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Sideway Policies and Guidelines
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# Sideway Copyright and DMCA Policy
Effective: September 17, 2016
This policy explains how Sideway responds to the allegations of unauthorized use of copyrighted
images, text, or links to allegedly infringing materials under the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act ("DMCA").
## The DMCA
Section 512 of the DMCA outlines the statutory requirements for formally reporting copyright
infringement. It also explains how to challenge a notification of claimed infringement by submitting
a counter-notice.
## Do You Have Rights in a Copyrighted Work?
If you aren't sure whether you own the copyright in a particular work, please consult an attorney
before sending a copyright notice to us. Unfortunately, Sideway cannot give you legal advice.
## How To File a DMCA Notice
To submit a notice of claimed copyright infringement, you will need to provide us with the
following information:
1. A physical or electronic signature (typing your full name will suffice) of the copyright
owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (e.g., a copy of or
link to your original work or clear description of the materials allegedly being infringed upon);
3. Identification of the infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit
Sideway to locate the material on our website or services (e.g., a link to the infringing post);
4. Your contact information, including your address, telephone number, and an email address;
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material in the manner
asserted is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under penalty of
perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
You can report alleged copyright infringement by emailing the above information to
[support@sideway.com](mailto:support@sideway.com).
Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), you may be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys'
fees incurred by us or our users, if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or
activity is infringing. If you aren't sure whether the material you are reporting is in fact
infringing your rights, you should consult an attorney before sending us a copyright notification.
## How Sideway Processes the Claim
We process copyright notices in the order they are received. Please note that submitting
duplicate DMCA notifications may cause delayed processing.
Sideway's response to notices of alleged copyright infringement may include the removal or
restriction of access to allegedly infringing material.
If we remove or restrict access to user content in response to a notice of alleged infringement,
Sideway will make a good-faith effort to contact the affected account holder and provide
information concerning the removal or restriction of access, including a copy of the takedown
notice, along with instructions for filing a counter-notification.
We will also forward a copy of the complaint to the [Lumen database](https://lumendatabase.org/).
Where appropriate, Sideway may suspend and warn repeat violators, and in more serious cases,
permanently terminate user accounts.
## When You Receive a DMCA Notification
If you receive a DMCA notification, it means that the content described in the notice has been
removed from Sideway or access to the content on Sideway has been restricted. Please carefully
read our notice to you, which includes information about the notification we received as well
as instructions on how to file a counter-notice.
## Filing a Counter-Notice
If you received a DMCA notification about your material and believe that material was
misidentified or removed in error, you should file a counter-notice by following the instructions
below.
Re-posting material removed in response to a DMCA notification may result in permanent account
suspension. If you believe the content was removed in error, please file a counter-notice instead
of re-posting the material.
To submit a counter-notice, please provide us with the following information:
1. A physical or electronic signature (typing your full name will suffice);
2. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and
the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled
(the description from the DMCA notice will suffice);
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief that the material was
removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed
or disabled; and
4. Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction
of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located, or if
your address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which Sideway may be
found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the copyright
notification or an agent of such person.
To submit a counter-notice, please respond to our original email notification of the removal and
include the above information in the body of your reply.
## After You Submit a Counter-Notice
When we receive a valid counter-notice, we will promptly forward a copy to the person who filed
the original notification. If we don't receive notice within 10 business days that the original
reporter is seeking a court order to prevent further infringement of the material, we may replace
or cease disabling access to the material that was removed.
## Think Long and Hard Before Filing a DMCA Notification or Counter-Notice
Please think carefully before submitting a claim or counter-notice, especially if you aren't
sure whether you are the actual rights holder or authorized to act on a rights holder's behalf.
There are legal and financial penalties for fraudulent and/or bad-faith claims. Please make sure
you are the actual rights holder, or you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed
in error, and that you understand the repercussions of submitting a false claim.
## Learn More
To learn more about the DMCA and 512, check out the following resources:
- [United States Copyright Office](http://copyright.gov/)
- [Lumen](https://lumendatabase.org/)
- [Electronic Frontier Foundation](https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/IP)
## Changes to this Policy
We can change these Terms at any time. We keep a historical record of all changes to our Terms on
[GitHub](https://github.com/sideway/policies). If a change is material, we'll notify you on the Sideway
site before it take effect. By using Sideway on or after that effective date, you agree to the new Terms.
If you don't agree to them, you should delete your account before they take effect, otherwise your use of
the site and content will be subject to the new Terms.
## Questions
We welcome questions, concerns, and feedback about this policy at [support@sideway.com](mailto:support@sideway.com).