INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTION POLICY

POLICY ON THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS, THE DISSEMINATION OF MATERIAL AND THE USE OF ELECTRONIC SERVICES

Ι. The Hellenic Open University (HOU), as an institution for the enhancement of research and the advancement of knowledge, respects, ensures and protects the intellectual property rights (copyright and industrial property rights) of the material that is created or/and distributed thereof.

Within this framework, HOU entirely clears the intellectual property rights of the approved teaching material for which it provides licenses for the educational use of protected works from the rights holders and the Greek Collective Management Organization of Literary Works (OSDEL) with specific terms and conditions, to which users must comply.

Respectively, the users of the protected material, i.e. academic and teaching staff, students and administrative staff, must comply with the applicable legislation for the protection of intellectual property rights and not use or/and distribute in an analogue or digital format the protected works without the prior license of the rights holders or beyond the permission granted.

ΙΙ. Additionally, HOU provides to the users a modern system of Electronic Services (ES), which constitutes a core component for the function and support of distance education. The operation of ES is governed by the principles of academic ethics, freedom of expression and respect for the intellectual property of the rights holders of the distributed material. The users of ES of HOU may use the ES, provided that they respect the intellectual property, personality and privacy rights, as well as the personal data of third parties. In addition, they shall use the provided ES exclusively and solely for purposes that are in line with the teaching/learning procedure and research or performance of administrative task and not for other purposes.

ΙΙΙ. More specifically, the academic and teaching staff, the students and the administrative staff of HOU:

• Are obliged to carefully determine the status of the rights and obtain the appropriate license for the use of the copyrighted and/or industrial property protected material that intend to use for their learning, teaching, research or administrative work, respecting the terms and conditions of the licenses granted.
• Are obliged not to undertake actions that breach the copyright and industrial property rights of third rights holders and especially not to reproduce, store, publish, distribute in an analogue or digital format, upload, download and generally use and make available copyrighted or industrial property protected material (texts, photographs, graphics, musical and/or audiovisual works, trademarks, logos etc.), without the prior written license of the rights holders
• Are primarily and personally liable for any kind of illegal actions that take place within the analogue or/and digital space (through the ES of HOU) and consequently they will be individually, solely and severally liable against to the injured parties for the compensation of any positive or consequential damage that may arise from their actions. In this case, they shall be obliged to compensate for the total amount that HOU may adjudicate with an irrevocable judgment, if this results from illegal actions, according to the above.
• Are primarily and personally responsible for the views and opinions they express in an analogue or/and digital format (via the ES of HOU), which do not express the formal views of HOU, neither do they bind HOU in any way

ΙV. Each individual user holds exclusive civil or/and criminal liabilities due to any kind of infringement on intellectual property rights, personality rights, or infringement on personal data of another person in any way, or defamation of another person, product or service, or breach of a contract or commission of a civil or criminal offense throughout the learning, teaching or/and research procedure, in an analogue or digital format (through the use of the ES of HOU). Additionally, HOU reserves the right to claim economic compensation for possible pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage that may be due to the aforementioned illegal actions in relation to its reputation and reliability and generally with regard to the offered educational services.

V.HOU reserves the right to monitor the ES (information systems, networks and storage mediums of the distributed material at the ES), in compliance with the obligation of confidentiality and the protection of privacy and personal data, as well as to remove from the ES any material that infringes the absolute rights of third parties, such as personality rights, intellectual property rights, etc. or that constitutes a wrongful act, at any time and without prior notice.

In any case, HOU may refuse a user’s use of the ES at any moment in the course of his/her work or restrict his/her access to the minimum that is required for the performance of his/her work, in case of infringement on the aforementioned rights and generally infringement on legislation, or when it is deemed necessary for the proper and smooth operation of its ES.