The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as digital rights management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Passed on October 12, 1998, by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of on-line services for copyright infringement by their users.
On May 22, 2001, the European Union passed the Copyright Directive or EUCD, which addresses some of the same issues as the DMCA. The DMCA's principal innovation in the field of copyright, the exemption from direct and indirect liability of internet service providers and other intermediaries (Title II of the DMCA), was separately addressed, and largely followed, in Europe by means of the separate Electronic Commerce Directive. (Unlike U.S. federal laws and regulations, the execution of European Union directives usually requires separate legislation by or within each of the Union's member countries.)
If you wish to view the various sections of the DMCA policy go here.
The law is currently unsettled with regard to websites that contain links to infringing material; however, there have been a few lower-court decisions which have ruled against linking in some narrowly prescribed circumstances. One is when the owner of a website has already been issued an injunction against posting infringing material on their website and then links to the same material in an attempt to circumvent the injunction. Another area involves linking to software or devices which are designed to circumvent DRM (digital rights management) devices, or links from websites whose sole purpose is to circumvent copyright protection by linking to copyrighted material.
There have been no cases in the US where a website owner has been found liable for linking to copyrighted material outside of the above narrow circumstances.
Our policy includes responding to clear notices of copyright infringement. The purpose of this page is to help you understand what you should present in these notices.
Our response to notices may include, but not limited to, disabling access to or removing material alleged to be the subject of infringing activity. However, the burden of proof of such violation will be on the person giving such notice of violation.
Notices of such violation should be sent to:
David Main
16 Ridge Ln
Mayflower, AR 72106
To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication by regular mail setting forth the information identified in each of the numbered paragraphs below. Email will not be accepted unless prior agreement from us is arranged. However, NOTE that if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights, you will be liable for damages, including any attorneys' fees and other related costs.
Please adhere to the following format to assist us in expediting your request:
- Identify the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed using reasonable yet explicit detail. For example, you may provide the title of the work, any ISBN number, or copyright registration numbers. You may also use URLs where the original copyrighted text appears.
- Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in number 1. above with reasonably sufficient (explicit) detail to permit us to locate it. This requires that you provide any search query that you used to locate allegedly infringing content, and the URL for each allegedly infringing search result.
- Provide us with your contact information so that we may contact you by mail and/or by phone. Where available, please provide your email address.
- Always 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."
- Also include the 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."
- Always include the above 2 statements (numbers 4. and 5.) in your correspondence. We will verify the validity of your request based on the above 2 statements (numbers 4. and 5.).
- Make sure you sign the notice. If you are an agent acting on behalf and with full authority for the person or persons claiming infringement please so state your title and relationship to the party claiming infringement.
- Send your written communication to our Designated Agent at the following address:
David Main
16 Ridge Ln
Mayflower, AR 72106
Pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the DMCA, we as owner/administrator of an affected site or provider of affected content may provide a counter notification. If such counter notification is provided it will follow the steps outlined under section "Our Policy and Procedure on Receiving Notice of Copywrite Infringement" before such material in question is removed from our site.
If the alleged infringed material in question, is being used by a 3rd party promoting our services/products, and we have a business relationship with that 3rd party, we will notify such 3rd party of the infringement request and full details of your contact information. We will also notify you that your claim of infringement is against a 3rd part promoter, of which we do or do not have a business relationship.
In the case of a 3rd party promoter, after explicit and legal proof that they have infringed on your copyright or registered material, as so stated in your notice of infringement, we will terminate immediately our relationship with the 3rd party promoter.
If the said material used by the 3rd party promoter was provide by us for their use than we will immediately delete such material and notify all 3rd party promoters to stop using said material.
If the infringing material was created and used solely by the 3rd party we will notify the 3rd party of our actions as to termination of our relationship and any other indemnification steps legally allowed by us. We will only take that action if we have a business relationship to promote our products/service.
Every "good-faith" attempt will be made on our part to protect a proven violation of the DMCA policy.
