Our approach
Members publish blog articles, posts, recipes, photos, videos, listings and more on United Pet Club. Everything they publish must be theirs to share. When a rights holder tells us that something here copies their work or misuses their trademark, we act on it quickly and fairly to both sides.
Who is responsible for what members post
The member who posts content is responsible for it. They must own it, or have the owner's permission to publish it on United Pet Club. Every member agrees to this in the Platform Agreement.
Section 4 of the Platform Agreement covers the license members give us over what they post, section 7 their promise that they own it or are allowed to use it, and section 12 the rules against infringing other people's rights. We can remove content and close accounts that break these rules.
How to report infringing content
If you own the rights to a work, or you are authorized to act for the owner, send us a notice with the copyright notice form. One notice can name up to 10 pages on United Pet Club.
When a notice is complete, we act quickly: content named in it is taken down right away while we review the notice. We then confirm the removal or put the content back.
If a notice is missing something, we may not be able to act on it until we have the missing details.
What a complete notice contains
The notice form asks for each of these. If you write to us by email instead, include all of them:
- Your name, postal address and email address (a phone number helps), and your organization if you act for one.
- The work you own, or the trademark, described so we can recognize it, with a link to the original if there is one.
- Where the copy is on United Pet Club: a link to each page.
- A statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorized by the owner, their agent or the law.
- A statement that the information in your notice is accurate.
- A statement that you own the rights or are authorized to act for the owner.
- Your signature. In the form, typing your full name signs the notice.
Canada: notice and notice
Under Canada's Copyright Act, we forward a notice to the person who posted the content as soon as we can, and we tell you once it has been forwarded, or why it could not be.
We keep a record of every notice and what we did with it for at least one year.
United States: DMCA
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we remove or disable access to content named in a complete notice, tell the person who posted it, and accept counter-notices.
You can also send a notice to our designated agent by email. The notice form is the fastest way, because it collects everything a complete notice needs.
If your content was taken down: counter-notices
When we take down something you posted, we email you and show the notice on the Copyright notices page in your Dashboard (Settings, then Copyright notices). You can see who sent it, which work they claim and what we did.
If you believe the content was removed by mistake or misidentified, send a counter-notice from that page. We pass it to the person who sent the notice, including your contact details. A counter-notice asks for:
- The content that was taken down (the page fills this in for you).
- A statement that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification.
- Your consent to the jurisdiction of the courts where you live, or where we are located if you live outside Canada and the United States.
- Your name, address, phone number and email address.
- Your signature: your full name, typed.
When content comes back
Once we forward a counter-notice, the content is restored after 10 business days unless the person who sent the notice tells us they have started a court action about it. Our team can also restore content sooner if the review finds no infringement.
Repeat infringers
Each notice our team upholds counts as a strike on the profile that posted the content. A strike expires after 12 months, and it is lifted if the content is restored.
A profile with 3 active strikes is reviewed, and we may suspend or close it, along with the account it belongs to. You can see your profile's strikes on the Copyright notices page in your Dashboard.
False notices and counter-notices
Only send a notice for content you own the rights to, or that you are authorized to act for. Knowingly misrepresenting that content infringes, or that it was removed by mistake, can make you liable for damages, and we may stop acting on notices from senders who abuse the process. Think about fair dealing or fair use before you send one.
Trademarks
Use the same form for a trademark and choose Trademark. Describe the mark, where it is registered and its registration number if it has one, and how the content on United Pet Club could mislead people about who is behind it.
Questions
For questions about this policy or a notice you sent, email [email protected] and include your notice reference if you have one.