Terms and conditions for the APIs at SLU Swedish Species Information Centre

Background

The Swedish Species Information Centre at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU) maintains several APIs which provide access to information, code and other material (‘API content’).

The licence agreement (‘Agreement’) describes the provisions under which the APIs are maintained, how the Swedish Species Information Centre expects them to be utilized and what respective responsibilities follow when the API content is employed by a user.

By accepting this Agreement the user confirms that they have read, understood and approved the terms and conditions herein and the documents that the Agreement refers to.

1. Licence

SLU hereby grants a non-exclusive, non-transferrable, non-refundable and revocable licence to use the APIs of the Swedish Species Information Centre in accordance with the Agreement. This licence, and the products and services that are developed under the licence, shall not interfere with SLUs, or our data providers, right to freely exploit, develop, change or cease to maintain the APIs, the API content and associated products and services.
As stated below, the Swedish Species Information Centre will ensure that API users are informed of changes in the APIs and our abilities to maintain them.

2. Intellectual Property Rights

2.1 SLU, and/or third parties with whom we collaborate, hold ownership rights and intellectual property rights to the APIs. There is no right therefore to claim ownership, to publish, copy, transfer or in any other manner claim intellectual property rights to the API’s source code or content unless specific written approval has been obtained from SLU. 

Applications must be built in such a manner that they do not conflict with the current terms of use and regulations of the Swedish Species Information Centre.

A link to the terms and conditions concerning the use of information from the Swedish Species Information Centre must be shown in the application. The application shall present the following terms of use statement to the user “By using this application I agree to follow the terms and conditions for using information from Swedish Species Information Centre including third party copyright. This agreement is made directly with SLU. Breach of this agreement will result in the loss of the right to use the application”.
In the case where the API is used for the reporting of observations the five basic principles of Artportalen must be clearly displayed for those to those who use the application: i) your sightings are displayed openly, ii) sensitive species are protected, iii) you are the owner of your sightings, iv) certain selected sightings may be selected for validation and v) secure and long term data storage.

2.2 The API content contains material that is protected by intellectual property rights, copyright and trademark protection, and the user has no right to claim ownership, publish, copy, transfer, license or change such material other than under the terms and conditions relevant to the respective object.

2.3 Applications and services using the APIs and their content must declare that the data is sourced from and, where reporting occurs, that data will stored at the Swedish Species Information Centre, SLU.

Applications must not be designed in such a manner that the user may be led to believe that the application is owned by SLU. Rights to use the SLU brand and trademarks are limited to citing data source or storage and there is no right to use the SLU brand or trademarks other than as expressly laid out in this paragraph.

2.4. By using the APIs, SLU is given a non-exclusive, non-transferrable and non-revocable license to refer to your firm and the products and services that use the API content (including trademarks connected with the products and services) for the purpose of informing who uses the APIs. SLUs rights to use your brand and trademarks are limited to citations for this purpose.

3. Personal Data Processing

3.1 In connection with access to the APIs you are required to register certain personal information concerning yourself. By registering your personal information you confirm that you understand that SLU processes your personal data for the purpose of administering, monitoring and enabling your use of the APIs and additional tasks connected with this Agreement. SLU processes this information in its capacity as a data controller and in accordance with the EUs data protection regulations.

3.2 The API content includes personal information and you confirm that you are aware of, and accept that, you via collection, usage, combining, dissemination or in any other way process the information, handle the data in accordance with the EUs data protection regulations.

3.3 That you are aware that the European Parliament and councils regulations (EU) number 2016/679 (GDPR) can lead to changes in this Agreement and the manner that personal information is processed.

4. Technical requirements

4.1 To ensure and maintain the availability and quality of the content of the APIs you are obliged to follow the Swedish Species information Centre’s instructions concerning the APIs.

4.2 You may only use the APIs in a manner that complies with the instructions of the Swedish Species Information Centre and are not entitled to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, or disable the APIs. This includes, but is not limited to, an undertaking not to spread viruses, worms, trojans or other malicious code in the API or on the site where the API is provided.

5. Additional requirements concerning the use of the APIs

5.1 You must to be 18 years old or older to have the right to enter into this Agreement and obtain access to the APIs.

5.2 You may not use the Swedish Species Information Centre’s APIs or API content for products or services which are likely to damage SLU's activities or which are contrary to the interests of SLU. The APIs and the API content may therefore not be used for products or services that are contrary to the Swedish Species Information Centre’s terms and conditions and policies or which may otherwise may damage SLU's reputation. If the application contains advertising it must be clear that SLU does not endorse the product.

5.3 You may not use the APIs or API content for products or services that violate, or encourage violations of, pertinent laws and regulations. Approval from the Swedish Species information Centre is required for continued access to the APIs prior to large changes in the application or services.

5.4 When the API is used for reporting, the application should be designed in such a manner that a report/observation can only be submitted if taxon (indication of species), time, place and the reporter are all provided.

5.5 When the API is used for reporting, applications must be built to use the Swedish Species Information Centre’s User-Administration for access to observation data.

5.6 If you have any questions arising from this section, or desire to use the APIs or API content in any manner other than as stated herein, you may contact the Swedish species information Centre at support@artportalen.se. You do not have such rights until written approval has been received.

6. Liability

6.1 We strive to continuously improve the APIs and would like you to inform us of any errors or omissions by contacting Support at support@artportalen.se. However, as outlined in this paragraph, we have limited resources to correct errors or problems.

6.2 You acknowledge, and accept, that SLU does not make any statements or guarantees with respect to the quality, security, reliability, availability or performance of the APIs or API content. Regardless of that which is presented in our technical documentation, API version management policy or descriptions of the API functions, you cannot expect that the APIs will be error free, secure, updated or a reliable data source for the products or services you intend to use them with.

6.3 You acknowledge and agree that you use the API at your own risk and that SLU is not responsible for any damages incurred by you due to the fact that you have used, or have not been able to use, the APIs or API content.

6.4 If you generate data and information via the APIs, you agree that you are responsible for ensuring that you have the right to publish and disseminate such information, including, but not limited to, that you (i) do not act in violation of another party's intellectual property rights, (ii) have the legal basis to disseminate any personal information, (iii) not disseminating information which violates or encourages the violation of pertinent laws and regulations.

6.5 You undertake to hold SLU, our partners and employees, non-accountable for any claims by third parties due to your use of the APIs or API content in violation of this agreement.

7. Changes

7.1 We reserve the right to update and change the API content and this Agreement in accordance with our API version management policy at The Swedish Species Information Centre. The policy describes the changes that may take place, how the changes are communicated to you, and the advance notice that will be provided with.

7.2 With changes to this Agreement we will release a new version of the terms and conditions. New versions of the terms and conditions will be indicated by a new version number displayed at the end of the document.

7.3 By continuing to use the APIs after a change to the terms and conditions has been made, you confirm that you agree to the change. You will no longer have the right to use the APIs in accordance with point 8. ‘Periods of the Agreement and notice’ below if you do not wish to accept a change.

8. Periods of the Agreement and notice

8.1 This Agreement and your license to the APIs, will enter into force when you accept the Agreement and is valid as long as SLU provides the APIs unless it should be terminated prematurely in accordance with this paragraph.

8.2 SLU reserves the right to terminate this Agreement with immediate effect and to remove your access to the APIs if you are using the APIs or API content contrary to that described herein or which otherwise violates this Agreement. SLU also has the right to terminate or suspend your license under this Agreement upon repeated or serious disturbance of the applications function because the application has not been revised when our APIs have been updated, for example when overloaded. In addition, we reserve the right, at our judgement and, after notice to you in accordance with our version management policy, to permanently or temporarily suspend in providing all or part of the APIs or API content.

8.3 You have the right at any time to withdraw from this Agreement without providing reason or incurring any cost. Such notice must be given by email to the SLU at support@artportalen.se.

If your right to use the API ends, you are obliged to immediately terminate your connection to the API and delete any references to our brand and our trademarks used in your products or services.

Despite the fact that the Agreement ceases to apply, the provisions of this Agreement are of such a nature that they may continue to be binding. In the case of uncertainly in the period that the Agreement shall continue to be binding, the Agreement will be considered to be binding as long as it has practical significance. Termination should not mean that the Party is exempted from penalty due to a breach of the contract to which they have previously committed to, or in connection with, the termination of the Agreement.

9. Miscellaneous

9.1 This agreement constitutes the entire Agreement of all matters relating to the rights to use the APIs and the API content. Changes in, or additions to this Agreement except for new Agreements versions described in section 7 ‘Changes’ above, must be made via written agreement with SLU in order to be valid.

9.2 You may not transfer your rights and obligations under this agreement to a third party. SLU reserves the right, after the special notice to you, to transfer this Agreement to a third party who assumes all or part of our business.

9.3 Should any of your obligations, or any restrictions under this Agreement, conflict with your lawful rights as a consumer, they will not be valid against you. Nothing in the Agreement seeks to exclude, or limit, the legal rights that you have as a consumer.

9.4 This Agreement shall be governed by, and interpreted in accordance, with Swedish law. Any dispute arising in connection with this Agreement shall be settled by a Swedish court, with the Uppsala District Court as the Court of first instance.

These terms and conditions are written in Swedish and the Swedish language will govern any interpretation.

Version 1.0 2018-06-14

Links 

ArtDatabanken´s Developer portal
Startsidan för Öppna data och API:er