Ornitho.de terms and conditions of use

1 Introduction and definition
These terms and conditions shall give a transparent and binding basis for the co-operation between you as a contributor and the legal body and partners of ornitho.de. They apply to the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The following definitions are used in the “ornitho.de terms and conditions”:

• Legal body, the Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) e.V. (Federation of German Avifaunists), which operates ornitho.de and is legally responsible for it; DDA may be used as a synonym for the legal body.
• Partners all associations and working groups, organisations, institutions and authorities that by means of written agreements are specialist or co-operation partners of ornitho.de. Collaboration with specialist partners takes place mainly at a technical level, but also conceptually or financially, whereas co-operation partners support ornitho.de only conceptually or financially. The list of partners is published on ornitho.de.
• Steering committee a board consisting of representatives of the legal body and specialist partners of ornitho.de, which guides and takes care of ornitho.de at the national level, or at the level of one or more federal states. Members of the steering committee undertake to act always in the interest of ornitho.de. The steering group members and their areas of responsibility are published on ornitho.de.
• Contributor any natural or legal person who is registered at ornitho.de.
• Regional co-ordinator a person normally nominated by the specialist partners, authorised by the steering committee in co-ordination with the DDA who: acts as a contact person and co-ordinator at a regional level; raises further inquiries to contributors regarding validation of records; and has extended access rights. The list of regional co-ordinators is published on ornitho.de.
• Species specialist a person normally nominated by the specialist partners, authorised by the steering committee in co-ordination with the DDA who: deals intensively with a species or a species group; raises further inquiries to contributors regarding validation of records; and has extended access rights with respect to that particular species or species group. The list of species specialists is published on ornitho.de.
• Third party any natural or legal person not otherwise specified in these terms and conditions
• Confidential record an observation of a particular bird species, for which detailed information should not be publicly disclosed; and which is consequently automatically protected by the system all year round or from time to time, or which was personally marked by the contributor as “confidential”. Confidential records are only visible to persons with extended access rights. The bird species and specific periods that are automatically protected by the system are published on ornitho.de.
• Casual observation any bird observation not collected within the framework of systematic recording programmes and not entered in the relevant specific designated input forms.
• Raw data simple list of unprocessed individual observations with detailed information such as species, count, location, date, observer.
• Processed data for example processed observation data using statistical (carto)graphic or tabular methods that in contrast to raw data do not allow conclusions to be drawn about the individual observations.

2 Principles and objectives of ornitho.de

ornitho.de

• is an internet-based portal for not-for-profit collection of avifaunal data in Germany and Luxembourg.
• is operated by the Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) e.V., supported by and in trustful cooperation with the partners of ornitho.de at international, national and local levels, including Federal State Institutions for Bird Conservation or government nature conservation bodies.  
• shall give an up-to-date overview of avifaunal events in Germany and Luxembourg, and shall be put into an European context in co-operation with other ornitho-systems.
• aims to combine avifaunal data in one place, to hold it in validated form for scientific analysis, for the purpose of nature conservation.
• shall bring together everybody interested in bird life, shall inspire people about the avifauna, and shall support environmental education.

3 Cooperation with ornitho.de
Participation and entry of data into ornitho.de is free of charge and is open to every natural or legal person.

3.1 Registration
Registration is only possible with your name, full postal address and a valid email address. By registering you agree that your personal data is stored and used strictly in accordance with section 3.2. Furthermore, by registering you declare that your personal information is accurate and that you will keep it constantly up-to date in case we need to contact you. Your email address is your user name and will be used for correspondence with you. The use of pseudonyms is not allowed. However, you are able to specify by a particular setting in your personal profile that observation data, photos and audio files submitted by you appear anonymously.

3.2 Protection and publication of personal data
The DDA and the partners of ornitho.de are aware of the sensitivity of personal data and we commit ourselves to deal with them trustworthily. Access to personal data is restricted exclusively to the DDA, their specialist partners, authorised species specialists and regional co-ordinators, for the purpose of communication in order to answer technical questions (mostly for validating data). In addition, you may specify in your personal profile, whether your personal data may be used by DDA and the ornitho.de partners additionally for their own information purposes. You can also specify if your personal data may be visible to other contributors to ornitho.de.

3.3 Submission of observation data, photo and audio files
You declare by submitting data that to the best of your knowledge all data are correct and that these as well as photo and audio files are exclusively your own, or that you act with the agreement of a third party. For 180 days^[1] following submission, you may delete or edit your entered data. After this time, this may only be done through the responsible regional co-ordinator.
If you observe a (seasonally) rare species, for which a detailed report to a rarities committee is required, entering an observation into ornitho.de does not remove any further requirement to submit records to the relevant rarities committee along with any additional information required for the purpose of validating the record.
By submission you irrevocably and with retrospective effect allow observation data, photo and audio files to be used for the not-for-profit purposes set out in the principles and objectives of ornitho.de by the DDA; and also by their specialist partners provided the data were recorded within the partner’s work area. The use of raw data by government specialist partners is not covered by this permission, if the government partner does not function as a co-ordinating body for avifaunal data collection^[2].
The submitted observation data, photo and audio files will be regularly inspected for plausibility by the regional co-ordinators and species specialists. If they find it necessary, they may ask you to provide further information regarding an observation, which may remain labelled as “questionable” until potential doubts have been clarified and mistakes have been corrected. By accepting the terms and conditions of use of ornitho.de, you declare that you agree to be contacted regarding your observations and that you will answer them as soon as possible.

3.4. Termination of your agreement with ornitho.de
You may leave ornitho.de at any time without specifying your reasons. Your cancellation of agreement is made by email to one of the members of the national steering committee. Your access to ornitho.de will then be disabled and all personal data (postal address, email address, telephone number, date / year of birth) no longer required will be deleted. All observation data, photo and audio files already submitted will remain with ornitho.de. They may continue to be used as before, without further restriction.

3.5. Exclusion from ornitho.de
If you breach the terms and conditions of use, in particular the principles and objectives of ornitho.de, the national steering committee may decide that you should be excluded from ornitho.de. Notification of such a decision is sent by email and the reason for exclusion will be given. If no objection is made to the decision within 14 days, access will be disabled 30 days after the exclusion email is sent, and all personal data (postal address, email address, telephone number, date / year of birth) no longer required will be deleted. All observation data, photo and audio files already submitted will remain with ornitho.de. They may continue to be used as before, without further restriction.

4 Use of observation data, photo and audio files

4.1. Use of observation data, photo and audio files by yourself
You have full access to and may export your submitted observation data, photo and audio files at any time. Likewise, the freedom for the further use of the observation data, photo and audio documents according to the permission given to the legal body and specialist partners under section 3.3 remains unaffected, provided the observation data or photo and audio files are yours. For all other observation data, photo and audio files the following terms and conditions apply.

4.2. Use of observation data, photo and audio files by the DDA, specialist partners and third parties
For all uses that are not covered by the permission given under section 3.3, and in particular any use by a third party, an application must be made, for determination by the steering committee.
Before raw data is supplied to third parties for commercial use, the person who submitted the observation data must first give his or her permission.
The procedure for such an application is set out in the “guide lines for the use of observation data from oritho.de” and can be retrieved from ornitho.de.

4.3 Citing observation data from ornitho.de
Observation data on ornitho.de are not necessarily finally certified and may be changed by contributors, or during the process of validation (section 3.3). Observation data from ornitho.de, and internet pages of the partners of ornitho.de that are directly connected with ornitho.de, should therefore not be cited.
Data may only be cited if it has been provided and certified by the DDA or one of the specialist partners, following an application request. Guidelines on citation and advice on acknowledgement may be taken from the terms and conditions that accompany the provided data.

4.4 Use of photo and audio files
According to the declaration of consent for use of your submitted information (section 3.3), the DDA and the specialist partners may use photo and audio files for their own purposes subject to the objectives and principles of ornitho.de, provided the originator of the data is acknowledged by name. Any other use requires the agreement of the originator.

5 Liability, damages
The operation of ornitho.de is guaranteed for an unlimited period. However, the DDA does not guarantee the permanent availability of ornitho.de or individual services, or the correctness or completeness of any material displayed. Any liability of the database operator or its agents is limited to intent. All parties concerned act voluntarily and under their own responsibility.
In the event of ornitho.de ceasing to operate, members of ornitho.de will be informed at least 3 months in advance, in order to give them the opportunity to export and save their data. The data base will then be made available to a recognised not-for-profit institution that, if possible, should commit itself to maintaining the data base and guaranteeing data use in accordance with the objectives and principles of ornitho.de.

6 Amendment of terms and conditions of ornitho.de
Should the terms and conditions of ornitho.de be amended, you will be informed in advance. If you agree to the amended terms and conditions, you must accept them at the first log-in after they come into force. If you disagree and end your participation, you may export and save your data within a specified time period.

7 Cooperation with ornitho.lu
As the responsible body of ornitho.de, the Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) has agreed with natur&ëmwelt (Luxembourg) that natur&ëmwelt will operate the internet portal ornitho.lu for the territory of Luxembourg, but that ornitho.de will be responsible for this until natur&ëmwelt can do so independently. Therefore, these terms and conditions also apply to ornitho.lu for as long as this unrestricted arrangement remains in force. Specific aspects, such as questions concerning copyright, data management or data transmission may differ in Luxembourg from these terms and conditions.

8 Severability clause
Should any of the forgoing terms and conditions prove to be inexecutable or inoperable, the remaining terms and conditions shall continue to be valid. Instead of the inexecutable or inoperable term or condition, an effective or practicable term shall be applied or agreed on.

9 Commencement
The terms and conditions of ornitho.de shall come into force upon the launch of ornitho.de on the 30^th October 2011.

Footnotes

^{[1] Extended to 180 days (previously: 30 days) on 14 December 2023 for newly entered observation data.}

^{[2] Casual records and data collected within the framework of systematic recording programmes must be considered separately.}