Copyright & IP Policy

Draft v0.1 — Effective date: [GO-LIVE DATE] (drafted 2026-06-08)

POY respects intellectual property and expects users to do the same. This policy explains how rights holders can report content on POY that infringes their copyright, trademark, or other IP rights; how affected users can respond; and our repeat-infringer rule. It forms part of our Terms of Service and works with the Community Guidelines §16.

It covers the UK/EU notice-and-takedown approach and the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe-harbour process, so it works wherever a complainant is based.

You must only post content you own or have the right to share. Posting someone else's copyrighted photo, trademark, or other protected material without permission can get the content removed and your account banned, and may expose you to legal liability.

---

1. How to report copyright infringement (takedown notice)

If you are a copyright owner (or authorised to act for one) and believe content on POY infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our designated copyright agent:

• Email: [copyright@heypoy.app / privacy@heypoy.app] (subject: "Copyright takedown")
• Post: Copyright Agent, [CONTROLLER LEGAL NAME], [CONTROLLER ADDRESS]

Because POY content is anonymous and ephemeral (photos last 24h; everything is deleted within 15 days), please report promptly and identify the content precisely.

Your notice must include all of the following (these mirror DMCA §512(c)(3)):

1. Identification of the copyrighted work you say has been infringed (or a representative list, if several).
2. Identification of the infringing material and enough information to locate it on POY — e.g. a screenshot, the in-app report reference, the approximate date/time seen, and any post identifier shown. (Because posts expire quickly, the more detail the better.)
3. Your contact details — name, address, email, and phone.
4. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by the rights holder, its agent, or the law.
5. A statement that the information in your notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury that you are the rights holder or authorised to act on their behalf.
6. Your physical or electronic signature.

We may share the contents of your notice (including your identity) with the user who posted the content, and with third parties such as the Lumen database, where appropriate.

---

2. What we do with a valid notice

On receiving a notice that substantially complies with §1, we will:

• expeditiously remove or disable access to the identified material (if it still exists — it may already have expired);
• record a strike/infringement against the posting account (see §5);
• where we can, notify the affected user and provide them a copy of the notice and the counter-notice route (§3).

If a notice is incomplete, we may ask for the missing information before acting (except for the elements we may waive at our discretion under applicable law).

---

3. Counter-notice (if your content was removed)

If your content was removed under this policy and you believe that was a mistake or misidentification, or that you have the right to post it, you may submit a counter- notice to the agent in §1. It must include:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the removed material and the location where it appeared before removal.
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
4. Your name, address, and phone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the courts in your district (US: Federal District Court) — or, if outside the US, that you consent to the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales — and that you will accept service of process from the person who filed the notice.

If you submit a valid counter-notice, we may forward it to the original complainant. Under the DMCA, if the complainant does not notify us within 10–14 business days that they have filed a court action seeking to restrain the activity, we may restore the material — but because POY content is ephemeral, the original post will usually have already expired and been deleted, so restoration may not be possible in practice. In that case the counter-notice serves to clear the strike against your account.

---

4. Trademark, publicity & other IP / rights

• Trademark: to report misuse of a trademark, contact the agent in §1 with proof of your rights and identification of the content.
• Image rights / privacy / "it's me": if a photo shows you or someone whose image has been posted without consent, this is also handled as a privacy takedown — use the in-app "It shows someone without consent / it's me" report, or contact [privacy@heypoy.app]. See the Privacy Policy and Data Subject Rights.
• POY's own IP: the POY name, logo, app, and design are our property — see Terms of Service §8.

---

5. Repeat-infringer policy

We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. An account that accumulates repeated valid copyright/IP complaints (or other red-flag indications of infringing activity) will be permanently banned. This complements the strike system in the Community Guidelines §2.

---

6. Abuse of this process

Submitting a false or bad-faith takedown or counter-notice is a serious matter. Under the DMCA, knowingly materially misrepresenting that content is infringing (or was wrongly removed) can make you liable for damages, including costs and legal fees. We may reject, ignore, or act against repeated abusive or fraudulent notices.

---

7. Designated agent & contact

[Designate and, for DMCA safe harbour, register a copyright agent with the U.S. Copyright Office if you serve US users. Provide the agent's name and contact below.]

• Copyright agent: [NAME / ROLE]
• Email: [copyright@heypoy.app / privacy@heypoy.app]
• Address: [CONTROLLER ADDRESS]

---

8. Changes

We may update this policy. The current version lives at heypoy.app/copyright.

This policy is not legal advice. [legal advice] Confirm the DMCA-agent registration and UK/EU notice-and-takedown wording with a solicitor before launch.