TAKEDOWN POLICY

What's in this policy?

This policy sets out the procedure that we adopt for reporting, investigating and removing infringing materials that may be uploaded to our platform https://www.voicy.network/ (our “Platform”).

As an online content-sharing service provider, we do not generally monitor the content uploaded to our Platform and are under no obligation to so under the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (EU) 2019/790 (“Directive”).

We may, from time to time, take measures that we believe are reasonable and proportionate to moderate content uploaded to our platform to ensure compliance with our Acceptable Use Policy and/or to assist rightsholders in taking steps to address any issues relating to alleged infringements on our Platform.

Do you believe that your rights have been infringed upon? How can you request a takedown notice?

Given the nature of the content on our Platform, which comprises user generated materials mainly in the form of memes and gifs (including audio-embedded memes and audio-embedded gifs), we rely upon the notification of rightsholders in order to properly identify alleged infringements to us so that we can undertake our best efforts to take the appropriate steps to address any complaints as expeditiously as possible.

If you believe your intellectual property rights are being infringed on our Platform, the quickest way to report allegedly infringing content is by using our in-Platform reporting functionalities.

If, for whatever reason, you are unable to access or use such in-Platform reporting functionalities, then you can also report allegedly infringing content by contacting us at info@voicy.network, and one of our moderators will review the complaint.

If you are emailing us, please include in the subject of any email “TAKEDOWN NOTICE” so that we can identify and direct the complaint to the appropriate moderators dealing with your request. Each takedown notice will generate a unique ticket and will be dealt with by one of our dedicated moderators.

What information or evidence do you need to provide?

To deal with any complaint as expeditiously as possible, we require certain information from you to (i) verify that you are the rightsholder in relation to the content complained of; (ii) confirm that you are able to or have the authority to make the complaint, if you are acting on behalf of the rightsholder; (iii) properly identify the scope of the complaint, i.e., exactly what content is being complained about; (iv) to correspond and send updates to you in relation to a complaint.

The information we require is as follows:

• Your full name;
• Confirmation that you are the rightsholder, or if you are not the rightsholder, confirmation that you are acting on behalf of the rightsholder and details concerning the capacity of your acting (e.g., as the rightsholder’s duly appointed attorney). If you are acting on behalf of a rightsholder, we may request to see a letter of authority signed by the rightsholder authorising you to make the complaint on behalf of the rightsholder;
• Your postal address, email address and telephone number;
• A URL link identifying the specific content complained of on our Platform. Please note, we cannot deal with generic requests or notices, and we make no assumptions about what content on our Platform may or may not be within the scope of your notice;
• Details concerning:
1. Where there rightsholder is based, by reference to country;
2. A description of the protected work; e.g., a photograph, video, sound clip, logo, symbol. We may require that you provide additional details about when your protected work was first published and details of what website, page, notice board, forum, or other channel such material(s) were first uploaded by you together with evidence of the same.
3. Why you are reporting the content, e.g., it comprises a protected copyright work, a registered trademark, you appear in the content, or it includes your personal details etc. If you are reporting the alleged infringement of a copyright work and/or registered trademark, we may require that you provide details of any copyright registration (if applicable) and, in the case of a registered trademark, details of the applicable trademark registry entry from the issuing intellectual property office. We may also ask you to provide us with the relevant registration certificate(s) from the applicable issuing intellectual property office so that we can verify that you are the rightsholder.
4. Any other information you consider relevant to the complaint.
• A declaration in the form: “I state that I have a good-faith belief that the reported use described above, in the manner that I have complained of, is not authorised by the intellectual property rights owner, its agent or the law; that the information contained in this notice is accurate; and, under penalty of perjury, that I am authorised to act on behalf of this notice or on behalf of the owner of the intellectual property rights at issue.”

If you fail to provide the relevant and necessary information required to sufficiently substantiate a complaint as set out above, then you acknowledge and agree that it may take us longer to process your notice until you provide such information.

You also understand and agree that without such information outlined above, we cannot undertake our best efforts to avoid the availability of any unauthorised content on our Platform. As such, we do not accept any liability for unauthorised acts of communication to the public or making available to the public such unidentified works or other subject matter.

What happens after you make a complaint?

The steps that we take in cooperation with rightsholders are without prejudice to the application of exceptions or limitations to copyright, including, in particular, those which guarantee the freedom of expression of our users.

We aim to build a community that is free to create content within the permitted confines of applicable laws. To that end, we respect the rights of rightsholders and our users alike.

Our users have the right to be allowed to upload and make available content generated by them under specific exceptions/ limitations, including but not limited to the specific purposes of quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody or pastiche. Equally, rightsholders have the right to enforce their rights against content that does not fall within any permitted exceptions/ limitations to the applicable law.

Whilst we make no assessments in terms of merit and/or legality of any uses of content uploaded on our Platform, we aim to strike a balance between the freedom of expression and the freedom of the arts, and the right to property, including intellectual property, in furtherance of the spirit of the Directive. To do this, we adopt the following procedure with respect to any complaint:

• Upon receiving a substantiated complaint, Voicy will notify the relevant user that a takedown notice has been issued against their content.
• The user subject to the complaint will have 10 days from the date of receiving the complaint to submit a counternotice in relation to that complaint specifying the reasons why they are allowed to use the content complained of.
• Voicy will forward to the rightsholder a copy of the counternotice and the rightsholder will have 10 days from the date of receiving the counternotice to confirm that they have filed or intend to file further legal action against the user.
• Voicy may takedown the content complained of temporarily until such time the user submits a counternotice. If no such counternotice has been submitted, then Voicy shall not reinstate such content. Important note for users: Reposting of complained of content may lead to temporary or permanent account suspension.
• If following the submission of a counternotice the complaining rightsholder has not provided Voicy with confirmation that they have filed or intend to file further legal action against the complained of user, within in the period set out in point 3, then Voicy we may replace or cease disabling access to the content that was removed.

In order to facilitate the above process, each the user and rightsholder acknowledge and agree and hereby provide consent, by virtue of engaging in the above process, that their contact details may be shared by Voicy so that respective parties can resolve the issues directly between them.

Please take care not to issue unsubstantiated takedown notices or counternotices, particularly if you are not sure whether you are the actual rights holder or authorized to act on a rights holder’s behalf. There are legal and financial consequences for fraudulent and/or bad faith submissions. Please be sure that you are the actual rights holder, or that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed in error, and that you understand the repercussions of submitting a false claim.

Voicy also reserves its rights in relation to users and/or rightsholder which it believes are, directly or indirectly, committing any acts intended to interfere with the Platform or the intent of this takedown policy by abusing the process contained in these terms by engaging, or encourage others to engage, in any unlawful, unfair, misleading, fraudulent, improper, or dishonest acts.

If you have any questions concerning this takedown policy, please contact us at info@voicy.network. Please note, we are not able to offer any legal advice. If you have any questions of a legal nature, please consult a qualified legal professional.

Voicy B.V.

Aert van Nesstraat 45

Zuid-Holland, Rotterdam 3012CA

Netherlands