These terms of use are subdivided into the terms of use for a gratuitous subscription (I.) and the terms of use regarding chargeable membership for scientific institutions (II.). These terms of use shall become an integral part of each and every subscription contract as well as of each and every membership.
1.1
The operator of the Internet page http://idw-online.de (hereinafter referred to as the
Internet page) is Informationsdienst Wissenschaft e. V. – idw -, domiciled in the building of the
University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstrasse 30, 95440 Bayreuth (hereinafter
referred to as the association).
1.2
These terms of use regulate the rights and obligations of users who have
concluded a gratuitous subscription.
1.3
As a basic principle, the Internet page of the association shall be accessible
free of charge to all Internet users on the basis of these terms of use. Any
conditions of Internet users that differ or deviate from these terms of use
cannot be accepted, and corresponding offers of contract conclusion are already
rejected at this point in time.
2.1
Between the user and the association, a gratuitous usage contract shall be
concluded as a result of the user’s completion of the registration process and
subsequent confirmation from the association by e-mail.
2.2
The registered user shall be under an obligation to provide correct
information as far as data collected in the process of registration are
concerned. Should the data collected in the process of registration change
after the time of registration, the user shall be under an obligation to
enter these changes or notify the association of these changes. For this
purpose, the user shall be entitled to make use – among other opportunities –
of the contact establishment possibilities referred to in the legal notice.
2.3
The user shall be able to print out the contract wording / the terms of use
during the process of registration and save the website displaying these
documents. Moreover, the user shall be able to look into the contract wording
in the form of the terms of use via the link “Terms of Use” on the Internet
page already before the start of the registration process. The data required
for contract conclusion shall be presented to the user in a summarised manner
prior to the process of data transmission to the association. In case of
possible typing errors or incorrectness, the user shall be able to correct or
change the entered data. In addition, the terms of use in their respective
applicable version shall be available for retrieval by the user on the
website of the association at any time.
2.4
Upon registration, the future user shall select a user name within the
framework of existing possibilities. This user name shall be protected
through a password to be chosen by the future user. However, user names shall
be ruled out, the use of which violates third-party rights such as, in
particular, trademark rights and rights to a name, is contra bonos mores or
generally considered as illegal under German law.
2.5
The user undertakes to keep the password chosen by him/her secret and not
make it available to any third party. Where the user has lost the password or
receives indications of any unlawful use of his/her access, he/she shall
notify the association thereof without delay. The user shall be able to find
the association’s contact data in the legal notice of the association’s
Internet page at any time.
2.6
In addition, the user shall refrain from any disruptive intervention into the
Internet page. In particular, this shall relate to technical attacks or the
attempt to exert influence on other members or users to release their
passwords. In this context, members shall be defined as scientific
institutions with an own press relations office and a chargeable access for
instance for the creation of press releases.
2.7
Within the framework of its private autonomy, the association shall be
permitted to check and, where applicable, reject any offer of contract
conclusion from potential users. In the event of rejection, the association
shall give reasons for its decision on request of the user.
2.8
Any contract conclusion with underage users shall require consent to the
contract conclusion from the underage person’s authorised representatives
(such as the parents). By forwarding the data entered in the registration
sheet (offer), the user shall be considered as confirming that he/she is
either of full age or that the authorised representative/s has/have given
his/her/their consent to the contract conclusion.
2.9
Legal entities shall only be entitled to conclude a contract subject to
representation by a representative who is duly authorised to represent this
entity and fully capable of contracting. By forwarding the data entered in
the registration sheet (offer), the person acting on behalf of the legal
entity shall be considered as confirming that he/she is duly authorised to
represent the entity and fully capable of contracting.
3.1
The association shall make a gratuitous subscription to press releases and
event announcements from the scientific institutions affiliated with the
association (members) available to the users. The subscription can be
configured by the user himself/herself. This means that, according to his/her
wishes, the user will be able to arrange the contents of his/her subscription
in the framework of specified selection possibilities. As soon as new press
releases or event announcements are published by members, the subscribed
issues will be sent to the subscribers by e-mail. In the process of
transmission, delay may result because of technical reasons.
3.2
In addition, the association enables journalists to use an extended, likewise
gratuitous access. The scope of the extended offer shall be accessible at any
time under the link “Besondere Angebote für Journalisten” / “Special Services
Offered to Journalists” (http://idw-online.de/de/journalistoffers). To make use of
the extended offer for journalists, a gratuitous access needs to be created,
and the journalist has to accredit himself/herself. The regulations governing
expiry of the accreditation will be explained during the process of
registration.
3.3
Moreover, the content and scope of any specific service provided by the
association shall be subject to the specific functions of the operated
Internet page and to the publications from members.
3.4
The association shall check the identity of its members within the framework
of its possibilities. However, it cannot be ruled out entirely that
unauthorised third parties become members of the association on false
identity pretences. Therefore, users cannot rely on the indicated identity
and contact data of the members. Furthermore, it also needs to be taken into
consideration that unauthorised third parties may have obtained the access
data of members by unauthorised means.
3.5
Users shall be entitled to retrieve and print out the texts and images of
members or integrate them into their own Internet pages. However, this shall
apply only to the takeover of individual contributions. Any automated
takeover of a large number of texts and images shall require prior consent
from the association. When taking over such texts and images, the rules of
quotation including indication of the source shall be complied with.
4.1
The association shall be liable without restriction for wilful misconduct and
gross negligence. In the event of slight negligence, the association shall be
liable only for the infringement of essential contractual obligations.
However, the liability in case of infringement of essential contractual
obligations shall be limited to the extent of damage being typical of this
kind of contract, with the materialisation of which the association had to
reckon at the time of the user’s registration (contract conclusion).
4.2
The association shall only be liable for the replacement of indirect damage –
such as lost profits – if the association has committed acts of wilful
misconduct or gross negligence.
4.3
The aforementioned exclusions of liability and liability restrictions shall
not apply to cases where the association has assumed explicit guarantees, to
damage resulting from injury to life, body or health, and in the event of
legal regulations not being subject to disposition by the parties.
5.1
The user shall exempt the association from all-third party claims, be it
claims of persons or companies/legal entities. In particular, he/she shall
exempt the association from third-party claims, to which the respective third
parties are entitled because of circumstances, for which the user is
responsible. Especially, the user shall exempt the association from the
necessary cost of legal defence. This shall only apply, however, where the
user is responsible for the breach of law.
5.2
In this event, the user shall be under an obligation to cooperate. In
particular, the user shall provide any information completely and truthfully,
which the association requires for the purpose of legal defence. This
cooperation shall be limited though to what the user is capable of doing in
subjective and objective terms.
6.1
The association reserves the right to change the provisions of these terms of
use at any time without having to give reasons. In the event of such change,
the association will notify the user of the changes by postal letter or
e-mail at least two weeks before the new terms of use come into effect.
6.2
Unless the user objects to the new terms of use within two weeks after the
new terms of use have come into force and continues to use the services
without change, the changed terms of use shall be considered as accepted.
6.3
In the message referred to under I. 6.1, the association will notify the user
explicitly of the two-week period described in I. 6.2.
6.4
Should the user not give his/her consent to the change, the association shall
be entitled to extraordinary termination pursuant to I. 7.2.
7.1
The user shall be entitled to give notice of the contract’s termination at
any time without having to give reasons, without having to give notice of
termination and without having to observe formal requirements. For this
purpose, a corresponding message to the association using the available
contact establishment possibilities (see legal notice) shall be sufficient.
7.2
The association shall likewise be entitled to give notice of the contract’s
termination at any time by postal letter or e-mail subject to a notice period
of two weeks.
7.3
The association shall be entitled to give notice of the contract’s
termination without notice, i.e. without having to comply with a period of
notice, if the user has infringed these terms of use and if the infringement
is to be considered as so serious in consideration of the user’s legitimate
interests that termination without notice is justified.
7.4
On termination of the contractual relationship, all personal data of the user
and the created access will be deleted.
7.5
Where the contract’s termination is based on a notice of termination given by
the association, the user shall be prohibited from concluding another
gratuitous access contract.
These terms of use as well as utilisation of the services shall be subject to German law. For disputes not relating to utilisation of the services and/or to these terms of use, the courts with competence for the association’s registered office shall be exclusively responsible unless the user is a businessman or does not have a permanent place of residence in Germany.
1.1
The operator of the Internet page http://idw-online.de (hereinafter referred to as
the Internet page) is Informationsdienst Wissenschaft e. V. – idw -, domiciled in the building of the
University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95440 Bayreuth (hereinafter
referred to as the association).
1.2
These terms of use regulate the rights and obligations of members having
acquired a chargeable membership of the association. Membership can be
acquired exclusively by scientific institutions with an own press relations
office. Scientific institutions within the meaning of these terms of use
shall be:
In addition, a scientific institution needs to operate an own press relations office and perform own public relations and information provision activities.
1.3
To check whether these criteria are met by the membership candidates, it is
required that the membership candidates forward information material to the
association for reviewing purposes. For this purpose, the membership
candidates shall be able to make use of the contact establishment
possibilities referred to in the legal notice. The further procedure for
admission to the association can also be coordinated by telephone with the
service team of the association (telephone number: +49 (0) 921/348998970).
1.4
Members shall be able to print out these terms of use and save the website
displaying these terms of use. Moreover, members shall be able to look into
these terms of use in their respective applicable version on a permanent
basis via the link “Terms of Use” on the Internet page of the association.
1.5
As a basic principle, freedom of opinion shall also prevail on the Internet.
In exercising this freedom of opinion, however, the rights of third parties
shall be respected and complied with. The association shall be entitled to
punish infringements of third-party rights or violations of the terms of use.
Within this context, the association shall be entitled in substantiated cases
to revise or delete individual contributions (press releases, event notes and
announcements).
Annual membership fees and, where applicable, usage charges shall be graduated depending on what kind of scientific institution the member belongs to. The amount of fees and usage charges shall be as follows:
For each year, members of the association shall receive an invoice issued by the association that states the membership fee and, where applicable, the usage charges.
Scientific institutions meeting the criteria mentioned in 1.2 shall be entitled to become acquainted with the association free of charge in a trial phase at the beginning of their membership. The trial phase shall start on commencement of the membership and last until the end of the subsequent month. During the trial phase, the employees of the press and public relations department, who are named by the member, will already have all access rights to the Internet system of the association, which are usually granted to the press relations officer of a member institution.
4.1
The membership candidate shall be under an obligation to provide correct
information as far as data collected in the accession application are
concerned. Should the data collected in the accession application change
after the time of registration, the member shall be under an obligation to
enter these changes or notify the association of these changes.
4.2
Following admission to the association, a user name shall be assigned to the
member. On request of the member, it shall also be possible to assign several
user names. These user names shall be protected by means of a password, which
is to be chosen by the member.
4.3
The member undertakes to keep its chosen password secret and not make it
available to any third party. Where the member has lost the password or
receives indications of any unlawful use of its access, it shall notify the
association thereof without delay. The member shall be able to find the
association’s contact data in the legal notice of the association’s Internet
page at any time.
4.4
The member shall refrain from any disruptive intervention into the Internet
page and into the system of the association. In particular, this shall relate
to technical attacks or the attempt to exert influence on other members to
release their passwords.
4.5
The association shall be permitted to check and, where applicable, reject any
accession application of potential new members. In the event of rejection,
the association shall give reasons for its decision on request of the
membership candidate.
4.6
Persons or entities not being private individuals (such as bodies corporate
organised under public law, legal entities) shall only be entitled to acquire
membership subject to representation by a representative who is duly
authorised to represent this entity and fully capable of contracting. The
person acting on behalf of a membership candidate shall confirm that he/she
is duly authorised to represent the aforementioned entity and fully capable
of contracting. On request of the association, evidence of the power of
representation shall be provided.
4.7
The member undertakes to distribute/publish only such information by means of idw as is directly related to research, studies and teaching, research promotion, science policy or knowledge and technology transfer. The press releases posted may not contain any advertising. In addition, the member undertakes to post exclusively own press releases or forward them via the system of the association, which are unequivocally related to the respective member, and only to publish such press releases together with possibly existing images and other attachments in the publicly accessible database of the association subject to indication of the name of the person responsible under press law acting on behalf of the member institution.
4.8
For the contents posted by members, sole responsibility shall lie with the
members themselves. This shall also apply to possibly uploaded files (such as
images).
4.9
Members shall be prohibited from posting contents that violate applicable law
or impair the rights of third parties. The association points out explicitly
that any violation of the principles of youth protection and good morals will
be sanctioned. In particular, contents posted by the user must not be
4.10
In the process of distributing information via the system of the association,
the member shall be under an obligation to use the predetermined
classifications in an appropriate way. Moreover, the member shall be
prohibited from using the system of the association for the distribution of
advertisements (spam). In addition, the member shall be under an obligation
to forward requests, which are distributed via the broker/agency services of
the association, only to experts of the member institution to the best of its
knowledge.
4.11
The member undertakes to respect the content restrictions specified in § 4
and not to post any content that constitutes a breach of § 4.
5.1
The association provides its members with access to and use of the following
database-supported services of the association:
5.2
The member shall also be permitted to have the personal data stored in the
system changed by own authorised employees. However, the member shall be
under an obligation to provide the corresponding information truthfully.
5.3
The association endeavours to keep its technical services available without
restriction. However, any assertion of claims against the association by
members of the association on the grounds of a technical breakdown including
partial breakdown shall be ruled out.
5.4
The association shall be under an obligation to instruct the persons assigned
for this purpose by the members either by telephone or e-mail on how to
handle the system of the association and to answer the questions subsequently
being asked by the member.
5.5
The association shall be prohibited from changing the texts entered into the
system of the association (press releases etc.) by means of editorial
intervention. However, this shall not apply where the text posted by the
member violates these terms of use, especially II. 4.
5.6
The association shall be under an obligation to forward inquiries on texts
posted by the members, which are made by third parties, to the member
concerned.
6.1
The members grant the association a worldwide right to use all contributions
and content posted by the members according to the association’s own free
discretion. In particular, this relates to commercialisation, storage,
distribution and multiplication of the contents as well as to all ways by
which the contents are made publicly available.
6.2
The members grant the association the right to use the contents free of
charge and on an irrevocable basis in the way defined above.
6.3
In addition, the members grant users of the association’s Internet page the
right to call up and print out the texts and images posted by the members and
to publish them on the users’ own Internet pages without modification, but
with an indication of the author and the source (identification of
quotations).
7.1
The association shall be liable without restriction for wilful misconduct and
gross negligence. In the event of slight negligence, the association shall be
liable only for the infringement of essential contractual obligations.
However, the liability in case of infringement of essential contractual
obligations shall be limited to the extent of damage being typical of this
kind of contract, with the materialisation of which the association had to
reckon at the time when the member acquired its membership.
7.2
The association shall only be liable for the replacement of indirect damage –
such as lost profits – if the association has committed acts of wilful
misconduct or gross negligence.
7.3
The aforementioned exclusions of liability and liability restrictions shall
not apply to cases where the association has assumed explicit guarantees, to
damage resulting from injury to life, body or health and in the event of
legal regulations not being subject to disposition by the parties.
8.1
The member shall exempt the association from all-third party claims, be it
claims of persons or companies/entities. In particular, it shall exempt the
association from third-party claims asserted against the association on the
grounds of content posted by a member. Especially, the member shall exempt
the association from the necessary cost of legal defence. This shall only
apply, however, where the member is responsible for the breach of law.
8.2
In this event, the member shall be under an obligation to cooperate. In
particular, the member shall provide any information completely and
truthfully, which the association requires for the purpose of legal defence.
This cooperation shall be limited though to what the member is capable of
doing in subjective and objective terms.
9.1
The association reserves the right to change the provisions of these terms of
use at any time without having to give reasons. In the event of such change,
the association will notify the member of the changes by postal letter or
e-mail at least two weeks before the new terms of use come into effect.
9.2
Unless the user objects to the new terms of use within two weeks after the
new terms of use have come into force and continues to use the services
without change, the changed terms of use shall be considered as accepted.
9.3
In the message referred to under II. 9.1, the association will notify the
member explicitly of the two-week period described under II. 9.2.
Pursuant to the association’s articles of incorporation, the member shall be entitled to terminate its membership with immediate effect and without having to give reasons at any time during the trial phase. Following the trial phase, resignation from the association shall only be possible with effect from the end of a business year (31 December of each year). The resignation needs to be declared in writing to the management board of the association. It shall be subject to a notice period of two months prior to the end of each business year.
These terms of use as well as utilisation of the services shall be subject to German law. For disputes not relating to utilisation of the services and/or to these terms of use, the courts with competence for the association’s registered office shall be exclusively responsible unless the member is a commercial business or does not have a permanent place of residence in Germany.
As of 11/2023
We are now also publishing our members' press releases from the categories research results, [...]
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