DMCA and Copyright Policy

1. About This Policy; Who We Are

This DMCA and Copyright Policy ("Policy") states how we receive, record, review, and act on reports of claimed copyright infringement concerning the website at jdswebservice.com, which our Terms of Service call the "Site," and concerning websites we host or manage for clients. "We," "us," and "our" mean the sole proprietorship that operates the Site under the trade name "JD's Web Service," from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Our contact address for all matters arising under this Policy is [email protected].

This Policy is one of the Site's posted legal documents. It works alongside our Terms of Service (the "Terms"), and, for a person who has executed a service agreement with us for our services, alongside that "Signed Service Agreement" (the meaning those words carry in the Terms). Anything about the services, including the consequences of removal or disablement for a client's services and the termination of services for repeat infringement, remains governed by that signed agreement wherever it differs from this Policy; this Policy addresses the copyright process itself. A visitor who uses the Site in any other manner is governed by the Terms.

This Policy addresses copyright. Complaints about anything else, including trademark, other rights, or misuse and abuse of the Site, go through the contact form on the Site or by email to [email protected], the routes our other legal documents use.

2. The Report Form

Reports of copyright infringement concerning the Site or a client website may be submitted through the form at jdswebservice.com/dmca/report (the "Report Form"). The Report Form asks the reporter to name the target of the report: "JD's Web Service Website," meaning the Site, or "A Website Owned by a JD's Web Service Client," and, for the second target, it asks for that website's address. The form then asks for the exact address (URL) of each piece of allegedly infringing material, in a field for each address with an add-another control; reports carry between 1 and 25 such addresses, and identical addresses are rejected.

The Report Form asks for the reporter's role relative to the copyright owner (the owner, or a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner), and for the reporter's full legal name, company (optional), email address, phone number, and the five parts of a mailing address (street, city, state or province, postal code, and country). It asks for a description of the copyrighted work, a link to the original work (optional), and any additional details the reporter wishes to add (optional). The form also accepts up to five attachments, each up to 5 MB, in JPG, JPEG, PNG, or PDF format, and it does not accept a sixth. Attachments travel with the report record and are stored privately; they are not publicly accessible. Where a reporter wishes to supply further proof beyond the five attachments, additional proof may be sent to [email protected], and it joins the same report record.

On submission, we record the report and issue the reporter a Report ID, a unique reference to the report record. The Report ID appears on the report receipt page and in the confirmation email we send to the reporter, which carries a full summary of what was submitted. The Report ID is the only identifier of a report that appears outside our own systems.

3. Designated Agent; Official Channels

The designated agent for the receipt of notices of claimed copyright infringement under this Policy is our business, operating as the sole proprietorship under the trade name "JD's Web Service."

The official channels for such notices are designated as follows, and both are electronic:

1. The Report Form at jdswebservice.com/dmca/report, the primary channel: a submission there creates the report record, issues the Report ID, and confirms receipt to the reporter by email.
2. Email to [email protected] for written notices that a person prefers to send without the form, for additional proof beyond the form's attachment allowance, and for counter-notifications under Section 11.

Notices of claimed infringement under this Policy are given through these channels. We publish no mailing address, and no postal channel is designated. The Report Form states the same channels.

4. What a Complete Copyright Notice Contains

A report under this Policy contains the elements that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires, 17 U.S.C. Section 512(c)(3):

1. The electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, where multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single report, a representative list of those works.
3. Identification of the material claimed to be infringing, and information reasonably sufficient to locate it: for an online location, its exact address (URL).
4. Information reasonably sufficient to contact the reporter: name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address.
5. A statement that the reporter has a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement that the information in the report is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that the reporter is the copyright owner or is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

The Report Form collects every element: the target and the website involved, the exact address of each piece of material (Section 2), the reporter's role and identity and contact items, the description of the copyrighted work together with any optional link to the original work, the statements below, and the typed full legal name as the electronic signature. A notice sent by email under Section 5 should contain the same elements.

The Report Form requires every reporter to attest the two statements that carry these statutory recitals, quoted verbatim:

• Good-faith statement: "I have a good faith belief that the use of the material described in this report is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
• Accuracy, penalty-of-perjury, and authority statement: "The information in this notification is accurate and I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."

A third statement on the form records the reporter's consent to sign electronically: the reporter confirms that providing their full legal name constitutes their electronic signature on the report, with the same legal effect as a physical signature. Beneath the signature field, the form carries a disclosure explaining that, under United States federal law and applicable state law, an electronic signature is legally valid and carries the same effect as a handwritten one; that the typed full legal name is the reporter's electronic signature on the notification; and that we keep the notification, the typed name, and the date and time of submission together as the electronic record of the notice and signature. The server checks that the typed signature matches the full legal name given in the report, treating the two as matching after surrounding spaces are trimmed and letter case is disregarded.

A report submitted under this Policy is a notice of claimed infringement; the two words mean the same thing in this Policy.

To report copyright infringement, submit a report through the form at jdswebservice.com/dmca/report, or follow the email route described in Section 5.

No one should send a report that person knows to be materially false. Under 17 U.S.C. Section 512(f), a person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, as that section provides.

5. Reports Received Outside the Form

We do not require a report to arrive through the Report Form. A notice about copyright infringement that arrives by email to [email protected], our designated email channel, is accepted when it substantially complies with Section 4, and it enters the same report pipeline as a Report Form submission: it is recorded, it receives a Report ID and the confirmation email, and it receives the same handling under this Policy. Additional proof sent by email (Section 2) joins the same report record.

6. Review of Reports; Incomplete Notices

We review complete reports in the order we receive them. We act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material identified in a report that is complete and valid. Where a report is not complete (Section 4), we may contact the requester through the contact items the report provides, so the requester can supply what is missing. A report is not acted on while it remains incomplete.

7. Report Records; the Requester's IP Address

For every report, we keep the report record: what the report states, the attachments supplied with it, the date and time of submission, and the IP address of the person who submitted the report. We record the IP address to keep the notice process trustworthy. That address is visible only to the people who handle the report; it is never displayed publicly, and it never appears in the reporter confirmation email. Our treatment of all personal information held in connection with copyright reports, including what we keep and the rights of the people to whom the information belongs, follows our Privacy Policy (Section 16).

8. Removal and Disablement of Material

When a report is complete and valid, we remove the identified material or disable access to it expeditiously, whether the material appears on the Site or on a website we host or manage for a client. A removal or disablement under this section lasts until a resolution of the dispute directs otherwise, including through the counter-notification procedure described in Section 11.

9. Notice to the Affected Client

When a report names material on a website we host or manage for a client, and we act on the report or review it seriously, we contact the affected client at the client's account email address, with the addresses (URLs) the report names and what the report asks of the client. The affected client is one of the people who handle the report within the meaning of the Report Form's statement that the details of a report are shared only with the people who handle it. We do not pass the reporter's personal contact details to the client unless the law requires it or the reporter consents.

10. Repeat Infringers

We maintain a policy for repeat infringers. A "repeat infringer" is a person whose account or website becomes the subject of repeated valid notices of claimed infringement, or who otherwise shows a pattern of infringement, in each case in circumstances we determine to be appropriate under this Policy. Our handling proceeds in steps: notice to the client whose account or website is involved; disabling of the infringing material under Section 8; and, where the pattern continues and the circumstances are appropriate, termination of the client's services. The mechanics of suspension or termination for a client, including what becomes of that client's service afterward, live under the client's Signed Service Agreement, which controls wherever it differs.

11. Counter-Notification; Restoration

A person affected by a removal or disablement under Section 8 may send a counter-notification. The counter-notification goes by email to [email protected]. It is a written communication carrying the following elements, 17 U.S.C. Section 512(g):

1. The electronic signature of the counter-notifying person.
2. Identification of the material that was removed or disabled, and the location (URL) at which it appeared before removal or disablement.
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the counter-notifying person has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification.
4. The counter-notifying person's name, mailing address, and telephone number.

We forward a complete counter-notification to the original reporter, and the forwarding carries the counter-notifying person's contact details inside it; the person consents to that forwarding by sending the counter-notification. A complete counter-notification also carries the person's consent to the jurisdiction of a United States federal district court for the judicial district in which we are located, or, where the person lives outside the United States, for the judicial district in which the person is located, together with the person's agreement to accept service of process from the person who gave the original report.

After we receive a complete counter-notification, we restore the removed material or cease disabling access to it no less than 10 and no more than 14 business days after we receive the counter-notification, unless our official channels first receive notice from the original reporter that the reporter has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the counter-notifying person from engaging in the infringing activity relating to the material on our systems. Where that notice arrives first, the material stays removed or disabled until a court directs otherwise or the parties resolve the dispute.

No one should send a counter-notification that person knows to be materially false. Under 17 U.S.C. Section 512(f), a person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, as that section provides.

12. How Long We Keep Report Records

Report records, and the attachments they carry, are kept while they matter to the notice process and to any dispute arising out of one. We do not run an automatic deletion routine. A requester may ask us to delete a report record under the deletion route of our Privacy Policy (the contact form on the Site with a short "privacy request" note, which reaches [email protected]), and the records are deleted on that request. Records connected to a client's Signed Service Agreement follow the rules of that agreement.

13. Payments Continue

A removal or disablement of material under Section 8, or a repeat-infringer action under Section 10, does not suspend or reduce the fees a client owes under the client's Signed Service Agreement, and payment and cancellation mechanics remain governed by that agreement alone.

14. Governing Law; Disputes

The subject of this Policy is governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. If a dispute arises out of the subject of this Policy, the parties shall first attempt to resolve it through good-faith mediation. If the dispute remains open 60 days after mediation begins, either party may file an action in the state courts located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Genuine service disputes remain under the client's Signed Service Agreement, which controls.

The consent to the jurisdiction of a United States federal district court described in Section 11 is the counter-notifying person's own statement, given by that person in that person's counter-notification; this Policy's dispute terms do not alter, replace, or stand in for it.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may change this Policy at any time, and the updated version takes effect immediately when it is posted. That rule is the same rule every one of our posted legal documents carries, so our posted documents never disagree on when changes start.

16. Related Documents

• Our Terms of Service (jdswebservice.com/terms, formal version at jdswebservice.com/terms/legal) govern the use of the Site, and Section 13 of the Terms routes copyright complaints to this Policy; this Policy completes that direction.
• Our Privacy Policy (jdswebservice.com/privacy, formal version at jdswebservice.com/privacy/legal) governs the personal information we hold in connection with copyright reports: what the reports record, the requester IP address we keep, the attachments, the retention, and the rights of the people to whom that information belongs.

17. Contact

Reports of claimed copyright infringement follow the Report Form (Section 2) and the email channel (Sections 3 and 5). Counter-notifications go by email to [email protected] (Section 11). For anything else about this Policy, email [email protected], the mailbox our Terms of Service designates for questions and legal notices.