MASTER TERMS OF USE & PLATFORM SERVICE AGREEMENT

GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS COUNCIL OF PRACTITIONERS (GISCP)

Comprehensive Legal Framework Governing Platform Access, Infrastructure Deployment, Data Licensing, and Private Registry Enrolment

Effective Date: May 26, 2026

Operated From: Ontario Canada

Official Communications: info@giscp.com

1. Acceptance & Infrastructure Scope

These Master Terms of Use and Platform Service Agreement (“Terms”) constitute a strict, legally binding contract between you (an individual or corporate entity, hereinafter referred to as “User”, “Registrant”, “you”, or “your”) and GISCP.org, its parent organizations, owners, operators, directors, officers, employees, panel reviewers, contractors, affiliates, successors, and assigns (collectively, the “Protected Parties”).

BY ACCESSING OR USING THE PLATFORM IN ANY WAY, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS IN THEIR ENTIRETY. If you do not agree unreservedly to these Terms, you are strictly prohibited from accessing, browsing, interacting with, or using the Platform, its database registries, and you must exit the Platform immediately. Your continued use constitutes ongoing acceptance of these Terms and all integrated Council policies.

2. Registry Disclaimer

The Geospatial Information Systems Council of Practitioners (GISCP) operates exclusively as an independent, private international membership registry organization and peer-led professional community based out of Ontario, Canada.

The User explicitly acknowledges, covenants, and agrees that the Council and its Platform are NOT:

  • A municipal, provincial, state, or federal government agency;
  • A statutorily mandated professional regulator or occupational licensing authority;
  • A public certification authority established by legislative decree or statute; or
  • A professional college, public accreditation body, or legal licensing tribunal.

The structural framework of the GISCP validation ecosystem is comprised of four internal private classifications:

  • GISCP Associate Status
  • GISCP Practitioner Status
  • GISCP Specialist Status
  • GISCP Fellow Status

These classifications, along with all associated registry IDs, digital ledger verification badges, and directory profiles, constitute private, internal peer-reviewed classifications only. They are not government credentials, do not authorize professional practice, do not replace regional licensing requirements, and do not indemnify professional liability. Every User bears sole, un-delegable legal liability for complying with all municipal, state, provincial, federal, and international laws governing the execution of geospatial, surveying, or location data practices within their active jurisdiction.

3. Eligibility, Account Security, & Discretion

To access the Platform or apply for registry enrollment, you must be at least 18 years of age and fully capable of entering into binding contracts under the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada. By interacting with the Platform, you represent and warrant that you meet these requirements.

All accounts, directory listings, and registry profiles are granted as a conditional privilege at our sole discretion. GISCP.org reserve the absolute, unreviewable right to refuse, suspend, mask, restrict, or permanently terminate any account, credential validation link, or registry profile for any reason or no reason at all, at any time, without prior notice, and without any liability or indemnification obligation to you.

You are solely responsible for maintaining the absolute confidentiality of your account credentials, digital key sets, and passwords. Any and all activity executed under your account is your exclusive financial and legal responsibility.

4. User Content License

You retain raw ownership of the original text, certificates, or professional histories you upload. This proprietary license explicitly includes, but is not limited to:

  • Operating, troubleshooting, and configuring the public Platform directory;

You represent, warrant, and covenant that your User Content does not infringe upon third-party intellectual property, privacy, or contractual rights, and complies entirely with all global data laws. GISCP.org reserve the absolute right (but maintain no operational obligation) to monitor, pre-screen, edit, modify, mask, or permanently erase any User Content at their sole discretion without notice.

5. Prohibited Conduct & Anti-Scraping Blockade

You are strictly prohibited from violating the digital or operational integrity of the Platform. Any violation shall result in immediate account termination, a permanent infrastructure ban, and immediate legal action.

You explicitly covenant that you shall not:

  • Use the Platform for any illegal, fraudulent, deceptive, or market-manipulative purpose;
  • Scrape, crawl, spider, copy, harvest, index, mine, or extract data, registry listings, professional profiles, email matrices, or code from the Platform by any means—automated or manual—including via bots, scrapers, extensions, or browser tools, without the express, prior written signature of an authorized officer of GISCP;
  • Upload, transmit, or inject viruses, malware, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, or any destructive or disabling code into the infrastructure;
  • Harass, threaten, defame, abuse, or otherwise harm any other user, registrant, or representative of the Protected Parties;
  • Impersonate any individual, state official, or corporate entity, or falsify your educational, occupational, or registry status;
  • Interfere with, bypass, or disable the Platform’s security boundaries, cryptographic verification links, or API endpoints;
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to discover the source code, core algorithms, or database schemas of the Platform; or
  • Use the Platform, its structural data, layout, or concepts to compete with GISCP.org, its registry business, or its affiliates in any manner whatsoever.

6. Proprietary Intellectual Property & Limited License

All content, technical features, visual designs, logos, branding, trademarks, code bases, structural algorithms, database index sets, cryptographic badging matrices, and written materials on the Platform are the exclusive, proprietary property of the Protected Parties or their licensors.

Conditional upon your absolute, unbroken compliance with these Terms, you are granted a highly restricted, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Platform solely for personal, non-commercial professional networking and private registry tracking during the exact window your account remains active. This limited license terminates automatically, instantly, and retroactively upon any account suspension, profile masking, or termination.

Any feedback, suggestions, structural improvements, or conceptual ideas you submit to the Protected Parties regarding the Platform or Council framework automatically becomes our exclusive property upon submission, without any requirement of notice, acknowledgment, or financial compensation to you.

7. Restrictions on Status Representation

To eliminate corporate, public, and legal confusion, the public display of your GISCP registry milestones must strictly avoid mimicking statutorily regulated, licensed professional designations.

STRICTLY PROHIBITED (Deceptive Formats)

Users are forbidden from appending GISCP tiers directly to their names as post-nominal legal titles or professional suffixes on legal documents, corporate letterheads, or public signatures:

  • Do not use: John Smith, GISCP Associate
  • Do not use: John Smith, GISCP Specialist
  • Do not use: Licensed GISCP Practitioner
  • Do not use: Certified GISCP Fellow

STRICTLY PERMITTED (Transparent Formats)

Users are encouraged to cleanly display their verified milestones on portfolios, CVs, and professional networks by framing it accurately as an active registry status:

  • Permitted: GISCP Global Registry Status: GISCP Specialist Status
  • Permitted: Enrolled Practitioner: Listed in GISCP Registry
  • Permitted: Verification State: GISCP Registry Verified

8. Warranties, or Guarantees

The Platform and all registry listings are provided strictly as an online networking, data verification, and peer tracking interface. The owners or operators make no representations, warranties, or guarantees of any kind regarding actual employment outcomes, career advancement, profile visibility, match quality, employer responses, data accuracy, or the legitimacy of any opportunity displayed. All use of the Platform and reliance on its data is executed entirely at your sole, un-delegable risk.

The platform is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, with all faults. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the protected parties expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, uninterrupted system availability, error-free operation, data security, or the absence of defects, viruses, or malicious components.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall the protected parties be liable to you or any third party for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or aggravated damages whatsoever. This immunity explicitly covers any loss of profits, data corruption, loss of goodwill, reputational damage, opportunity cost, or business interruption, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Without limiting the foregoing, the total cumulative, aggregate liability of the protected parties to you for any and all claims arising out of or relating to these terms, the platform, the registry, or the infrastructure shall not exceed the greater of:Fifty Canadian dollars (cad $50.00); or The exact amount you paid directly to giscp.org in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the initial event giving rise to the claim. This limitation applies whether based on contract, tort, negligence, indemnity, breach of statutory duty, strict liability, or otherwise.

    10. Universal Contractual Indemnification

    You agree to fully indemnify, defend (with legal counsel approved by the Council), and hold entirely harmless the Protected Parties from and against any and all third-party claims, demands, enforcement actions, civil liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees, expert witness costs, and court disbursements) arising out of or directly related to:

    • Your active use or misuse of the Platform, its database registries, or digital badges;
    • Your User Content, uploaded documents, or fraudulent history representations;
    • Your explicit violation of any provision within these Master Terms or surrounding Council policies;
    • Your unauthorized deployment of cryptographic badges or post-nominal styles; or
    • Your infringement of any third-party intellectual property, privacy, or contractual rights.

    This indemnification obligation survives the closure of your account, the masking of your profile, and any absolute termination of these Terms.

    11. Strategic Termination & Structural Survival

    The Protected Parties reserve the right to terminate, suspend, mask, or heavily restrict your access to the Platform, its registries, and your digital badges at any time, for any reason or no reason at all, with or without notice, and with zero liability or refund obligation to you. You may delete your account or withdraw from active registry listing at any time without written notice to info@giscp.com. However, all intellectual property licenses, data training rights, commercialization rights, liability limitations, warranty disclaimers, venue choices, and indemnification obligations granted by you to the Protected Parties under these Terms shall survive termination indefinitely.

    12. Modifications to Platform, Services, and Terms

    The Protected Parties reserve the absolute right to modify, restructure, adjust, amend, or discontinue any feature, verification matrix, database access level, or pricing tier across the Platform, as well as these Terms, at any time at their sole discretion. Revisions to these Terms take effect immediately upon being posted to the web domain, with the updated date clearly reflected at the top. While we may choose to notify you of material changes, we are under no legal obligation to do so. Your continued use of the Platform after any adjustment establishes your binding contractual acceptance of the new Terms.

    13. Governing Law, Local Forum Selection, & Jury Waiver

    These Terms, along with all structural platform interactions, system use, data audits, and legal definitions, shall be governed exclusively by, interpreted, and enforced in strict accordance with the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada, and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, completely ignoring any conflict of laws principles.

    Any dispute, claim, lawsuit, or controversy arising out of, relating to, or touching upon these Terms, the Platform, the Council, or the surrounding digital infrastructure shall be filed and resolved exclusively within the courts of competent jurisdiction located in the City of Burlington or the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You hereby irrevocably submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of such courts and expressly waive any and all objections based on venue, lack of personal jurisdiction, or inconvenient forum (forum non conveniens).

    YOU HEREBY IRREVOCABLY WAIVE ANY AND ALL RIGHTS TO A JURY TRIAL IN ANY LEGAL PROCEEDING ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE PLATFORM TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

    14. Miscellaneous & Complete Legal Integration

    • Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with the GISCP Registry Code of Professional Conduct & Ethics and the GISCP Registry Governance & Compliance Policy, constitute the absolute and entire agreement between you and the Protected Parties regarding the Platform.
    • Severability: If any provision of these Terms is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or legally unenforceable, that specific clause shall be severed, and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in absolute full force and effect.
    • No Waiver: A failure by the Protected Parties to enforce any strict right or provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of future enforcement of that right or any other provision.
    • Non-Assignment: You may not assign, delegate, or transfer your rights or contractual obligations under these Terms to any third party. The Protected Parties may freely assign, transfer, license, or sell their rights, data sets, and obligations under this agreement without restriction and without your consent.
    • Headings: All headings used throughout this document are inserted purely for structural convenience and hold zero contractual weight or interpretative value.