Terms of use

1. The nature of this site and of DSI 001

This site publishes DSI 001, the Institute's system-level governance classification and evidence standard, together with the framework, crosswalks, defined terms, the evidence infrastructure standard and the registers that support it, including the Governance Benchmark Index and the Governance Coherence Index. The content is provided for general information. It is not legal, financial, insurance or other professional advice, and it is not a substitute for advice obtained independently from a qualified adviser about your circumstances.

DSI 001 does not determine legal compliance, regulatory approval, insurability, creditworthiness, or the discharge of fiduciary duties. It provides a scoped governance classification and evidence record that may be relevant to those analyses. A Governance Benchmark Index result is not a rating, and not a recommendation to buy, sell, lend, insure or invest.

2. Assessment is delivered independently, not by the Institute

The Institute publishes and maintains the standard and authorises assessors to operate under the DSI 001 scheme. It does not itself assess organisations or systems, and it does not prepare the evidence records that an assessment considers. Assessments are delivered independently by assessors authorised by Decision Standards Institute under the DSI 001 scheme and listed in the assessor directory. A DSI 001 result is authentic only when issued by an assessor authorised by Decision Standards Institute under the DSI 001 scheme, against the methodology. Self-scored or indicative figures are not DSI 001 results. Any engagement for an assessment is between you and the assessor, on that assessor's own terms, and the Institute is not a party to it.

Where the Institute has a relationship with an assessor authorised by Decision Standards Institute under the DSI 001 scheme that could affect independence, that relationship is disclosed in the assessor's report.

3. No reliance and no warranty

The Institute takes care with the content of this site but does not warrant that it is complete, current or error-free. Regulatory and market information on this site describes a fast-moving landscape and may date; confirm the current position at the point of reliance. To the extent permitted by law, the Institute excludes liability for any loss arising from use of, or reliance on, this site.

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where the Australian Consumer Law applies and permits us to limit our liability, our liability is limited, at our option, to supplying the relevant information again or paying the cost of having it supplied again.

4. Intellectual property

DSI 001, the Governance Benchmark Index, the Governance Coherence Index, the defined terms, the framework and the Institute's names and marks are the property of the Institute or are used by it under licence. The methodology that sits behind the indices, including the scoring specification and the calibration tolerances, is confidential and is not published on this site. You may read and share links to this site, and quote short extracts with attribution. You may not reproduce the standard or substantial parts of it, present it as your own, or use the Institute's names or marks to imply endorsement or authorisation that has not been granted, without the Institute's written permission.

5. Permitted and prohibited uses

You may use this site for the purpose of learning about DSI 001, understanding the governance classification framework, accessing published standard documents and crosswalks, locating assessors authorised by Decision Standards Institute under the DSI 001 scheme, and making enquiries of the Institute.

You must not:

• use this site in a way that breaches any applicable law or regulation;
• use or reproduce the standard, the methodology, the scoring specification or the calibration tolerances for any commercial purpose, including offering assessment, scoring or certification services, without a licence from the Institute;
• present yourself, your organisation or your product as assessed, classified or certified under DSI 001 unless that is true and current;
• use automated tools to scrape, crawl or extract data from this site in bulk without the Institute's written permission;
• interfere with or disrupt the operation of the site; or
• attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the site or its infrastructure.

6. Accounts and registration

This site does not currently require user accounts or registration to access its content. If account functionality is introduced, separate terms governing accounts will apply and will be published on this page.

7. Links to other sites

This site links to other sites, including assessor directory entries and worked-example downloads. Links are provided for convenience. The Institute does not control and is not responsible for the content of sites it links to.

8. Changes to these terms

The Institute may update these terms. The current version, with its effective date, is the version published on this page. If you do not agree to a change, your remedy is to stop using the site.

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Institute, its directors, officers and agents from any claim, loss, damage, cost or expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the site, or your misrepresentation of DSI 001 classification status.

10. Disputes

Before starting proceedings about a dispute arising from these terms or your use of the site, and except where urgent interlocutory relief is needed, you agree to first raise the dispute with us in writing and to attempt in good faith to resolve it by negotiation.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of New South Wales, Australia, and you submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that State.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms: enquiries@decision-standards-institute.org.