Copyright and Takedowns

1. Where we stand

WhoChat Live hosts content that users upload: profile photos, posts, videos. We respect copyright and we act on notices about it. If something here is yours and should not be, this page is the route, and it's a route that works: a clear notice gets the material taken down.

Live calls are a different matter. They're not recorded by us as published content and there's nothing hosted to remove. If someone is redistributing a recording they made of a call, the copy is on whatever service they posted it to, and that service is who can remove it. We can still act against the account here. See section 7.

2. Sending a takedown notice

Write to [email protected] with COPYRIGHT in the subject line. Include all of the following, because a notice missing any of it cannot be acted on and will come back to you with a request for the missing part:

• What the work is. Identify the copyrighted work you say has been infringed. If there are several, list them.
• Where the infringing material is. A URL, or a profile name plus enough detail to find the exact item. "Somewhere on your site" is not actionable.
• Who you are. Name, email address, and a postal address or phone number we can reach you at.
• A good faith statement that the use is not authorised by you, your agent, or the law.
• A statement that the information is accurate, and that you're the rights holder or authorised to act for them.
• Your signature, physical or electronic.

Send it in the body of the email where possible. Notices that arrive as an image of a document, or a link to a document behind a login, take longer for the obvious reason.

3. What we do with it

• We check the notice is complete and comes from someone entitled to send it.
• If it is, we remove or disable access to the material identified.
• We tell the user whose content it was that it was removed, and why, and we pass on your notice, including your contact details, because a counter-notice has to be able to reach you. Send the notice with that in mind.
• We keep a record of the notice and the action taken.

We do not adjudicate ownership disputes. We act on notices and on counter-notices; where the two sides genuinely disagree about who owns something, that's a matter for a court, not for a support inbox.

4. Disputing a takedown

If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, send a counter-notice to the same address with COUNTER-NOTICE in the subject line. Include:

• What was removed and where it used to be.
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you believe in good faith it was removed as a result of a mistake or misidentification.
• Your name, address, email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of a court where you live, and will accept service from the person who sent the original notice.
• Your signature.

We pass a valid counter-notice to the original complainant. If they do not pursue it, the material may be restored.

5. Repeat infringers

Accounts that attract repeated valid notices are closed. We do not publish a threshold, because a published threshold is a budget. People work up to it. The judgement is made on the pattern, not on a count.

6. False claims

Knowingly sending a false takedown notice carries legal liability in most jurisdictions, and it's not a shortcut for getting rid of content you simply dislike. Notices sent in bad faith (to silence someone, to win an argument, or to take down content that's plainly not yours) are refused, and repeated abuse of this channel is itself grounds for us to stop processing notices from that sender.

7. Complaints that are not copyright

Most of what people send to this address is not actually a copyright matter. The right route for each:

• Someone recorded or posted you without consent. That's a community guidelines violation, section 7. Report the account. If the recording is posted on another service, ask that service to remove it; we can act on the account here but not on a copy hosted elsewhere.
• Impersonation or a fake profile using your photos: report the profile, and write to us. This is faster to resolve as an impersonation report than as a copyright notice.
• Trademark: write to the same address, say what the mark is, where it is registered, and where it's being misused.
• Anything involving a minor: do not use this page. Use the child safety route, which is handled differently and faster.