Terms of Service

IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

1. Terms
You also agree to all applicable laws and regulations and that you are responsible for compliance with any applicable local laws.

If you are employed and intend using this site in connection with your employment duties then, by accepting these terms of licence, you are warranting that you are authorised to do so on behalf of your employer.

If you don’t wish to be bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement you are not authorised to access or use  this Site.  

The materials contained in this Site are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law.

2. Meaning of Words
‘Site’ means the website found at URL https://theclimatedatafactory.com/ (including subdomains) and all products and material available on it including but not limited to data, information, images, graphics or text.

'You’ means you as a Site user (and on behalf of your employer, if you are employed and use the Site in connection with your employment duties).

'TCDF' means the climate data factory, a company registered at the Parisian Chamber of Commerce (France) under number 811903061 with its principal office at 12 rue de Belzunce, 75010 Paris France.

‘Climate Projection(s)’ means any climate model outcome available on the Site as numerical data, information, graphics and images. It includes Data Products.

‘Data Product(s)’ mean(s) any “Climate Projections” available as data files in any format downloadable for free or a fee after registration on the Site. 

‘Processing’ is the numerical process used by TCDF to elaborate Data Products from third party data. A description is given in the documentation section of the Site.

3. Site and Acknowledgements
This Site is owned and operated by TCDF. The Site contains proprietary material and copyright owned by TCDF, subject to the following acknowledgements.

The Processing uses data, software and intellectual property from third parties including:
- SYNDA software provided by Institut Pierre Simon Laplace.
- Quality Control software provided by the The German Climate Computing Center.
- Global Climate Model data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project CMIP5 data through the Earth System Grid Federation available under the ”unrestricted use” terms.
- Regional Climate Model data from the CORDEX project through the Earth System Grid Federation available under the ”unrestricted use” terms.
- The WATCH-Forcing-Data-ERA-Interim available at www.eu-watch.org.
- The MESAN data provided by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.
- The ERA5 and ERA5-LAND data provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service. 

The Site does not provide access to CMIP5 and CORDEX original data. Original data always goes through Processing. Third party data included in the Site, and some sample Data Products, are provided for free for comparison and testing purposes, the corresponding proprietary rights and terms of service remain unaffected.

4. Use of the Site
TCDF grants You a non-exclusive and non-transferable licence to access and use the Site, to eventually buy Data Products, only in accordance with the present terms and and licence. The Site licence is formed after your first use of the Site. The Data Products are covered by a specific licence described in the section hereafter.

The Site licence is free of charge in consideration of you using it strictly in accordance with these Terms of Service.

The Site licence is personal to You and is not sub-licensable or capable of assignment.

When specified, permission is granted to temporarily download one copy of sample Data Product files on the Site for personal, non-commercial transitory viewing and testing only. This is the grant of a license, not a transfer of title, and under this license you may not:
- Modify or copy the materials.
- Use the materials for any commercial purpose, or for any public display (commercial or non-commercial).
- Remove any copyright or other proprietary notations from the materials.
- Transfer the materials to another person or "mirror" the materials on any other server.      

In general, You must:
- Not distribute, sell, sublicense, incorporate in products or services or otherwise make the whole or part of the Site and/or Climate Projections available for use by a third party for the purposes of generating any income or any other commercial purposes.
- Not use any computerised or automatic mechanism, including without limitation, any web scraper, spider or robot, to access, extract and/or download any information from the Site.
- Not allow any other part of the Site to be combined with or incorporated into other site or software.
- Not remove, alter, attempt to obstruct or interfere or otherwise render ineffective any aspect of the Site, including by removing or avoiding security features, attributions or legal terms that are notified to users as part of accessing or using the Site.
- Comply with any additional requirements for use of the Site and/or Climate Projections notified by us from time to time and ensure that anyone who you authorise or permit to use the Site complies with these Terms and Conditions.

This license shall automatically terminate if you violate any of these restrictions and may be terminated by TCDF at any time. Upon terminating your viewing of these materials or upon the termination of this license, you must destroy any downloaded materials in your possession whether in electronic or printed format.

5. Use of the Data Products
TCDF grants You a non-exclusive and non-transferable licence to access and use the Data Product only in accordance with these present terms and licence. This licence is formed after your download a Data Product after registration on the Site.

The Data Product licence is a commercial licence provided for free or a fee in consideration of you using it strictly in accordance with these terms and conditions.

The Data Product licence is personal to You and is not sub-licensable or capable of assignment.

In general, You must:
- Not use any Data Product unless you are familiar with the explanatory information provided in Documentation section of the Site at the following URL https://help.theclimatedatafactory.com.
- Not release the Data Product on the Internet or any other public communication network.
- Not assert or imply that TCDF has any connection with you or your work or provide any endorsement of work you undertake.
- You must comply with any additional requirements concerning Data Products notified by us from time to time.

What you are able to do with the Data Product:
- Use it for personal work, including supporting commercial activities as long as the content of the data, in total or partially, is not made available to others.
- Create a backup version.
- Publish work results based on the Data Product.

What you are not able to do with a Data Product:
- Pass it along to colleagues (the licence is personal).
- Distribute it in any way to third parties.

What you must do with a Data Product:
- Cite the source of the Data Product in any publication or presentation as “Climate projections from theclimatedatafactory.com (YEAR)”, YEAR being the year of acquisition of the data and eventually with the reference code of the data.

This license shall automatically terminate if you violate any of these restrictions and may be terminated by TCDF at any time. Upon the termination of this license, you must destroy any downloaded materials in your possession whether in electronic or printed format.

6. Use of Climate Projections graphics
Climate Projections graphics available as images in the Data Product description pages are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This means you are free to copy/download and redistribute the graphics in any medium or format under the following terms:
- Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- NonCommercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
- NoDerivatives: If You remix, transform, or build upon the material, You may not distribute the modified material.
- No additional restrictions: You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

7. Acknowledgement of terms relating to data use
When You have chosen to download data from theclimatedatafactory.com, for free or for a fee, it is a condition of downloading that you agree to the following:

a/ I acknowledge that the climate model data I am downloading represent just one of many realisations of plausible future climate
You are downloading results from several climate models, run under one of a number of mitigation policy scenarios (RCPs family) and for a single future time-period. Choice of the model/scenario/time-period combination can have a significant effect on the results of impact assessments. If you have not already done so (or have defensible reasons not to), you should use results from a number of models (at least three), selected in a way that represents the relevant range in projections from all available models for at least two emissions scenarios. Future time-period(s) should be relevant to the time horizon for decision-making.

b) I am aware of the limitations of climate model data
To make the most appropriate use of climate model data, it is important to understand their strengths and weaknesses. These issues are covered in the documentation section at the following URL https://theclimatedatafactory.com. In particular, you should understand that climate models produce plausible simulations of future mean climate, based on various assumptions, but they are not weather forecasts.

c) I acknowledge that I should also obtain a copy of the relevant metadata.
You should also take a copy of the appropriate metadata, which is contained within the NetCDF version of the data or the text file that comes along with the data.

d) understand that use of these data is subject to the  theclimatedatafactory.com website Terms of Service.
Except where otherwise indicated, these data are provided under a personal and non-transferable license. The full Terms of Service are available at https://theclimatedatafactory.com/terms-of-service.

8. Password and access
The security of your password is solely your responsibility and you should not share it with anyone nor store it in an insecure place.

You should not allow others to use your account to access the Site.

9. Your responsibilities
You are responsible for ensuring the Site, and in particular the Data Product, are suitable for your own use or purpose, including compatibility with your computer programs or equipment as applicable.

You must read the user guidance documentation available at URL https://help.theclimatedatafactory.com/ carefully prior to using any of material from the Site.

The Site, and in particular the Data Products, only provides Climate Projections of the likelihood of certain climate futures and is based on scientific information and understanding and quantitative modelling available as at the time of its development.  

If you use or download any Climate Projections from the Site, in particular Data Products, or any other information, text or images from this Site, you acknowledge that:
- the Climate Projections and any other information from the Site is not professional, scientific, technical or expert advice and is subject to - the usual uncertainties of scientific and technical research and data;
- the Climate Projections cannot predict exact climatic conditions with complete fidelity to any specific situation, but only provides indicative climatic projections;
- the Climate Projections are to be used as a guide only and should not be relied upon as a basis alone for doing or failing to do something. In particular, when making any financial decision involving the expenditure of money or the incurring of liabilities or both;
- The future climate could possibly lie outside the range projected by any of the models;
- The Climate Projections provided include natural variability;
- The Climate Projections should be used in conjunction with documentation and reports available on the Site.

TCDF reserves the right to provide advice on use of the Site and Climate Projections, through commercial and/or other arrangements.

10. Disclaimer
The materials on the Site and/or Climate Projections are provided on an 'as is' basis and any of their use is at your sole risk. TCDF makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and hereby disclaims and negates all other warranties including, without limitation, implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property or other violation of rights. 

Further, TCDF does not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the use of the Site and/or Climate Projections or otherwise relating to such materials or on any sites linked to this site.

TCDF gives no express warranty that any other part of the Site is error-free, operates without interruptions or causing downtime or will result in any outcomes.

TCDF’s liability to You for breach of any term of the Agreement or of any non-excludable consumer warranties is limited, at TCDF’s option:

In relation to the Climate Projection(s), resupplying the Climate Projection(s).
In relation to any other part of the Site, resupplying that part of the Site.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, TCDF or the individual organisations/groups generating Climate Projections, will not be liable to You for any loss of any kind, including data, information, revenue, profit, or business opportunity, or for any damage to goodwill or reputation which is suffered by You in any way arising by from the Site or your use of the Climate Projections.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you indemnify TCDF against and release it from any claim, demand, action, suit or other proceedings brought against it arising directly or indirectly out of your reliance on the Site or your use of or inability to use the Climate Projections.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, all international conventions that might import contractual terms into this Agreement are excluded, including the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

11. Limitations
In no event shall TCDF or its suppliers be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, damages for loss of data or profit, or due to business interruption) arising out of the use or inability to use the materials on the Site , even if TCDF  or a TCDF authorized representative has been notified orally or in writing of the possibility of such damage. Because some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on implied warranties, or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, these limitations may not apply to you.

12. Accuracy of materials
The materials appearing on the Site could include technical, typographical, or photographic errors. TCDF does not warrant that any of the materials on the Site  are accurate, complete or current. TCDF may make changes to the materials contained on the Site at any time without notice. However the climate data factory does not make any commitment to update the materials.

13. Links
TCDF has not reviewed all of the sites linked to its website and is not responsible for the contents of any such linked site. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by TCDF. Use of any such linked website is at the user's own responsibility.

14. Modifications
TCDF reserves the right at any time to modify or cease, temporarily or permanently, the Site, including Data Products, with or without notice. You agree that

TCDF will not be liable to you or to any third party for any such modification, suspension or discontinuance.

TCDF may revise these Terms of Service from time to time in its sole discretion and without notice. Each time changes are made, a revised version of the Terms and Conditions will be posted on the Site so please check them each time you visit. By using the Site you are agreeing to be bound by the then current version of these Terms of Service.

15. No other rights granted
Ownership and intellectual property rights in the Site (other than third party material) remain with TCDF. Nothing in this Agreement grants to you ownership or intellectual property rights in the Site and Data Product apart from the limited licence described in these terms. You must not remove, alter or otherwise interfere with any trademark, logo, copyright or other proprietary notices, symbols or labels or copyright protection devices that may be used in relation to or incorporated in the Site as well as any Climate Projection and Data Product.

You must not without written permission from TCDF use the name, any trademark or logo of TCDF to claim any sponsorship, endorsement, approval or affiliation or other association with TCDF by virtue of this licence agreement.

16. Personal information and Cookies
Any personal information collected by TCDF during your visit to the Site will be dealt with in accordance with TCDF’s Privacy Policy, which can be found here: https://theclimatedatafactory.com/privacy-policy/

The Site may require cookies to enable it to function. A cookie is a text string that is included with Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests and responses. Cookies are used to maintain state information as you navigate different pages on a web site or return to the web site at a later time. Consequently, if you do not allow TCDF to use cookies, you may not be able to use the Site.  

TCDF’s Privacy Policy mentioned above includes an Cookie Policy that you can found here: https://theclimatedatafactory.com/cookie-policy/

17. Termination
This Agreement is effective until terminated.
TCDF may terminate this Agreement immediately if you breach any of the licence terms and conditions. On termination, all your rights to use the Site and/or the Data Product cease.

18. Resolving disputes
In any dispute arising out of or in connection with this Agreement, you agree to first negotiate in good faith with a senior TCDF officer to resolve it. If the dispute is not resolved by those negotiations within 30 days, you agree that the matter will be referred to the French Chamber of Commerce (FCC) for resolution by mediation in French in Paris, France, in accordance with the FCC Guidelines on Mediation. However, this does not prevent TCDF from seeking any urgent interlocutory relief. 

19. Entire agreement
This Agreement records the entire agreement between TCDF and You and supersedes all earlier agreements and representations that may have been made by TCDF to you about the Site and the Product Data as well as Your right to use any part of the previous.

20. Governing law
These terms and conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of France and you irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Paris, France. 

Terms updated October 17th 2020.