OceanSig Platform Terms of Service
Welcome to OceanSig (“the Platform”), an independent marine research and scientific investigation tool operated by Hutch. By accessing, browsing, or utilizing this website and its associated data interfaces, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service.
1. Research and Informational Purpose
OceanSig is provided strictly for academic research, education, scientific exploration, and observational synthesis. The platform provides tools to cross-examine public oceanographic datasets, evaluate physical measurement comparability, trace provenance, and construct reproducible scientific dossiers.
2. Absolute Disclaimer of Operational Warnings & Navigation Use
CRITICAL SAFETY NOTICE:
OceanSig is NOT an official government forecast, weather advisory, marine navigation system, tsunami warning, storm surge warning, or emergency-response service.
Under no circumstances should any researcher, mariner, government agency, commercial entity, or individual rely upon OceanSig for:
- Vessel navigation, course plotting, or sea keeping;
- Life-safety decisions, coastal storm evacuations, or search-and-rescue operations;
- Operational regulatory enforcement or commercial compliance;
- Critical environmental emergency response.
For all operational decisions, users must consult authoritative agency products (e.g. NOAA National Weather Service, NDBC, NHC, USCG, and international hydrographic offices).
3. Scientific Uncertainty & Source Authority
Ocean science inherently involves observational uncertainty, temporal latency, sensor drift, spatial resolution limits, and physical support disparities (e.g., infrared skin radiometry versus subsurface mooring thermistors). While OceanSig encodes formal Comparison Contracts to flag physical non-equivalence, the user is solely responsible for independently verifying all source data and statistical conclusions.
4. User Responsibilities & Acceptable Use
You agree to use OceanSig in a manner consistent with ethical scientific practices and applicable laws. You agree not to:
- Engage in denial-of-service attacks or automated scraping that impairs platform availability;
- Misrepresent OceanSig outputs as official government agency alerts or certified forecasts;
- Attempt to bypass access controls on restricted operator surfaces;
- Remove provenance metadata or cryptographic digests when redistributing research artifacts.
5. Intellectual Property & Open Scientific Data
The software interface, comparison algorithms, provenance tracking framework, and original compilation of OceanSig are the property of the operator. All third-party scientific datasets, station telemetry, satellite composite maps, and field survey photographs belong to their respective authoritative providers (NOAA, NDBC, CO-OPS, AOML, MBARI, OOI) and are utilized under applicable open government and public science licensing frameworks.
6. Warranty Disclaimer & Limitation of Liability
THE PLATFORM, INCLUDING ALL DATA, METRICS, COMPARISONS, TIME SERIES, AND DOSSIERS, IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL OCEANSIG, ITS OPERATOR, CONTRIBUTORS, OR AFFILIATED DATA STEWARDS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ACCESS TO OR RELIANCE UPON THIS PLATFORM OR ITS DATA CONTENT.
7. Governing Law & Contact
These Terms of Service shall be governed by and construed in accordance with applicable general law. If any provision is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.
For legal notices, inquiries, or questions regarding these Terms, please contact operator Hutch at: Hutchsolves@gmail.com