Copyright Policy
Dreams Marketplace hosts work uploaded by independent authors, each of whom represents on publication that they own or hold the rights to sell what they list. We respond to properly made claims of copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and equivalent law elsewhere, and we terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.
This page describes the process. It is not legal advice, and nothing here waives any right or defence available to you.
Reporting Infringement
If you own a copyright, or are authorised to act for the owner, and you believe an item on Dreams Marketplace infringes it, send a notice to our designated agent at the address in the Contact Information section. Include everything listed under DMCA Notice Requirements — an incomplete notice cannot be acted on, and we will tell you what is missing rather than ignore it.
Before sending a notice, consider whether the use might be licensed, permitted by fair use or fair dealing, or simply a coincidence of a common design. A notice is a sworn statement and carries consequences if made carelessly.
DMCA Notice Requirements
A valid notice must contain all six of the following:
- A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner, or of a person authorised to act on their behalf.
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed. Where several works on the marketplace are covered by one notice, a representative list of them.
- Identification of the material claimed to be infringing, with enough detail for us to locate it — the product URL is the clearest form.
- Your contact details: name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
- A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and — under penalty of perjury — that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the owner's behalf.
Counter Notification
If your listing was removed and you believe the removal was a mistake or a misidentification, you may send a counter notification to the same agent. It must contain your signature, identification of the removed material and the location it appeared, a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification, your contact details, and your consent to the jurisdiction of the appropriate court.
On receiving a valid counter notification we forward it to the original complainant. If they do not notify us within ten to fourteen business days that they have filed an action seeking a court order, we may restore the material.
Repeat Infringers
We maintain a record of accounts that have been the subject of valid infringement notices. An account that accumulates repeated valid notices will have its seller privileges terminated and its listings removed, regardless of whether any single notice was contested. Buyers holding a valid license for an item removed on copyright grounds are notified; whether their license survives depends on the outcome of the claim.
Investigation Process
On receiving a valid notice we acknowledge it, remove or disable access to the identified material, and notify the author with a copy of the notice and an explanation of how to counter-notify. Where a listing has been sold, the removal is from the public catalog; existing entitlements are handled separately and may be revoked if the claim is upheld.
We do not adjudicate the underlying copyright question. Our role is to act on notices that meet the statutory requirements and to pass the dispute between the parties, who are better placed than we are to resolve it.
False Claims
Under section 512(f) of the DMCA, a person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing — or that it was removed by mistake — may be liable for damages, including costs and legal fees. We may decline to act on notices from a sender with a record of abusive or automated claims, and we may report deliberate misuse of this process.
Contact Information
Send notices and counter notifications to our designated agent at dmca@dreamsmarketplace.com.
Our designated agent is Dreams Marketplace Legal, reachable at dmca@dreamsmarketplace.com; a postal address is provided on request while the agent's U.S. Copyright Office registration is completed. Notices sent to any other address may not reach the agent and may not start the process described above.