Copyright policy

1. Where to send a notice

Use the report form, or write to our designated copyright agent:

Either way, notices are logged the moment they arrive and a person reads every one.

2. What a takedown notice must contain

The form collects all of this for you. If you would rather write your own notice, then to be valid under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3)) it must include:

• Identification of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed (or a representative list, if several works are covered by one notice)
• The material you want removed and where it is — the Bookface URL of each material page (they look like bookface.com/materials/m/123)
• Your name, mailing address, telephone number and email address
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf
• Your physical or electronic signature

A notice missing any of these may be returned to you for completion before we can act.

3. What happens next

We remove or disable access to the identified material within 48 hours of receiving a valid notice, notify the uploader that it was removed and why, and keep a record of the notice and the action taken. Removing a material also takes back any page views the uploader earned from it.

4. Instructors and schools: the fast path

The same applies to a registrar, dean's office or academic-integrity office writing on behalf of a school.

5. Counter-notices

If your upload was removed because of a notice and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, you may send a counter-notice to support@bookface.com containing:

• Identification of the material that was removed and where it appeared
• A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification
• Your name, address and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your district (or, if outside the United States, any district in which Bookface may be found) and that you will accept service of process from the person who filed the original notice
• Your physical or electronic signature

We forward the counter-notice to the person who sent the original notice. If they do not tell us within 10 business days that they have filed a court action, we may restore the material.

6. Repeat infringers

An account whose uploads are removed under valid notices three times loses access to the course materials exchange. We may act sooner where the pattern is clear.

7. Names inside a document

Uploaded notes sometimes contain names — a classmate's, the uploader's own. If you are named in a document and want it removed, write to support@bookface.com with the link. This is not a copyright claim, and we treat it separately, but we act on it.

8. Misrepresentation

Knowingly misrepresenting that material infringes, or that it was removed by mistake, can make you liable for damages under 17 U.S.C. §512(f). If you are not sure whether a use is infringing, consider taking advice before sending a notice.

This policy sits alongside our honor code, terms of service and privacy policy.