VTuber Marketplace DMCA / Copyright Policy

Pre-production draft. This document has not been reviewed by a licensed attorney. Recommend licensed attorney review before commercial launch or major scaling. Not legal advice.

Last updated: [LAST UPDATED DATE — set when you publish]

This policy explains how VTuber Marketplace responds to claims of copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. § 512. It is incorporated into our Terms of Service and backs the platform's bans on AI-generated content and stolen/unauthorized use of another artist's work referenced in the Terms of Service, Seller Agreement, and Community Guidelines.

1. Designated agent

VTuber Marketplace has designated the following agent to receive notices of claimed copyright infringement:

Field	Value
Designated agent name	[Designated Agent Name/Email — to be filled in by operator]
Email	support@vtubermarketplace.com (subject line: "DMCA Notice")
Mailing address	See ENTITY.md — to be added before launch

Operator note: Before commercial launch, replace the designated-agent name placeholder above with the actual individual, role, or registered agent handling copyright notices, and file/renew that designation with the U.S. Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Directory — this is a business/legal-operations task, not something implemented in code.

Only send copyright claims to this agent. Other complaints (impersonation, harassment, trademark, prohibited content) should be reported in-app using Report, or emailed to support@vtubermarketplace.com without the "DMCA Notice" subject line.

2. How to submit a takedown notice

To be effective under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), your written notice must include all of the following:

1. Identification of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed (or a representative list, if multiple works on the Service are covered by one notice).

2. Identification of the infringing material — the specific listing URL, listing ID, or other content on the Service you claim is infringing, with enough detail for us to locate it.

3. Your contact information — name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address.

4. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

5. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

6. Your physical or electronic signature.

We may reject incomplete notices and will tell you what is missing. Submitting a knowingly false notice may expose you to liability under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).

3. What happens after we receive a valid notice

We will remove or disable access to the identified listing or content, typically without prior notice to the seller, as permitted under the DMCA safe harbor.

We will notify the affected seller that their content was removed and provide them a copy of the notice (redacted where reasonable).

The seller may respond with a counter-notice under §4 below.

We may also record the notice against the seller's account for purposes of our repeat-infringer policy.

4. Counter-notice process

If your listing or content was removed and you believe this was a mistake or misidentification, you may submit a counter-notice. To be effective under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3), it must include:

1. Identification of the material that was removed and its location on the Service before removal.

2. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification.

3. Your name, address, and telephone number.

4. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, if outside the United States, any judicial district in which VTuber Marketplace may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted the original takedown notice (or their agent).

5. Your physical or electronic signature.

Send counter-notices to the designated agent in §1. Upon receiving a valid counter-notice, we will forward it to the original complaining party. Unless that party files a court action seeking to restrain the seller from the infringing activity, we may restore the removed content in 10–14 business days, as the DMCA permits.

5. Repeat-infringer policy

VTuber Marketplace terminates the accounts of users determined to be repeat infringers. An account that receives multiple confirmed valid DMCA takedown notices — notices that are not successfully countered or resolved in the seller's favor — will be terminated, in addition to any strike, listing removal, or other enforcement already applied.

A confirmed report that a listing uses stolen or unauthorized content — whether raised as a DMCA notice under this policy or as an in-app report under the Community Guidelines — results in removal of the listing and counts as an enforcement escalation against the seller's account, alongside (but separate from) the link-health strike system described in the Seller Agreement §5. Repeated confirmed incidents move a seller up the enforcement ladder described in the Community Guidelines (Part F — Enforcement) faster than a single incident would, and may independently justify suspension or a permanent ban.

This repeat-infringer policy works together with, and independently of, our ban on AI-generated content and our ban on stolen or unauthorized use of another artist's work (see Seller Agreement §2 and Community Guidelines) — a copyright issue can be enforced under this policy, under those content-integrity rules, or both.

6. Contact

Copyright agent: support@vtubermarketplace.com (subject line: "DMCA Notice")