Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated: July 22, 2026

These Terms of Service govern your use of Sphagnum Database, including the website, mobile app, observation tools, contributor tools and community features. By using the service, you agree to these terms.

Purpose of the Service

Sphagnum Database provides information, images, observations, identification resources and community contributions related to Sphagnum and related taxa. The content is intended for education, documentation, identification support and research-oriented use.

Accounts

You must be at least 16 years old or have permission from a parent or legal guardian where required by law.
You are responsible for keeping your login details secure.
You must provide accurate account information and use your own account.
You must not share, sell, transfer or use another person's account.
Contributor permissions may require approval and may be removed if misused.
We may suspend or remove accounts used for spam, abuse, vandalism or unlawful activity.

Acceptable Use

You agree not to misuse the service. Prohibited activity includes:

harassment, threats, hate speech, personal attacks or abusive behavior;
spam, automated scraping, security probing or attempts to disrupt the website or app;
uploading malware, harmful files or deliberately corrupted data;
submitting private personal information about another person without a lawful reason;
misrepresenting observations, locations, sources, permissions or authorship;
using the service to violate collection, conservation, export/import, copyright or privacy laws.

User Contributions

Users may submit observations, species edits, images, captions, comments, identifications, literature links and contributor articles. You are responsible for the content you submit.

Only submit content you have the right to share.
Do not upload copyrighted images, text or data unless you own them or have permission.
Do not submit personal data about other people without a lawful reason and their permission where required.
Do not submit false, misleading, abusive, illegal, private or harmful content.
Do not submit malware, automated spam, scraping abuse or content designed to disrupt the service.
Do not publish sensitive exact locations if doing so could harm habitats, private property or protected species.
Do not enter another person's iNaturalist username for import. Only import observations from your own iNaturalist account.

License to Use Contributions

You retain rights to your original contributions. By submitting content, you grant Sphagnum Database a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to display, store, reproduce, adapt for formatting, index, map and share the contribution as part of the database, website, app, backups, exports and educational or research features. Image copyright and source fields should be used to record attribution and license information where relevant.

Observations and Identifications

Identifications and database content are community and research-support tools. They may be incomplete, uncertain or later revised. Do not rely on the service as the sole source for safety-critical, legal or environmental decisions.

Samples and Physical Material

If you want to submit physical Sphagnum material for identification, microscopy or the species collection, contact us before sending material. You are responsible for complying with local, national and international collection, transport, export and import rules.

Moderation

We may edit, hide, reject or remove content that violates these terms, creates technical problems, lacks required attribution, appears abusive or is not suitable for the database. We may also correct formatting, taxonomy, spelling and obvious data-entry errors.

Users can report problematic content, copyright issues, abusive behavior or privacy concerns by emailing info@sphagnum-database.com. If in-app or on-page report controls are available, they may also be used. We do not guarantee that all user content is reviewed before publication.

Contributor Responsibilities

Scientific and taxonomic information can be uncertain. Contributors should use reasonable care, cite sources where possible and avoid presenting uncertain identifications as final. We may revise records as taxonomy, identifications or evidence changes.

Copyright Complaints

If you believe content on Sphagnum Database infringes your copyright, contact us with the affected URL, a description of the work, your contact information and a statement that you are the rights holder or authorized to act for the rights holder. We may remove or restrict access to disputed content while reviewing the request.

Privacy and Account Deletion

Our Privacy Policy explains how personal data is handled. Account deletion can be requested through the account deletion page. The deletion page is available without logging in.

Third-Party Services

The service may link to or use third-party services such as iNaturalist, OpenStreetMap-related map services, Discord, Google Play and external literature sources. Those services are governed by their own terms and privacy policies.

No Warranty

The service is provided as is and as available. We try to keep information useful and accurate, but we do not guarantee that all content is complete, current, correct, uninterrupted or error-free.

Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Sphagnum Database and its contributors are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising from use of the service, submitted content, identification errors or third-party links.

Indemnity

Where permitted by law, you agree to be responsible for claims, losses or costs arising from your misuse of the service, your violation of these terms or content you submit without the necessary rights or permissions.

Applicable Law

These terms are intended to operate together with the legal information provided in the website's legal notice/imprint. Unless mandatory law says otherwise, these terms are governed by the law applicable at the operator's place of business as identified in the imprint. Mandatory consumer protection and data protection rights remain unaffected.

Termination

You may stop using the service at any time. We may restrict or terminate access if these terms are violated or if continued access would harm the service, users or public trust in the database.

Changes

We may update these Terms of Service when the project, app or contribution features change. The updated version will be posted on this page.

Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent to info@sphagnum-database.com.