Terms of use

Terms of Use

Last updated 23 August 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 fingerprint of the TLS certificate 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. Evidence extracts

The public pages of this archive never publish content. What a file served on a given day is issued as an evidence extract, on request, against a fee. What an extract contains, what it proves and does not prove, how to request one, and the current fees are set out on the evidence extract page, which forms part of these terms.

Four terms apply to every extract, and we state them here because they define what kind of witness this archive is:

• The fee is fixed and does not depend on the outcome. There is no success fee and no arrangement that gives us an interest in how a dispute ends.
• Either side of a dispute receives the same extract on the same terms. We do not ask why an extract is wanted, and we do not decline one because the other side asked first.
• We take on no obligation to participate in proceedings — no expert witness work, no representation, no hearings, no appearances. What we provide is written and is provided from Madrid. Statutory duties of a witness, should a court impose them, remain unaffected.
• Our documents are produced with the help of AI under human supervision. They contain no opinion and no assessment, only recorded facts, the cryptographic chain, and the instructions to verify both independently.

A request under Article 17 GDPR to remove personal data is free of charge, requires no reason, and is unaffected by anything in this section.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. Contact

contact@machinewitness.eu. For questions about the crawler or to request exclusion or removal, see Crawler & contact.