Terms of Service

Scope of Application

These Terms of Service (hereinafter “Terms”) regulate the access and use of the services offered by DASSI – Data Archive for Social Sciences in Italy (hereafter “DASSI” or “Archive”) to its users. These Terms (hereafter referred to as “Agreement”), along with any related policies and privacy notices provided by DASSI, apply from the moment of accessing the services, throughout the registration process, and continue to apply even after an account is terminated. They remain effective for the duration of the availability of DASSI services, subject to any amendments to these Terms.

Definitions

  • Account: A user-managed access point to DASSI services, protected by a unique username and password created by the user, enabling access to DASSI services.
  • Registration Information: The necessary information for account registration, including but not limited to name, email, institution, and position.
  • Services: The entirety of services, functionalities, and capabilities provided by DASSI to its users through its IT infrastructure.
  • Stored Records: Digital content available in machine-readable formats, tradeable regardless of physical medium, notably via the Internet. This encompasses any data type and related documents such as codebooks, method reports, questionnaires, analysis scripts, data collection process data, and metadata.
  • User: Any individual or entity that owns or controls a registered account on one or more of DASSI’s services.

Service Usage

Users commit to lawful conduct in service utilization and account registration, specifically avoiding illegal activities, copyright and privacy violations, and not engaging in behavior that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, deceptive, fraudulent, privacy-invading, or in any way objectionable. Users agree to refrain from attempts (including for research purposes) to re-identify data or to publish or disseminate re-identified data. The users shall agree not to make any attempts or take any measures that result in the circumvention of the service restrictions put in place by DASSI. This particularly applies to restrictions of access to stored records. Users also agree to indemnify DASSI from claims arising from improper storage, availability, or use of unlawful records, or from illegal service use. Additionally, users must not overuse the IT infrastructure to a degree that surpasses normal user activity, as determined by DASSI. Violations may lead to immediate account termination and other consequences.

Registration

To fully access the services, users must register and maintain an account, providing true, accurate, and complete registration information, updating as necessary. DASSI may terminate accounts at its discretion for false information or security breaches, for which users are to immediately notify DASSI. Users are responsible for all activities on their account and must safeguard their account passwords. Users must immediately notify DASSI in writing of any unauthorized use of user’s account, or other account related security breach of which user is aware.

Warranties

DASSI makes no warranties regarding the services’ availability, scope, or continuous right of use. Services are provided “as is” without warranty, especially concerning the storage, availability, and duration of access to stored records within the IT infrastructure. DASSI may delete records at any time without justification and is not liable for any loss of data. In the event that services are discontinued for important and unavoidable reasons, DASSI will make every effort to preserve stored records to the greatest extent possible for the Archive.

Liability Limitation

DASSI, its affiliates, directors, employees, agents, partners, or suppliers will not be liable for any direct damages or lost profits, nor for any indirect, incidental, punitive, or consequential damages arising from the service use or content therein.

Dataverse API Use

The following section governs all use of Application Program Interfaces (API) to access and use the DASSI Dataverse application and the services available on or at the DASSI Dataverse application. It includes all APIs whose full or partial purpose is to provide access to the DASSI Dataverse and its services and materials, including APIs offered by Harvard Dataverse and third-party API applications created to access the Dataverse network from third-party websites (collectively referred to as “Dataverse API”).

Use of the DASSI Dataverse API is offered subject to acceptance of and compliance with all of the terms and conditions contained herein (“DASSI Terms of Service”). By use of the DASSI Dataverse API, user agrees and accepts all the terms in this agreement and all others mentioned above.

In accessing and downloading content from the DASSI Dataverse using a Dataverse API, the user acknowledges and agrees that:

  1. the materials provided on the DASSI Dataverse, namely data, documentation and metadata, are solely to be used according to their respective licence agreements. The respective licence agreements are available in the data set entry under the tab “Terms” in the DASSI Dataverse;
  2. DASSI does not endorse, manage, oversee, control, take responsibility for, or make any representations or warranties for any Dataverse APIs, including third-party Dataverse API applications;
  3. DASSI will not be liable or held responsible for any losses or damages to the user, his/her affiliates/affiliated institutions, his/her service/API application, or anything else related to the user, caused either in whole or in part by user’s access to and/or use of a Dataverse API application;
  4. DASSI does not oversee, manage, or have any control over, and is therefore not responsible for, any content, services, materials, and information provided by the Dataverse API application;
  5. DASSI makes no warranties and/or representations as to the timeliness, accuracy, completeness, reliability, correctness, availability, security, lack of defects/errors, lack of viruses/other harmful components, or overall quality of any content, materials, documents, files, and other information downloaded by the DASSI Dataverse by the user or any third party;
  6. DASSI makes no warranties and/or representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, availability, security, and overall quality of anything found on the DASSI Dataverse as accessed through the Dataverse API.

In using the Dataverse API, the user shall not:

  1. attempt to conceal or otherwise misrepresent his/her identity or his/her application’s identity when using or requesting authorization to use the Dataverse API;
  2. use the Dataverse API in any manner or for any purpose that violates any law or regulation, any right of any person, including but not limited to intellectual property rights, rights of privacy, or rights of data use and distribution, etc.;
  3. use an unreasonable amount of bandwidth. DASSI reserves the right to decide what is unreasonable and may, at any time, restrict user’s access and use of the materials and services on the DASSI Dataverse through a Dataverse API if it deems user’s bandwidth use is unreasonable;
  4. use the Dataverse API in a manner that may impair the functionality, stability, or operation of the DASSI Dataverse servers or adversely impact the behavior of other users or applications using the Dataverse API;
  5. use the Dataverse API for or in connection with any malicious programs or code including, but not limited to, adware or spyware;
  6. sell, lease, or sublicense datasets or other information found or downloaded from the DASSI Dataverse;
  7. sell, lease, or sublicense Dataverse’s API application software, or access thereto or derive revenues, directly or indirectly, from the use or provision of Dataverse’s API application software.

Dispute Resolution

Any disputes, controversies, or claims arising out of or in relation to these Terms of Service shall be resolved through amicable negotiations between the parties as a preliminary and preferred method. The users are encouraged to contact our team to address their concerns prior to initiating any formal dispute resolution proceedings.

In the event that the Dispute cannot be resolved through negotiations, it shall be brought in the competent courts located in Milan, Italy. This Agreement and any disputes arising from it shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Italy.

Except where prohibited by law, any claim or cause of action by the user arising out of or related to use of the web application or the Terms of Service must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose, or be permanently barred.

Modification of Terms

DASSI reserves the right to modify these Terms at its discretion without prior notice. Users are responsible for reviewing the Terms for changes. Continued service use after changes indicates acceptance of the new Terms.

Update

This policy is updated to 05/04/2024.