Terms of service

The following Terms are only available in English. It is your responsibility to comprehend them.

The following terms explain your obligations when using the AstroBin website.

ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS

The web pages available at astrobin.com ("Site"), are owned and operated by Salvatore Iovene ("Service Provider"), and are accessed by you under the Terms of Use described below ("Terms").

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SITE. BY ACCESSING ASTROBIN OR USING ANY PART OF THE SITE OR ANY CONTENT OR SERVICES (AS EACH IS DEFINED BELOW) ON THE SITE, YOU AGREE TO BECOME BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU MAY NOT USE THE SITE, ITS CONTENT OR ANY OF ITS SERVICES.

MODIFICATIONS OF TERMS

The Service Provider reserves the right to modify or replace the Terms at any time, If the modifications are substantial in nature, the Service Provider will notify you by posting an announcement on the Site. Whether an alteration of the Terms is substantial will be determined at the Service Provider's sole discretion, in good faith. You shall be responsible for reading, reviewing and becoming familiar with any such alterations. If you will decide to continue the use of the Site following such notification, that will constitute your acceptance of the Terms as modified.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE

The Service Provider may offer to provide some services and content, as described with more detail on the Site, ("Services"). Services shall include, but not be limited to, any service and content the Service Provider performs for you (including, but not limited to the display of text, user comments, messages, information, data, graphics, photographs, images, illustrations, software, also known as the "Content"). The Service Provider may change, suspend or discontinue the Services including any Content for any reason, at any time, including the availability of any feature or content. The Service Provider may also impose limits on certain features and services of restrict your access to parts or all the Services without notice of liability.

YOUR OBLIGATIONS UPON REGISTRATION

As a condition to using some of the Services (including, but not limited to uploading images, creating a user profile, commenting on images or other comments, sending messages to other users, liking images), you are required to register with the Site and select a password and a username. You are not allowed to:

  1. select or use as an AstroBin username a name of another person with the intent to impersonate that person;

  2. use as an AstroBin username a name subject to any rights of a person other than you without authorization from said person;

  3. use as an AstroBin username a name that is offensive, vulgar or obscene. The Service Provider reserves the right to decide whether a name is such, at its own discretion.

Failure to respect one or more of the 3 points above will result in the immediate termination of the user account.

Services are available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old, whether acting on their own behalf or as an authorized employee or representative of a corporation or other business entity. If you do not so qualify, you may not register on the site.

USER CONDUCT

You may not use the Site or the Service:

  1. to intimidate, impersonate, threaten, harass or abuse other AstroBin users;

  2. to post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, or solicit to post or transmit, any Content that is libelous, infringing, obscene, pornographic, defamatory, abusive, profane, offensive or otherwise violates any law or right of any third party;

  3. for any purpose that is illegal, unlawful or unauthorized, with regards to the laws of your Country of residence;

  4. to post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, or solicit to post or transmit, any communication designed or intended to obtain passwords, accounts or other private information from any AstroBin user;

  5. to post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, or solicit to post or transmit, any photographic material that is not astrophotography;

  6. to create or submit unwanted messages ("Spam"), including, but not limited to emails, private messages, and comments to any other AstroBin users or any URL;

  7. to create multiple accounts for the sole purpose of liking your own photos;

  8. to post copyrighted content which doesn't belong to you, to post any images that you didn't personally take, regardless of the ownership of the equipment used;

  9. to violate any laws in your Country (including, but not limited to copyright laws);

  10. via any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means without our express written permission, with the exception of established Search Engines, including, but not limited to Google Search, Yahoo Search and Bing Search. What constitute an established Search Engine is at the sole discretion of the Service Provider. Furthermore, you agree that you will not: (a) take any actions that impose, or may impose an unreasonable load on the Site servers or infrastructure, as deemed such at the Service Provider's sole discretion; (b) interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site or any activities conducted on it; or (c) bypass any measures that the Service Provider may have implemented to prevent or restrict access to the Site;

  11. to advertise to, or solicit, any users to buy or sell any products or services; additionally, you may not use any public information about any user on AstroBin, for the purpose of advertising to or soliciting them without their prior explicit consent;

  12. sell or otherwise transfer your account.

The Service Provider reserves the right to remove any Content or accounts at any time for any reasons (including, but not limited to, upon receipt of claims from third parties or authorities concerning such Content), or for no reason at all. To report Terms abuse, please email: astrobin@astrobin.com

CONTENT SUBMITTED TO THE SERVICE

By uploading your photographic works to the Site, you retain full rights that you had prior to uploading.

By submitting photographic works to the Site, you agree that this content fully or partially may be used on the Site for promotional reasons (such as photos on home page). By doing so, the Service Provider will comply with the Swiss Copyright Act, which means your work will be properly attributed or quoted.

No photographic content, emails, and other private information will be sold for any reasons by the Site.

The following types of images can be submitted to the service:

  1. Images or videos relevant to astrophotography (i.e. either the main subject is a celestial object, or a celestial object is prominently pictured, or it's an image or video of your astrophotography equipment).

  2. Images or videos that the submitter has personally worked on, regardless of the source of the data (e.g. the submitter acquired the data, or the submitter post-processed data coming from a third-party and they have permission to post).

Here are some examples of things that are not allowed:

  • Reposting other people’s work without modifications (this include NASA/ESA images).

  • Reposting other people’s work with modifications but no permission from the owner of the data (this obviously depends also on the license of the source data).

  • Posting artistic renders of made-up galaxies/nebulae/planets etc (this include AI generated content).

  • Posting terrestrial photography that has nothing to with astrophotography.

  • Posting product reviews, unboxings, or tests.

  • Posting video tutorials, opinions, vlogs, experiences, travel documentaries.

  • Posting videos that feature audio or video clips whose rights you do not own.


Here are some examples of things that are allowed:

  • Posting astrophotography whose data the submitter owns, or has permission to post-process and share. The post-processing technique is irrelevant, as long as the subject of the image remains recognizable as a real celestial object. The following things are allowed:

    • Blurring parts of the image to achieve a 3D effect.

    • Using non-standard / non-canonical color palettes.

    • Using whatever algorithm the submitter like, be it AI-powered or not, to enhance the image. Whether the result is scientifically accurate or not is not relevant for this service.

  • Drawings / sketches / paintings / any work of art on any medium, so long as the depicted object is a real celestial object.

  • Videos of celestial subjects, such as timelapses of cometary journeys, the Milky Way, planetary rotations, solar flares and sunspots, lunar phases, changes in nebular structures, novae and supernovae, variable stars, minor planets, and so on.

  • Images or videos of your own astrophotography equipment that might show it at rest or operating (e.g. a video of your DIY roll-off observatory opening, a timelapse of your telescope during an imaging session, etc).


The service provider reserves the right to change any rules at any time, in case rule-abuse becomes a problem. The service provider also reserves the rights to make exceptions on a case-to-case basis.

REDISTRIBUTION OF CONTENT

The Service Provider reserves the right to distribute and redistribute the content submitted by users, to other parties, web-sites, applications, and other entities, in accordance with Swiss Copyright Act, which requires proper attribution of the author's name and the source, for non-commercial purposes, including users' photographs, profile pictures, photo titles, descriptions, equipment used, and other photo information that was submitted to the Site.

LINKS

The Services may provide links to other web-sites or resources. Because the Service Provider has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that the Service Provider is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any Content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that the Service Provider shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such Content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource.

HOTLINKING

Hotlinking is the practice of embedding content from a website on some other website. Hotlinking AstroBin images or videos is prohibited, and you will be asked to cease the practice. Your account, and all your images, may be deleted if you fail to comply.

APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE (API)

The Site offers an API for 3rd party consumption, in aid of development of websites, computer applications, mobile apps and so on. By using the Site's API you agree to:

  • Respect these Terms of Service and the AstroBin Guidelines.

  • Respect the license of each image.

Moreover, you shall not:

  • Use the Site's API for any application that replicates or attempts to replace the essential user experience of the Site.

  • Attempt to hide your application's identity when making API calls.

  • Display more than 30 AstroBin images per page in your application, or otherwise consume an excessive amount of bandwidth.

  • Use the Site's API for any application that constitutes, promotes or is used in connection with spyware, adware, other malicious programs or code.

  • Use the Site's API in a manner that adversely impacts the stability of astrobin.com servers or adversely impacts the behavior of other applications using the Site's API.

  • Sell, lease, or sublicense the Site's API or access thereto or derive revenues from the use or provision of the Site's API, whether for direct commercial or monetary gain or otherwise, except as set forth below.

Commercial use of the API

If the primary purpose of your application is to derive revenue, it is considered a commercial application. The Service Provider reserves the right to make this evaluation at the time that you request an API key. You may use the Site's API in a commercial application only if:

  • The primary purpose of your application has nothing to do with the display of astronomical images from third party services (one of which would be the Site).

  • You will not charge the users of your applications explicitly for the usage of the Site's API.

Attribution in the use of the API

You shall:

  • Place the following notice prominently on your application: "This product uses the AstroBin API but is not endorsed or certified by AstroBin."

You may not:

  • Use the Site's logo without specific written permission from the Service Provider.

  • Display the Site's logo in your application in a way that is more prominent than your own application's logo.

  • Use the Site's logo in a way that implies endorsement by the Site.

AFFILIATION PLATFORM

The Site offers an Affiliation Platform tailored to producers and retailers of astronomical equipment, including, but not limited to, telescopes, DSLR cameras, CCD cameras, planetary and guiding cameras, mounts, filters, software, and all kinds of accessories to the aforementioned items.

Hereafter, we refer to a company or an individual who joined the Affiliation Platform as "Affiliated partner."

Affiliated platform conduct

In addition to the "User conduct" above, to which Affiliated Partners must abide as they are considered users to all effects, an Affiliated Partner must not:

  • claim products that they do not produce or retail.

  • price their product differently than what they will really sell it for, for the purpose of luring AstroBin users to their website.

  • use the platform in any way that differs from what the Service Provider intended, by the sole judgment of the Service Provider.

Terms of payment

Affiliated Partners must pay the agreed sum by the due date indicated on the bill, which is set as 14 days after the expiration of a billable period (one month.) Failure to do so will incur in:

  • the suspension of their AstroBin account starting 7 days after the missed due date, and effective until the payment terms are resolved.

  • a penalty fee of 8% of the due sum.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE SERVICE PROVIDER OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE UNDER CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER LEGAL THEORY (A) WITH RESPECT TO THE SITE, THE SERVICE OR ANY CONTENT FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES (HOWEVER ARISING), OR (B) FOR ANY DIRECT DAMAGES IN EXCESS OF (IN THE AGGREGATE) €100.

INDEMNITY

You will indemnify and hold harmless the Service Provider, its subsidiaries, affiliates, parents, customers, vendors, officers and employees from any liability, damage or cost (including reasonable attorneys' fees and cost) from any claim or demand made by any third party due to or arising out of your access to the Site, use of the Services, violation of the Terms by you, or the infringement by you, or any third party using your account or AstroBin username, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

WARRANTY DISCLAIMERS

THE SERVICE, CONTENT, AND SITE ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.