A300-R – COPYRIGHT SAFE HARBOR

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A300-R – COPYRIGHT SAFE HARBOR

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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) includes a set of provisions commonly known as the DMCA Safe Harbors. These provisions are designed to protect online service providers (OSPs) from liability from copyright claims arising out of conduct by their end-users that copyright holders claim is infringing. 

By providing a website for use by third-parties including students, staff, and parents, and lacking total control over the content created or shared by those parties, Franklin Township Community School Corporation is an OSP pursuant to the terms of the DMCA. If specific procedures and requirements of the DMCA are satisfied, an OSP has no liability for money damages resulting from copyright infringement by third-parties on its website.  

The conditions for eligibility for safe harbor are as follows:  

  1. Someone other than the OSP makes the allegedly infringing material available online;  
  2. The original website owner transmits material through the service provider’s system or network at the direction of a third party (e.g., an end-user who calls up the original website or online source);  
  3. The material is stored through automated processes for purpose of making it available to yet other users who request access to the material, if the following conditions are satisfied:  
  4. The material is transmitted to subsequent users without modification;  
  5. The service provider does not allow access to the material without passwords or fees if they were require by the original site;  
  6. Take-down: The service provider must expeditiously take down or block access to the allegedly infringing cached matter when the provider receives a DMCA-compliant takedown notice (same as storage safe harbor) if and only if:  
  7. The infringing material has been taken down from original site, and  
  8. The complainant so states in its notice to the OSP. 

Repeat Infringers 

In determining whether termination is appropriate, the Corporation may take into account, in addition to the number of infringements committed by an individual, the following considerations, among others:  

  • Whether the infringements were obvious or blatant, as opposed to debatable or unclear, including whether the user might, in good faith, have believed that the posted material did not infringe. 
  • Whether infringing matters appear to be the mainstay of the user’s postings on our web site, or only a few among myriad lawful postings.  
  • How many times the user has posted blatantly infringing matter, and over how long a period of time.  
  • How many valid notices of infringement that have resulted in take-downs, even if the Corporation could not easily and fairly determine the merits of the infringement claim.  
  • Whether the user has filed counter-notices, and the outcome.  
  • Whether the user has some credible explanation for offering infringing goods or works, and what it may be doing to avoid a repetition of the situation 

Designation of Copyright Agent 

To qualify for safe harbor status, online service providers must provide the United States Copyright Office with the following information to designate an agent, amend a designation, or resubmit a designation: 

  • Contact information for two representatives who will serve as primary and secondary contacts with the United States Copyright Office. A service provider is required to provide contact information for primary and secondary contacts when the service provider sets up an account to log into the Office’s system. 
  • Contact information for the service provider. A service provider must provide its full legal name, physical street address, telephone number, and email address. A post office box is not allowed unless a waiver is granted by the United States Copyright Office. 
  • Alternate names used by the service provider. Alternate names include names under which the service provider is doing business, website names and addresses (i.e., URLs), software application names, and other commonly used terms that members of the public are likely to use to search for the service provider. Separate legal entities, such as corporate parents or subsidiaries, are considered separate service providers (not alternate names) and must submit separate designations of agents. 
  • Contact information for the designated agent. A service provider must provide its designated agent’s name, organization if different from service provider, street address or P.O. Box, telephone number, and email address. The same information is required by the DMCA to appear on the service provider’s website. 

Registrations are for a three-year term. Designated contacts should calendar renewal or  safe harbor status will be lost. To register, go to this page: https://www.copyright.gov/dmca-directory/ or if the Copyright Office reorganizes its site, start at its home page https://copyright.gov/ and look for DMCA agents or registration. 

17 U.S.C. § 512 

Franklin Township Community School Corporation

Adopted 7/8/2020