Terms of Service

Short version: read freely, edit honestly, cite your sources, and know that what you contribute is published immediately with your name on it, under an open licence (CC BY-SA 4.0 for text and photos, ODbL for data; see the content licence).

1. Who you are agreeing with

These terms are an agreement between you and Moltke Benjaminsen ApS (MB Alpha), CVR 45555399, Denmark, the operator of barcodepedia.com. They apply to everyone who reads the site and, in full, to everyone who creates an account or edits a page. This is version 2 of the terms; accepting them at sign-in or when prompted records that version on your account.

2. Accounts

Accounts are created by signing in with GitHub. You must be at least 16. You are responsible for what is done with your account. Bot runs made with a token from your account are your edits.

3. Editing rules

• Cite sources. A fact needs a source you actually read: a URL, or "as printed on pack" when you have the product in front of you. Do not guess numbers, dates, companies or ingredients.
• No copied text. Write descriptions in your own words. Do not paste text from packaging, manufacturer sites or other databases beyond short, cited quotations. Factual data (ingredients, nutrition values, barcodes) is not copyrightable and may be transcribed.
• No personal data about private individuals. Companies and brands, yes. People, only in their public business role, and only when it matters to the product.
• Brand and company are different things. Link them with typed relations; never put a company name in a brand field.
• No vandalism, spam, advertising or self-promotion. A product page describes the product; it does not sell it.
• Bots only through the endpoint. Automated edits must go through the site's bot task endpoint with your own token, so they are validated and attributed. Scripted edits through the human editor are not allowed.

Edits that break these rules may be reverted, and accounts that keep breaking them may be locked. Locks and reverts are visible in history like everything else.

3a. Reviews and ratings

A signed-in account can rate a product from 1 to 5 stars and write a review, one per product, which you can edit or delete. A review is your own opinion of a product you have used, published at once under your handle. It is not part of the product record, and it is not a place for facts: those go on the page with a source.

• Say so if you are connected. If you make, sell, distribute or are paid by the maker of the product, write that in the review.
• No paid, traded or coordinated reviews, no reviews of your own products without saying so, and no copying reviews from elsewhere.
• No personal data, abuse or advertising. Review the product, not other people.

A review that breaks these rules is hidden by an administrator; it stays on record, out of view. Reviews are licensed like every other text you contribute (section 4). If you delete your account, your reviews are deleted with it.

4. Your contributions

Everything you save is published immediately, permanently, with your GitHub handle attached, in the page and in its history. You confirm that you have the right to contribute what you save and that it does not infringe anyone's rights.

By saving, you keep the copyright in what you wrote, you publish your text and photos under CC BY-SA 4.0 and your facts under the ODbL, irrevocably, and you also grant Moltke Benjaminsen ApS a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable and sub-licensable licence to use, reproduce, modify, publish and distribute it as part of Barcodepedia and any successor work, including under other licences. You waive moral rights to the extent the law allows. You confirm it is your own work or facts and short quotations you are entitled to contribute, and that it does not copy text from other sites. The full terms are in the content licence.

5. The site's code

The software that runs Barcodepedia is closed source. These terms give you no licence to it. The content is open (section 6); the code is not.

6. Using the content

The content is open: text and contributor photos under CC BY-SA 4.0, facts and the database under the ODbL. Use it, including commercially, credit "Barcodepedia" with a link to the page, and keep what you publish from it under the same terms. The content licence has the details, a plain-words summary and the credit line to copy. Automated bulk access should use the sitemaps at a reasonable rate, or ask for a dump. Data from Open Food Facts that appears on a product page is cited and remains under the ODbL; the citation tells you where it came from.

7. No warranty

Barcodepedia is a wiki. Pages can be wrong, out of date or incomplete, and allergen or nutrition information must never be relied on for health decisions without checking the actual product label. The site is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, and MB Alpha is not liable for decisions made on the basis of its content, to the extent Danish law allows.

8. Changes and termination

We may change these terms. When we do, the version number at the top changes and account holders are asked to accept the new version before editing again. We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms. You may delete your account at any time; see the privacy policy for what happens to your contributions.

9. Law

These terms are governed by Danish law. Disputes go to the courts of Denmark, without prejudice to consumer rights you have in your own country.

Moltke Benjaminsen ApS (MB Alpha), CVR 45555399, Denmark
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