InterNodes, Inc.
Effective Date: September 4, 2026
1. Acceptance of These Terms
These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the InterNodes website at internodes.org and other websites or online services that expressly incorporate these Terms (collectively, the “Site”).
By accessing or using the Site, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, you should not use the Site.
2. About InterNodes
InterNodes, Inc. (“InterNodes,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is an Indiana nonprofit corporation organized for public-benefit purposes.
InterNodes supports scientific research, international collaboration, data infrastructure, and the development of methods, tools, and decision-support resources relating to forests, biodiversity, ecosystems, and the biosphere.
InterNodes also serves as an organizational home for scientific initiatives and infrastructure that may include the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (“GFBI”) and Science-i.
3. Scope of These Terms
These Terms govern use of the public InterNodes Site.
They do not automatically govern access to or use of:
- restricted or controlled scientific datasets;
- GFBI databases or contributor data;
- Science-i accounts or infrastructure;
- software, APIs, source code, models, or computational services;
- commercial or noncommercial data licenses;
- research collaborations;
- confidential information;
- contributor-submitted materials; or
- services governed by a separate agreement.
Those resources may be subject to separate licenses, data-use agreements, access conditions, contributor agreements, collaboration agreements, or other terms.
If separate terms apply, those terms control with respect to the relevant resource.
4. Permitted Use of the Site
You may access and use publicly available portions of the Site for lawful informational, educational, scientific, professional, and other legitimate purposes, subject to these Terms and any notices appearing on particular materials.
You may not use the Site in a manner that violates applicable law, infringes another person’s rights, interferes with the Site, or conflicts with restrictions associated with particular InterNodes resources.
5. Scientific Data and Restricted Resources
The appearance of information about a dataset, scientific network, model, database, project, collaborator, or research resource on the Site does not mean that the underlying resource is publicly available or freely licensed.
In particular, descriptions, visualizations, summaries, maps, statistics, or metadata concerning InterNodes, GFBI, Science-i, or collaborating institutions do not themselves convey any right to:
- obtain underlying data;
- download contributor-restricted data;
- redistribute data;
- use data commercially;
- train artificial-intelligence or machine-learning systems on restricted resources;
- reproduce proprietary models or software; or
- bypass applicable data-access procedures.
Authorization to use such resources must arise from the applicable license, agreement, permission, or access procedure.
6. Intellectual Property
Unless otherwise stated, the Site and its original content, design, graphics, text, software, databases, logos, visualizations, documentation, and other materials are owned by or licensed to InterNodes and are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.
Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of any intellectual property to you.
You may view and make reasonable use of publicly available website content for personal, educational, scholarly, or informational purposes, provided that you preserve applicable notices and attribution and do not imply endorsement by InterNodes.
Any broader reproduction, redistribution, publication, modification, commercialization, automated extraction, or creation of derivative products may require prior permission or a separate license.
Materials identified as being subject to a Creative Commons, open-source, open-data, or other license are governed by that license.
7. Third-Party and Contributor Materials
The Site may include data, publications, photographs, graphics, names, logos, research outputs, software, or other materials supplied by collaborators, data contributors, institutions, governments, publishers, or other third parties.
Such materials may remain the property of their respective owners and may be subject to separate restrictions.
Your ability to view a third-party resource through the Site does not create a right to reproduce, redistribute, modify, commercialize, or otherwise exploit that resource.
8. Trademarks and Organizational Names
“InterNodes” and associated names, logos, program identities, and branding may constitute trademarks, service marks, or other protected identifiers.
Names and logos of GFBI, Science-i, partner organizations, universities, governments, companies, international organizations, or other institutions appearing on the Site remain subject to their respective rights.
Nothing on the Site should be interpreted as granting permission to use such names or marks in a manner suggesting sponsorship, endorsement, partnership, or affiliation where none has been expressly authorized.
9. User Submissions
If you submit information, comments, materials, files, proposals, or other content through the Site, you represent that you have the authority to submit them and that doing so does not violate applicable law or another person’s rights.
Unless separate terms provide otherwise, you grant InterNodes a non-exclusive right to use submitted material as reasonably necessary to process your submission, respond to your request, administer the relevant activity, and conduct InterNodes’ legitimate nonprofit operations.
Submission of scientific data, confidential information, proprietary datasets, manuscripts, software, or other research materials may be governed by separate agreements. You should not assume that a general website form constitutes a confidential data-submission mechanism unless expressly stated.
10. Prohibited Conduct
You may not:
- attempt to obtain unauthorized access to any account, database, system, server, restricted dataset, or other resource;
- circumvent technical or administrative access controls;
- interfere with the security or operation of the Site;
- introduce malicious software or harmful code;
- falsely represent your identity or affiliation;
- use InterNodes’ name or materials to imply unauthorized endorsement;
- scrape, harvest, or systematically extract restricted content in violation of applicable terms or access controls;
- use Site resources to violate intellectual-property, privacy, confidentiality, contractual, or other rights; or
- use the Site for unlawful, fraudulent, abusive, or deceptive activities.
InterNodes may restrict or terminate access when reasonably necessary to protect its systems, resources, collaborators, data contributors, or legal interests.
11. No Professional or Regulatory Advice
Content on the Site is provided for scientific, educational, informational, and organizational purposes.
Unless expressly stated in a separate written agreement, Site content does not constitute legal, financial, investment, accounting, regulatory, engineering, forestry-management, carbon-credit verification, or other professional advice.
Users remain responsible for obtaining appropriate professional advice and for independently evaluating information before making decisions based upon it.
12. Scientific Information and Model Outputs
Scientific information, datasets, estimates, maps, forecasts, simulations, model outputs, and other research products inherently involve uncertainty.
Although InterNodes seeks to promote rigorous scientific practices, research materials may contain errors, omissions, uncertainties, methodological limitations, incomplete geographic coverage, or information that becomes outdated.
Users are responsible for evaluating the suitability of scientific information for their intended purpose.
Unless expressly provided under a separate agreement, InterNodes makes no representation that scientific information or model outputs are appropriate for regulatory compliance, financial valuation, safety-critical applications, carbon-credit issuance, land-title determinations, or other consequential decisions.
13. External Links
The Site may contain links to websites or services operated by third parties.
InterNodes provides such links for convenience or informational purposes and does not necessarily control, endorse, or assume responsibility for third-party content, products, services, security, or privacy practices.
14. Availability and Changes
InterNodes may modify, suspend, restrict, discontinue, or update all or part of the Site at any time.
We do not guarantee that the Site or any particular resource will remain continuously available, error-free, or unchanged.
15. Disclaimer of Warranties
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SITE AND ITS CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.”
INTERNODES DISCLAIMS WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AVAILABILITY, OR SECURITY.
Nothing in this Section limits any warranty or right that cannot lawfully be excluded.
16. Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, INTERNODES AND ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, VOLUNTEERS, CONTRACTORS, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SITE.
This limitation does not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
17. Indemnification
To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless InterNodes and its directors, officers, employees, agents, and representatives from claims, liabilities, damages, losses, or expenses arising from your unlawful use of the Site, violation of these Terms, or infringement of the rights of another person.
18. Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Indiana, United States, without regard to principles of conflicts of law, except where applicable law requires otherwise.
Any dispute arising under these Terms shall be brought before a court of competent jurisdiction in Indiana, subject to any mandatory rights or jurisdictional requirements applicable to the parties.
InterNodes’ incorporation under Indiana law is established in its filed Articles of Incorporation.
19. Severability
If any provision of these Terms is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law, and the remaining provisions will remain in effect.
20. No Waiver
Failure by InterNodes to enforce a provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that provision or any other right.
21. Changes to These Terms
InterNodes may revise these Terms from time to time.
The effective date at the beginning of the Terms indicates the most recent revision. Continued use of the Site after revised Terms become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms to the extent permitted by applicable law.
22. Contact
Questions concerning these Terms may be directed to:
InterNodes, Inc.
Website: internodes.org
Email: [INSERT GENERAL OR LEGAL CONTACT EMAIL]