Online Service Providers
Designation by Service Provider of Agent for Notification of Claims of Infringement
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
signed into law on October 28, 1998, amended the copyright law to provide
limitations for service provider liability relating to material online. New
subsection 512(c) of the copyright
law provides limitations on service provider liability with respect to information
residing, at direction of a user, on a system or network that the service
provider controls or operates, if the service provider has designated an agent
for notification of claimed infringement by providing contact information
to the Copyright Office and through the service providers publicly accessible
website.
A directory of agents is maintained on this website.
The Copyright Office has published requirements by which a service provider
may designate an agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement. Due
to the necessity of having regulations in place upon enactment of the law,
the Copyright Office is not requesting public comment at this time, but will
provide notice and opportunity for comment before promulgating final regulations.
The Copyright Office does not provide printed forms for filing an Interim
Designation of Agent, but suggested formats for filing an Interim
Designation (or an Amended Designation)
are available. You have the options of filling in the blanks while viewing
the form and printing out the completed form, or downloading or printing the
form and then completing it. The form must then be sent to the Copyright Office.
You may also prepare your own form, but should ensure that it includes all
the information required in section 201.38(c) of the interim
regulations. If you include extraneous information that is not required
by the interim regulations, that information will be scanned and posted on
the website. Please note that the entire designation or amended designation
will be posted on the Copyright Office website.
The Interim Designation must be accompanied by a $30 fee, payable to the
Register of Copyrights. If mailed, the Interim Designation should be addressed
to: Copyright GC/I&R, P.O. Box 70400, Southwest Station, Washington, D.C.
20024. A service provider may also file the Interim Designation by hand, by
delivering to the Public Information Office of the Copyright Office, Room
LM-401, James Madison Memorial Building, Library of Congress, 101 Independence
Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C., during normal business hours, 9:00 am to 5:00
pm. Designations and amendments will be posted online on the Copyright Office
website.
The Copyright Office will not examine
designations of agents for accuracy or for compliance with the law or with its
regulations. The fact that the Office has accepted a designation of an agent
and has included it in the Offices directory of agents should not be construed
as a judgment by the Office that the designation is sufficient.
Definition: For purposes of section 512(c), a "service provider"
is defined as a provider of online services or network access, or the operator
of facilities therefor, including an entity offering the transmission, routing,
or providing of connections for digital online communications, between or
among points specified by a user, of material of the user's choosing, without
modification to the content of the material as sent or received.
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