Historypin is a project of Shift Design, Inc, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in New Orleans, LA, USA.

The information and facilities provided on our website (the “Website“) and other Historypin services (“Services“) are provided to you (“you/your“) by Historypin (“we/our/us“).

In summary, the Services cover: the Website, smartphone applications, data services such as the Historypin API, educational materials provided to schools and non-commercial websites and partners and social networking pages and tools.

See the end of these Terms and Conditions for our contact details.

Your use of our Services is governed by these Terms and Conditions which contain important details, including what you and we can do with content comprised in the Services; how you can limit rights to use content you choose to submit, limits on our liability and responsibility; and how to make a complaint. You must register as a “Registered User” before being able to contribute and amend material via the Services.

1. Accessing our Services

Access to our Services is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend any or all of the Services without notice at any time. We will not be liable if for any reason our Services are unavailable at any time or for any period.

2. Reliance on Information

Commentary and other materials posted via our Services are not intended to amount to advice. We will not have any liability arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to or user of our Services, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents. Please check with an expert before seeking any reliance on any such content.

3. Acceptable Use

We want all users to be able to enjoy using our Services. Therefore you must not cause interference or impairment with, or damage or disruption to:

(a) the Website or other Services;

(b) any equipment or network on which our Services are stored or provided through;

(c) any software used in the provision of our Services;

(d) any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.

You also must not:

(i)    use our Services in any way which is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity including for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way;

(ii)     use our Services to copy, store, host, transmit, send, use, publish or distribute any material which consists of (or is linked to) any spyware, adware, computer virus, Trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit, time-bomb or other malicious or technologically harmful material;

(iii)    attempt to gain unauthorized access to our Services, the server on which our Services are stored or any server, computer or database connected to our Services. You must not attack our Services via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack;

(iv)     conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including without limitation scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to our Services without our express written consent; nor

(v)      use our Services for any purposes related to marketing without our express written consent.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our Services or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

4. Linking to Our Website

You may link to any page on the Website and embed your Contributed Content (which is a term we define in clause 12 below) through the Historypin embedding functionality, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but 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.

Our Website must not be framed on any other site, except through our own Embed tool. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in our acceptable use policy at clause 3.

If you wish to make any use of material on our Website other than that set out above or set out in the API Policies, please address your request to hello@historypin.org.

5. Links from Our Website

Where our Website contains links to other websites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

6. Charges

There is no charge for using the Services or for becoming a Registered User. We reserve the right, however, to introduce additional services and/or products which would be offered to Registered Users on a chargeable basis.

7. Registered Users use of Historypin Services

Where you are a Registered User you agree that, in using Historypin Services (in addition to the rules set out in section 3 above), you will not:

  • contribute, email, transmit or otherwise disseminate any content (including, text, audio, video, photographs or other images) which is in breach of copyright, trademark, or other proprietary rights; is defamatory, obscene, vulgar or indecent or may have the effect of being harassing, threatening, abusive or hateful or that otherwise degrades or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age or disability; or that is illegal;
  • transmit personal data regarding another user or other person without their express consent, including, without limitation, their email, address or other contact details that would enable another person to identify or contact them;
  • act in any way that may lead to the encouragement, procurement or carrying out of any criminal activity;
  • use them for any purpose other than your own non-commercial use or in accordance with the Terms and Conditions;
  • impersonate any person or entity (including, but not limited to, any of our employees or representatives) nor falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity; nor
  • use any Contributed Content (other than your content that you submitted to the Services) or Our Content (each as described below) other than as set out in paragraph 12 below.

8. Age restrictions, parental consent and use by schools

Registered Users must be 13 or over, or if they are under 13, have their parent’s or guardian’s consent to use the Services.

Schools and other organizations responsible for children under the age of 13 using the Services, must either:

  • do so through an account registered by a teacher or other responsible adult who accepts responsibility for all actions or inactions undertaken by users in their name. In this instance, it is the school’s or organization’s responsibility to obtain parental or guardian consent for such children at its discretion and where the school or organization deems it appropriate; or
  • if children under the age of 13 are opening accounts in their own names, the school or organization must ensure that the individuals comply with the obligations to obtain parent’s or guardian’s permission as set out in this clause.

If you’re under 13:

  • Please get your parent’s or guardian’s permission before contributing to Historypin services.
  • Never reveal any personal information about yourself or anyone else (for example, school, telephone number, your full name, home address or email address).

If we discover or have reason to suspect that you are under 13 and do not have permission from a parent or guardian or teacher, we may suspend or terminate your registration.

If you are a parent, guardian or teacher with concerns regarding the safety of a child’s use of Historypin Services or would like more information about Historypin, then do contact us as set out at the end of these Terms and Conditions.

9. Password, Profile and Security

You register and sign in to Historypin via your Google email account. If you do not have a Google email account, you will need to create one before registering with Historypin.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Google email Password and User Name and are responsible for all activities that occur under them. We do not have the means to check the identity of people using our Services and will not be liable where your Password or User Name are used by someone else.

You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your Password or User Name or any other breach of security of which you become aware.

10. Your promises to us

Where you are a Registered User you promise that:

  • you are 13 or over or have permission from a parent or guardian or are using the Services as part of your school’s registration;
  • all information and details provided by you to us on registration are true, accurate and up to date in all respects and at all times;
  • you will comply with the restrictions on your use of the Services set out in these Terms and Conditions;
  • all content that you contribute via the Services is yours and/or you have all rights required to grant the licenses set out in section 12 below without or other user needing to obtain any further consents or permissions from or to pay any monies to any third person in respect of their use of such content in accordance with paragraph 12.

You agree to compensate us and hold us harmless from any claim made against us by a third party or damages incurred by us as a result of such claim (including any reasonable legal fees in relation to same) arising from your use of the Services or any Contributed Content or other content in relation to these Terms and Conditions including any breach or suspected breach of these Terms and Conditions.

11. Termination and Cancellation

You can terminate your registration at any time by contacting us at hello@historypin.org.

We reserve the right to terminate or suspend your registration where:

  • we have reason to believe or suspect that you are acting in breach of these Terms and Conditions; or
  • otherwise, where required to do so by law, regulatory body or our licensors or whilst investigating any complaint about you or your activity via or use of the Services.
  • at any time on not less than 1 day’s notice to you.

12. Contributed Content

Historypin revolves around users sharing, connecting, and collaborating around local history–from their own old snapshots and home movies, to special collections from the world’s libraries, archives and museums. In order to create the most useful, lasting, and accessible archive, we make this content available to the world in a number of ways.

Historypin allows Registered Users to contribute Text Content, Media Content and Content Metadata to our Services. Together these are referred to by us as “Contributed Content“. We set out below what each of these terms means, the basis upon which they are licensed and can be used by others and Historypin.

As stated above, you promise that all content that you contribute via the Services is yours and/or you have all rights required to grant the licenses set out herein.

Content Metadata

  • What it is: Content Metadata is descriptive information about any Media Content (defined below) provided by you or other users including title, date, location, StreetView location, keywords, copyright and licensing information, etc and information about the person providing it (“Content Metadata”). It includes information that enables users to identify, discover, interpret, or manage Media Content, such as the name of the author of the work, the date on which it was first created or published, or where the physical object is located.
  • How it’s licensed: by sharing your Content Metadata through our Services, you agree that it will be made available to the public under the terms of the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
  • How others can use it: Content Metadata is dedicated to the public domain and can be used by Historypin or others for any purpose without further permission being required.
  • How Historypin and others can edit your Content Metadata: other users may suggest changes to your Content Metadata, but changes must be made by you or the Historypin content team. In addition, the Historypin content team may add keywords which will help other users find your Media Content. The Historypin content team may also from time to time make minor improvements to your Content Metadata such as adjusting the Street View position. Other than these minor improvements, the Historypin content team will always let you know when they have made changes to your Content Metadata – for example if we correct a location or date which looks like a mistake to us or is alerted to us by another user.

Text Content

  • What it is: text-based creative content including stories and comments (“Text Content“).
  • How it’s licensed: by sharing your Text Content through our Services, you agree to allow us to license your Text Content under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, otherwise known as the “CC BY-SA 3.0 License” (Please see below for a definition).
  • How others can use it: you allow Historypin, and others, to freely re-use and adapt your Text Content with proper attribution to you. If it is altered, transformed, or built upon, the resulting work may be distributed only under the same or similar license.

Media Content

  • What it is: Media content in the form of photographs, video, audio files and other recorded documents (“Media Content“).
  • How it’s licensed: you can choose from a range of licenses to apply to your Media content (Please see below for license options and definitions) which apply to other users’ use of your Media Content.
  • How others can use it: you allow others to use your Media Content within the limits of the license you apply to it and within our Services.
  • How Historypin can use it: Historypin does not claim any ownership of Media Content you contribute to Historypin. When you contribute Media Content, you do however grant us a royalty free and non-exclusive license to use your Media Content as set out below. This license is separate and different from your chosen Media Content license mentioned above, which applies to other users‘ use of your Media Content. On contributing any Media Content, you agree that we can:
    • use your Media Content as part of providing the Services (which may change from time to time so you should check back from time to time to see any new services which we add – and if you decide to you can always remove your Media Content);
    • use your Media Content in press releases, promotional materials and in blog and online coverage in relation to our Services (either directly or through our partners);
    • amend, copy or delete it in the course of doing so and at our discretion pursuant to any complaints in relation to such Media Content; and
    • communicate your Media Content to the public and otherwise make it available through the Services including, without limitation, the publication of your Media Content:
      • as part of downloadable PDF packs and other materials for schools and non-commercial sites;
      • via Historypin social networking pages and tools; and
      • at exhibitions in any form.

We will not commercially exploit your Media Content for profit or use it for any purpose unconnected with the Services without first obtaining your prior permission. To the extent that Media Content is used, we will always credit it to the contributor. We ask the users of the Historypin API to also seek this permission from you where necessary.

Media Content Licenses

As mentioned above, when you contribute Media Content via or to our Services, you may choose one of the following licenses to govern the use of your Media Content by other users:

  • Copyright protected: You do not give others a license to use your Media Content other than for the purposes of viewing the content via the Services. You may state your ownership of such copyright protected content on the Services. Others may not, without limitation, copy, reproduce, republish, download, post, broadcast, record, transmit, commercially exploit, edit, communicate to the public or distribute in any way your copyrighted content save as set out here. Users may have also have rights to use your Media Content in ways permitted under relevant copyright laws (for example fair dealing for research and private study or criticism, review and news reporting or educational activities).
  • No Known Copyright: You are sharing your Media Content without providing an expressed or implied warranty to others who would like to use or reproduce your Media Content.
  • Public Domain: This should be selected for all content where the Media Content is already out of copyright protection by nature of its age or has otherwise been designated as having been dedicated for public use and consumption. Other users are therefore free to copy, reproduce, republish, download, post, broadcast, record, transmit, commercially exploit, edit, communicate to the public or distribute in any way this content for personal or commercial use.
  • Government Open License: For use by UK government bodies.
  • Attribution (CC BY): This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation.
  • Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA): This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
  • Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND): This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.
  • Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC): This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
  • Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
  • Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND): This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

Regardless of license, you retain the right to remove at any time, any content from our Services which you have submitted. By doing so, any rights Historypin holds will no longer apply (although where such content has already been produced in physical packs, materials or posters we will not produce any more but will have the right to continue to use any existing materials already in circulation).

Although we reserve our rights to do so, we do not monitor Contributed Content and therefore, since it is not ours and we do not check or verify it, we will not be responsible or liable for the content or accuracy of any Contributed Content.

You understand that by using the Services you may be exposed to content that is inaccurate or that you may find offensive, indecent or objectionable and that, in this respect, you use the Services at your own risk.

Contributed Content submitted must not be unlawful in any way. You must not submit any Contributed Content through the Services that is or has ever been the subject of any threatened or actual legal proceedings or other similar complaint.

Historypin operates a copyright policy in relation to any user submissions which are alleged to infringe the copyright of a third party. Details of that process and contact details for any complaint about content can be found at clause 15.

As part of Historypin’s copyright policy, Historypin can terminate user access to the Services if a user uses content in a manner which is not permitted.

We reserve the right to remove or modify any material submitted via our Services, or stored on our servers, or hosted or published upon our Website.

Restrictions on use of Historypin’s content

  • Your use of our Services grants no rights to you in relation to our (or our licensors’) intellectual property rights including, without limitation, copyright, trade marks, logos, graphics, photographs, animations, videos and text, (“Our Content”).
  • You may not, without limitation, copy, reproduce, republish, download, post, broadcast, record, transmit, commercially exploit, edit, communicate to the public or distribute in any way Our Content or the computer codes of elements comprising our Services other than for your own, non-commercial use. However you may download insubstantial excerpts of Our Content to your hard disk for the purpose of viewing it provided that no more than one copy of any information is made.
  • Any use of our content other than that permitted under these Terms and Conditions may only be undertaken with our prior express authorization.

13. Limitation on our Liability

The material displayed through our Services is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. Whilst we endeavor to ensure that the information provided through our Services (excluding user content) is correct, we do not promise that it is complete or accurate; nor do we commit to ensuring that the Services remains available or that the material provided through the Services is kept up-to-date.Please be aware that our Services are a public resource that enables individuals to contribute their own content and version of events some of which may be inaccurate. We do not monitor the Services and do not promise that the information on Historypin will be free from errors or omissions nor that it will not contain inappropriate content. We cannot be held liable for any contents of or consequences of such material. It is your responsibility to take precautions and use common sense when using the Services and any Contributed Content or providing any information to others via the Services. Unfortunately, there may be occasions when you may find other Registered Users’ or visitors’ use of the Services or posted Contributed Content offensive, harmful or deceptive. If you have any complaints regarding another Registered User or Contributed Content, then you should use the complaints process set out in paragraph 14 below.

Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or the negligence by us, our employees or agents or for fraud.

Subject always to the above, to the fullest extent permissible by law, we don’t give any promises of any kind (whether express or implied) in relation to the Services and any items accessed by you via the Services or a third party provider including any Contributed Content. Your statutory rights as a consumer (including your right to receive a reasonable standard of service) are not affected however and will still apply.

Subject always to the above, to the fullest extent permissible by law, we don’t give any promises of any kind (whether express or implied) in relation to the Services and any items accessed by you via the Services or a third party provider including any Contributed Content. Your statutory rights as a consumer (including your right to receive a reasonable standard of service) are not affected however and will still apply.

Our liability in tort, contract, negligence, pre-contract or other representations or otherwise arising out of or in connection with the Services, or the Website and/or these Terms and Conditions shall be limited in aggregate to $1,000.

We do not accept any liability for damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from your use of the Services and we cannot guarantee that any files that you download are free from viruses, contamination or destructive features.

Whilst we use all reasonable endeavors to correct any errors or omissions in our own posted information as soon as practicable once they have been brought to our attention, we do not promise that it is correct.

We cannot promise that our Services will be available uninterrupted and in a fully operating condition due to the nature of the internet and our dependency on other service providers. Access to the Services may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or for reasons reasonably beyond our control.

14. Complaints and Feedback

If you believe that any content made available through our Services is in breach of these Terms (e.g. obscene content) you can report this to us by clicking on the “Report” button. We will keep your identity anonymous.

If you have any specific complaints about our Services, another Registered User, visitor to the Services or any Contributed Content or any other aspects of the Services then you can contact us at hello@historypin.org. Please note that we are under no obligation to take any action against a Registered User or other person unless required by law.

Copyright Infringement Notification Process

To file a copyright infringement notification with us, you will need to send a written communication to us with all of the following information in it, using this format:

Include a statement telling us that you have found a photo or other content on Historypin which you believe infringes your copyright (for example, “I hereby confirm that I believe the photo identified below infringes my copyright”).

  • Tell us which country your copyright applies to.
  • Tell us the title of the photo concerned and the full URL.
  • Explain to us how the photo infringes your copyright.
  • Provide your contact information so that we can get in touch with you. Please note that we will also pass this information on to the submitter of the content concerned so that person can get in touch with you to resolve your complaint directly (email address is preferred).
  • Include the following statement: “I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted work described above is not authorized by the copyright owner (or by a third party who is legally entitled to act on behalf of the copyright owner) and is not otherwise permitted by law.”
  • Include the following statement: “I swear that the information contained in this notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or have an exclusive right in law to bring infringement proceedings with respect to its use.”
  • Sign the notice. If you are providing notice by e-mail, a scanned physical signature or a valid electronic signature will be accepted.

The communication should be sent by email to hello@historypin.org.

Make sure you know whether the content that you have seen on Historypin infringes your copyright. If you are not sure what your rights are, or whether your copyright has been infringed, you should check with a legal adviser first. Be aware that there may be adverse legal consequences in your country if you make a false or bad faith allegation of copyright infringement by using this process.

Please also note that the information provided in this legal notice may be forwarded to the person who provided the allegedly infringing content.

Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to legal liability. Please also be advised that we enforce a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of access for Registered Users who are infringers.

15. Security and Privacy

By registering on this website we will store personal information about you as a member. Please read our Privacy Policy which contains important information about the use of your personal data other information regarding your privacy and our security processes and policies.

16. Changes to these Terms and Conditions

We are constantly looking for new ways to improve our Services and to enhance your experience. We therefore reserve the right to amend and develop the Services and these Terms and Conditions at any time. We will post amendments to these Terms and Conditions on the Website and, other than in relation to minor changes which have no detrimental impact on you, send you a notification of such change by email to the email address that you have registered with us, where relevant. All such changes will take effect once they have been posted on the Website and you will be deemed to have accepted any such changes from that date. Please check this page regularly to ensure you are familiar with the current version of our Terms and Conditions as they are binding on you. If you do not accept any changes made in relation to the Historypin Service, then you can exercise your right of termination as set out in these Terms and Conditions or simply discontinue using the Services at any time.

17. Severance

Each provision of these Terms and Conditions shall be constructed separately and independently of each other and the invalidity of any one part shall not affect the validity of any other part.

18. Exclusion of Third Party Rights

These Terms and Conditions are for the benefit of you and us, and are not intended to benefit any third party or be enforceable by any third party. The exercise of our and your rights in relation to these Terms and Conditions is not subject to the consent of any third party.

19. Entire Agreement

These Terms and Conditions, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us in relation to your use of our Services, and supersede all previous agreements in respect of your use of the Services.

20. Contact Us

You may contact us by email at hello@historypin.org. Only correspondence sent to this email address will be responded to by us at our discretion.