How does the Company Address Copyright Infringement on the Website/Application?

The Company will act in accordance with applicable laws when it is made aware of any infringing activity on the Website/Application broadly as laid out below:

Policy Highlights

1. The Company will work towards resolving all Copyright complaints (“Complaint”) it receives by any Copyright Owner (“Complainant”), whether the Complainant’s work is a Published Work on the Website/Application or it is originally published on an external medium and subsequently copied on the Company’s Website/Application, in accordance with the legal requirements applicable to it as an intermediary entity.
2. The Complaint must be accompanied by adequate, valid and clear proof of their Copyright ownership and the specific instance of the Copyright infringement so as to enable the Company to take the Complaint on record. In case of any deficiency, the Company reserves the right to refuse to take the Complaint on record and/or seek additional documentation at the Company’s sole discretion.
3. The Company will: 

1. Consider all cases of infringement on the Website/Application it becomes aware of either through a Complaint by a Complainant or report by other Users or through its internal systems designed to detect copied material within the Website/Application.

2. Take down Published Works where there is substantial similarity between it and the Complainant’s work (the Company shall assess such similarity on a case to case basis) after taking into consideration the date of first publication between the two. 

3. in cases of partial similarity, 

1. not adjudicate on the existence of or the likelihood of Copyright infringement. This includes similarities with respect to plots, characters, storylines etc.

2. consider various factors while deciding to take the Published Work down, such as whether the Complaint is by the Copyright Owner, by any other User or the level of similarity detected by the Company’s internally developed tools.

3. Provide a chance to the author against whose Published Works the Complaint is received to declare his/her position on the validity of the Complaint.

4. Encourage the Complainant and such concerned author to resolve issues amicably.

5. And if the Complaint is by a Complainant, proceed to remove content for 21 days from the date of receipt of the Complaint. If the author against whom Complaint is received denies any wrongdoing, the Complainant will be directed to initiate legal proceedings in the appropriate courts to seek an order for removal of the Published Works from the Company’s Application / Website and the Company will abide by the same once furnished to the Company. However, after the 21 day period and till such legal order is received from the Complainant, the Company reserves the right to retain or remove the content in question.

4. The Complainant must seek independent legal advice to consider initiating legal proceedings against the author who he/she has initiated a Complaint against. The Company cannot advise on the same.

Timelines 

The below timelines shall apply to the Complaint:

 

1. Acknowledgement of Complaint within 24 hours.

2. Removal of the Published Work within 36 hours (unless the Complaint is resolved prior).

3. Continue to disallow publishing of the work for 21 days (unless the Complaint is resolved prior).

4. Resolution of issue within 15 working days.

 

How to File a Copyright Infringement Complaint?

A Complaint should be filed by writing to Mr. Jitesh Donga, Grievance Officer at [email protected] with the following information:

1. the description of the Published Work with adequate information to identify it, including but not limited to the link on the Website/Application;

2. details establishing that the Complainant is the Copyright Owner or exclusive licensee of Copyright in the Published Work, or if the Complaint is by a User, then substantial documentation confirming proof of Copyright infringement;

3. details establishing that the Published Work is allegedly an infringing copy of the work owned by the Complainant and that the allegedly infringing act is not covered under section 52 of The Copyright Act, 1957 or any other act that is permitted by the The Copyright Act, 1957;

4. details of the location on the Website/Application where the Published Work is published or if a book, the ISBN number and other such details depending on the medium of publishing of the original work;

5. details of the User (including but not limited to the profile name, and link to the User profile), if known, who is responsible for uploading the Published Work infringing the Copyright of the Complainant; and

6. User (including but not limited to the profile name, and link to the User profile) and an undertaking that the Complainant shall file an infringement suit in the competent court against the User responsible for uploading the  infringing work and produce the order of the competent court having jurisdiction, within a period of 21 days from the receipt of the notice. 

 

Enforcement of the Copyright Policy

Depending on the nature of Complaint and final resolution reached, the Company may take one or more of the following actions:

1. Move the Published Works to draft status where the author may not re-publish the same without permission from the Company.

2. Permanently delete the Published Works from the author’s profile where the author may not re-publish the same thereafter.

3. If 2 or more incidents have occurred for Published Works of any one author profile and Published Works have been permanently deleted as per this policy due to its infringing nature, the Company may block the User profile from the Website/Application (This disables the User from logging on to the Website/Application using the blocked profile’s credentials. All the content of the User including Published Works and Inputs gets removed. The Company will provide 24 hours to the User for taking a back-up of the Published Works before blocking).

Infringement of Published Work on an External Medium

We are aware that many authors have faced instances of unauthorized copying of their Published Works by third parties on external mediums.

Such authors must immediately file reports on the concerned platforms as per their policies for infringement of the author’s Copyright. If the issue is not resolved, we strongly urge You to consider seeking appropriate legal advice.