Last Updated：2022/10/20

1. Scope

1.1. This portal is managed and maintained by the TBIA Secretariat. The accessible data and materials provided on the website are published under the licenses or dedications either designated by contributing partners or stipulated by legitimate third parties that are compliant and compatible with the General Public License Policy of TBIA. The ownership of the data and materials is attributed to the original contributing partners or third-party rights holders.

1.2. The copyright policy on this page applies to the utilization and licensing relationships regarding copyrighted materials when you are engaged in activities on the TBIA portal. Different standards might be applied based on the levels between partner member accounts, non-partner member accounts, and event-specific member accounts.

1.3. The continued use of TBIA portal services by users is considered an express agreement by the individual or their representing partner group to abide by the following terms of use, including compliance with usage behavior and technical requirements, as well as the updates of these terms.

2. Data Licensing and Sharing Method

2.1. All data published on the TBIA portal is provided in two models: General Public Licensing data and Non-public Licensing data. The complete field version of relevant data is set as Non-public Licensing data by default, and the simplified field version of that is published at the same time in the General Public Licensing data model. Non-public Licensing data, in its complete field version, may be legally used in subsequent specific contexts after meeting necessary requirements. And if users undertake field reduction, de-identification, and other refinement work, they may hence distribute that refined data in a manner consistent with the simplified field version's General Public Licensing or dedication model when the simplified field version is not originally provided at all.

2.2. General Public Licensing data refers to data provided to the public without discrimination. Basically, it is comprised of the standard field version and simplified geographic coordinate information for relevant data, as designated by contributing partner groups upon submission. It is provided for use through one of the following four options of General Public Licensing or dedication methods:

1. CC0 (Public Domain Dedication): Through the adoption of the Public Domain Dedication, contributors declare the waiver of their copyrights to the work to the fullest extent allowed by law, enabling the public to use the work freely without restrictions. This is the most permissive method of material provision.
2. OGDL-Taiwan (Taiwan Open Government Data License): This license grants users a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free copyright permission to reproduce, distribute, publicly transmit, publicly broadcast, publicly recite, publicly present, publicly perform, compile, adapt to the data provided for any purpose, including but not limited to making all kinds of derivative works, either as products or services. Users may also further sub-license the work to others through multiple tiers in the same way; however, users should also make an explicit notice or statement as attribution requested by the data providers. The license is compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0). This means that when the data is utilized in compliance with CC-BY-4.0 subsequently, users automatically satisfy the conditions of the OGDL-Taiwan thereafter.
3. CC-BY (Creative Commons Attribution): This license permits users to reproduce, distribute, transmit, and modify the work (including for commercial use) as long as they attribute the work in the manner specified by the contributor. Users may use the data and related materials in any context, including for commercial purposes, but they shall always provide attribution to the contributor's name, pseudonym, or other designated attribution information. Users can also create new works using the data and materials provided by the contributor.
4. CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial): This license allows users to reproduce, distribute, transmit, and modify the work, but the use based on commercial purposes is not permitted. Users must provide attribution as specified by the contributor.

2.3. General Public Licensing data, whether under CC0, OGDL-Taiwan, CC-BY, or CC-BY-NC, can be used in commercial or non-commercial scenarios, perpetually and worldwide, for reproduction, modification, compilation, public transmission, and any other utilization that requires copyright permission under the law. Such copyright license or dedication will not be revoked in the future, and users shall not need a written offer or other license certification in formality. The data and materials can also be distributed on other hosting platforms for public broadcasting, including but not limited to citation or re-publishing on other websites that provide public transmission to the public. For data provided under OGDL-Taiwan, CC-BY, or CC-BY-NC licenses, users must attribute the contributor's name and the original source when using the data, while data provided under the CC0 dedication does not require any attribution obligation. However, for academic ethics and research integrity, it is recommended that users, if feasible, follow the specific instructions of the original data providers to perform the attribution, or apply one of the following English or Chinese formats for the attribution when annotating the contributor's name and the original source of relevant data and materials:

1. [Title of the Dataset or Database], [Contributor’s Attribution (collector, Liaison and Affiliation Organization) @ TBIA, under [CC0 / CC-BY / OGDL-Taiwan / CC-BY-NC].
2. [資料集或資料庫名稱]，[貢獻者顯名資訊(採集者、聯絡人、夥伴會員之機構或單位名稱)]@TBIA，[CC0 / CC-BY / OGDL-Taiwan / CC-BY-NC].

2.4. The General Public Licensing terms and Public Domain Dedications adopted on this portal are not generally specified in versions, unless the partner group or the original legitimate third-party provider who contributed the data specifies otherwise. It means that when providing the data under the aforementioned General Public Licensing or dedication methods, users can choose any version of licensing terms and dedications published by the Creative Commons organization or its corresponding license steward, such as the Taiwan Government for the OGDL-Taiwan. For example, when the data is published under the CC-BY on this portal, users can usually choose to use it either under CC-BY-3.0 TW or CC-BY-4.0 licensing terms, and if there are updates to these licensing terms or dedication versions in the future, users can also adopt the updated licensing and dedication method with the same licensing elements.

2.5. This website respects the independent judgment and interpretation of data or material contributors and users regarding the scope of the CC non-commercial element, without any intent to expand, limit, or lead such interpretation. However, for the avoidance of doubt, unless otherwise specified by the partner group or the original legitimate third-party provider, the circulation of government publications or similar items, the selling price of which does not exceed the overall cost of printing, production, and distribution, or the electronic format of that is made available free of charge to the public, shall be considered as non-commercial uses. Even if it includes suggested retail prices due to the inclusion of ISBN or other publication numbers. It is also noted that there may be different interpretations and gray areas regarding the non-commercial element among different perspectives. In case of legal disputes, this portal will assert the legal position of an internet service provider, not participating in any physical litigation proceedings initiated by either party.

2.6. Non-public Licensing data refers to the complete field version and detailed geographic coordinate information of relevant data provided to designated members. It can be accessed by partner member accounts for comprehensive searching and browsing or by non-partner member accounts for event-specific title searching and retrieval with subsequent application for case-based usage. The conditions for the subsequent use of such data are as follows:

1. Signing a Non-disclosure Agreement: Permission can be granted after signing a TBIA Non-disclosure Agreement.
2. Based on the public interest or academic research purposes: The processing or utilization of Non-public Licensing data should be for the public interest and performed under statistical or academic research purposes.
3. Valid de-identification and bearing of responsibility: Subsequent use and disclosure of such data should be carried out in accordance with legal requirements. Users are recommended to de-identify and filter the data to prevent the sensitive species' precise geographic information from being identifiable and having a negative impact on conservation efforts. If there are any unlawful or improper aspects to the subsequent use, the data processors and users should bear the related legal responsibility.

2.7. After processors perform field reduction, de-identification, or similar work on Non-public licensing data, the outcome can be subsequently circulated under the same public licensing or dedication models that match the simplified field version of that data. The citation regulations, attribution recommendations, license term updates, and non-commercial scope interpretations mentioned above apply in such scenarios as well. When data has been processed and is further circulated, the processor can be credited as the author of the derivative data. However, if there are any unlawful or improper aspects to the derived status and subsequent use of the processed data, the data processors and users should bear the corresponding legal responsibility.

2.8. Non-public Licensing data can be accessed by partner member accounts for comprehensive searching and browsing or by non-partner accounts for event-specific title searching and retrieval with subsequent application for case-based usage. If the partner members or non-partner members take responsibility for the data processing and further utilization, such as performing field reduction of data to achieve the purposes of strengthening the protection of sensitive species' ecological information, the processed outcome shall be able to be exploited lawfully. When the processor assumes responsibility for the processing and using of relevant data, there is no need for additional permission required from the original attributing partner group of that data for the subsequent use.

3. Miscellaneous

3.1. Except for utilization through Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and its related regulations initiated by this portal, the services of this website are intended for use by natural persons only. Various types and frequencies of mechanical automation operations are prohibited. When traffic monitoring and management programs detect abnormal resource consumption within the website system and can reasonably estimate that it results from automated data or material retrieval, this portal may interrupt or terminate the subsequent use of the related account.

3.2. This portal does not bear the responsibility of permanent maintenance and declaration for contributed data and materials. Moreover, in the case of General Public Licensing data involving sensitive biodiversity data and similar situations, where the data and materials contain information that may harm species or cause other environmental damage, this portal may request the contributing partner group to appropriately obscure the General Public Licensing data and perform the re-uploading of it. Alternatively, this task may be performed with the assistance of the platform in obscuring and filtering efforts, or in reclassifying it as Non-public Licensing data.

3.3. This portal provides data and material download functions on certain pages. Regarding the preservation of downloaded data and materials, the portal strives to maintain them in full, but data and materials may be lost due to other factors such as natural disasters, system errors, etc. The portal and the maintenance unit bear no responsibility for such losses. To avoid such losses, contributing partner groups and users should keep backup copies of data and materials available for themselves.

3.4. This portal does not monitor the contributions of data and materials uploaded by users in progress or in surveillance. However, if such data or materials are subsequently reported by third parties as illegal or inappropriate, the portal may remove the relevant disputed data or materials after notifying the original contributing partner groups. In cases where disputed data and materials involve violations of the rights of others, legal violations, or the inclusion of inappropriate information such as public insults or personal attacks, the portal may remove the relevant data and materials immediately without prior notice to the original contributing group.

3.5. The scope of the license provided by the TBIA portal applies only to copyright and related rights protection in the data provided and does not cover other intellectual property rights, including but not limited to patents, trademarks, and the provision of organization logos or business marks.

3.6. Users of the data and materials provided by the TBIA website, whether protected by copyright or not, may not maliciously alter their relevant information. If the information displayed after editing or modification differs from the original and causes damage to the legal rights of TBIA contributing partner groups or others, the users shall bear civil and criminal legal liability themselves.

3.7. This portal does not guarantee the correctness and fitness of the data and materials provided, including both General Public Licensing data and Non-public Licensing data. In addition, if users suffer damage or loss, or make third parties suffer damage or loss while using General Public Licensing data provided free of charge through the portal, except as otherwise required by law, this portal and its maintenance unit assert the highest degree of disclaimer allowed by law, in accordance with the relevant General Public Licensing terms or public domain dedication declarations, and do not assume any compensation or indemnification responsibility.