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Draft — under review. BuildBLK is pre-launch. This document is published for transparency and is not yet in effect. Questions: hello@buildblk.org

BuildBLK — Copyright & DMCA Policy

Effective Date: [DATE]

## ⚠ ACTION REQUIRED BEFORE LAUNCH DMCA safe harbor under 17 U.S.C. § 512 is not automatic. To have it, BuildBLK must register a Designated Agent with the U.S. Copyright Office (dmca.copyright.gov, ~$6, renewable every 3 years) and publish the agent's contact information on the site.

Without registration, the organization is directly exposed to copyright liability for every photo a user uploads. Statutory damages run up to $150,000 per willful infringement. This is a $6 fix and one of the highest return-on-effort items in the entire project. Do it before the first photo upload goes live.

Designated Copyright Agent

[AGENT NAME]

[LEGAL ENTITY NAME]

[ADDRESS]

Email: [DMCA EMAIL]

Phone: [PHONE]

Registered with the U.S. Copyright Office on [DATE]. Registration number [NUMBER].

Our position

BuildBLK hosts photos, reviews, and descriptions submitted by users and business owners. We respect copyright and we expect our users to.

Business owners: only upload photos you took yourself or have a license to use. Photos pulled from Google, Instagram accounts you don't control, stock sites without a license, or another business's website are not yours to post — even if the photo is of your own business. Photographers own their photographs unless they've assigned that right in writing.

Reporting infringement — DMCA notice

If you believe material on BuildBLK infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our Designated Agent above. To be effective under § 512(c)(3), your notice must include all of the following:

  1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or someone authorized to act for them
  2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed (or a representative list, if multiple)
  3. Identification of the infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to let us locate it — a direct URL is best
  4. Your contact information: name, address, telephone number, and email
  5. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
  6. A statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner

Incomplete notices may not be actionable. If yours is missing an element, we will tell you what's missing.

⚠ 17 U.S.C. § 512(f): anyone who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees. Do not use a DMCA notice to remove content you simply dislike, or to attack a competitor.

What happens after we receive a notice

  1. We expeditiously remove or disable access to the material.
  2. We notify the person who posted it, with a copy of the notice.
  3. We tell them they may submit a counter-notice.
  4. We record the notice against the account for our repeat-infringer policy.

Counter-notice

If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake or misidentification, send a counter-notice to our Designated Agent containing all of the following, as required by § 512(g)(3):

  1. Your physical or electronic signature
  2. Identification of the material removed and the location where it appeared before removal
  3. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification
  4. Your name, address, and telephone number
  5. 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 outside the U.S., any judicial district in which we may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who filed the notice or their agent

What happens next: we forward your counter-notice to the original complainant. If they do not file a court action seeking to restrain the activity within 10–14 business days, we may restore the material.

⚠ A counter-notice is a sworn legal statement that consents to federal court jurisdiction. Do not file one casually. If you're unsure whether you have the rights to the material, consult an attorney.

Repeat infringer policy

As required by § 512(i), we terminate the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.

Our standard:

EventConsequence
First valid noticeContent removed, warning issued, notice recorded
Second valid noticeContent removed, upload privileges suspended 30 days
Third valid noticeAccount terminated, listings removed

A notice that is successfully counter-noticed and not followed by a court action does not count as a strike. Strikes expire after two (2) years.

We may terminate an account immediately for egregious or clearly willful infringement.

Trademark complaints

For trademark issues — someone using your business name, logo, or mark on a BuildBLK listing — email [LEGAL EMAIL] with subject "Trademark Complaint." Include:

Trademark has no DMCA-style statutory process, so we evaluate these case by case and may ask both parties for input before acting.

Our own content

The BuildBLK name, logo, the Verified badge design, our site design, text, and software are owned by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME]. Businesses with an active Verified designation receive a limited license to the badge under the Business Listing Agreement. All other rights reserved.

Third-party attribution

Some map and place data on the Service is provided by third parties and is displayed under their terms, with the attribution they require. Those providers retain their rights in that data.

Internal checklist — delete before publishing