Copyright Policy

If you represent a copyright holder and email our copyright@ addresses without fully reading and understanding this policy, you accept that any further email from you may be refused by our servers. You additionally accept and understand that email from you may or may not be published publicly by us or any 3rd party of our choice (such as the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse). This means please don't send 'privacy notice' signatures with your copyright emails.

If you are not a representative of a lawfirm and some of the terms contained within this policy are confusing to you, please see this sample email for an easy to use template. If our policy is still unclear to you, please contact a lawfirm that understands DMCA procedures and/or one of the many service organizations dedicated to handling copyright online. We would suggest either Web Sheriff or GrayZone as they both have a positive reputation with us and have a history of sending notices (like our sample) that conform with our copyright policy and by extension the DMCA.

Please note: we do not accept HTML email or links contained within attachments (even PDF files). Badly formed HTML emails (often sent via Microsoft Outlook) have broken our ticket system in the past. If you'd like some help setting up your email client to send email in plain text (instead of HTML/formatted email) this link is an excellent resource, and it covers most operating systems and email clients.

On the subject of jurisdiction, please refrain from sending allegedly infringing links to content which was NOT produced in your country, unless representatives of either the Canadian or US rights-holders have contacted us prior to your notice being sent. They'll need to email us a note giving you explicit permission to submit takedowns on their behalf, as well as provide their name, phone number and job title. This requirement is so that if for some reason you fail to understand repeated warnings about accuracy -- such as sending us links which neither you nor the rights-holder could possibly be construed as owning, we have someone to speak to about your lack of accuracy (under penalty of perjury).

If you have sent takedowns for content which was not produced in your country and had your email address blocked after repeated warnings to cease doing so, and you wish to send takedowns for content produced within your country only (or in your country's native language), PLEASE email our copyright address from a 3rd-party (webmail: gmail, yahoo, etc) email address with the subject "Blacklist Removal". In the email requesting removal, please identify which email address(es) of yours are blocked and provide us with an assurance that you will not submit takedowns for content produced outside your country, with the understanding that if you do so, you will be blacklisted again. This should be followed by your name, telephone number, organization's name and address, your supervisor's name, their telephone number and email address.

It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. This page describes the information that should be present in these notices.

Note that as of Jan. 22, 2007, we have moved servers to Canada and are no longer subject to US DMCA laws. We are keeping this copyright policy and procedure modeled after the DMCA, as it worked for us and for copyright owners in the past, and we find this procedure and takedown process to be mostly fair.

Regardless of whether we may be liable for such infringement under local country law or United States law, our response to these notices may include: removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity and/or terminating subscribers. If we remove or disable access in response to such a notice, we will make a good-faith attempt to contact the owner or administrator of the affected site or content so that they may make a counter notification. We may also document notices of alleged infringement on which we act. As with all legal notices, a copy of the notice may be sent to one or more third parties who may make it available to the public.

Please note that you may be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights. See Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc. for more information. If you are a copyright owner or an agent thereof and believe that any file or other content or link infringes upon your copyrights, you may submit a notification pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") by providing our Copyright Agent with the following information in writing (see 17 U.S.C 512(c)(3) which is incorporated by reference):

(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
(this means write your name, such as "Joe Shmoe" towards the bottom of your email)

(ii) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
(please keep this list and the list of links separated to cut down on confusion)

(iii) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material;
(a list of links, BTIDs or info_hashes, one per line, with nothing preceeding or following them on the same line)

(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail;
(telephone numbers are important if you'd like us to give you a call if something in your notice is improper)

(v) A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and

(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

isoHunt's designated DMCA Copyright Agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement is:

Email: copyright@isohunt.com
WARNING: These contacts are for copyright takedown requests by their rightful owner and representatives ONLY. Not for legal advice, technical support or requests for interviews. Abuse of these contacts for any other purpose than copyright issues or from anyone other than the rightful owner or representative will be dealt with harshly, possibly with the appropriate authorities in your jurisdiction. You have been warned.

For clarity, only DMCA notices should go to the DMCA Copyright Agent. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this Section 5(D), your DMCA notice may not be valid.

Here is a DMCA form you may use for efficiency:
(if you're copying this verbatim, please use our sample email as a template instead.)

1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed upon or other information sufficient to specify the copyrighted work being infringed (for example, "The copyrighted work at issue is the "ABC Guide" by John Doe, published by Jones Publishing, ISBN #0123456789").

2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above.

FOR WEB OR INTERNET SEARCH, YOU MUST IDENTIFY EACH SEARCH RESULT THAT DIRECTLY LINKS TO A WEB PAGE OR FILE THAT ALLEGEDLY CONTAINS INFRINGING MATERIAL. This requires you to provide (a) the search query that you used, and (b) the URL for each allegedly infringing search result.

For example, suppose (hypothetically) that you conducted a search on isoHunt.com using the query "ABC", and found that the third and fourth results directly link to a web page or file that you believe infringes the copyrighted text you identified in item #1 above. In this case, you would provide the following information:

Search Query: ABC Infringing Web Pages/Files: www.infringingwebsite.com/abcsample.torrent directory.infringingwebsite.com

While BitTorrent search results on isoHunt.com can be directly identified with one of the following formats, where "123" is the numeric ID we would use to verify and filter against your list:

http://isohunt.com/download/123/optional+query+string.torrent http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/123/optional+query+string BTID: 123 (you will find a "BTID: ###" signature at bottom right of BitTorrent search result detail pages)

Alternatively, we will also accept identification of .torrent files linking to content infringing on your copyright by their info_hash. Such hash is a 40 character long, hexadecimal string that uniquely identifies each .torrent file. These hashes are displayed on isoHunt's search results. You can send these identifying hashes in email on separate lines.

We will not accept links to only search results, as they do not identify any item that may link to material infringing your copyright. You must identify individual items in the search results that you wish us to remove. The following are examples of URLs that we will not accept as identification on their own. If your email contains only one of these URLs, and no other links or BTID signatures, we will reject your request:

http://isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=query+string http://isohunt.com/torrents/query+string http://isohunt.com/release/?ihq=query+string

If you are sending a large number of URLs in one removal request, please also send an electronic copy of the notice to copyright@ this domain.

3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit isoHunt to contact you (email address is preferred, phone number required).

4. Provide information, if possible, sufficient to permit isoHunt to notify the owner/administrator of the allegedly infringing webpage or other content (email address is preferred).

5. Include the following statement: "I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."

6. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."

7. Sign the paper.

(or sign "Joe Shmoe" if that's your name) 8. Send the written communication to the following address:

isoHunt Inc. Email: copyright@isohunt.com
WARNING: These contacts are for copyright takedown requests by their rightful owner and representatives ONLY. Not for legal advice, technical support or requests for interviews. Abuse of these contacts for any other purpose than copyright issues or from anyone other than the rightful owner or representative will be dealt with harshly, possibly with the appropriate authorities in your jurisdiction. You have been warned.

Notes

To expedite processing, we encourage primary communication with us via email, and please observe the following notes and guidelines:

List URLs on separate lines, and communicate your emails in plaintext format.
For BitTorrent search results, include URLs in the format aforementioned. Ex. http://isohunt.com/download/123/abc.torrent
Group your list of alleged items into one email maximum per day.
Send your copyright related inquiries to copyright-at-isohunt-dot-com only (or copyright@[domain] for any other website we operate). Requests to the wrong address will not be processed.
Send your copyright related inquiries from an address under the website of the copyright owner you represent. For example, if you represent "Joe Blow's Band" and would like to remove a link that allegedly points at one or more of your copyrighted works, email us from janeblow@joeblowsband.com or some other distinguishing email address.
Emails to our upstream ISP's will result in email forwarding and will only slow down processing.
Allow up to five business days for us to process your request.

DMCA Counter Notification

The administrator of an affected site or the provider of affected content may make a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When we receive a counter notification, we may reinstate the material in question.

To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail or by email) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is not infringing the copyrights of others. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether certain material infringes the copyrights of others, we suggest that you first contact an attorney. A sample counter notification may be found at www.chillingeffects.org/dmca/counter512.pdf.

To expedite our ability to process your counter notification, please use the following format (including section numbers):

1. Identify the specific URLs or other unique identifying information of material that isoHunt has removed or to which isoHunt has disabled access.

2. Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or San Francisco County, California if your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.

3. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that each search result, message, or other item of content identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled, or that the material identified by the complainant has been removed or disabled at the URL identified and will no longer be shown."

4. Sign the paper.

5. Send the written communication to the following address:

Account Termination

Many isoHunt Services do not have account holders or subscribers. For Services that do, isoHunt will, in appropriate circumstances, terminate repeat infringers. If you believe that an account holder or subscriber is a repeat infringer, please follow the instructions above to contact isoHunt and provide information sufficient for us to verify that the account holder or subscriber is a repeat infringer.

Reporting other abuse

If you need to report other abuse, you should email us at abuse@isohunt.com.

If you want to report finding child pornography, please see the Notes section for DMCA submissions, and email to reportcp@isohunt.com instead of copyright@isohunt.com. We need the exact links to the torrents, NOT the link to the search results.