The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) (17 U.S.C. § 512) is a United States statutory law that provides safe harbors from copyright infringement liability for online service providers.
In order to qualify for safe harbor protection, certain types of service providers—including, those that allow users to post or store material on their systems, and search engines, directories, and other information location tools— must designate an agent to receive notifications of claimed copyright infringement. To designate an agent, a service provider must do two things: (1) make certain contact information for the agent available to the public on its website; and (2) provide the same information to the United States Copyright Office, which maintains a centralized online directory of designated agent contact information for public use. The service provider bears the responsibility to ensure that this information is up to date.
The designation of a DMCA agent is not the only thing that a service provider needs to do in order to attempt to avail itself of safe harbor immunity and here at DMCAAgent.com we will provide you with the education and tools necessary to protect yourself.
US Copyright Office Registration and Administration
The first and most essential step of becoming DMCA compliant is being properly registered with the US Copyright Office. The Designation of a DMCA Agent is required under the DMCA. DMCAAgent.com will take care of that for you. We will handle your registration and administer your filing with the US Copyright Office.
As of December 31, 2017, the US Copyright Office discontinued its old paper-based designation of agent system and moved to digital record keeping. All service providers are required to register or re-register (if you were part of the old “paper” based system)
DMCA Compliance and Education
Registration with the US Copyright Office is not the end-all, be-all, of DMCA compliance. There are various other requirements that a Service Provider must fulfill in order to potentially avail itself of the DMCA Safe Harbor defense, including but not limited to, expeditiously handling DMCA Notices and Counter-Notices, proper legal notices on the Service Provider’s website(s,) and having and enforcing a repeat infringer policy. There is a history of cases where a Service Provider facing a copyright infringement lawsuit was not able to avail itself of the Safe-Harbor defense because it did not comply with other portions of the DMCA; don’t leave yourself exposed to the potential of millions of dollars in damages.
DMCAAgent.com will provide you with the education and documentation that you need to make sure that you are operating with the confines of the law.
DMCA Notice Validation
A substantial number of DMCA Notifications are deficient, invalid, or fraudulent. DMCAAgent.com is ready to help you navigate through the process of evaluating DMCA Notifications and handling notices that are deficient, invalid or fraudulent.
Record Keeping of DMCA Notices
At DMCAAgent.com, we store all DMCA Notifications received. So, no matter what happens to your local computers or networks, we will always have a stored copy, providing an essential backup and secondary storage for these critical legal documents.
Legal Representation
DMCA Agent is founded by Silverstein Legal. Many so-called “DMCA Agents” are not legal professionals and are not capable of handling your needs if a copyright claim escalates. DMCAAgent.com is operated by a licensed and insured law firm with more than a decade of experience with Copyright law and litigation. As a DMCA Agent customer, Silverstein Legal will have your back with priority service if an urgent legal matter comes up.
Note: Legal representation is billed hourly outside of the DMCA Agent service.