Copyright & DMCA

1How we handle copyright complaints

We do not review sites before they are published and we have no way of knowing whether someone had the right to publish what they uploaded. When a rights holder tells us something infringes, we act on it.

We operate this process voluntarily. the operator of upfling.host is established in the United Kingdom and has not registered a designated agent with the United States Copyright Office, so we do not claim safe harbour under section 512 of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We follow the DMCA's procedure anyway, because it is clear, well understood by rights holders, and fair to both sides.

Copyright complaints are also an acceptable use matter: publishing work you have no right to publish breaches our policy regardless of whether anyone files a formal notice.

2Where to send a notice

Copyright notices and counter-notices go to dmca@upfling.host by email.

You can also use the reporting form and choose the copyright category, which prompts you for each required element so nothing is missed.

3What a valid notice must contain

We cannot act on a notice that is missing any of these. Please include all six:

1. Identification of the work. Which copyrighted work you say has been infringed. If several, a representative list is fine.
2. Identification of the infringing material and where it is. Provide the full URL of each page or file, so we can find it. "There is infringing content somewhere on this site" is not enough.
3. Your contact details: name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
4. A good-faith statement that you believe the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
5. A statement of accuracy: that the information in the notice is accurate, and, on penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act for them.
6. Your signature, physical or electronic. Typing your full name counts.

Send notices about trademarks, personality rights, or copyright under UK or EU law to legal@upfling.host instead. The same identification and contact details help, but the sworn statements above are specific to the DMCA.

4What we do with it

We acknowledge receipt within 2 working days.

Where the notice is complete and appears valid, we will:

1. Suspend the site or remove the material identified. A suspended site serves a notice page to visitors; the files are retained.
2. Tell the person who published it what was removed, why, and that they may file a counter-notice.
3. Record the action against their account.

Where a notice is incomplete, plainly abusive, or aimed at content that is obviously not infringing (criticism, review, parody, or your own material posted with permission), we will say so and ask for more before acting.

We do not disclose the outcome of a notice to the person who filed it beyond confirming that we acted, and we do not pass on the publisher's personal details unless we are legally required to.

5If your site was taken down and you disagree

If your material was removed and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, you can send a counter-notice to dmca@upfling.host. It must include:

1. Your signature, physical or electronic.
2. Identification of the material that was removed and where it used to appear.
3. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
4. Your name, address and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of a court where you live, or (if you are outside the United States) of any judicial district where we may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who filed the original notice.

We forward valid counter-notices to the original complainant. If they do not tell us within 10 to 14 business days that they have started court proceedings, we restore the material.

6Repeat infringers

We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. Concretely: three upheld copyright notices against one account within twelve months ends that account and all of its sites.

A notice counts towards that total only if we acted on it and it was not overturned by a counter-notice or withdrawn. Notices we rejected as invalid do not count. We keep a record of every upheld notice against an account, which is what makes this policy something we can actually apply rather than merely state.

Serious single infringements (commercial-scale piracy, for instance) can end an account without reaching three.

7Filing a false notice has consequences

Under section 512(f) of the DMCA, anyone who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that it was removed by mistake, is liable for damages, including costs and legal fees, to the person harmed by it. Similar liability exists under UK law for groundless threats.

Please do not use this process to remove criticism, competitors, or content you simply dislike. We read notices, we notice patterns, and we will refuse notices from complainants who abuse the process.