DMCA Safe Harbor Requirements (Registering your Copyright Agent)
Posted by gotmike on February 13, 2008
User generated content fuels Web 2.0 websites and services, but poses unique problems for the platforms that support it. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides safe harbor to some Internet service providers against claims of contributory infringement based on content stored or published on behalf of users. To qualify for the DMCA safe harbor defense, your company needs to adopt a DMCA compliant notice and take-down policy. As a threshold matter, however, company’s must register a copyright agent, to receive notice on behalf of the company. This simple step is often overlooked, and failure to file this form with the Copyright Office jeopardizes a company’s potential protection under the law.
The following is the procedure for registering your Copyright Agent courtesy of the U.S. Copyright Office. Keep in mind that the compeleted form will become public record, so you don’t want to provide any personal information (e.g., phone numbers or addresses) that you don’t want made public.
The Copyright Office published in interim
regulations the procedure by which
a service provider may designate an agent to receive notifications of claimed
infringement. The Copyright Office makes available formats for filing
an Interim Designation or an Amended
Designation. An Amended Designation
will replace in its entirety an Interim Designation or a prior Amended Designation
for the same service provider. You have the options of filling in the blanks
while viewing the form online and then printing out and signing the completed
form, or downloading or printing the blank form and then completing it. The
form must then be mailed or hand-delivered to the Copyright Office.You may also prepare your own form, but should ensure that it includes all
the information required in section 201.38(c)
or (f), as appropriate, of the interim regulations. Please note that the
entire Interim Designation or Amended Designation that you submit will be
posted on the Copyright Office’s
website. If you include extraneous information that is not required by the
interim regulations, that information will also be scanned and posted on
the website.An Interim Designation or an Amended Designation must be accompanied by
an $80 fee (an increase since the regulations were published), payable to
the Register of Copyrights. If mailed, the designation should be addressed
to: Copyright GC/I&R,
P.O. Box 70400, Washington, DC 20024. A service provider may also file a
designation in person by delivering it to the Public Information Office of
the Copyright Office, James Madison Memorial Building, Library of Congress,
101 Independence Avenue, SE, Washington, DC, Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to
5:00 p.m. eastern time, except federal holidays.The Copyright Office reviews each designation for obvious error (e.g., that
the entity listed as the service provider does not name another legal entity
as its alternative name) and to ensure that all requisite information has
been provided (e.g., full legal name, complete address, signature); it does
not substantively examine the designations of agents for accuracy or for
compliance with the law or with Copyright Office regulations. The fact that
the Office has accepted a designation of an agent and has included it in
the Office’s directory of agents should not be construed as a judgment
by the Office that the designation is sufficient or error-free.Definition: For purposes of section 512(c), a “service
provider” is defined as a provider of online services or network access,
or the operator of facilities therefor, including an entity offering the
transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online communications,
between or among points specified by a user, of material of the user’s
choosing, without modification to the content of the material as sent or
received.Mail the forms below to:
Copyright GC/I&R
P.O. Box 70400
Washington, DC 20024To designate an agent:
To amend a previously files “Designation of Agent”:
To see the list of designated agents:
