DMCA Notice

1. Our position on copyright

StreamEast respects copyright and expects its readers and contributors to do the same. We respond to properly completed notices under the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512), and to equivalent notices under the EU Copyright Directive, the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and Canadian notice-and-notice rules.

We also think the process works better when everyone understands what this site actually is, which is the point of the next section.

2. What we can and cannot act on

We can act on: text we published that reproduces your copyrighted writing beyond fair use or fair dealing; a photograph or graphic published here that you own and we used without a valid licence; a quotation whose length or context you believe exceeds permitted use; a trade mark used in a way that goes beyond nominative fair use.

We cannot act on: a stream on a third-party website (we do not operate it and have no access to it); the content of a site that merely has a similar name to ours; search-engine results (contact the search engine); an aggregator's link list (contact its host or registrar). For third-party infringement, the effective routes are the hosting provider, the domain registrar, the CDN and the relevant search engine — in roughly that order.

3. Designated agent

4. Filing a takedown notice

Email is fastest. Send one notice per work, or a representative list if a single notice covers many works. Include everything in section 5 — incomplete notices cannot be processed and we will have to write back asking for the missing parts, which costs you time.

Before filing, please consider in good faith whether the use is permitted by fair use, fair dealing, quotation or reporting exceptions. Section 512(f) imposes liability for knowing material misrepresentation, and courts have held that a rights holder must consider fair use before sending a notice.

5. Required elements of a valid notice

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorised to act on their behalf.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed — or, for multiple works at this site, a representative list.
3. Identification of the material you claim is infringing, with enough detail for us to locate it: the full page URL, plus the paragraph, heading or image filename.
4. Your contact information: full name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
6. A statement that the information in the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner or authorised to act on the owner's behalf.

Please note that the full content of your notice, including your identifying details, may be forwarded to the person who submitted the material and may be published in a transparency report, with personal contact details redacted where the law allows.

6. What happens after you file

1. Acknowledgement within two business days, with a reference number.
2. Review by an editor, who checks the identification, the licence position and whether an exception plausibly applies.
3. Action. If the claim is well-founded we remove or disable the material expeditiously, usually the same day, and confirm in writing. Where the issue is attribution or licence scope, we may propose adding a credit or shortening a quotation instead — but only with your agreement.
4. Notification of the contributor, who may file a counter-notice.
5. Record. The notice is logged for our repeat-infringer policy and retained for seven years.

7. Counter-notification

If your material was removed and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, send a counter-notice to the designated agent containing:

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 telephone number.
5. A statement consenting to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your district (or, if outside the United States, of any district in which we may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the complainant or their agent.

We forward valid counter-notices to the original complainant. If they do not notify us within 10–14 business days that they have sought a court order, we may restore the material.

8. Repeat infringer policy

Contributors whose submissions are the subject of repeated valid notices lose the ability to contribute. Three substantiated notices within twelve months is the threshold; a single deliberate infringement can be enough. This policy is applied consistently rather than case by case.

9. Misuse of the process

Takedown notices are sometimes used to suppress criticism, comparison or unfavourable reporting rather than to protect a work. We review every notice on its merits and will decline one that is plainly abusive, explaining why. We may publish abusive notices, with personal details redacted. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), a person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing may be liable for damages, including costs and legal fees.

10. Notices under EU and UK law

Rights holders in the EU may submit notices under Article 17 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 and the Digital Services Act's notice-and-action mechanism; UK rights holders may proceed under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002. The practical requirements are close enough to section 5 that the same notice format works — include the same identification, contact details and good-faith statements, and tell us which framework you are relying on.

11. Fair use, fair dealing and quotation

Much of what we publish is criticism, commentary, news reporting and research. Short quotations from articles, statutes, court judgments, press releases and rights announcements are used for those purposes, with attribution and a link to the source. We keep quotations to the minimum needed to make the point, and we do not reproduce a work in a way that substitutes for it. If you believe a specific quotation has crossed that line, tell us what would resolve it — a shorter quote, a clearer credit, or removal — and we will usually do it without a formal notice.

12. If you found our name on another site

Domains using names similar to this publication are not operated by us, and we have no access to their servers, accounts or content. If you are pursuing infringement on such a site, the productive steps are: identify the hosting provider and file with their abuse team; file with the domain registrar; file with the CDN if one is in front of it; and file a delisting request with the relevant search engines. We are happy to confirm in writing that a given domain is unconnected to us if that helps your filing.

13. Contact

Copyright agent: [email protected], subject line DMCA Notice. Post: 1055 West Georgia St, Suite 2400, Vancouver, BC V6E 3P3, Canada. For anything that is not a copyright matter, please use the contact form instead so that the copyright queue stays clear.