness of the data.

V. Applicable Law

The Laws of the Federal Republic of Germany apply to these Terms of Use, under exception of the regulations of the Convention of International Sales of Goods.

To the extent permitted by law, the courts of Potsdam, Germany, shall have jurisdiction with regard to any conflicts.

VI. Privacy Notice

see Privacy Policy.

VII. Adjustments, Changes to these Terms of Use

(1) In case a provision of these Terms of Use is invalid in any way, this does not influence the other provisions of the Terms of Use. The invalid provision will be deemed replaced by a provision that is valid, in view of its original intent and purpose. We will update our Terms of Use as soon as possible.

Please be aware that these terms of use may change without notice. In particular, the definition of heavy use may need to be modified in the future and You might have to change your access to those services. Applications using the Services should keep that in mind.