New project starting, questions about copyright/licensing of observations

General
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Good evening,

I would like to start a monitoring project using iNaturalist. Is it necessary to do something in particular or report specific wording so that I can use the data collected with the project?

Is there a difference in copyright between the data of users registered in the project and the data collected by those who are not registered?

Thanks

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I would say technically no, but how are you using the data?

Copyrights are associated with media and observations, and I don’t think this changes if an observation is or isn’t in a project. Are you using a collection project?

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Thanks for the answer
The data will be analyzed and could be used for biomonitoring financed by the CNR

I would like to do a collection project

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Collection projects are basically just saved search filters, so the copyright won’t be different. You can read more about citing data here:
https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000170344-how-should-i-cite-inaturalist

Even if you aren’t publishing, the same principles are still good for reports and other work.

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Are you referring to some traditional projects that show a disclaimer/permission of for of photos or data on their about pages by anyone who joins the project? If so, I’m not a lawyer but I would imagine those are legally pretty flimsy.

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This is kind of a question and an answer. I’ve seen projects say: “By joining to this project you agree to the fact that we can use all the data that you add” if this is allowed then you could do that. If it isn’t, well I’ve got a lot of projects to report :D

EDIT: I wrote this before I saw this: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/new-project-starting-questions-about-copyright-licensing-of-observations/49331/5?u=cs16-levi

Please disregard

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I see you are an iNaturalist staff so by you saying that I assume it is in fact allowed to do that? Ok, I wondering. From what I understand that would in fact be legally ok because it is written in the terms area that you have to agree to before joining a project. Therefore you would read this before joining and again therefore agreeing to it. Does that make sense? (No, I’m not a lawyer lol so I could be wrong)

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@tiwane
What solutions do you suggest for using data for a funded biomonitoring project?
iNaturalist actually already plans to select the license.
Thanks for all

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I think you would use it in the same way as any other end user, unless I am missing something.

One iNat source for data usage is here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/how+can+i+use+it

You’ll need to follow the licenses for whichever observations you download or photos you might want to use.

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Thanks for all

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