Full Terms of Use | World of Bacteria

Terms of Use

World of Bacteria is an educational project available at https://worldofbacteria.org. By accessing, downloading, viewing or using any content from this website, you agree to the following Terms of Use.

A short readable overview is also available on the Terms of Use summary page. The summary does not replace these full Terms of Use.

1. General principle

World of Bacteria is a free educational atlas. We are committed to keeping the atlas accessible to students, teachers, healthcare professionals and microbiology specialists.

At the same time, unless expressly stated otherwise, all photographs published on World of Bacteria are original copyrighted material. They may not be republished, redistributed, incorporated into other websites, databases, teaching collections, image libraries or similar resources, or used commercially without prior written permission.

This approach allows us to maintain the scientific and photographic quality of the atlas, protect the original work of the author, and reinvest any future income into new educational content and additional photographic material.

Photographs may only be used under the conditions stated in these Terms of Use. Unless prior written permission has been granted, any permitted use must preserve the photograph in the form in which it was published by World of Bacteria, including its visible copyright and source information, technical integrity and embedded metadata.

It is not permitted to remove, obscure, crop out, retouch or otherwise alter any information placed directly within the photographs, including the World of Bacteria website address, the author’s name, copyright notice, licence information or any other visible attribution.

Photographs published by World of Bacteria may contain embedded IPTC metadata, including descriptive information, origin details, author information, creation or publication-related information and keywords related to the depicted content. These metadata form part of the photographic material as provided. They must not be intentionally removed, altered or stripped from the files. Photographs must not be redistributed through platforms, services or workflows that remove such metadata or visible attribution, unless prior written permission has been granted.

2. Permitted use without prior permission

The following uses of photographs published on World of Bacteria are permitted without prior written permission, provided that the conditions stated below are respected.

2.1 Personal study

Users may download photographs from World of Bacteria to their personal devices for personal educational use, private study and reference.

This permission does not include republication, redistribution, uploading to other websites or platforms, inclusion in shared image collections, databases, teaching repositories or any other form of making the photographs available to third parties.

2.2 Classroom and teaching presentations

Students, teachers and lecturers may use photographs from World of Bacteria in presentations prepared for live teaching, lectures, seminars, practical classes, webinars or similar educational activities, provided that the photographs are displayed only during the teaching activity itself.

This permission is limited to live presentation and does not include distribution of the presentation file or any other teaching material containing the photographs.

Presentations, lecture recordings, PDF files, handouts, course materials, e-learning modules or similar resources containing photographs from World of Bacteria may not be shared, uploaded or distributed electronically, including through learning management systems, university intranets, cloud storage, email, social media platforms, messaging applications or other closed or open digital environments, unless prior written permission has been granted.

The non-commercial or educational nature of such use does not by itself permit redistribution of the photographs.

When teaching materials are intended to be shared with students or other users, photographs from World of Bacteria should be replaced by direct hyperlinks to the relevant source pages on World of Bacteria, or by permitted thumbnail previews under section 2.3.

2.3 Thumbnail previews linking to the original source

It is permitted and encouraged to create small thumbnail previews from photographs published on World of Bacteria, with a maximum size of 250 × 250 pixels, for the purpose of linking directly to the original source page on World of Bacteria.

Such thumbnails may be used online or offline only as visual hyperlinks or previews leading to the specific World of Bacteria page on which the photograph was originally published. For example, a 250 × 250 pixel thumbnail derived from a photograph published on the Staphylococcus aureus page may be used as a clickable image linking directly to that page (https://worldofbacteria.org/staphylococcus-aureus.php).

Thumbnail previews must not be used as standalone illustrations, redistributed as image files, incorporated into image databases, teaching collections, galleries or other resources, or used in a way that replaces access to the original World of Bacteria page.

For thumbnail previews not exceeding 250 × 250 pixels, the removal of embedded IPTC metadata caused by resizing, export or publication workflows is accepted. This exception applies only to such small thumbnail previews used as direct links to World of Bacteria.

For larger versions of the photographs, including but not limited to 480 × 480 pixel and 980 × 980 pixel versions, removal of IPTC metadata, visible attribution, copyright information or source information is not permitted and will be considered a violation of these Terms of Use.

3. Uses requiring prior written permission

Any use of photographs from World of Bacteria that is not expressly permitted under these Terms of Use requires prior written permission.

Prior written permission is required in particular for the following uses.

3.1 Publication in electronic or printed form

Photographs from World of Bacteria may not be published, reproduced or republished in electronic or printed form without prior written permission.

This includes, but is not limited to, use in books, textbooks, journals, scientific articles, conference materials, posters, printed handouts, brochures, educational manuals, websites, blogs, online articles, newsletters, social media posts, online galleries and other publicly or privately distributed materials.

The only exception is the use of thumbnail previews not exceeding 250 × 250 pixels, used solely as direct visual hyperlinks to the original source page on World of Bacteria, as described in section 2.3.

3.2 Shared presentations and teaching materials

Prior written permission is required for any presentation, lecture file, PDF, handout, course material or similar educational resource containing photographs from World of Bacteria if such material is shared, distributed, uploaded or made available to other users.

This applies regardless of whether the material is shared publicly or within a closed educational environment, including learning management systems, university intranets, cloud storage, email groups, messaging platforms or other restricted-access systems.

3.3 E-learning and online courses

Prior written permission is required for the use of photographs from World of Bacteria in e-learning modules, online courses, video lectures, recorded lectures, virtual microscopy platforms, training portals, digital atlases, educational applications or other structured online learning resources.

This applies to both free and paid educational resources.

3.4 Commercial use

Photographs from World of Bacteria may not be used for commercial purposes without prior written permission.

Commercial use includes, but is not limited to, use in paid courses, commercial training materials, textbooks or other paid publications, advertising, marketing, product promotion, corporate presentations, subscription-based platforms, paid databases, diagnostic products, laboratory manuals, software, applications or any other product, service or activity intended to generate income or business value.

3.5 Databases, image collections and repositories

Prior written permission is required to include photographs from World of Bacteria in any database, image collection, teaching repository, digital library, reference collection, media archive, laboratory information system, diagnostic training set or similar resource.

This applies even if the database or repository is non-commercial, access-restricted, internal, academic or intended for educational use.

3.6 Artificial intelligence, machine learning and automated analysis

Photographs from World of Bacteria may not be used without prior written permission for artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, automated image analysis, model training, model fine-tuning, model evaluation, benchmarking, annotation projects, dataset creation or similar computational purposes.

This includes both commercial and non-commercial AI-related use, including academic, educational and internal research use.

Automated scraping, downloading, harvesting or extraction of images or metadata from World of Bacteria for such purposes is not permitted.

3.7 Modification of photographs

Prior written permission is required for any modification of photographs from World of Bacteria, except for the creation of permitted thumbnail previews under section 2.3.

Prohibited modifications include, but are not limited to, cropping, retouching, colour alteration, contrast or brightness manipulation, removal of visible attribution, removal of copyright or licence information, removal or alteration of embedded metadata, creation of composite images, addition of labels or annotations, and use of the photographs as part of derivative works.

3.8 Any use that may replace access to the original atlas

Prior written permission is required for any use that could reasonably substitute for access to the original World of Bacteria atlas or reduce the need to visit the original source pages.

This includes systematic reproduction of multiple photographs, creation of alternative galleries, teaching sets, species collections, downloadable packages or any other material that reproduces a substantial part of the visual content of World of Bacteria.

4. Prohibited automated use

Automated use of World of Bacteria content is not permitted without prior written permission.

This includes, but is not limited to, automated scraping, crawling, harvesting, extraction, copying, downloading, indexing, archiving or systematic collection of photographs, metadata, captions, descriptions or other content published on World of Bacteria.

4.1 Scraping and automated extraction

Users may not use bots, scripts, crawlers, scrapers, download managers, browser extensions, automated tools or similar methods to extract, copy or collect photographs or other content from World of Bacteria.

This restriction applies regardless of whether the extracted content is intended for personal, educational, academic, research, non-commercial or commercial use.

4.2 Bulk downloading

Bulk downloading of photographs or other content from World of Bacteria is not permitted.

Users may not systematically download multiple photographs, species pages, metadata records, captions or other materials for the purpose of creating local copies, archives, teaching collections, offline resources, databases or similar collections.

4.3 Dataset creation

Photographs, captions, metadata and other content from World of Bacteria may not be used to create, expand, enrich, validate or annotate datasets without prior written permission.

This includes educational datasets, research datasets, diagnostic datasets, computer vision datasets, image recognition datasets, training sets, testing sets, benchmarking sets and any other structured collection of content.

4.4 Artificial intelligence and machine learning

Photographs and other content from World of Bacteria may not be used for artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, automated image analysis, model training, model fine-tuning, model evaluation, benchmarking, annotation workflows or similar computational purposes without prior written permission.

This restriction applies to both commercial and non-commercial AI-related use, including academic, educational and internal research use.

4.5 Hotlinking and embedding

Hotlinking, direct embedding or inline linking of image files hosted on World of Bacteria into external websites, applications, learning platforms, databases or other digital services is not permitted.

External websites may link to World of Bacteria pages using ordinary hyperlinks. Permitted thumbnail previews under section 2.3 may also be used as visual links to the original source pages, provided that they do not directly load the original image files from World of Bacteria servers.

4.6 Circumvention of technical restrictions

Users may not attempt to bypass, disable, avoid or interfere with technical measures intended to protect the content, server resources, image files, metadata, access controls or normal operation of World of Bacteria.

This includes attempts to bypass file access restrictions, rate limits, robots.txt instructions, image protection mechanisms, watermarking, metadata preservation or other protective measures.

5. Attribution

Any approved use of photographs from World of Bacteria must include clear and visible attribution, unless a different attribution format has been expressly agreed in writing.

The recommended attribution format is:

The relevant year should be taken from the embedded metadata, the source page, or the information provided with the permission granted by World of Bacteria.

Where possible, the attribution should also include a direct link to the specific World of Bacteria page on which the photograph was originally published.

For online use, the source reference should be provided as a clickable hyperlink to the relevant World of Bacteria page. For printed use, the full source URL should be included in a readable form.

Attribution must not be removed, hidden, obscured or placed in a manner that makes it difficult to associate the attribution with the photograph.

Attribution does not replace the requirement to obtain prior written permission where such permission is required under these Terms of Use.

6. Permission requests

Requests for permission to use photographs or other content from World of Bacteria should be sent to:

Hans Newman
admin@worldofbacteria.org

Permission requests should include sufficient information to allow the request to be properly evaluated, including:

the specific photograph or photographs requested;
the World of Bacteria page on which the photograph was published;
the intended purpose of use;
whether the use is educational, academic, non-commercial or commercial;
the format of use, such as presentation, printed publication, website, online course, database, application or other medium;
whether the material will be public, restricted-access or internal;
the expected audience or number of users;
whether the photograph will be modified, cropped, annotated or otherwise altered;
the planned duration of use;
full contact details of the person or institution making the request.

Permission is granted only when confirmed in writing by World of Bacteria or the copyright holder. Silence or lack of response does not constitute permission.

Any permission granted applies only to the specific use described in the request and approved in writing. Further use, reuse, redistribution, modification or use in another context requires a separate permission request.

7. Educational purpose and limitation of use

World of Bacteria is intended for educational and informational purposes. The content is designed to support microbiology education and visual familiarity with bacterial morphology, colony appearance and related diagnostic features.

The content published on World of Bacteria should not be used as the sole basis for clinical diagnosis, laboratory identification, antimicrobial treatment decisions or patient management.

Although we aim to provide scientifically accurate and carefully prepared educational material, World of Bacteria does not guarantee that all information is complete, current or applicable to every clinical or laboratory setting.

8. Copyright and rights reservation

Unless expressly stated otherwise, all rights to the photographs and other original content published on World of Bacteria are reserved.

No ownership rights, copyright rights or licence rights are transferred to users by accessing, viewing, downloading or using the website.

Any use not expressly permitted in these Terms of Use is prohibited unless prior written permission has been granted.

9. Changes to these Terms of Use

World of Bacteria may update or modify these Terms of Use from time to time.

The version published on this page applies to the use of content from World of Bacteria at the time of access or use. Users are responsible for reviewing the current Terms of Use before using, downloading, referencing or requesting permission to use content from the website.