Terms of Use

Preamble

The use of this Website (SearchCulture.gr), including web crawling, caching, using the search engine/aggregator or any other use of services offered through it, is conditioned upon the unreserved acceptance of the Terms of Use (ToU) described henceforth and is construed as an acceptance of these Terms of Use.

Definitions

The Institution responsible for SearchCulture.gr is ΕΚΤ (National Documentation Centre) and is described henceforth in this document as EKT.

Content includes all data, software, databases, metadata as well as any other intellectual work that could be the subject of copyright according to Law No. 2121/1993, as applicable, regardless of whether the protection period has lapsed or the use falls under the copyright exceptions and which is accessible from the website of EKT’s Website.

Content of Data Providers / Third parties is the items provided to SearchCulture.gr by Data Providers

Preview file is one or more image, text, audio or video file of reduced size representing an item from the Content of Data Providers / Third parties.

Metadata is textual information that facilitate the identification, interpretation, discoverability and/or management of the items of the Content of Data Providers / Third parties.

Use is any and all kinds of accessing the Website.

User is anyone using the Website.

Services are all processing functions based on digital technologies serving user needs

Legitimate Use

Use of this Website is allowed for legitimate purposes only, in accordance with these Terms of Use and in a way that does not restrict or limit its use by third parties. The User's actions or omissions must not cause damage or malfunction to the Website or have any negative effect or risk to the regular provision of the Website services offered to its users.

Intellectual Property Rights and Licensing Issues

The content of the Website, including the graphic user interface, the text of the website, the marks or other works on which EKT has the necessary copyrights or licenses unless expressly stated otherwise - especially content subject to third party rights - is available through the Services of the Site to users only in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike v. 4.0 licence.

All Metadata displayed through SearchCulture.gr are published under the terms of CC0 1.0 Worldwide (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Mark.

SearchCulture.gr also includes links to Preview files (thumbnails) as well as to the Digital Resources of the items provided by the Data Providers (edm: object and edm: isShownBy). The files with the above Content (hereinafter referred to as Digital Files) are not available under the terms of the CC0 1.0 Worldwide (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Mark, as is the case with the Metadata. The Digital Files may only be used in accordance with the copyright-related digital object statements as contained on the SearchCulture.gr Web Site on the item pages, in the "Use File or Thumbnail under the License" field or through the SearchCulture API in the edm_rights or RDF field representation of the item in edm: rights attribute. (note: there are some uses such as integration or linking that do not require authorization in most national jurisdictions). If there is no copyright statement in edm: rights field or if the edm: rights field is missing, the User may assume that the Digital Files may be used only in accordance with applicable copyright laws unless the site the Data Provider licenses the Thumbnail image and / or the Content with a different Intellectual Property License, so the appropriate license must be used each time.

The content of the Website is available through the SearchCulture Web API Service to which other information systems access under the terms of use of the service. Any other work protected by copyright and licensed differently from the above must be explicitly and specifically defined as such

Access to and Reuse of Knowledge Policy

Consistent with its core mission to enrich and expand the Commons, EKT is committed to using Free/ Open Technologies/ Source Code/ Data and Standards in all its Web Sites and to offering the content (including both data and metadata) with licences that strike a fine balance between the end/re-user’s and EKT’s goals.

This means that all the layers of the service stack that are offered through EKT's Website follow common principles of Open/ Free use and re-use. More specifically, where no third parties rights subsist which may not have been cleared:

  1. Free/ Open standards are used
  2. Free/ Open formats are used
  3. This is an open access web site
  4. All reasonable effort is being made to make content available under Creative Commons licences
  5. All reasonable effort is being made to make data available in conformity with the Open Data Definition
  6. All reasonable effort is being made to offer the Website's services in conformity with the Open Service Definition

Personal Data Policy

EKT may collect and process personal data of its users exclusively in order to be able to offer its Website services to users.

In any case, all personal data processing::

  • Is acted in accordance to the Law
  • Is performed for specific purposes and for a duration which is made known to the data subject in advance
  • Is performed only with the consent of the data subject or in accordance with the Law

EKT does not transfer or make its users' personal data public or reveal it to third parties, unless the law stipulates the opposite or if it is under a contractual obligation to do so or such action is otherwise necessary for the operation of the Website and the performance of its key functions.

EKT may process personal data that may have been collected, in whole or in part, in order to improve its services or for statistical analysis reasons. The user may contact the administrator of the Website in order to ascertain the existence of any file containing his/her personal data, to change, update, correct or delete it.

During the use of the Website, EKT may collect personal and non-personal data which can identify the Website users, through the use of technologies such as cookies, IP protocol monitoring and other technologies that monitor the communication of the web-browser with the server. A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is usually a small piece of data, sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while the user is browsing the website. They are used to facilitate the user access regarding specific services or web- pages of the Website for statistical purposes and in order to determine which web locations are more useful or popular.

Non-personal data may include the type of the web-browser, the type of the computer or smart device that the user uses to access the web-site, the operating system, the Internet Service Provider and other similar information. The user of the Website may adjust his/her web-browser in such a manner that it informs him/her about the use of cookies in specific services or does not allow the storage of cookies at all. In the case in which the user does not wish to accept cookies, it is possible that he/she will not be able to use all the services offered by the Website.

The Website under the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 679/2016, as in force from May 25, 2018 and the national law, will retain, file and process the user's personal data collected through the use of the Website itself.

Fair Terms of Use Policy

EKT is committed to openness and transparency and aims at protecting the interests of the user. Bearing in mind that commitment, it will only use fair terms and notify the user about any change of the terms of use of its Website and services.

Disclaimer and Limitation on Liability

EKT offers the content (ex. Information, names, photos, depictions, data etc.) and services offered through the Website , "AS IS". Under no circumstances does EKT (including EKT's legal representatives, employees, assignees etc) bear responsibility for any legal, civil or criminal action and/or any potential damages (compensatory, loss etc.) of the User deriving from this Website.

The Website may contain references (links) to third party website. EKT collects / stores / features / transmits through Search Culture.gr, metadata relating to third party content, without proceeding in the collection, processing or making of third party content available. The third-party content derives from the respective digital library or repository in which it is stored and via which it becomes available under the terms and conditions laid down in the relevant third-party website. Consequently, EKT bears no responsibility regarding any damage, incidental, consequential, direct or indirect arising in connection with third-party content or the accuracy and correctness of metadata published by third party websites, repositories or digital libraries and cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the metadata or any such content whatsoever.

The third party operators of the websites are the ones solely responsible for the content of their websites and for any damage that may arise from their use, when the User accesses them through the Website. The User accepts that, by visiting the website of third parties, he/she leaves the Website and is subject to other conditions of use.

EKT shall make every possible effort to ensure the good functioning of the network and the clarity, correctness, completeness, update, adequacy and availability of the content of the Website. However, it cannot warrant neither that all the above qualities of the content shall remain unaltered not that the function of the servers will be uninterrupted, free of errors, viruses, malware of other similar elements. EKT makes no commitment to update or correct the metadata or other content of this Website.

EKT shall under no circumstances be held liable for any damage suffered by the user of the services, choices and content of the Website. It also does not guarantee that any website associated with this Website or the servers through which any service is made available to the user/ visitor, does not contain “viruses” or other malicious software, as it does not warrant the accuracy, completeness or the availability of content, web-pages, services, choices or the results of their use.

Choice of Law and Courts, Duration, Amendments

The Terms of Use of this Website, as well as any future amendment, are governed and supplemented by Greek and EU Law and the relevant international treaties. The Greek Courts are hereby defined as those competent to hear any case arising from any differences with regard to the present. If any provision of these Terms of Use is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, it shall not affect the validity and/or enforceability of the remainder of the terms of these Terms and without further action by the parties, such provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make such provision valid and enforceable.

These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between EKT and the User of its Website and services and are binding only between them. No modification of these terms of use shall be taken into account and constitute part of this agreement unless expressed in writing and incorporated in these Terms of Use. Unless agreed otherwise, the above terms and conditions shall be rendered immediately enforceable upon their publication on the Website, as a whole.

EKT, unilaterally reserves the right to modify, amend and alter the content or services of the Website and its terms of use, whenever it deems necessary. Otherwise, their communication takes place via announcement on the Website and in accordance with applicable law.