DMCA Policy⚓︎

Notification of Copyright Infringement Claims⚓︎

Making original work is hard! As described in our Acceptable Use Policy, you can’t use StarCat Brands products and services¹ to make or disseminate work that uses the intellectual property of others beyond the bounds of fair use.

Are you a copyright owner? Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512), you have the right to notify us (StarCat Brands) if you believe that an account user of any product we built and maintain has infringed on your work(s) as copyright owner. To be effective, the notification of claimed infringement must be written.

Notifications must be signed by the holder of the infringed copyright or the holder's authorized agent.
Notifications must clearly and specifically indicate the exact location (URL), nature, and extent of each instance of allegedly infringing content sufficient for us to locate the specific material.
Notifications must clearly and specifically identify the exact copyrighted material that is being infringed.
Notifications must include reasonably sufficient contact information for the copyright owner and, if applicable, the copyright holder's authorized agent.
Notifications must include the following statement: I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, or its agent, or the law. I have taken fair use into consideration.
Notifications must also include the following statement: I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this 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.
In cases where the authorized agent submitting the notification is outside the United States, notifications must include a statement that the complaining party is voluntarily submitting to the jurisdiction of United States law and courts with respect to the notification and all actions arising therefrom.

We can only accept DMCA takedown notices for works that are protected by copyright, and that identify a specific copyrightable work. Alleged trademark abuse, sensetive data, defamation, and the like, are not works that are protected by copyright. Please review our Abuse Policy for how we handle these situations.

If your notification does not meet all the legal requirements, processing may be delayed until the requirements are met, or it may not be possible to process it at all. If possible and reasonable, we will notify you if there are problems that prevent us from processing your notification.

Questions about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and/or its provisions as they may or may not apply to you or your rights therein should be directed to a legal professional. This document is provided as a courtesy by StarCat Brands to help persons with legitimate copyright concerns with member content get their concerns addressed in the most efficient possible way. It is not legal advice nor a substitute for competent professional legal counsel.

StarCat Brands provides complete copies of all notifications received to the operator of any site referenced in the notification, and reserves the right to make copies available to third parties for academic study and legal review as we see fit. Under no circumstances will StarCat Brands treat any use, or abuse, of the DMCA notification process as confidential, even if the notification specifically requests otherwise.

DCMA Counter-Notifications⚓︎

On the flip-side, if you believe your material has been removed in error, you can file a written counter-notification.

Warning

Submitting a DMCA counter notice can have real legal consequences. If the complaining party disagrees that their takedown notice was mistaken, they might decide to file a lawsuit against you to keep the content disabled. You should conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations made in the takedown notice before submitting a counter notice.

Your counter-notification must be in writing and must contain the following elements:

An identification of the allegedly infringing material and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
The following statement: I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good-faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
Your name, address, email address, and telephone number.
One of the following two statements:
- If your address is in the United States: I consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which my address is located, and I will accept service of process from the person who provided the DMCA notification or an agent of such person.
- If your address is not in the United States: I consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (where StarCat Companies LLC is located), and I will accept service of process from the person who provided the DMCA notification or an agent of such person.
Your physical or electronic signature.

You may also choose to communicate the reasons why you believe there was a mistake or misidentification. If you think of your counter notice as a "note" to the complaining party, this is a chance to explain why they should not take the next step and file a lawsuit in response.

We are legally required to provide a copy of your counter-notification to the claimant. This means they will receive your contact information and may file a lawsuit against you.

The claimant then has ten days after receiving the counter-notification from us to file an action against you in the appropriate court seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in infringing activity relating to the allegedly infringing material and notify us that they've done so. If they do not, we will restore access to the material. (In a case where you disabled access yourself, we will restore access to the material by notifying you when it is OK to restore it. Do not under any circumstances restore access to the allegedly infringing content or make it available at a new location without that notification.)

How to Submit your Claim or Counter-Notification⚓︎

You can notify us of either copyright infringement claims or DCMA counter-notifications through the following channels:

By email: Send an email notification with your claim or counter-notification to report@starcatbrands.com. If you use email, make sure you're sending a scanned or PDF copy that shows your physical or verifiable digital signature.
By physical mail: If you must send your notice by physical mail, you can do that too, but it will take substantially longer for us to receive and respond to it. Notices we receive via email have a much faster turnaround than physical mail. (And for counter-notifications, the 10-day waiting period starts from when we receive your counter-notice.) If you still wish to mail us your notice, our mailing address is:
```
StarCat Companies LLC
Attn: DMCA Agent
PO Box 770951
Lakewood, OH 44107
```

This policy and process applies to any product and/or service created and owned by StarCat Brands. You can find a full list of our products/services on the StarCat Brands Homepage or at https://about.starcatbrands.com/general/service_domains/. ↩