Terms of Use for E-Resources

Access to chargeable e-resources such as e-journals, databases and e-books is made possible within the framework of licensing and usage agreements between THWS and the providers/publishers and editors.
All rights, in particular the copyrights to use and exploit the media and information services, are reserved to the respective providers/publishers and editors. For these offers, please note the copyright regulations and terms of use generally available online on the publishing servers of the respective provider/publisher or editor. Access requires compliance with them.

Licensed e-resources are subject to copyright regulations, in particular the following must be observed:

  • Only members of THWS and authorised users are permitted to access the full texts.
  • Full texts may only be printed or stored for personal use and for teaching and research purposes. Commercial re-use is not permitted.
  • The systematic downloading of articles, chapters or search results is prohibited. Also the use of special software (robots, spider, crawler, searchbots) for downloading is not allowed. Failure to do so may result in the publisher’s server being blocked for the entire University!
  • Full texts may not be passed on to third parties either electronically or in printed form.
  • Author names and copyright notices may not be changed or deleted.

Each user is responsible for complying with copyright and licensing regulations.

Misuse can lead to the user’s THWS account being blocked and to a ban on the use of the THWS Library.

In addition to civil law claims (including claims for injunctive relief, destruction, surrender and damages), the Copyright Act also provides penalties and fines (Article 97 et seq. UrhG; Urheberrechtsgesetz).