Citizen Science Landslide System Contribution Policy

We welcome and encourage your participation in the Citizen Science Landslide Reporter project. Our online site and portal system are governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you submit.

NASA and the portal system do not discriminate against the source of any submission or any submission. However, NASA may review any submitted content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. NASA does not collect or verify the identity of the submitter.

Here are some of the rules that we follow:

  • We will remove content that is clearly irrelevant.
  • We will remove content that contains abusive, vulgar, offensive, racist, threatening or harassing content, personal attacks of any kind, or offensive terms that target specific individuals or groups.
  • We will remove spam and content that promotes services or products, or that involves political campaigning or lobbying.
  • We may remove content that contains personal information (whether your own or someone else's), including home address, home or cell phone number, or personal e-mail address, in order to protect privacy.
  • Gratuitous links to sites and repeat submissions of the same (or very similar) contributions are viewed as spam and may result in the content being removed.
  • Do not contribute anything that you do not have the right to contribute. We will not post comments that appear to post material without permission, and we will follow a notice and takedown procedure for complaints of copyright violation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
  • Only contribute to our site if you are over 13 years of age.
  • Communications made through social media posts, e-mail, webinars, and messaging systems will in no way constitute a legal or official notice or comment to NASA or any official or employee of NASA for any purpose.
  • All user-generated content is released into the public domain so do not submit anything you do not wish to broadcast to the general public.
  • Users who do not comply with these standards of conduct may be blocked.

In addition to our contribution rules, below are the legal terms you agree to when you use our system. Please keep a copy for your records.

Landslide Contributor License Agreement

1. Definitions.

  1. "You" (or "Your") shall mean the copyright/patent owner or legal entity authorized by the copyright/patent owner that is making this Agreement with NASA as a Contributor. For legal entities, the entity making a Contribution and all other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common control with that entity are considered to be a single Contributor. For the purposes of this definition, "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.
  2. "Grantor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorized by the copyright owner that is granting permission to use, reproduce, and distribute.
  3. "Contribution" shall mean any work, including Your own Works and third-party Works that you are authorized to submit, that is a Modification to the Landslide portal system and that is intentionally submitted by You to NASA for inclusion in, or documentation of, the Landslide portal system. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted" means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent to NASA or its representatives, including but not limited to communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems, and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, NASA for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution.”
  4. "Contributor" shall mean NASA, as an original developer of the Landslide portal system, and any individual or Legal Entity that makes a Contribution to the Landslide portal system.
  5. "Derivative Work" shall have the meaning provided in Section 101 of Title 17, United States Code (Copyrights).
  6. "Modification" means any alteration of, including addition to or deletion from, the substance or structure of the Landslide portal system, and includes Derivative Works.
  7. "Recipient" means anyone who accesses the Landslide portal system, or any Contributions or Modifications to the Landslide portal system.
  8. "Work" shall mean an original work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression now known or later developed, from which it can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, which is protected by copyright, including Derivative Works.

2. Contributor Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, You hereby grant to NASA and to Recipients of the Cooperative Open Online Landslide Repository (COOLR), which includes Landslide Reporter and Landslide Viewer, distributed by NASA a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in Section 4) copyright license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, redistribute, prepare Derivative Works of, publicly display, publicly perform, and sublicense Your Contributions and such Derivative Works.

3. Contributor Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, You hereby grant to NASA and to Recipients of the COOLR system distributed by NASA a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in Section 4) patent license to make, have made, use, distribute, reproduce, sell, offer to sell, import, and otherwise transfer Your Contributions and Derivative Works thereof, where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable by You that are necessarily infringed by Your Contributions alone or by combination of Your Contributions with the Landslide portal system to which You submitted the Contributions.

4. If any Recipient institutes patent or copyright litigation against NASA or any other Recipient (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the COOLR system or a Contribution incorporated within the Landslide Reporter constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement or copyright infringement, then any patent and copyright licenses granted to the litigating Recipient under this Agreement for the COOLR system shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.

5. You represent and warrant that You are legally entitled to grant the above copyright and patent licenses. If Your employer(s) has rights to intellectual property that You create that includes Your Contributions, You represent that You have received permission to make Contributions on behalf of that employer and/or that Your employer has waived such rights for Your Contributions to NASA.

6. You represent that each of Your Contributions is Your own Work or is a third-party Work that you are authorized to submit (see section 7 for submissions on behalf of others). You represent that each of Your Contributions that is Your own Work is not subject to any agreements or licenses that will impose additional terms and conditions on the Landslide Viewer and Landslide Reporter applications, other than those patent and copyright licenses referenced in Sections 2 and 3.

7. Should You wish to submit a Contribution that is not Your own Work, You may submit that third-party Work to NASA separately from Your own Work, identifying the complete details of its source and of any license or other restriction (including, but not limited to, related patents, trademarks, and license agreements) of which You are aware, and conspicuously marking that third-party Work as “Submitted on behalf of a third-party: [named here]”.

8. You agree to notify NASA of any facts or circumstances of which You become aware that would make these representations inaccurate in any respect.

9. You are not expected to provide support for Your Contributions, except to the extent You desire to provide support. You may provide support for free, for a fee, or not at all. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, You provide Your Contributions on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

10. Trademarks. This Agreement does not grant permission to use the trade names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Grantor, except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file.

11. Disclaimer of Warranty. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, Grantor provides the Work (and each Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this Agreement.

12. Limitation of Liability. In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a result of this Agreement or out of the use or inability to use the Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

13. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability. While redistributing the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer, and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity, or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this Agreement. However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only on Your own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf of any other Contributor, and only if You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason of your accepting any such warranty or additional liability.

14. As a government entity, NASA does not license the use of NASA materials or sign licensing agreements. The agency generally has no objection to the reproduction and use of these materials, subject to the following conditions.

15. NASA material may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA or by any NASA employee of a commercial product, service, or activity, or used in any manner that might mislead. Please see NASA Advertising Guidelines and Merchandising Guidelines for more information.

16. It is unlawful to falsely claim copyright or other rights in NASA material.

17. NASA shall in no way be liable for any costs, expenses, claims, or demands arising out of the use of NASA material by a recipient or a recipient's distributees.

18. NASA does not indemnify nor hold harmless users of NASA material, nor release such users from copyright infringement, nor grant exclusive use rights with respect to NASA material.

19. Severability: If any provision of this Agreement is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, it shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remainder of the terms of this Agreement.

20. Applicable Law: This Agreement shall be subject to United States Federal law for all purposes, including, but not limited to, determining the validity of this Agreement, the meaning of its provisions and the rights, obligations and remedies of the parties.

21. Esri ArcGIS, Esri World Geocoder, and Esri Portal for ArcGIS. Esri ArcGIS, Esri World Geocoder, and Esri Portal for ArcGIS link map information under license by Esri. NASA data presented using these products are in the public domain and made available in open standard format. The map information and photographic imagery contain trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names and other distinctive brand features over which NASA exercises no rights. NASA does not endorse or warrant Esri or Esri’s products and services.

22. Third-party social media tools. To enhance the user experience with the NASA Landslide Reporter web application NASA accepts login credentials from multiple, third-party social media websites, including Facebook and Google. NASA stores a non-human readable, unique identifier provided by these third- sites to enable you to access the Landslide information you’ve previously shared with NASA. NASA does not collect or store personally identifiable information or your personal profile information from these sites. Your activity on these third-party sites is governed by the security and privacy policies of the third-party sites. You should review the privacy policies of third-party sites before using them to ensure that you understand how your information may be used. You should also adjust privacy settings on your account on any third-party site to match your preferences. NASA neither warrants nor endorses these third-party websites.

By participating in the project in any manner, You acknowledge and affirm that You are the copyright/patent owner or an authorized representative of the copyright/patent owner, and that You agree to the terms and conditions of the COOLR System Contribution Policy and rules, and the Landslide Contributor License Agreement for Your Contribution submitted to NASA.

Take Down Policy

Content made available through the COOLR System, which includes Landslide Viewer and Landslide Reporter as well as other locations where this COOLR data is housed are made accessible for purposes of research, education and situational awareness. Due to the nature of the citizen science contributions to this effort, we are not always able to identify whether the material being reported has appropriate attribution or is being replicated within US copyright laws.

If you hold the rights to materials in COOLR system that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials or remove the content in question.

If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website or application for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to landslide_support@nccs.nasa.gov.

Please include the following in your notice:

  1. Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material;
  2. Your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address;
  3. A statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  4. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury.

Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.

Connect with Us

Twitter: @LandslideReport
Facebook: LandslideReporter
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Connect with the Community

Google Groups: Landslide Reporter Community

Contact Us

For any questions related to this system, please contact landslide_support@nccs.nasa.gov.