DMCA & Copyright

What a valid notice must contain

A complete DMCA notice (17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)) must include:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner (or person authorised to act on their behalf).
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (title, registration number if applicable, link to the original).
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing - including the specific URL(s) on soundassist.online where it can be found. We cannot process a vague "remove all my songs" notice; each item needs its own URL.
4. Your contact information: full legal name, mailing address, phone number, email.
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are authorised to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

Incomplete notices will be returned with a request to supply the missing element. We do not act on incomplete notices because, by law, they are not legally effective (Lenz v. Universal Music, 9th Cir. 2015).

What happens after we receive a notice

• Within 1 business day: we acknowledge receipt + verify the notice meets the elements above.
• Within 3 business days: if the notice is facially valid, the identified content is removed or access-disabled. We notify the user who uploaded it, forwarding your notice (your contact info is included - this is required under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)).
• 10-14 business days later: if the uploader files a valid counter-notice (see below) and you do not file a federal-court action, the content is restored.

Counter-notice (for users who believe content was removed in error)

If your content was removed and you believe in good faith that the removal was the result of mistake or misidentification, you can submit a counter-notice (17 U.S.C. § 512(g)).

Send the counter-notice to info@soundassist.online with subject DMCA Counter-Notice. It must include:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the material that has been removed + its previous URL.
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 full legal name, address, phone number; plus a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district where your address is located (or, if outside the US, any judicial district in which SoundAssist may be found).
5. A statement that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted the original notice.

We forward your counter-notice to the complaining party. If they do not file a federal-court action seeking a restraining order within 10-14 business days, we restore the removed content.

False or abusive notices

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), any person who knowingly misrepresents that material is infringing - or that it was removed by mistake - is liable for damages, including costs and attorney's fees, of any alleged infringer or service provider injured by the misrepresentation.

We log every notice received. If we observe a pattern of notices that appear in bad faith, we may reject future submissions from that party + cooperate with subsequent legal action by injured users.