Terms and Conditions

The copyright of the MarLIN website and other MarLIN branded websites rests with the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. Unless specified below, the website (or part thereof) may not be copied, reproduced, or duplicated without the permission of the Association.

Use of MarLIN information

MarLIN provides information on the marine biodiversity of the North East Atlantic, freely, over the Web. Website content is deemed to include all written materials (including MarLIN publications), illustrations, bespoke icons, code and the MarLIN or MBA logo. The information provided by the MarLIN website (excluding images, video, and other media) is publicly available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike (CC-BY-NC-SA) 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode) unless specified otherwise. Specific data products are available under the Creative Commons (CC-BY) 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or the Open Government Licence (OGL) v3 (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3) and are labelled accordingly.

Note - images, video, and other media featured on this website are governed by their own copyright and terms (see 'Use of Images' below).

Explanation of license terms

The CC-BY-NC-SA – license allows the use of the information or data for ‘non-commercial’ (NC) purposes only as long as the creator/originator of the data is attributed/acknowledged and any ‘products’ derived from the use of the information or data are distributed under the same license as the original (SA).

CC-BY and OGL licenses allow the use of the licensed data, even commercially, as long as the creator or originator of the data is attributed and acknowledged.

Non-commercial use

Non-commercial use is defined as "not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation" (https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/NonCommercial_interpretation). The Creative Commons definition is deliberately vague but further practical guidance is provided by the National Biodiversity Network (NBN, 2020) (https://docs.nbnatlas.org/guidance-on-the-definition-of-non-commercial-use/).

In summary.

‘Use’ includes reading and viewing of the website as well as the downloading of data or reviews, or subsequent use of information.
The definition of ‘commercial’ is based on its intended use rather than the user, hence not all use by a business is necessarily commercial and, likewise, use by not-for-profits (e.g. charities, CICs) is not necessarily ‘non-commercial’.
In the majority of cases if you are being paid or contracted to do the work it is considered commercial, even if the eventual outputs are not, regardless of whether the client is a private, public or third sector (see NBN, 2020).

Examples of ‘non-commercial' - activities include:

Personal interest;
Preparation of educational materials for schools and the public or for undergraduate courses;
Preparation of advice/information by statutory or government agencies (e.g. Defra, DAERA, JNCC, NE, NRW, SNH, Marine Scotland);
Research;
- Postgraduate study (e.g., Masters, PhD, DPhil), or
- Postdoctoral research funded by research councils or similar funders (e.g. UKRI, ERC) undertaken for public benefit where the results will be openly available to all (see NBN, 2020).

Commercial use

Examples of ‘commercial’ use include (but are not limited to):

Any part of the process directed at gaining planning consent, land or infrastructure development including background research and report writing (NBN,2020), e.g. Environmental Assessments, Habitat Regulation Assessments; or
Use in contract research or advisory projects, reports and products (e.g. websites, databases, or geodatabases), even if the client is private, public or third sector.

The above list is not exhaustive. If you are unsure if your use is commercial then contact MarLIN. Anyone wishing to use the content of the MarLIN website for, or in, any commercial endeavour must request permission. Please contact Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters (htw@mba.ac.uk) directly or care of MarLIN via marlin@mba.ac.uk.

Citation (or Attribution)

All users of the information or other content of the MarLIN website MUST correctly attribute the source of the information under the terms of the relevant CC or OGL license.

If you use any data product, you MUST acknowledge the source of the information in your product or application by including, or linking to, the following attribution:

“Contains data provided by the MarLIN programme (www.marlin.ac.uk), the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom © copyright and database right 2020”.

Furthermore, any publication (e.g. article, book, report, presentation, or website) that uses or refers to the data provided, or a product based on the data or information provided, should include the following citation:

Tyler-Walters H., Hiscock K. (eds), Tillin, H.M., Stamp, T., Readman, J.A.J., Perry, F., Ashley, M., De-Bastos, E.S.R., D'Avack, E.A.S., Jasper, C., Gibb, N., Mainwaring, K., McQuillan, R.M., Wilson, C.M., Gibson-Hall, E., Last, E.K., Grady (nee Robson), L.M., Garrard, S.L., Williams, E., Graves, K.P., Taylor, J., Molloy, L., Ridgeway, A., Matear, L., Taylor, J., Nikolova, C., Dinwoodie, K., Perry, J., Molloy, L., Baron-Cohen, L., Fergusson, M., Savage, J., Bull, G., Serpetti, N., Narayanaswamy, B., Hughes, D., Burdett, E.G., Lloyd, K.A., Mardle, M.J., Watson, A., Granö, E., Nash, R.A., Roche, C., Budd, G.C., Hill, J.M., Jackson, A., White, N., Rayment, W.J., Wilding, C.M., Marshall, C.E., Wilson, E., Riley, K., Neal, K.J. Sabatini, M., Durkin, O.C., Ager, O.E.D., Bilewitch, J., Carter, M., Hosie, A.M., Mieszkowska, N. & Lear, D.B., 2024. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Review Database [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. Available from: www.marlin.ac.uk

Individual sensitivity reviews or information web pages may be cited as follows, indicating the researcher's name, year of the last update, title, citation date and that it is available on the MarLIN website. Full citations are provided at the bottom of every information page. For example:

Budd, G.C. 2008. Alcyonium digitatum Dead man's fingers. In Tyler-Walters H. and Hiscock K. (eds) Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Reviews, [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 04-12-2020]. Available from: https://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/detail/1187

Tyler-Walters, H., Perry, F. & Garrard, S.L., 2019. [Lophelia] reefs. In Tyler-Walters H. and Hiscock K. (eds) Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Reviews, [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 04-12-2020]. Available from: https://www.marlin.ac.uk/habitat/detail/294

Where no author is given, then the website as a whole must be cited.

MarLIN (Marine Life Information Network), 2016. Marine Life Information Network. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 01/01/09]. Available from: www.marlin.ac.uk

The sensitivity assessment database can be cited as follows:

A citation is suggested on most of our web pages.

In addition, we ask that websites that refer to or use our information provide a link (URL) to our website. Please let us know so that we can consider providing a reciprocal link. Please direct any questions regarding the use of the MarLIN information to Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters (htw@mba.ac.uk) or care of MarLIN via marlin@mba.ac.uk.

Disclaimer

MarLIN information and data products are released ‘as is’. They are subject to change and it is the user’s responsibility to check the date of the data product or information and obtain the most up-to-date version as required. Neither the copyright holder nor any other person involved in the MarLIN project gives any warrant or undertakings as to or accepts liability for the accuracy and currency of the information provided, the data product, or any other purpose for which the information may be used.

Use of images

By contributing images or videos to MarLIN, the owners of those images have agreed to their use on the MarLIN website, in MarLIN publications, posters, and other promotional material. Contributors retain the copyright of their images. MarLIN indicates the individual or organization that supplied each image and brief contact details on the website.

Unless the image providers have stated to the contrary (see acknowledgement)

Images shown on the MarLIN website may only be used:

in personal, educational, not-for-profit papers and presentations on a single-use basis, e.g. to illustrate school reports, university student papers, posters and/or presentations.

Provided that: that users acknowledge the photographer and copyright holder, and that it was published on the MarLIN website. For example

Image: Jon Davies/JNCC (published on the MarLIN website)

Images MUST NOT be used:

for any commercial purpose, or
for any purpose resulting in wide dissemination, e.g. in other websites (educational or otherwise), leaflets, promotional brochures, public displays (including educational displays) or public reports.

If images are required for commercial purposes or for wide dissemination, the image provider MUST be contacted for permission directly (unless otherwise stated and not through the MarLIN team) and the form of acknowledgement obtained from the owner. Contact details for image providers are provided on the MarLIN website as part of our acknowledgement.

Please direct any questions regarding the use of the MarLIN images (inc. video) to Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters (htw@mba.ac.uk) or care of MarLIN via marlin@mba.ac.uk.

Notes

The MarLIN website and associated images are archived by the UK Web Archive, provided by the British Library.

The MarLIN team reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions without prior notice. It is the user's responsibility to ensure that they comply with our terms and conditions at the time of use and on each subsequent use. Last updated 10 June 2022.

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