Art UK Website Terms and Conditions of Use
Please read these terms and conditions carefully before using this website.
These terms and conditions of use (together with the documents referred to within) (the Terms of Use) tell you the terms on which you may use this website, www.artuk.org (our website), whether as a guest or a registered user. Use of our website includes accessing, browsing or registering to use our website.
By using our website, you confirm that you accept these Terms of Use and that you agree to comply with them.
For further information on copyright, image use and licensing please see our guidance pages.
1. Information about us and how to contact us
1.1. Art UK is the operating name of the Public Catalogue Foundation, a charity registered in England and Wales (charity number: 1096185) and in Scotland (charity number: SC048601) (we, us and our).
1.2. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 04573564 and have our registered office at Salisbury House, Station Road, Cambridge, England, CB1 2LA. Art UK's main trading address is Staffordshire University Incubator Unit, 2nd Floor, Mellor Building, College Road, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2DE. Our VAT number is 833 0131 76.
1.3. To contact us in relation to any general queries about these Terms of Use, please email us at info@artuk.org. For general content queries relating to our website, please email us at collections@artuk.org.
2. Other applicable terms
These Terms of Use refer to and incorporate the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our website:
a. Disclaimer;
b. Cookies policy;
c. Privacy policy;
d. Art Detective code of conduct;
e. any copyright information and restrictions included on the pages of our website, including the Copyright notice,
the terms of which you agree to observe and follow.
3. Changes to these Terms of Use
We may revise these Terms of Use at any time by amending this page. Please check our website frequently to see recent changes. The date when these Terms of Use were last updated will be displayed at the bottom of the page. If you do not agree to any change you should not continue to use our website.
4. Availability of our website
4.1. Our website is made available free of charge.
4.2. We will use reasonable endeavours to ensure the availability of our website and that transmissions are error free. However, due to the nature of the Internet it is not technically possible for us to provide a completely fault free service and we give no guarantees or warranties, express or implied, as to the quality or reliability of access to our website. We do not guarantee that our website, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted.
4.3. Access to our website is permitted on a temporary basis. We reserve our right to withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our website or refuse access to it immediately and without notice. However, we will, where reasonably possible, provide notice of any suspension or cancellation of our website.
4.4. We will not be liable to you if for any reason our website (or any content) is unavailable at any time or for any period.
4.5. You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our website.
4.6. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our website through your Internet connection are aware of these Terms of Use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.
5. Content on our website
5.1. We may update our website from time to time and may change the content at any time without providing prior notice.
5.2. Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our website, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our website is accurate, complete or up-to-date.
5.3. We do not guarantee that our website, or any content on it, will be free from errors or omissions.
5.4. The content on our website is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. See our Disclaimer. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our website.
5.5. The views expressed by other users on our website do not represent our views or values and have not been verified or approved by us.
5.6. For general content queries relating to our website please email us at collections@artuk.org.
6. Intellectual property
6.1. Except as described in paragraphs 6.7 and 6.8, we are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our website. Our website and the material published on it are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
6.2. Unless further uses are permitted under an applicable Creative Commons licence (see creativecommons.org) or by virtue of public domain status, you may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our website for your personal use or under any of the other exceptions and limitations to copyright set out in the UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended and restated from time to time). You may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our website.
6.3. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our website must always be acknowledged.
6.4. Unless permitted under an applicable Creative Commons licence (see creativecommons.org) or by virtue of public domain status, you must not use any part of the content on our website for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.
6.5. If you print off, copy or download any part of our website in breach of these Terms of Use, your right to use our website will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.
6.6. Where a Creative Commons licence applies to an image, this will be detailed on the relevant webpage, and you agree to comply with the terms of that Creative Commons licence.
6.7. Where content has been embedded in our website from third party websites, or from third party social media accounts, we have taken all reasonable endeavours to obtain the requisite permissions for display of this content.
6.8. There are some works on the Art UK website where we have not been able to identify the copyright owner (Orphan Works). We have not therefore been able to license the intellectual property rights in these Orphan Works. A copyright holder can request removal of an image by emailing rights@artuk.org and further information on our take-down policy is available at https://artuk.org/footer/copyright-notice-15.
7. Your Art UK account and password
7.1. The Art UK account is a free feature, where users can access services and participate via our website in relation to the UK's publicly owned art. If you choose to set up an Art UK account, you can select, arrange, and publish groups of artworks (also known as Curations), participate in crowd-sourcing initiatives such as Tagger, and make and save your own notes, searches and selected artworks. If your Art UK account is a Collections Account, please refer to section 9 (The Collection Portals Service) below for the details of the additional features available. Users may also set up a free Art Detective account (accessible through https://www.artuk.org/artdetective). Please refer to section 10 (The Art Detective Service) for further details.
7.2. If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party.
7.3. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms of Use.
7.4. You must take reasonable precautions to prevent the fraudulent use of your security details, including your password, and must notify us in the event that you suspect a third party has obtained your security details.
8. Uploading content to our website
8.1. This section 8 applies to general users of the Art UK website who have set up an Art UK account, as well as Collection approved users who are contributing additional content (including images and associated information) on behalf of a Collection as part of a Curation. Artworks and associated information that are included in the Art UK project and have been contributed to the Art UK website by or on behalf of Collections, and copyright holders of the included artworks, are subject to the terms and conditions of the separate image reproduction agreements that are in place between Art UK and the Collections/copyright holders.
8.2. If you choose to upload, post or contribute to the Art UK website when you are logged into your Art UK account, as described in paragraph 1 (your content), you must comply with the spirit and the letter of the following content standards (which apply to each part of any of your content as well as to its whole):
a. your content must:
i. be accurate (where it states facts);
ii. be genuinely held (where it states opinions); and
iii. comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which it is posted;
b. your content must not:
i. contain any material which is defamatory of any person;
ii. contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
iii. bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate;
iv. promote sexually explicit material;
v. include child sexual abuse material;
vi. promote violence;
vii. promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
viii. infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
ix. be likely to deceive any person;
x. be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
xi. promote any illegal content or activity;
xii. be in contempt of court;
xiii. be threatening or abusive or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
xiv. be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
xv. be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person;
xvi. give the impression that it emanates from us, if this is not the case;
xvii. advocate, promote, incite any party to commit, or assist any unlawful or criminal act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse;
xviii. contain any statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, that members of the public to whom the statement is, or is to be, published are likely to understand as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism; or
xix. contain any advertising or promote any services.
8.3. You warrant that your content complies with the standards in paragraph 2 above, and you will be liable to us and indemnify us for any loss or damage suffered by us which is caused by any breach of this warranty. If you are a consumer user, this means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.
8.4. Your content will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. You retain all of your ownership rights in your content, but you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform your content in connection with the service provided by our website and across different media and platforms, including to promote our website and services.
8.5. We also have the right to disclose (and you consent to us disclosing) your identity to any third party who is claiming that your content constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.
8.6. We will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any content posted, uploaded or contributed by you or any other user of our website.
8.7. We have the right to remove your content from the website if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the content standards set out in paragraph 8.2 above. We also have the right, in our sole discretion, at any time and for any reason to take down, remove, delete, alter, move or transfer any of the content that is on our website, or otherwise stored on our servers, without notice and without liability to you or any third party.
8.8. You are solely responsible for securing and backing up your content. We are not responsible for the protection or security of your content or for policing unauthorised copying or use of your content.
9. The Collections Portal Service
9.1. The Collections Portal is a self-service system accessed through the Art UK account which allows Collections to manage their data and participation in the Art UK project. Using the Portal, Collections can (subject to their permissions): add new artworks; edit existing artworks; change information about venues that are managed by the Collection; add images and logos; and obtain certain statistics and analytics in relation to the Art UK website. Partner Collections are permitted to upload images of works on paper (drawings, watercolours, prints, mixed media artworks), sculpture, paintings, photographs, and textile art. Non-partner Collections may upload images of new works in oil, acrylic and tempera, and sculpture, only.
9.2. If you have been granted access to the Collections Portal Service, the following additional terms and conditions shall apply to your use of the Collections Portal Service and, by using the service, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions:
a. subject to these Terms of Use, we grant you a non-exclusive, royalty free, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Collections Portal Service, solely for the purpose of using, and to the extent necessary to use, the Collection Portal Service in accordance with these Terms of Use and for as long as you are in compliance with these Terms of Use. If you are in breach of any of the Terms of Use your right to use the Collections Portal Service will cease and we will have the right to disable the account that you use to access the Collections Portal Service;
b. you warrant that you have, and have had at all relevant times, the necessary authority and permissions to use the Collections Portal Service, including, as applicable and as set out in your Art UK Image Reproduction Agreement, (i) to grant us and third parties licences to use; and where applicable (ii) to attach a Creative Commons licence or Public Domain Mark to, the images of the Artworks and associated information that you upload and manage via the Collections Portal Service; and
c. you agree that the use of the images or Artworks that you upload or manage via the Collections Portal Service will also be governed by a separate agreement between us and the applicable artwork copyright holder(s).
10. The Art Detective Service
10.1. Art Detective aims to improve knowledge of the nation’s art collection. Art Detective is a free-to-use online network which connects public art collections with providers of specialist knowledge, which is hosted on our website at the following link: http://www.artuk.org/artdetective (the Art Detective Site).
10.2. Subject to these Terms of Use, we hereby grant you a non-exclusive, royalty free, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Art Detective Site and use the material available therein (the Art Detective Service) solely for the purpose of and to the extent necessary to use the Art Detective Service in accordance with these Terms of Use and for as long as you are in compliance with such Terms of Use. If you are in breach of any of the Terms of Use your right to use the Art Detective Service will cease and we will have the right to disable the account that you use to access the Art Detective Service.
10.3. We provide interactive services on the Art Detective Site, including, without limitation: (i) bulletin boards; and (ii) discussion group platforms. The Art Detective Site provides clear information about the kind of interactive services it offers. In particular, you are asked to note the following points in relation to these interactive services:
a. we will use reasonable endeavours to assess any possible risks for users (and in particular, for children) from third parties when they use any interactive service provided on the Art Detective Site, and will decide in each case whether it is appropriate to moderate the relevant service (including what kind of moderation to use) in light of those risks. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any interactive service we provide on the Art Detective Site, and expressly exclude liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by a user in contravention of our content standards.
b. the use of any of the Art Detective Site’s interactive services by a minor is subject to the consent of their parent or guardian. We advise parents who permit their children to use an interactive service that it is important that they communicate with their children about their safety online. Minors who are using any interactive service should be made aware of the potential risks to them.
c. should you wish to report a particular comment, you can do so by clicking the report button on the Art Detective website.
d. we do not store terrorist content.
10.4. Without prejudice to the general comment made under section 5, please note that:
a. all comments on the Art Detective Site express personal opinions of the individual user or contributor; and
b. any recommendation made to a Collection is based on voluntary contributions of information provided to Art UK by one or more contributors identified on the Art Detective Site and is not a recommendation from, or the view of, Art UK. The Collection in receipt of a recommendation is urged to review the evidence provided on the Art Detective Site before accepting the recommendation and to obtain further professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the recommendation. Art UK, our staff, group leaders, expert panel and contributors are not responsible or liable for all or part of any recommendation that proves incorrect or misleading.
10.5. We have a report button on our website where you can report individual comments. If you have a more specific request, or any other queries, please contact us at artdetective@artuk.org. We will endeavour to respond to all requests within four weeks of receipt of the request.
10.6. Please refer to the code of conduct for further guidelines in relation to your participation on the Art Detective website.
11. Prohibited uses
11.1. You may use our website only for lawful purposes. You may not use our website:
a. in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;
b. in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
c. for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way;
d. to bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate any person;
e. to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards (see paragraph 8.2 above);
f. to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam);
g. to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, logic bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful; or
h. to upload terrorist content.
11.2. You also agree:
a. not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our website except as permitted by these Terms of Use;
b. not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
i. any part of our website;
ii. any equipment or network on which our website is stored;
iii. any software used in the provision of our website; or
iv. any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party; and
c. not to conduct, facilitate, authorise or permit any text or data mining or web scraping in relation to our website or any services provided via, or in relation to, our website.
12. Security
12.1. We do not guarantee that our website will be secure or free from bugs or viruses. We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our website or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it.
12.2. You assume full responsibility for the protection of your computer system including computer hardware, software and stored data on your computer system, including hardware, software and stored data of third parties who may access or be otherwise connected to your computer system. You will assume the responsibility of ensuring that programmes or other data downloaded or otherwise received from our website are free from viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, logic bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. We would advise you to run an up-to-date anti-virus program on anything you download from the Internet.
12.3. You must not misuse our website by knowingly introducing viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, logic bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our website, the server on which our website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our website. You must not attack our website via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our website will cease immediately.
13. Liability
13.1. Nothing in these Terms of Use shall exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or contractors that results from the use of our website or any fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.
13.2. As far as we are allowed to do so, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to our website or any content on it, whether express or implied. This does not exclude our obligation to provide any services under these Terms of Use with reasonable care and skill.
13.3. We will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:
a. use of, or inability to use, our website;
b. use of, or reliance on, any content displayed on our website; or
c. loss of, or damage to, personal data.
13.4. If you are a business user, please note that, in particular, we will not be liable for:
a. loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
b. business interruption;
c. loss of anticipated savings;
d. loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or
e. any indirect or consequential loss or damage.
f. If you are a consumer, you agree not to use our website for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.
14. External links
14.1. Where our website links, embeds or frames content from other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such linked, embedded or framed content should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them. We have no control over the content of those third party sites or resources.
14.2. Where our website links, embeds or frames content from other sites and resources provided by us, the terms of use of those sites and resources will apply.
14.3. You should familiarise yourself with the different privacy, trading and use policies and conditions of any external sites or resources before using them.
14.4. We make no representations as to the security, quality or propriety of any site which may be accessed through our website and accept no liability for the content or for any loss or damage caused or alleged to have been caused by the use of or reliance on information contained in such sites or goods or services purchased from them.
14.5. Connected third party websites accessed through our website are independent sites over which we do not exercise any control, whether financial, editorial or of any other kind and are not in any way endorsed by us.
14.6. You may link to our website, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.
14.7. You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.
14.8. Our website, in whole or in part, must not be framed on any other website, except with our express, written permission.
14.9. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.
14.10. The website in which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in paragraph 8.2.
14.11. If you wish to link to or make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact info@artuk.org.
15. Suspension and termination
15.1. We will determine, in our discretion, whether there has been a breach of these Terms of Use through your use of our website. When a breach of these Terms of Use has occurred, we may take such action as we reasonably deem appropriate.
15.2. Breach by you of any of these Terms of Use may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:
a. immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our website;
b. immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any of your content;
c. issue of a warning to you;
d. legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach;
e. further legal action against you; and
f. disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary or as required by law.
15.3. We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of these Terms of Use. The responses described in these Terms of Use are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.
16. Severance
If any part of these Terms of Use shall be deemed unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable then that provision shall be deemed to be severable from these Terms of Use and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any of the remaining provisions of these Terms of Use.
17. Waiver
The rights granted under these Terms of Use will not be waived except in writing. Any waiver of any of your or our rights, or any breach of these Terms of Use by you or us, will not be construed as a waiver of any other rights, or of any other or further breach. Any failure or delay by you or us in exercising our rights under any provisions of these Terms of Use will not be construed as a waiver of those rights.
18. Disclosure
We may disclose personal information if required to do so by law or if we in good faith believe we are required to do so by any order of the Courts or other competent body or agency or may do so to protect or defend our rights or property or to protect the personal safety of our employees or the public at large. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information on how we handle, and when we might disclose, your personal information.
19. Statistics
19.1. We may provide aggregate statistics about sales, website usage and related website information on our website to our partners, Collections and other contributors to the Art UK project and also provide statistics to central Government, Government agencies and other public bodies, but these will not include any personally identifying information. Please note in particular that statistical records are maintained of pages visited by users whether or not they have registered.
19.2. We may monitor user traffic on an aggregate basis in order to help it develop and improve our website for the benefit of all users.
20. Governing law and jurisdiction
20.1. If you are a consumer, please note that these Terms of Use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have non-exclusive jurisdiction. However, if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.
20.2. If you are a business, these Terms of Use, their subject matter and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
Last updated: 13 October 2022