NZ EX GAMES — TERMS OF USE & PARTICIPATION

Version: 1.0
Jurisdiction: New Zealand
Contact: media@nzexgames.nz

IMPORTANT

NZ Ex Games is a platform for discovering, understanding, documenting and contributing to positive ecological action.

Some NZ Ex Games activities relate to real places, wildlife, pest species, environmental problems and field activities. Participation in NZ Ex Games does not itself give you permission to enter land, handle wildlife, use traps, poisons or other equipment, interfere with plants or animals, undertake pest control, access restricted areas, or carry out any activity requiring permission, training, authority, a licence or permit.

You remain responsible for acting lawfully, safely and within your competence.

These Terms govern use of the NZ Ex Games website, platform, services and participation systems.

Only provisions relevant to the features you use apply. Public account registration, content uploads and competition entry are not currently available. Browsing or saving a preference or exercise on your device does not create an account, submit content or enter the competition.

By creating an account, submitting content, entering a competition or otherwise using a part of NZ Ex Games that requires acceptance of these Terms, you agree to them.

Public visitors who merely browse NZ Ex Games are also subject to the provisions of these Terms that are relevant to public use of the platform.

1. WHAT NZ EX GAMES IS

NZ Ex Games helps people explore ecological work, places, species, threats and sources, and try Mission and Hunt exercises.

The Living Map contains sourced public records. The Hit List explains ecological threats. Pocket Ecologist explains ecological investigation and the relationship between observations, questions and evidence. Example stories and exercises are labelled; they are not live competition results.

Different forms of participation have different requirements.

Watching, following, researching, sharing, contributing information and undertaking real-world ecological work are not treated as equivalent activities merely because they occur through NZ Ex Games.

Where NZ Ex Games evaluates ecological impact, evidence of activity does not automatically establish ecological change or impact.

2. THESE TERMS

These Terms form an agreement between you and the operator of NZ Ex Games ("NZ Ex Games", "we", "us" or "our").

Additional terms may apply to particular features, competitions, events, submissions or activities.

Those may include:

Privacy Statement;
Upload & Content Terms;
Community Rules;
competition-specific rules;
field safety notices;
evidence requirements;
location or land-access requirements; and
rules applying to particular missions, hunts or challenges.

Where specific rules apply to an activity, you must comply with both these Terms and those specific rules.

If there is an inconsistency, the specific rules apply to that activity to the extent of the inconsistency.

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies a right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified under New Zealand law.

3. WHO MAY USE NZ EX GAMES

Anyone may access public NZ Ex Games material unless access has been restricted for operational, legal, safety or other legitimate reasons.

Unless NZ Ex Games expressly provides otherwise, you must be 16 years or older to independently:

create an NZ Ex Games participant account;
establish a public participant profile;
submit content for public attribution;
enter a competition; or
undertake another activity requiring an independent participant account.

People under 16 may browse publicly available material. The independent-account age requirement does not restrict access to public information.

4. ACCOUNTS

You must provide information that is reasonably accurate when creating or maintaining an account.

You must not:

impersonate another person;
knowingly create a materially misleading identity;
obtain access to another person's account without authority;
interfere with platform security;
use automated means to manipulate participation, rankings, voting or results; or
create accounts for fraudulent, abusive or deceptive purposes.

You are responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect your account credentials.

Tell us promptly if you reasonably believe your account has been compromised.

5. PARTICIPATION DOES NOT CREATE FIELD AUTHORITY

An NZ Ex Games:

Target;
Hunt;
Mission;
Challenge;
Opportunity;
Place;
nomination;
map marker;
field record; or
competition

does not constitute permission or authority to undertake an activity.

In particular, NZ Ex Games does not, merely by displaying or suggesting an activity, grant:

access to public or private land;
landowner permission;
authority to enter restricted areas;
permission to interfere with wildlife;
permission to collect specimens;
permission to remove vegetation;
hunting authority;
trapping authority;
authority to use toxins, firearms, tools or equipment;
biosecurity authority;
animal-handling authority; or
any licence, consent or permit required by law.

You must obtain any permission, authority, licence, consent or permit required for what you intend to do.

6. FIELD SAFETY

Real-world ecological activity may involve hazards.

These may include terrain, weather, waterways, animals, plants, vehicles, machinery, traps, toxins, tools, disease, remote locations, private property and other environmental or operational hazards.

You are responsible for assessing whether an activity is suitable for you and for taking appropriate safety precautions.

Do not undertake an activity because NZ Ex Games displays it if:

you do not understand the risks;
you do not have appropriate competence or supervision;
required permission has not been obtained;
required equipment or protective measures are unavailable;
conditions are unsafe; or
the activity would be unlawful.

Where an activity is organised by another person or organisation, their instructions, safety systems and legal responsibilities may also apply.

NZ Ex Games' presentation of that activity does not necessarily mean NZ Ex Games organises, controls, supervises or endorses the field activity.

7. ECOLOGICAL AND OTHER INFORMATION

NZ Ex Games aims to provide useful, evidence-based information.

Ecological knowledge is nevertheless incomplete and continually developing.

Information may be:

verified;
strongly supported;
partially supported;
weakly supported;
contested;
provisional;
historical;
incomplete;
unknown; or
contributed by participants.

NZ Ex Games may explicitly identify these knowledge states.

Information appearing on NZ Ex Games should not be assumed to be complete, current or error-free merely because it has been published.

Where appropriate, users should verify information against authoritative sources before relying upon it for consequential decisions.

8. NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL OR REGULATORY ADVICE

Unless expressly stated otherwise, NZ Ex Games content is provided for information and participation purposes.

It is not a substitute for professional:

ecological advice;
veterinary advice;
biosecurity advice;
health and safety advice;
legal advice;
regulatory advice;
land-management advice; or
other specialist advice.

Where an activity is regulated, applicable legislation, regulatory requirements, permits and directions of competent authorities take precedence over material appearing on NZ Ex Games.

9. CONTRIBUTING CONTENT

NZ Ex Games may allow you to submit material including:

photographs;
video;
audio;
observations;
text;
comments;
research;
documents;
references;
location information;
species records;
field records;
measurements;
results;
evidence;
corrections;
nominations; and
other material.

Together, this is called Submitted Content.

Submission does not guarantee publication.

NZ Ex Games may review Submitted Content before or after publication.

10. YOU KEEP OWNERSHIP OF YOUR CONTENT

Except where another arrangement is expressly agreed, you retain any copyright or other intellectual property rights that you own in your Submitted Content.

Submitting material to NZ Ex Games does not, by itself, transfer ownership of your copyright to NZ Ex Games.

However, NZ Ex Games needs continuing rights to use material that has been contributed to the platform.

Those rights are described below.

11. LICENCE YOU GIVE NZ EX GAMES

By submitting Submitted Content, you grant NZ Ex Games a:

worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence

to use that Submitted Content for the operation, development, documentation, preservation, research, communication, promotion and purposes of NZ Ex Games.

This includes the right to:

host;
store;
copy;
reproduce;
publish;
display;
communicate;
distribute;
archive;
catalogue;
index;
format;
crop;
resize;
compress;
excerpt;
caption;
translate;
adapt;
combine with other material; and
make reasonable editorial or technical modifications to

the Submitted Content.

The licence includes use through:

NZ Ex Games websites and applications;
NZ Ex Games-controlled social media;
NZ Ex Games publications;
presentations;
reports;
educational material;
research material;
promotional material;
media communications; and
NZ Ex Games services and formats.

NZ Ex Games may also make Submitted Content available to service providers acting for NZ Ex Games where reasonably necessary to operate these functions.

This licence does not transfer ownership of your copyright to NZ Ex Games.

It allows NZ Ex Games to continue using material legitimately contributed to the project even if you later stop participating or close your account.

Where the law requires additional consent for a particular treatment of a work, including treatment involving moral rights, NZ Ex Games may request that consent separately.

12. WHAT YOU CONFIRM WHEN YOU UPLOAD

When you submit content, you confirm that, to the best of your knowledge:

you created the content, own the relevant rights, or have sufficient permission to submit and license it;
the submission does not knowingly infringe another person's copyright, privacy, confidentiality or other legal rights;
where identifiable people appear in content, you have any permission reasonably required to submit and permit use of that content;
you have not knowingly represented somebody else's work as your own;
information you provide as evidence is not deliberately false or materially misleading;
you have not deliberately altered evidence in a way that materially misrepresents what occurred;
you are entitled to disclose any location or access information included in the submission; and
you will tell NZ Ex Games if you subsequently discover a material rights, safety, privacy or accuracy problem with your submission.

Do not submit material merely because you found it online.

Finding an image, video, document or other work on the internet does not necessarily give you the right to upload it to NZ Ex Games.

13. PLAIN-LANGUAGE UPLOAD CONSENT

Any short-form upload consent is a reminder of the submission conditions and does not replace these Terms. The ownership, licence and permission requirements in sections 9–16 apply to Submitted Content.

14. ECOLOGICAL FACTS, EVIDENCE AND CONTRIBUTED MEDIA

NZ Ex Games distinguishes between contributed media and the information evidenced by that media.

For example, if you submit a photograph recording a species at a particular place and time:

you may own copyright in the photograph;
NZ Ex Games receives the licence described above; and
the observation represented by the photograph may become part of an NZ Ex Games evidence record.

Closing your account or ceasing participation does not necessarily require NZ Ex Games to erase the underlying ecological observation, provenance history, competition result or other legitimate record derived from the submission.

Any retention of personal information remains subject to applicable privacy law.

Where appropriate, NZ Ex Games may de-identify retained information.

15. ATTRIBUTION

NZ Ex Games may attribute Submitted Content to you where appropriate.

Attribution may use:

your name;
participant name;
team name;
organisation;
username; or
another attribution associated with the submission.

NZ Ex Games may omit or modify public attribution where reasonably necessary for privacy, safety, ecological protection, legal compliance or platform operation.

Where third-party licensing conditions require a particular attribution, NZ Ex Games will endeavour to preserve that attribution.

16. SENSITIVE ECOLOGICAL AND LOCATION INFORMATION

Not everything submitted to NZ Ex Games should necessarily become public.

Some information may create risks to:

threatened species;
nests or breeding sites;
vulnerable populations;
ecological restoration sites;
culturally sensitive places;
private property;
conservation operations;
traps or control infrastructure;
people; or
other protected interests.

NZ Ex Games may therefore:

withhold precise locations;
reduce location precision;
delay publication;
restrict access;
redact information;
aggregate records;
refer information for review; or
decline publication.

Submitting information does not guarantee that NZ Ex Games will make the complete record publicly visible.

17. COMMUNITY STANDARDS

You must not knowingly use NZ Ex Games to submit or distribute material that:

is unlawful;
seriously threatens or harasses another person;
unlawfully invades another person's privacy;
is defamatory;
infringes intellectual property rights;
is fraudulent or deliberately deceptive;
promotes unlawful environmental activity;
deliberately misidentifies evidence;
manipulates competition results;
exposes sensitive ecological information irresponsibly;
contains malicious software;
attempts to compromise platform security; or
materially interferes with other people's legitimate use of NZ Ex Games.

Disagreement, criticism, competing interpretations and good-faith scientific dispute are not prohibited merely because another person finds them uncomfortable.

Evidence-based disagreement is part of legitimate ecological inquiry.

18. MODERATION

NZ Ex Games may take reasonable action where necessary to protect participants, third parties, ecological interests, evidence integrity, privacy, intellectual property, platform security, competition integrity, legal compliance or legitimate operation of NZ Ex Games.

Depending on the circumstances, we may:

request further information;
request evidence;
delay publication;
add a qualification or status;
reduce location precision;
restrict visibility;
correct factual metadata;
remove content;
suspend functionality;
suspend an account; or
terminate access.

Where reasonably practicable and appropriate, significant moderation decisions will be proportionate to the issue involved.

NZ Ex Games may act immediately where reasonably necessary to address an urgent safety, legal, privacy, security or ecological risk.

19. REPORTING CONTENT

To report content, email media@nzexgames.nz with the page address, the material concerned and the reason for your report. The on-page reporting control does not currently submit a report.

Reports may concern:

harmful communications;
privacy;
impersonation;
copyright;
unlawful content;
misleading evidence;
ecological sensitivity; or
other violations of these Terms.

NZ Ex Games may request sufficient information to identify the content and understand the complaint.

Certain complaints may be processed under procedures required by New Zealand law.

Submitting a complaint does not guarantee that the content will permanently be removed.

20. HARMFUL DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS

Where the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 applies, NZ Ex Games may use the statutory notice and counter-notice procedure available to online content hosts.

Users submitting complaints or counter-notices must provide information reasonably necessary for NZ Ex Games to administer that process.

NZ Ex Games may remove or disable content where required or permitted by law or where reasonably necessary under these Terms.

21. COPYRIGHT COMPLAINTS

If you believe material appearing on NZ Ex Games infringes copyright that you own or are authorised to represent, email media@nzexgames.nz with the details below.

A complaint should identify:

the work concerned;
the NZ Ex Games material complained about;
where the material appears;
the basis of your rights or authority;
your contact information; and
sufficient information for us to assess the complaint.

NZ Ex Games may temporarily restrict material while a credible rights complaint is investigated.

We may contact the contributor where appropriate.

Repeated deliberate infringement may result in account restrictions or termination.

22. EVIDENCE

NZ Ex Games may distinguish between:

ACTION — what somebody did;

EVIDENCE — information supporting what occurred;

CHANGE — what changed as a result; and

IMPACT — why that change matters ecologically.

Submitting evidence of an action does not automatically establish ecological change or impact.

NZ Ex Games may verify evidence, request additional evidence, compare sources, classify evidence, reject unsupported claims, revise classifications and preserve provenance records.

An NZ Ex Games score, result, recognition or evidence classification may change where new information becomes available.

23. COMPETITIONS, CHALLENGES AND RECOGNITION

Some NZ Ex Games activities may involve scores, rankings, leaderboards, nominations, regional representation, awards, prizes, recognition or competition.

Additional rules may apply.

Where specific competition rules are provided, participating in that competition constitutes acceptance of those rules.

Unless expressly stated otherwise:

appearing on a leaderboard does not create entitlement to a prize;
nomination puts someone forward for consideration; it does not itself select, qualify or endorse them;
NZ Ex Games may investigate evidence supporting a result;
fraudulent or manipulated entries may be excluded; and
results may be corrected where an error or evidence problem is identified.

Participation does not automatically enter you in the competition. No public competition entry or regional representative selection is currently open. Ecological merit depends on demonstrated effectiveness in context, not nominations, followers, supporters or simple volume of activity.

24. PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS SHOWN ON NZ EX GAMES

NZ Ex Games may identify people or organisations associated with publicly visible ecological work or capability.

A person appearing on NZ Ex Games is not necessarily an active NZ Ex Games participant.

NZ Ex Games may distinguish, for example, between a person or organisation that has been LOCATED as relevant to an ecological field and one that is ACTIVE within NZ Ex Games.

Public reference to a person's independently public activity does not imply that the person:

has joined NZ Ex Games;
endorses NZ Ex Games;
has agreed to compete;
has accepted a nomination; or
has authorised NZ Ex Games to speak on their behalf.

LOCATED does not mean ACTIVE, consenting, selected or competing. You do not have to claim a Living Map record to explore or take part in the available public activities.

For correction, privacy or status enquiries, email media@nzexgames.nz with the relevant page address.

25. EXTERNAL CONTENT AND LINKS

NZ Ex Games may link to external websites, videos, social media, research, organisations, government information, participant material and third-party services.

A link does not automatically mean NZ Ex Games owns, controls or endorses the external material.

External services operate under their own terms, privacy practices and policies.

NZ Ex Games is not responsible for the continuing availability or accuracy of third-party material merely because it is linked from the platform.

26. SOCIAL SHARING

NZ Ex Games may provide tools enabling users to share links, excerpts, previews or other NZ Ex Games material through external platforms.

External sharing remains subject to the rules of the destination service.

A participant's external social-media activity does not become an NZ Ex Games ecological action, result or impact merely because NZ Ex Games facilitated or recorded the share.

Where sharing itself forms part of an NZ Ex Games online mission, NZ Ex Games may recognise completion of that mission separately from ecological impact.

27. SPONSORS, PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS

NZ Ex Games may receive support from sponsors, partners, donors, service providers or other organisations.

Unless expressly stated otherwise:

sponsorship does not give a sponsor control over NZ Ex Games evidence findings;
appearance of an organisation does not imply endorsement by NZ Ex Games;
appearance of NZ Ex Games material alongside a sponsor does not imply that the sponsor performed the ecological work represented; and
NZ Ex Games may distinguish sponsorship, advertising, partnership, participation and independently sourced information.

Material commercial relationships will be identified where disclosure is appropriate or required.

28. PRIVACY

NZ Ex Games handles personal information in accordance with applicable New Zealand privacy law.

Participation preferences and Mission exercise responses saved by this website stay in your browser on your device. Saving them does not submit them to NZ Ex Games.

For privacy questions or to request access to or correction of personal information, email media@nzexgames.nz. Include enough information to identify the matter; do not send unnecessary sensitive information.

Where NZ Ex Games collects personal information directly from you, relevant collection information may also be provided at the point of collection.

Where information is obtained from other sources, NZ Ex Games will apply applicable requirements governing indirect collection.

29. SECURITY

NZ Ex Games will take reasonable measures appropriate to the platform to protect information and systems.

No internet service can guarantee absolute security.

You must not:

probe or attack NZ Ex Games systems without authority;
bypass access controls;
introduce malicious software;
scrape restricted information;
obtain personal information through unauthorised means; or
deliberately interfere with service operation.

Responsible reports of genuine security vulnerabilities should be sent to media@nzexgames.nz.

30. PLATFORM AVAILABILITY

Features may change, be unavailable, contain errors, be suspended, be replaced or be withdrawn.

We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability.

Where practicable, NZ Ex Games will endeavour to avoid unnecessary loss of legitimate participant records when changing platform functionality.

31. ACCOUNT SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION

You may stop using NZ Ex Games at any time.

NZ Ex Games may restrict, suspend or terminate an account where reasonably necessary because of:

serious or repeated breach of these Terms;
unlawful activity;
fraud;
manipulation of evidence or competition;
serious safety concerns;
infringement of third-party rights;
platform security;
abuse of other participants; or
another substantial threat to legitimate operation of NZ Ex Games.

Where circumstances permit, NZ Ex Games may give the participant an opportunity to address the issue before permanent termination.

Immediate restriction may occur where reasonably necessary.

32. WHAT HAPPENS TO CONTRIBUTIONS AFTER AN ACCOUNT CLOSES

Closing an account does not automatically withdraw the licence already granted to NZ Ex Games over Submitted Content.

NZ Ex Games may continue to retain and use material in accordance with that licence.

NZ Ex Games may also retain legitimate records including:

evidence provenance;
ecological observations;
results;
moderation records;
legal records;
security records; and
records reasonably necessary to maintain integrity of the NZ Ex Games historical record.

Personal information will not be retained merely because it might someday be useful. Its retention remains subject to applicable law.

Where appropriate, records may instead be anonymised or de-identified.

33. LIABILITY

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where doing so would be unlawful.

To the extent permitted by law, NZ Ex Games is not responsible for loss caused solely by a user's:

unlawful conduct;
unauthorised entry onto land;
failure to obtain required permission;
disregard of an applicable safety warning;
deliberate misuse of the platform;
fraudulent submission;
unauthorised use of third-party content; or
decision to undertake an activity that NZ Ex Games did not organise or control.

NZ Ex Games does not assume responsibility for independent field activities merely because information about those activities appears on the platform.

Nothing in this section removes responsibilities that NZ Ex Games itself has under applicable law.

34. INDEMNITY FOR DELIBERATE OR UNAUTHORISED CONDUCT

To the extent permitted by law, if your deliberate unlawful conduct, fraud, knowing infringement of another person's rights, or knowing submission of material you had no authority to provide causes NZ Ex Games to incur a third-party claim, you may be responsible for the reasonable loss directly resulting from that conduct.

This provision is intended to protect NZ Ex Games against serious misconduct.

It is not intended to transfer to participants risks that properly belong to NZ Ex Games or to remove rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

35. CHANGES TO THESE TERMS

NZ Ex Games may amend these Terms where reasonably necessary for changes to services, legal compliance, safety, privacy, security or operational requirements.

The current version is published on this page.

Where a material change significantly affects existing participants' rights or obligations, NZ Ex Games will take reasonable steps to bring the change to their attention.

Where renewed consent is legally or operationally appropriate, we may require it before continued use of the affected feature.

A new version of the Terms does not retrospectively invalidate licences or permissions already validly granted unless required by law or expressly stated.

36. TRANSFER OF PLATFORM OPERATIONS

If NZ Ex Games is reorganised, incorporated, transferred to another operating entity or succeeds into a related organisation, rights and obligations associated with operating the platform may be transferred where lawful and reasonably necessary to continue NZ Ex Games.

Any handling of personal information remains subject to applicable privacy requirements.

The licence granted over Submitted Content may be exercised by a lawful successor operating NZ Ex Games for the purposes for which the licence was granted.

37. NO WAIVER

If NZ Ex Games does not immediately enforce a provision of these Terms, that does not necessarily mean the provision has been waived.

38. SEVERABILITY

If a provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.

Where reasonably possible, an invalid provision should be interpreted or limited consistently with its legitimate purpose rather than invalidating the Terms as a whole.

39. NEW ZEALAND LAW

These Terms are governed by New Zealand law.

Nothing in this clause prevents a person from exercising any right they have under applicable law to bring a matter before a court, tribunal, regulator or other competent authority.

40. QUESTIONS, COMPLAINTS AND CORRECTIONS

Contact media@nzexgames.nz to report:

incorrect information;
privacy concerns;
copyright concerns;
harmful content;
unsafe content;
sensitive ecological information;
security problems; and
suspected misuse.

Include the relevant page address and enough detail to identify the issue. The on-page reporting control does not currently send a report; use the email address above.

41. ACCEPTANCE

By creating an NZ Ex Games account or using a feature that expressly requires acceptance, you confirm that you have had an opportunity to read these Terms and agree to comply with them.

Where you upload material, you additionally confirm the rights and permissions described in sections 9–16.

Where you participate in an activity governed by additional rules, you also agree to those rules.