Terms of Use

Last updated 23 July 2026

These terms govern the use of the website machinewitness.eu, the public root log, and the documented verification method, operated by Martin Schenk S.L. ("we"). By using them you accept these terms.

1. What MachineWitness is

MachineWitness is a neutral, factual, evidentiary archive. Each day it records what public domains served to machines and seals that record cryptographically. It documents a fact — "this domain served this on this day" — and nothing more. We do not judge, rank, accuse, or advise.

2. Not legal advice; nature of the record

Nothing on this site or in the archive is legal advice, and it is not a substitute for a lawyer. A MachineWitness record is evidentiary material for evaluation by a court and its appointed experts. It is not itself a legal determination, and it does not prove the origin or truth of any content beyond the technical provenance we captured (such as the response headers and the TLS certificate chain observed at the time). What weight a record carries in any proceeding is for the competent court to decide.

3. No warranty

The archive and the site are provided "as is", on a best-effort basis. We do not warrant that the record is complete, uninterrupted, or free of error — for example, a domain may be unreachable on a given day, and that too is recorded honestly. We make no warranty of fitness for any particular purpose.

4. Using the record

The daily fingerprints (root log) and the documented verification method are public so that anyone can independently check a record. You may access, cite, and reproduce them for that purpose. The methodology texts are published under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). You may not present a MachineWitness record as a court ruling, alter it, or misrepresent what it shows.

5. Availability and changes

We may change, suspend, or withdraw parts of the site or service, and we may update these terms as the archive develops. Material changes will be reflected on this page with a new date.

6. Governing law

These terms are governed by Spanish law. The courts of Madrid, Spain, have jurisdiction, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection rules of your place of residence.

7. Contact

[email protected]. For questions about the crawler or to request exclusion or removal, see Crawler & contact.