Copyright Complaints and Designated Agent

1. Where to send a notice

Send copyright notices to our designated agent:

Email is the fastest route and the one we monitor. Put the notice in the body of the message or attach it as a plain document. A notice that consists only of a link to a portal we have to register with to read is one we cannot act on.

2. What a notice must contain

To be effective under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), a notice must include substantially all of the following. If one is missing we may treat the notice as incomplete and ask you for the rest before acting.

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner, or of a person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed — or, where one notice covers several works on a single site, a representative list of them.
3. Identification of the material claimed to be infringing, and enough information for us to locate it. For a hosted site that means the full URL of each page or file, not just the domain.
4. Your name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address.
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or are authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.

3. What we do when we receive one

We act on complete notices promptly. Depending on what the notice covers, we may remove or disable access to the identified material, disable the site, or suspend the account. We ordinarily forward the notice, including the contact information in it, to the customer who published the material, so they can respond or submit a counter-notice. We keep a record of the notices we receive and the actions we take.

We are not in a position to decide who owns what. Removing material is not a finding that a claim is correct, and leaving it up is not a finding that a claim is wrong.

4. Counter-notice

If your material was removed and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, send a counter-notice to the same address with the subject “DMCA COUNTER-NOTICE.” Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3) it must include your signature; identification of the material and where it appeared before it was removed; a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief it was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification; and your name, address and telephone number, together with a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the district where you live — or, if you are outside the United States, any district in which we may be found — and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice.

We ordinarily forward a counter-notice to the person who sent the notice. If they do not tell us within ten to fourteen business days that they have filed an action seeking a court order, we may restore the material.

5. Repeat infringers

We maintain and reasonably implement a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of customers who are repeat infringers. What counts as appropriate depends on how many notices there were and how serious they were, whether counter-notices were filed, and whether the customer took the material down.

6. False claims carry liability

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), someone who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing — or that material was removed by mistake — may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees. Using a copyright notice to take down a competitor, to unmask an anonymous site owner, or to suppress criticism is a misuse of this process, and section 15 of the Acceptable Use Policy treats it as a violation in its own right.

7. Trademark and other complaints

Trademark, publicity, defamation, and privacy complaints are not DMCA notices and do not follow the process above. Send them to [email protected] with a clear subject line, identify the material and the right you hold, and say what you are asking us to do. Court orders and law-enforcement requests are handled under the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy.

8. What this page does not cover

This page covers material hosted on Lemonade Host. If the site you are complaining about is hosted somewhere else and merely links to us, or uses our name without being hosted by us, tell us anyway — but the host of the material is usually the only party who can remove it. This page describes our process. It is not legal advice, and it neither enlarges nor reduces any right either of us has under applicable law.