The EcoCommons Australia platform (“EcoCommons”) is operated by Griffith University (Australian Business Number 78 106 094 461). EcoCommons is a partnership of nine organisations including NCRIS-funded Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), CEBRA at the University of Melbourne, CSIRO’s Land and Water unit, Griffith University, Macquarie University, QCIF, TERN, and the University of NSW. It also involves an investment from the Queensland Government’s Research Infrastructure Co-investment Fund (RICF)
The Project Manager is Dr Elisa Bayraktarov.
EcoCommons is currently in BETA release.
Terms and conditions relating to EcoCommons, its use and ecocommons.org.au can be found at:
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Use
- Data Sharing Agreement
- Data Provider Agreement
EcoCommons Contact Details
Email: contact@ecocommons.org.au
Location: Willet Centre (N53) Griffith University Nathan Campus, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan Qld 4111
This Privacy Policy outlines how Griffith University (the operator of the EcoCommons Australia platform – the EcoCommons) manages Your personal information that is collected when You use the EcoCommons. In this Privacy Policy, references to Us, We or Our mean Griffith University.
As a University established pursuant to legislation in Queensland, Australia, We must comply with the Information Privacy Act 2009. In addition to the protection afforded to You under that legislation, We are also committing Ourselves to this Privacy Policy, and more generally the Griffith University ‘Privacy Plan’ – available from http://www.griffith.edu.au/about-griffith/plans-publications/griffith-university-privacy-plan
What is ‘Personal Information’?
‘Personal Information’ is generally defined under Australian legislation as “information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database) whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion”.
What Personal Information will We access when You use EcoCommons?
Griffith may use third parties service-providers to provide functionality associated with EcoCommons. Consequently, Your name, Your contact details and Your employing Institution may be given to such third parties – but only for the provision of services associated with EcoCommons. If You upload datasets into EcoCommons, You will also be asked to insert basic contact information which may constitute Personal Information.
How will We use Your Personal Information?
There are several important reasons why We require Your Personal Information:
- to authenticate that You are entitled to access EcoCommons;
- for system purposes – to ensure EcoCommons operates in accordance with Your required use; and
- to acknowledge You (and Your Institution) – in circumstances where you upload datasets and allow other persons to access them.
Your Personal Information may need to be disclosed to external service providers (such as Our network operators and third party data providers) to ensure EcoCommons operates in accordance with Your expectations. However, in all such instances We will require that such third parties treat Your Personal Information in a confidential manner.
EcoCommons does not transfer or host any data or information on servers located outside of Australia. However, if at any stage in the future We decide to host EcoCommons (or the data it holds) outside of Australia, You give Your unconditional consent to Us transferring Your Personal Information outside of Australia. In such circumstances, We will enter into commercially prudent agreements to ensure Your Personal Information is only used by the relevant third party for purposes consistent this Privacy Policy.
You acknowledge that in some circumstances, We can be legally compelled to provide Personal Information to regulatory or administrative authorities – and You permit Us to do so if that is necessary.
Email Communications
If You have elected to receive email communications from Us, You agree that We may use Your contact details to send You newsletters, marketing emails or invitations to EcoCommons workshops or events. However, You may at any time opt out of receiving such materials at any time by emailing contact@ecocommons.org.au requesting removal Your contact details from Our distribution lists.
Accessing and Correcting Your Personal Information
You may request Us to provide You with access to Your Personal Information that is stored within the EcoCommons. We will process all such requests in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2009.
If the Personal Information that We hold about You is inaccurate, We will comply with all requests by You to update such information.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time – however You will always be notified of such changes before they occur.
EcoCommons Australia platform (EcoCommons) – Terms of Use
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You acknowledge that by accepting these Terms of Use (and using EcoCommons), a legally enforceable agreement (this Agreement) is created between:
Griffith University (Australian Business Number 78 106 094 461), the operator of the EcoCommons (Us, We or Our) and
You or the organisation or institution which you represent (You or Your).
1. Enforceable Agreement
a) You agree that this Agreement will become legally binding when You click the ‘I accept’ button, or when You otherwise begin using EcoCommons. You acknowledge that You have read this Agreement, understand it, and have had the opportunity to seek independent legal advice prior to entering-into it (if You consider that necessary).
b) If You upload datasets into the EcoCommons, You acknowledge that You will be required to enter into an online ‘Data Provider Agreement’ – and be bound by its terms. Further, if You elect to “share” any of Your data with other users of the EcoCommons, You will be required to enter into an online ‘Data Sharing Agreement’.
c) You acknowledge that We may occasionally make modifications to the terms of this Agreement (or the other agreements on the EcoCommons), and that Your continued use of EcoCommons will be in accordance with those modified terms.
d) If You are entering into this Agreement on behalf of an organisation or institution, You represent and warrant that You have the legal authority to do so, and to bind that organisation or institution to the terms of this Agreement.
e) You acknowledge that Your use of EcoCommons must be in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. If You do not agree to the terms, You must not use EcoCommons.
2. Licence to Use EcoCommons
a) As the operator of the EcoCommons, We grant You a non-exclusive, non-transferrable, non-sub-licensable licence to access, view and use the EcoCommons in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. You acknowledge that We may revoke Your licence to use the EcoCommons at any time, in accordance with the terms in this Agreement.
b) You must not attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, translate or attempt to ascertain the source code underlying the EcoCommons.
c) You acknowledge that Your use of the EcoCommons is for academic and research purposes. In no event will You attempt to sub-licence, lease or otherwise make-available the EcoCommons to a third party.
d) For the avoidance of any doubt, You acknowledge that You will not acquire any intellectual property ownership rights in the EcoCommons pursuant to Your use of it. All intellectual property rights in the EcoCommons are retained by Us.
3. Licence to use data within EcoCommons
a) This clause 3 does not apply in respect of “Derived Data” – which is new and original data that is generated by a EcoCommons user when merging, adapting or otherwise running algorithms over existing data within the EcoCommons. Ownership and usage of Derived Data is governed by clause 4 of this Agreement.
b) You acknowledge that, unless You are:
i. using the EcoCommons to access Your data (i.e. data submitted by You into the EcoCommons under a Data Provider Agreement); or
ii. creating Derived Data in accordance with clause 4,
You obtain no intellectual property ownership rights in the data You access. The extent of Your right to use such data is limited to clause 3(c).
c) We grant to You a non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide, perpetual licence to use the data You access when using EcoCommons for non-commercial research, education and teaching purposes. Unless You own such data, You acknowledge that:
i. You are not entitled to exploit or commercialise the data You access when using EcoCommons; and
ii. all subsequent distributions or publications that embody data accessed by using EcoCommons must acknowledge the owner of such data (in the manner which We direct You when We provide You with such data) in; and
iii. You are not entitled to sublicence or provide the data You access when using EcoCommons to any third party.
4. Derived Data
a) If You use EcoCommons to generate Derived Data, You will own all right, title and interest in such data. As the legal owner of Derived Data, You are, subject to clause 4(b), free to use it in any manner You choose.
b) If You generate Derived Data by directly using another EcoCommons user’s data,
You must acknowledge the owner of the original data (in the manner which We direct You when We provide You with such Derived Data) in all of Your subsequent distributions or publications that embody Derived Data.
5. Our ability to suspend (or terminate) Your use of EcoCommons
a) You acknowledge that We may, in Our absolute discretion, suspend or terminate Your access to EcoCommons at any time for any reason. Without limiting Our rights, You acknowledge the following circumstances are examples of when Your account may be suspended and/or terminated:
i. if We reasonably believe that You are not complying with the terms of this Agreement;
ii. if You use EcoCommons in an excessive manner, or in a way that monopolises the system’s resources;
iii. if EcoCommons becomes (or may become) subject of a claim of infringement of any third party’s intellectual property rights;
iv. if We are unable to sufficiently fund EcoCommons;
v. if We receive a request from a law enforcement agency, or pursuant to a court order.
b) In addition to the above rights, We may suspend an individual request for data that You have requested in circumstances where such request would, in Our reasonable opinion, cause EcoCommons to operate in a manner that affects the efficacy of the system, and the other users enjoyment thereof.
c) We are not required to formally notify You that Your use of EcoCommons has been suspended or terminated under this clause.
d) If We terminate this Agreement:
i. all of Your rights under this Agreement terminate immediately; and
ii. You will continue to honour the terms of licence under which You have received data from EcoCommons under clause 3 of this Agreement.
e) Nothing in this clause attempts to limit Our rights under this Agreement. To avoid any doubt, Our right of suspension and/or termination is in addition to any other right We may have against You under this Agreement.
6. Limitation of Liability
a) EcoCommons is provided on an ‘as-is’ basis. Your use of EcoCommons is at Your sole risk. We do not offer any warranties or assurances that:
i. Your access to EcoCommons will be continuous or without interruption;
ii. the data that You access and/or generate when using EcoCommons (including Derived Data) will be accurate, reliable or complete;
iii. Your use of EcoCommons will not corrupt Your data or computer systems;
iv. the intellectual property rights in EcoCommons (and the data which You access and/or generate) will not infringe the rights of any third party;
v. EcoCommons will be free from errors and/or viruses.
b) Except as provided in this Agreement, and other than conditions or warranties that cannot be excluded by law, We disclaim all conditions, warranties and representations, either express or implied, with respect to Your use of EcoCommons.
c) Without limiting this Agreement, under no circumstance will We be liable for, and You release Us from any direct, indirect or consequential damages or expense, damage or loss (or related expense) which may arise from:
i. Your use of EcoCommons – irrespective of whether We have had any notice of the possibility of such loss;
ii. Your inability to use or access EcoCommons, including as a result of:
termination or suspension of this Agreement or Your access to EcoCommons;
Our discontinuation of EcoCommons;
any change to EcoCommons which We implement;
any downtime or system failure of EcoCommons.
iii. the unauthorised access to, alteration of, or the deletion, destruction, corruption, damage, loss or failure regarding Your data (or Derived Data).
d) You agree to indemnify Us (including Our affiliates, officers, directors and employees) from and against all actions, claims, demands, losses, damages and expenses that We sustain or incur as a direct or indirect result of:
i. Your use of EcoCommons; and
ii. Any breach of this Agreement by You.
e) Where EcoCommons contains links to third party websites, You acknowledge that We have no control over the content of those websites, and We accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that You may suffer pursuant to Your visitation of them.
7. General
a) Privacy – We will comply with Our Privacy Policy available on this website (ecocommons.org.au)
b) Governing Law – This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Queensland, Australia. You agree to submit unconditionally to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Queensland.
c) Entire Agreement – This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between You and Us; and supersedes all previous written and oral agreements and understandings regarding Your use of EcoCommons.
d) Severability – Part or all of any provision of this Agreement that is illegal or unenforceable may be severed from this Agreement and the remaining provisions of this Agreement continue in force.
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You acknowledge that by accepting this Data Sharing Agreement, a legally enforceable agreement (this Agreement) is created between:
Griffith University (Australian Business Number 78 106 094 461), the operator of EcoCommons (Us, We or Our) and
You or the organisation or institution which you represent (You or Your),
regarding how We will distribute and display the data you upload into EcoCommons (the Data) to other users of the EcoCommons. If You wish Your Data to be shared with EcoCommons users on terms that differ from this Agreement, please email support@ecocommons.org.au and alternative arrangements may be considered.
1. Enforceable Agreement
a) You agree that this Agreement will become legally binding when You click the ‘I accept’ button. You acknowledge that You have read this Agreement, understand it, and have had the opportunity to seek independent legal advice prior to entering-into it (if You consider that necessary).
b) If You are entering into this Agreement on behalf of an organisation or institution, You represent and warrant that You have the legal authority to do so, and to bind that organisation or institution to the terms of this Agreement.
2. Sharing Your Data with Permitted Users
a) You acknowledge that if You have elected to share Your Data with other users of EcoCommons, You can choose which EcoCommons users are entitled to access Your Data, (the Permitted Users, as appropriate).
b) Consistent with the terms of Your Data Provider Agreement (under which You uploaded the Data into EcoCommons), You own all right, title and interest in Your Data at all times. Other than a licence to use Your Data in accordance with clause 2(c), We (nor the Permitted Users) obtain any rights (including intellectual property ownership rights) in Your Data.
c) In addition to the licence granted to Us by You under clause 2(b) of the Data Provider Agreement, You acknowledge that under clause 3(c) of the Terms of Use the Permitted Users:
i. will be entitled to use Your Data for non-commercial research, education and teaching purposes;
ii. are prohibited from exploiting or commercialising Your Data, or sublicensing or providing Your Data to third parties.
d) You acknowledge that You give permission to Us to display Your name (and/or Institution) when We display Your Data to Permitted Users (Your Desired Attribution Settings).
e) We will ensure that each time a Permitted User accesses Your Data We will display to them, in a reasonably prominent manner, Your Desired Attribution Settings. Further, under clause 3(c) of the Terms of Use, Permitted Users must acknowledge You (in accordance with Your Desired Attribution Settings) in all subsequent distributions or publications that embody Your Data.
f) If You have elected to share Your Data with Permitted Users, but later decide to withdraw such data from EcoCommons, You acknowledge that those Permitted Users who have already accessed such data remain licensed to it in accordance with clause 2(c) above.
3. Derived Data
a) This clause 3 only applies if you have elected in EcoCommons settings to entitle third parties to create “Derived Data”. For the avoidance of any doubt, Derived Data occurs when a Permitted User uses, merges, adapts or otherwise runs algorithms over Your Data in a manner whereby a new and original dataset (that is distinct from Your Data) is created.
b) You acknowledge that all right, title and interest in Derived Data is owned exclusively by the Permitted User (or his/her Institution) who created it. You are not entitled, by licence or otherwise, to access Derived Data, nor be informed about its existence. Subject to Your right of attribution in clause 3(c), You have no other rights in respect of the Derived Data, and acknowledge the Permitted User is entitled to deal it in their absolute discretion.
c) At any time that We generate and/or display Derived Data to a Permitted User that is based on Your Data, We will display to the Permitted User, in a reasonably prominent manner, Your Desired Attribution Settings. Further, under EcoCommons Terms of Use (i.e. that governs all users use of EcoCommons), a Permitted User is required to acknowledge You (as the owner of the Data) when distributing or publishing Derived Data that is based on Your Data – see clause 4(b) of the Terms of Use.
4. Griffith’s liability
a) Notwithstanding clause 3(c), You acknowledge that We are not liable or responsible if a Permitted User fails to acknowledge You when distributing or publishing Derived Data that is based on Your Data.
5. General
a) Read in conjunction with Terms of Use – Nothing in this Agreement affects the rights and/or obligations of You or Us under the Terms of Use or a Data Provider Agreement.
b) Governing Law – This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Queensland, Australia. You agree to submit unconditionally to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Queensland.
c) Entire Agreement – This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between You and Us regarding the sharing of Your Data.
d) Severability – Part or all of any provision of this Agreement that is illegal or unenforceable may be severed from this Agreement and the remaining provisions of this Agreement continue in force.
print version
You acknowledge that by accepting this Data Provider Agreement, a legally enforceable agreement (this Agreement) is created between:
Griffith University (Australian Business Number 78 106 094 461), the operator of EcoCommons (Us, We or Our) and
You or the organisation or institution which you represent (You or Your),
regarding how We will use the data you upload into EcoCommons (in this Agreement, the Data). If You wish to provide Your Data on terms that differ from this Agreement, please email support@ecocommons.org.au and alternative arrangements may be considered.
Nothing in this Agreement is intended to govern how We will use Your Data in circumstances where You elect to utilise the ‘Share Data’ function with one or more Permitted Users within EcoCommons. To avoid any doubt, when You elect to Share Data, You will be required to accept the “Data Sharing Agreement” – such terms will govern which third parties within EcoCommons can access Your Data, and how We will attribute You when displaying such Data.
1. Enforceable Agreement
a) You agree that this Agreement will become legally binding when You click the ‘I accept’ button. You acknowledge that You have read this Agreement, understand it, and have had the opportunity to seek independent legal advice prior to entering-into it (if You consider that necessary).
b) If You are entering into this Agreement on behalf of an organisation or institution, You represent and warrant that You have the legal authority to do so, and to bind that organisation or institution to the terms of this Agreement.
2. Licence to use Your data
a) You will retain all rights, title and interest in Your Data at all times. Other than a licence to use Your Data in accordance with clause 2(b), We obtain no rights (including intellectual property ownership rights) in Your Data.
b) You grant Us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use, copy, reproduce, store and display (to You) Your Data for the sole purpose of operating EcoCommons. You acknowledge that We can use Your Data for system administration, including reporting, diagnosis of service performance and other administrative purposes.
c) The licence You grant Us to use Your Data does not prevent You from providing Your Data to any other party.
d) You acknowledge that Your Data may be transferred and hosted on third party infrastructure, and, provided We ensure such third parties maintain confidentiality of Your Data, You consent to that arrangement.
e) While You can revoke Your Data from EcoCommons at any time, Griffith is entitled to retain one copy of Your Data for archival/backup purposes.
3. Warranties
a) You warrant to Us that:
i. You own (or are entitled, by licence or otherwise) to provide Us with the Data;
ii. to the best of Your knowledge, Our use of the Data will not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party, nor breach any obligation of confidentiality or right of privacy of a third party;
iii. in Your reasonable opinion, the Data is beneficial and aligned with the purpose of EcoCommons;
iv. You will use reasonable efforts to ensure the Data is accurate;
v. You will not introduce any malicious code in EcoCommons;
vi. You will comply with the terms of this Agreement.
b) You acknowledge and agree that You are solely responsible for costs associated with migrating data into (and out of) EcoCommons.
4. Griffith’s rights and liability
a) You acknowledge that We can remove Your Data from EcoCommons at any time (including, but not limited to, if We reasonably believe You have breached clause 3 of this Agreement).
b) EcoCommons is not a data storage facility. You acknowledgement that We are not responsible for the storage of Your Data. Consistent with clause 6(c)(iii) of the Terms of Use, We are not responsible or liable if Your Data is deleted or corrupted when stored in EcoCommons.
5. General
a) Read in conjunction with Terms of Use – Nothing in this Agreement affects the rights and/or obligations of You or Us under the Terms of Use or a Data Sharing Agreement (if relevant).
b) Governing Law – This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Queensland, Australia. You agree to submit unconditionally to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Queensland.
c) Entire Agreement – This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between You and Us regarding the upload of Your Data.
d) Severability – Part or all of any provision of this Agreement that is illegal or unenforceable may be severed from this Agreement and the remaining provisions of this Agreement continue in force.
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Our partners
- EcoCommons Australia partners with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), which is supported by funding from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) https://doi.org/10.47486/PL108.