Terms of use

About PCA and these terms

Last updated: 20 August 2026. These terms are provided by POSC Caesar Association (PCA, “we”, “us”) and govern use of:

• the public website at posccaesar.org;
• the documentation hub at docs.posccaesar.org; and
• the PCA Platform, together with its documented APIs, downloads and authenticated functions.

PCA is registered in the Norwegian Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities (Enhetsregisteret) under organisation number 985 335 745 MVA. Its registered business address is c/o Regus Posthuset, Biskop Gunnerus' gate 14A, 0185 Oslo, Norway. Its registered email address is [email protected].

Acceptance and order of precedence

By accessing or using the public website, documentation hub or open content in the PCA Platform, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use those services. Before PCA grants Creator, Reviewer or Admin access in the authenticated PCA Platform, the user must expressly accept the current version of these terms. PCA may record the accepted version, date, time and account for this purpose.

If terms conflict, the following order applies:

1. a signed membership, subscription, hosting or service agreement for the relevant service;
2. the licence or rights statement displayed with the relevant resource; and
3. these general terms of use.

A higher-priority document controls only to the extent of the conflict. Mandatory law continues to apply.

Accounts, access and roles

Authenticated PCA Platform access is provided through an approved organisational account using Microsoft Entra ID. Roles may include Reader for viewing and using content, Creator for creating and submitting content, Reviewer for reviewing and deciding on content, and Admin for managing authorised access and service operation. The functions available to a role may differ by library, organisation, service and agreement.

You must protect your account, use only access assigned to you and promptly notify PCA and your organisation if you suspect misuse or unauthorised access. PCA may change, suspend or revoke access where reasonably necessary for security, service operation, suspected misuse, legal compliance or a change to the applicable agreement or authorisation.

Permitted use and automated access

You may access, read, link to and use PCA services and content for lawful purposes and as permitted by the applicable licence or agreement. Automated use is permitted through documented APIs and other interfaces that PCA makes available for that purpose.

You must not:

• bypass access controls or attempt to gain unauthorised access to an account, system, service or resource;
• make automated or manual requests that unreasonably burden, disrupt or damage a PCA service;
• introduce malicious code or interfere with security or normal operation;
• manipulate or misrepresent identifiers, versions, approval status, attribution or provenance;
• imply PCA endorsement, approval or standard status where none has been granted; or
• remove or alter copyright, attribution, licence or other rights notices.

PCA content approval and status

PCA content can pass through several stages under the PCA content review process:

• a user or application submits or proposes content through a user interface or API;
• PCA validates the submission against applicable schema and semantic requirements;
• after successful validation, the content may be submitted and become visible to users;
• an ontologist and/or the applicable subject-matter expert may approve or reject the submitted content;
• approved content is published as official PCA library content;
• content approved through the PCA Community process may be published as a PCA standard; and
• a PCA Community may nominate content for external standardisation, but it becomes an external standard only if the relevant standards body standardises it.

The existence of an identifier, a submitted proposal or a publicly visible draft does not mean that the content is approved PCA library content, a PCA standard, an ISO standard or another external standard. Rejected, deprecated, superseded and historical versions may remain visible to preserve context and provenance.

Contributions and professional conduct

You may contribute material only when you and, where relevant, your organisation have the necessary rights and authority. Do not submit trade secrets, confidential information, unlawful material, unnecessary personal data or material that infringes another person’s rights.

PCA may validate, review, comment on, reject, edit, version, publish, distribute and preserve contributions in accordance with the applicable governance process, licence and agreement. Reviews, reasons and comments must be relevant, accurate to the best of your knowledge and expressed professionally.

Ownership in content

When a user or its organisation contributes original material that it owns to a PCA-managed common collection through PCA Evolve, PCA and the contributing party jointly own that contributed material, unless a signed agreement states otherwise. The contributing party authorises PCA to validate, edit, combine, version, publish, distribute and preserve the contribution as part of the common collection. This does not transfer third-party rights or change the licence on pre-existing material.

Content that a customer provides for publication through PCA Host remains entirely the customer’s property. The customer grants PCA only the non-exclusive rights reasonably necessary to host, process, reproduce, display, distribute, secure and preserve that content while providing PCA Host. PCA does not acquire ownership of PCA Host customer content. The signed PCA Host agreement controls if it states different or additional terms.

Content licences and intellectual property

Content that you contribute to a PCA-managed common collection is made available as part of that shared collection under the following default licence and notice, unless a resource-specific licence or signed agreement expressly states otherwise: © POSC Caesar Association. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-ND 4.0). This default applies even if no licence is displayed or otherwise explicitly identified for the relevant contribution, item, dataset, ontology or collection. Under CC BY-ND 4.0, you may copy and redistribute the material, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate attribution is given. If you remix, transform, translate, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material without prior written permission from POSC Caesar Association.

A licence or rights statement displayed with a dataset, document, ontology or other resource governs use of that resource. The default notice above does not apply to customer content in PCA Host, third-party material, software with its own licence, or PCA names, logos and trademarks.

You must retain applicable attribution, provenance and rights notices and must not present modified, deprecated or unapproved material as current official PCA content. PCA membership rights are governed by the applicable agreement and PCA’s Articles of Association.

Public provenance and privacy

Public, attributable provenance is a core feature of PCA’s content governance. When you submit, edit, review, approve, reject or otherwise govern content, your name, username or organisational identity, the action and resource, its date and time, and any submitted comment or reason may become public and normally permanent provenance.

Do not include sensitive, private, confidential or unrelated personal information in public fields. PCA’s Privacy and data protection notice explains the processing, retention, access and rights that apply.

Professional reliance and user responsibility

PCA content and services provide standards, ontologies, reference data, documentation and related information. They are not project-specific engineering, design, safety, legal, regulatory or other professional advice. Drafts, proposals, demonstrations and test environments are not production data or approved standards.

Before relying on content, you must check the relevant library, identifier, version, approval status, provenance, licence and suitability for your purpose. You remain responsible for local implementation, professional review, regulatory compliance and risk assessment. A separate signed agreement, including any agreed service level, controls where it expressly provides different commitments.

Membership, enquiries and services

Visiting a PCA site, sending an enquiry, creating an account or viewing a service description does not by itself create membership, place an order or form a service agreement. Membership and access to services that require an agreement, subscription or customer-specific delivery are subject to the applicable confirmation or separate agreement.

Access to membership or customer services may end or change in accordance with the applicable agreement, authorisation and payment status.

Availability, versions and maintenance

PCA may correct, update, version, deprecate or supersede content, and may suspend or withdraw functions and documented APIs. PCA may perform planned or emergency maintenance and does not guarantee uninterrupted, error-free or permanently available service.

PCA aims to preserve stable identifiers and meaningful version history where appropriate, but an identifier does not guarantee that a resource’s content, availability or approval status will never change. Where practical, PCA will give reasonable notice of material API or service changes through the service, documentation or another appropriate channel.

Suspension, removal and termination

PCA may suspend or terminate access, reject or remove content, or limit automated use where reasonably necessary to address a breach, security risk, unlawful or infringing material, unreasonable service load, misuse or an expired or terminated agreement.

Ending an account or service does not require PCA to erase content and provenance already published as part of a governed common collection. PCA may retain and preserve those records as described in the applicable licence, agreement, governance process and Privacy notice. PCA Host customer content is handled under the signed PCA Host agreement.

Third-party services and material

PCA services may use or link to independently operated identity, hosting, social, standards and other third-party services and material. Their own terms, licences and privacy notices may apply. A link does not necessarily constitute endorsement, and PCA is not responsible for third-party content or independently operated services.

Warranties and liability

To the extent permitted by law, PCA services and content are provided “as available” without express or implied warranties. PCA does not warrant that all content is accurate, complete, current, secure or suitable for a particular purpose.

To the extent permitted by law, PCA is not liable for indirect or consequential loss arising from use of, inability to use or reliance on PCA services or content. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, or liability expressly accepted in a separate signed agreement.

Changes to these terms

PCA may update these terms when its services, governance, licences or legal requirements change. The date at the top shows the latest revision. Updated terms apply from the date stated or, if none is stated, when published. PCA will communicate material changes affecting authenticated users through an appropriate channel and require renewed acceptance before continued contribution, review, approval or administration where appropriate.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by Norwegian law. Any claim or dispute involving PCA is subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Oslo, Norway, except where mandatory law requires otherwise.

Contact

Questions about these terms, content rights or permissions can be sent to [email protected].