DMCA
SubTitle:
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. This page describes the information that should be present in these notices. It is designed to make submitting notices of alleged infringement to Digitalsmiths as straightforward as possible while reducing the number of notices that we receive that are fraudulent or difficult to understand or verify. The form of notice specified below is consistent with the form suggested by the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office Web Site, http://lcWeb.loc.gov/copyright/) but we will respond to notices of this form from other jurisdictions as well.
Regardless of whether we may be liable for such infringement under local country law or United States law, our response to these notices may include removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity and/or terminating subscribers. If we remove or disable access in response to such a notice, we will make a good-faith attempt to contact the owner or administrator of the affected site or content so that they may make a counter notification. We may also document notices of alleged infringement on which we act. As with all legal notices, a copy of the notice may be sent to one or more third parties who may make it available to the public.
Infringement Notification for Web Search and all other products
To
file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written
communication (by fax or regular mail -- not by email, except by prior
agreement) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that
you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if
you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing
your copyrights. Indeed, in a recent case (please see http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/
for more information), a company that sent an infringement notification
seeking removal of online materials that were protected by the fair use
doctrine was ordered to pay such costs and attorneys fees. The company
agreed to pay over $100,000. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether
material available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you
first contact an attorney.
To expedite our ability to process your request, please use the following format (including section numbers):
1.
Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has
been infringed upon (for example, "The copyrighted work at issue is the
text that appears on http://www.legal.com/legal_page.php") or other
information sufficient to specify the copyrighted work being infringed
(for example, "The copyrighted work at issue is the "Touch Not This
Cat" by Dudley Smith, published by Smith Publishing, ISBN #0123456789").
2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above.
FOR
WEB SEARCH, YOU MUST IDENTIFY EACH SEARCH RESULT THAT DIRECTLY LINKS TO
A WEB PAGE THAT ALLEGEDLY CONTAINS INFRINGING MATERIAL. This requires
you to provide (a) the search query that you used, and (b) the URL for
each allegedly infringing search result.
For example,
suppose (hypothetically) that you conducted a search on google.com
using the query "google", and found that the third and fourth results
directly link to a web page that you believe infringes the copyrighted
text you identified in item #1 above. In this case, you would provide
the following information:
| Search Query: | |
| Infringing Web Pages: | www.infringingwebsite.com directory.infringingwebsite.com |
If
you are sending a large number of URLs in one removal request, please
also send an electronic copy of the notice to .
3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Digitalsmiths to contact you (email address is preferred).
4.
Provide information, if possible, sufficient to permit Digitalsmiths to
notify the owner/administrator of the allegedly infringing webpage or
other content (email address is preferred).
5. Include the
following statement: "I have a good faith belief that use of the
copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not
authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
6.
Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury,
that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the
copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an
exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
7. Sign the paper.
8. Send the written communication to the following address:
Digitalsmiths
Attn: Digitalsmiths Legal Support, DMCA Complaints
5001 Hospitality Court, Suite 100
Morrisville, NC 27560
OR fax to:
(323) 576-5366, Attn: Digitalsmiths Legal Support, DMCA Complaints
Please
note that a copy of each legal notice we receive is sent to a
third-party partner for publication and annotation. As such, your
letter (with your personal information removed) will be forwarded to
Chilling Effects (http://www.chillingeffects.org) for publication. You
can see an example of such a publication at http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi?NoticeID=861.
Counter Notification
The
administrator of an affected site or the provider of affected content
may make a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3)
of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When we receive a counter
notification, we may reinstate the material in question.
To
file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written
communication (by fax or regular mail -- not by email, except by prior
agreement) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that
you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if
you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is not
infringing the copyrights of others. Accordingly, if you are not sure
whether certain material infringes the copyrights of others, we suggest
that you first contact an attorney. A sample counter notification may
be found at www.chillingeffects.org/dmca/counter512.pdf.
To expedite our ability to process your counter notification, please use the following format (including section numbers):
1.
Identify the specific URLs or other unique identifying information of
material that Digitalsmiths has removed or to which Digitalsmiths has
disabled access.
2. Provide your name, address, telephone
number, email address, and a statement that you consent to the
jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in
which your address is located (or Beaufort County, South Carolina if
your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept
service of process from the person who provided notification under
subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.
3.
Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury,
that I have a good faith belief that each search result, message, or
other item of content identified above was removed or disabled as a
result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed
or disabled, or that the material identified by the complainant has
been removed or disabled at the URL identified and will no longer be
shown."
4. Sign the paper.
5. Send the written communication to the following address:
Digitalsmiths
Attn: Digitalsmiths Legal Support, DMCA Counter Notification
5001 Hospitality Court, Suite 100
Morrisville, NC 27560
OR fax to:
(323) 576-5366, Attn: Digitalsmiths Legal Support, DMCA Counter Notification
Account Termination
Many Digitalsmiths Web Site do not have account holders or
subscribers. For Web Sites that do, Digitalsmiths will, in appropriate
circumstances, terminate repeat infringers. If you believe that an
account holder or subscriber is a repeat infringer, please follow the
instructions above to contact Digitalsmiths and provide information
sufficient for us to verify that the account holder or subscriber is a
repeat infringer.
