Archive Usage Policy

Archive Usage Policy

Access, Intellectual Property, Permitted Use, and Anti-AI Safeguards
Version 1.0 | Effective Date: July 2026

Section 1. Purpose

VHacademy is an independent digital archive dedicated to the long-term documentation, preservation, and presentation of research records, material observations, artistic processes, experimental developments, and related archival materials.

The materials published or made accessible through VHacademy are provided solely for the purposes of archival preservation, documentation, research, historical reference, and personal viewing within the scope of the access rights expressly granted.

The publication or availability of archival materials shall not be interpreted as granting public access to data, transferring ownership, licensing intellectual property, disclosing technical know-how, transferring research results, or granting any rights beyond those expressly stated in this Policy.

Except where expressly permitted in writing under this Policy, no additional rights shall arise through visiting the website, creating an account, purchasing archive access, or otherwise using the platform.

Section 2. Definitions

For the purposes of this Archive Usage Policy, the following definitions shall apply:

  • 2.1 VHacademy: "VHacademy" means the digital archive platform operated by Victoria Hilbrecht, including all associated websites, archive sections, databases, digital collections, and any future archive services operated under the same platform.
  • 2.2 Archive Materials: "Archive Materials" means all content published, stored, displayed, or otherwise made available within VHacademy. This includes, but is not limited to: videos, photographs, images, graphics, written texts, research records, experimental documentation, material observations, colour documentation, process documentation, working notes, archive identifiers, metadata, databases, database structures, archive classifications, collections, digital documents, audiovisual materials, layouts, website structures, archive organisation, and any other digital archival content.
  • 2.3 Archive Access: "Archive Access" means the limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable right to view Archive Materials online solely within the technical environment provided by VHacademy. The purchase or granting of Archive Access does not transfer ownership of any Archive Materials.
  • 2.4 Visitor: A "Visitor" means any natural person or legal entity accessing or using the website, regardless of whether an account has been created.
  • 2.5 Member: A "Member" means the holder of a user account to which Archive Access has been assigned in accordance with the applicable access permissions.
  • 2.6 Automated Systems: "Automated Systems" means any software- or hardware-based technology capable of automatically collecting, analysing, processing, reproducing, storing, generating, extracting, or otherwise using Archive Materials. This includes, but is not limited to, systems based on artificial intelligence, machine learning, automated data collection, or comparable technologies.

Section 3. Nature of the Archive

VHacademy is an archival platform. The Archive Materials document genuine observations, research activities, experimental developments, material behaviour, and artistic working processes.

Archive Materials may include, among other things: completed research, ongoing research, incomplete documentation, comparative observations, long-term observations, unsuccessful experiments, unexpected experimental outcomes, interrupted processes, intermediate research stages, and continuously evolving research documentation.

The publication of Archive Materials serves documentation and archival purposes only. The Archive Materials do not constitute:

  • educational courses or training programmes;
  • tutorials or technical documentation;
  • recipe disclosure or technical consulting;
  • transfer of know-how or research cooperation; or
  • licensing of working methods.

Unless otherwise required by applicable law, publication of Archive Materials does not create any right to obtain additional information, raw data, working documents, unpublished research materials, or other non-public records.

Section 4. Intellectual Property

Unless expressly stated otherwise, all rights relating to the Archive Materials published or made available through VHacademy are exclusively owned by Victoria Hilbrecht or are lawfully exercised by her.

This includes all videos, photographs, graphics, illustrations, written works, scientific documentation, research records, experimental records, material observations, colour documentation, archive identifiers, archive classifications, databases, database structures, archive organisation, website structures, layouts, metadata, digital collections, original works, research results, audiovisual materials, and digital documents.

The archive structure, archival system, classification methods, data organisation, and selection and arrangement of Archive Materials constitute independently protected intellectual property and protected databases under applicable law. All rights not expressly granted under this Archive Usage Policy are strictly reserved.

Section 5. Archive Access

The purchase of Archive Access grants the Member a limited right to view the Archive Materials made available under the applicable access level solely within the technical environment provided by VHacademy.

Archive Access is limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and personal to the purchasing Member. Archive Access may only be used by the Member to whom the account is registered. It may not be assigned, transferred, sold, shared, sublicensed, leased, rented, gifted, or otherwise made available to any third party.

Section 6. Permitted Use

Subject to applicable law and this Policy, Visitors and Members may:

  • view publicly available Archive Materials through the official VHacademy website;
  • view Archive Materials made available under their authorised Archive Access;
  • use publicly available information for personal, private, and non-commercial reference;
  • make lawful academic citations in accordance with applicable copyright law and Section 11 of this Policy.

No additional licence or permission shall be implied. Any use beyond these permissions requires prior written authorisation from VHacademy.

Section 7. Prohibited Use

Unless expressly authorised in writing, any use beyond the permissions set out in Section 6 is prohibited, regardless of whether the use is commercial, non-commercial, private, academic, or experimental.

  • 7.1 Reproduction: Downloading, saving, copying, creating digital/physical copies, printing, exporting as PDF, offline storage, or permanent storage outside the platform.
  • 7.2 Recordings: Screenshots, screen recordings, screen capture software, photographing the screen, recording with mobile devices/cameras, or any technical method intended to permanently preserve Archive Materials.
  • 7.3 Text Extraction: Copying text, automated text extraction, OCR processing, text recognition, automated transcription, translation, summarisation, or content analysis.
  • 7.4 Redistribution: Publishing Archive Materials on the Internet, social media, video platforms, cloud services, messaging apps, email, file-sharing services, or public performance.
  • 7.5 Personal Archives: Creating or expanding private, corporate, or third-party collections, databases, material libraries, or image libraries using Archive Materials.

Section 8. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Automated Safeguards

  • 8.1 Express Reservation of Text and Data Mining (EU DSM Directive Opt-Out): Pursuant to Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive) and relevant national laws, Victoria Hilbrecht expressly reserves all rights regarding text and data mining (TDM), scraping, indexing, and automated data extraction of Archive Materials. Neither Visitors, Members, automated bots, search engine crawlers, nor third-party platforms are permitted to use Archive Materials for text and data mining or automated extraction without explicit prior written authorization.
  • 8.2 Prohibition of AI Model Training and Dataset Aggregation: Archive Materials may not, in whole or in part, be used for training, fine-tuning, validating, testing, or benchmarking any artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, foundation models, large language models (LLMs), diffusion models, neural networks, LoRA models, hypernetworks, vector databases, or synthetic datasets.
  • 8.3 Prohibition of AI Input, Style Extraction, and Vision Prompting: It is strictly prohibited to upload, feed, paste, or input Archive Materials into any AI software, image generator, multimodal vision model, or prompt engineering tool. Prohibited uses include:
    • (a) using Archive Materials as image-to-image (Img2Img) inputs, depth maps, control nets, or pose references;
    • (b) performing automated visual/colorimetric analyses to extract signature color palettes or aesthetic parameters;
    • (c) generating prompt descriptions or style embeddings based on Archive Materials; and
    • (d) creating visual outputs that attempt to emulate, replicate, or simulate the unique artistic style, color system, or experimental methodology of Victoria Hilbrecht.

Section 9. Automated Data Collection and Web Scraping

Unless prior written permission has been granted, no Archive Materials may be automatically collected, extracted, processed, analysed, stored, or reproduced via web scraping, web crawling, automated downloading, bulk downloading, automated screen capture, frame extraction, metadata extraction, indexing for third-party systems, data harvesting, or database mirroring.

Section 10. Derivative Works and Database Protection

Archive Materials may not, in whole or in part, be used to create, expand, modify, or support derivative datasets, databases, digital archives, material libraries, color databases, prompt libraries, style libraries, training materials, or commercial/scientific collections. Archive Materials may not be adapted, transformed, or incorporated into derivative works without prior written authorization.

Section 11. Academic Citation

Publicly available Archive Materials may be cited for legitimate academic or scholarly purposes only where permitted under applicable copyright law and recognised academic citation standards.

Academic citation does not grant permission to reproduce, redistribute, or archive Materials, nor to use them for AI training or automated processing. Archive Materials available exclusively through Member access or restricted areas may not be cited, reproduced, or published without prior written permission.

Section 12. Protection of Archive Structure

The structure, organisation, classification, data hierarchy, and systematic arrangement of VHacademy constitute protected intellectual property. It is prohibited to reproduce or imitate the archive classification system, organisational methodology, or categorisation structure for the purpose of creating substantially similar archival platforms.

Section 13. Future Technologies

This Policy applies to all present and future technologies, whether currently known or developed hereafter. Where future technologies perform functions identical or substantially similar to those described herein, the restrictions of this Policy shall apply unconditionally.

Section 14. Reservation of Rights and Severability

All rights not expressly granted under this Policy are strictly reserved by Victoria Hilbrecht. Failure to enforce any right in a specific instance shall not constitute a waiver of future enforcement. If any provision of this Policy becomes invalid or unenforceable, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected.

Section 15. Amendments

VHacademy reserves the right to amend this Policy at any time due to legal changes, technological developments, or operational requirements. The version published on the official VHacademy website constitutes the currently applicable version.

Section 16. Contact

Enquiries regarding licensing, academic citations, research collaborations, commercial permissions, or AI-related use may be submitted through the official contact channels published on the VHacademy website. Written permission must be explicitly granted by Victoria Hilbrecht.

Entry into Force

This Archive Usage Policy enters into force upon its publication on the official VHacademy website and applies to all visitors, members, and users of the platform.