DRAFT — ATTORNEY REVIEW REQUIRED BEFORE PUBLISHING
Counsel to confirm: the designated-agent block matches the USCO filing exactly, the repeat-infringer policy is adequate for § 512(i), and the described handling of notices we receive matches actual operations on a service with no portal.
Our designated agent, and what a takedown notice has to contain.
This page does two separate jobs. It tells you how to send us a notice about material in our systems. It also explains the six elements the US copyright takedown law requires, because we get asked constantly and the answer is public.
§1 — Designated agent, as filed with the US Copyright Office
We hold material that clients send us. That makes registering an agent to receive notices under the US copyright takedown law (17 U.S.C. § 512(c)) the correct posture, so we registered one.
There is no client portal on day one. Material a client sends us arrives by email and is held under the retention schedule on /trust. When the portal ships, this registration covers it without change.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Service provider | FOUNDER: entity legal name, doing business as Leak Cleaner |
| Designated agent | Copyright Agent, FOUNDER: entity legal name |
| Address | FOUNDER: registered agent address |
| Phone | FOUNDER: designated agent phone |
| FOUNDER: DMCA agent email | |
| USCO registration number | FOUNDER: USCO registration number |
| Directory listing | FOUNDER: USCO directory listing URL |
| First registered | FOUNDER: agent registration date |
| Renewal due | FOUNDER: agent renewal date |
This is a filing, not a credential. Registering a designated agent means we filed an address with a government office and paid $6. It is not an accreditation, not a licence, and not a qualification to send notices on anyone's behalf. Some services in this category display the number like a certification. It isn't one, and we would rather tell you that than let you assume otherwise.
§2 — The six elements a notice must contain
The US copyright takedown law (17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A)) lists six things a notice needs. Miss one and a host is entitled to treat the notice as defective.
This is general information about what the statute says. It is not advice about whether you should send a notice, or what to put in one.
- A signature. Physical or electronic, from the owner of the exclusive right, or from a person authorized to act on their behalf.
- Identification of the work. Which copyrighted work you say was infringed. Where several works on one site are involved, a representative list is contemplated.
- Identification of the material. Which material you say is infringing, with enough information for the host to locate it. In practice this means full URLs, one per line, not a homepage.
- Contact information. Address, telephone number, and email address for the complaining party.
- A good-faith belief statement. A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- An accuracy and authority statement. A statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right.
On elements 5 and 6. Those are sworn statements. 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) creates liability for a knowing material misrepresentation in a takedown notification. That is the statute's own wording. What it would mean in any particular case is a lawyer's question.
This is why we ask you who shot the content, whether a collaboration partner was involved, and whether any management agreement assigns copyright. That friction is not paperwork. It is the thing that keeps a notice honest.
§3 — Before we file: the fair-use screen
We do not dispatch a notice without a logged fair-use consideration on that specific URL.
A US court held in Lenz v. Universal that a copyright holder must consider whether a use is fair before sending a notice. That is a rung in the procedure here, not a policy statement. We record a determination per URL, with a timestamp, and the log is retained for 7 years.
We do not notice commentary, criticism, review, news reporting, or transformative use. If a URL fails the screen, it stays in your report marked as screened out, with the reason.
A vendor that lets you skip this is filing sworn notices on an assertion nobody checked. We are not willing to be that vendor.
See the full ladder, with timelines →
§4 — How to send us a notice about material in our systems
Send it to the designated agent above. Email is the fastest route and we accept it.
Include all six elements from §2. Include full URLs, not descriptions. If your notice concerns material a client sent us, tell us so.
What happens next:
| Step | Clock |
|---|---|
| We acknowledge receipt in writing | 1 business day |
| We assess whether the notice contains all six elements | 2 business days |
| If it does, we remove or disable access to the identified material and notify the client | Same business day as the assessment |
| We give the client a copy of the notice and information about the counter-notification route | With the removal notice |
| If the notice is defective, we tell you which element is missing | 2 business days |
The clocks above are what we commit to, not an average of anything.
We do not charge for any of this and we do not gate it behind a form.
§5 — Repeat infringers
We terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of clients who are repeat infringers. This policy is a term of the service agreement, not a courtesy.
An account is reviewed after a second substantiated notice against material it supplied. A third results in termination without refund of the current period.
We also terminate for a separate reason that matters more here. Using this service to file notices against material you do not have rights in is a breach of the acceptable-use policy, and it ends the relationship on the first substantiated instance.
The binding acceptable-use policy →
§6 — Counter-notification
If we removed something of yours in response to a notice, or if a notice we filed removed something of yours, there is a statutory route to dispute it.
That route has its own page, because it deserves more than a paragraph and because almost nobody in this category publishes one.
If we filed a notice against you, start here →
§7 — What this page is not
This page describes what the statute requires and what we do. It is not advice about whether to send a notice, whether to dispute one, or what any of it means for you.
If you are deciding whether to file anything, that decision belongs with an attorney.
Last updated LAST_UPDATED.