Legal notice and Rules of Conduct

Important legal notice

The information on this site is subject to a disclaimer, a copyright and rules related to personal data protection, each in line with the general European Commission legal notice, and terms of use.

Disclaimer

The European Commission maintains this website to enhance public access to information about its initiatives and European Union policies in general. Our goal is to keep this information timely and accurate. If errors are brought to our attention, we will try to correct them.

However, the Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information on this site.

This information is:

1. of a general nature only and is not intended to address the specific circumstances of any particular individual or entity;

2. not necessarily comprehensive, complete, accurate or up to date; sometimes linked to external sites over which the Commission services have no control and for which the Commission assumes no responsibility;

3. not professional or legal advice (if you need specific advice, you should always consult a suitably qualified professional).

It is our goal to minimize disruption caused by technical errors. However, some data or information on our site may have been created or structured in files or formats that are not error-free and we cannot guarantee that our service will not be interrupted or otherwise affected by such problems. The Commission accepts no responsibility with regard to such problems incurred as a result of using this site or any linked external sites.

This disclaimer is not intended to limit the liability of the Commission in contravention of any requirements laid down in applicable national law nor to exclude its liability for matters which may not be excluded under that law.

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Copyright notice

© European Union, 2010

Unless otherwise indicated, reproduction is authorised, except for commercial purposes, provided the source (OSOR.eu) is acknowledged.

Where prior permission must be obtained for the reproduction or use of textual and multimedia information (sound, images, software, etc.), such permission shall cancel the above-mentioned general permission and shall clearly indicate any restrictions on use.

Special Rules for hosted and federated projects

Please note that all the Open Source Applications (Projects), which are available through the repository on OSOR.eu are provided by their owners (named in each case) subject to the copyright licences indicated in each case; the owners have to certify that all intellectual property rights concerning the Assets belong to them and no intellectual property rights of third parties are infringed. Please refer to the individual project for further information. Please note, that the European Commission accepts no responsibility with regard to these projects.

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Personal Data Protection

1. The Specific electronic Service: "OSOR.eu – Open Source Observatory and Repository"

The objective of this portal is to facilitate the collaborative development, sharing and re-use of open source applications by European public administrations. Further info...

2. What personal information do we collect, for what purpose and through which technical means?

Identification Data

The following data are collected: first name, last name, email address, country, organisation.

These data serve to create a mailing list of potential stakeholders for the platform to whom news and information will be sent, as well as providing contact information for other users when for collaboration purposes.

Technical information

The system uses session "cookies" in order to ensure communication between the client and the server. Therefore, your browser must be configured to accept "cookies". Individual IP addresses and browser related information are collected for statistical purposes only (e.g. to determine geographic distribution of site-use based on IP address information) The cookies disappear 1 day after the session has been terminated.

3. Who has access to your information and to whom is it disclosed?

The portal is managed by a consortium led by Unisys co. Therefore the list of registered people will be held and maintained by Unisys, as mandated by the European Commission. This list will not be published; the European Commission and its Contractor will not share data with third parties for direct marketing.

4. How do we protect and safeguard your information?

Immediately after the submission of the registration to create your account, the information will be recorded in a secured and protected database hosted within a data Centre in Acens, Spain. The database is not accessible by anyone except for the Contractor.

Access to the application is via a non-encrypted connection using the normal http protocol.

During and after log in, all traffic is using an encrypted connection, using the https protocol.

5. How can you verify, modify or delete your information?

Once you have registered, you will receive a user name and password which will grant you access to different services on the portal. One of these services will be the possibility to change your personal information or delete your account altogether. Please note, that even if you delete your account, all content contributed by you (comments, news items, case studies) will still be available but be attributed to an "Anonymous OSOR.eu User". Additionally, we may retain certain information to prevent identity theft and other misconduct even if deletion has been requested.

Once you have registered a project and your application is validated, you will have access to different services on the portal concerning the managing of your project, including the changing of project description. For security reasons, you will only be able to delete your project by sending the OSOR.eu team a request.

Once you have registered a community and your application is validated, you will have access to different services on the portal concerning the managing of your community, including the changing of community description. For security reasons, you will only be able to delete your community by sending the OSOR.eu team a request.

6. How long do we keep your data?

Your personal information will remain in the database until you decide to close your account. Following which these will be rendered anonymous when they have been usefully exploited, and at the latest 2 years after closing your account.

7. Contact Information

In case you have questions or requests concerning the information submitted by you with this questionnaire, please contact the

Controller of the file:

Mr Szabolcs SZEKACS

Project Officer

DIGIT

European Commission

B-1049 Brussels

e-mail: isa@ec.europa.eu

Queries on Personal Data Protection issues may be addressed to:

The European Commission's Data Protection Officer,

e-mail: data-protection-officer@ec.europa.eu

You may address your complaints to:

The European Data Protection Supervisor, e-mail:edps@edps.europa.eu

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Inappropriate content by a user 

Inappropriate content by a user

- The following are deemed to constitute inappropriate content. Posting such content may result in account   suspension or banning as well as the removal of the offending posts:

Posts or images of a defamatory, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene,profane or threatening nature. This includes any messages or material ethnically, racially, religiously or sexually offensive, insulting or demeaning.

- Posts or images that violate any laws or regulations.

- Explicit advertising of products or services without our prior consent.

- Registering to solely post/endorse/promote for your own personal gain.

- Discussion of illegal activities such as software and movie piracy and other intellectual property infringement.

- Posting your or other people's personal contact information (i.e. telephone numbers, addresses etc) on any publicly viewable forums.

- Anything else deemed inappropriate by us.

- Links to any of the above.

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Expected behavior of members and suggestions for better posting

- Keep all contributions within the appropriate community area of interest.

- Use short and concise titles when posting documents or blog entries.

- Please make an effort to communicate yourself as clearly as possible.

- Refrain from using foul or offensive language.

- All content posted by users express the views of the author, and OSOR.eu will not be held responsible for any message.

- Treat all other OSOR users in a respectful and courteous manner at all times, even in the event of disagreements.

- Visitors to the site who are not recognized Administrators, portal Staff Members or Community Facilitators with full credentials should not pose as the aforementioned ranks through the use of "administrator", "staff member" or "facilitator" in their Member’s name, avatar or signature.

While these rules cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure OSOR.eu communities are not disrupted or abused in any way.