Notice and takedown

Before you send a notice

Torva is the host, not the author. Product copy, images, logos and documents on a store were put there by the merchant who runs it. Where a store has a contact address, telling the merchant directly is often faster than telling us — but you do not have to, and we act on valid notices either way.

Please do not use this route for something that is not a rights complaint. A store breaking our rules on claims, naming or documentation goes to the Acceptable Use Policy reporting address.

Sending a copyright notice

Send a written notice by email with the subject line “Copyright notice” to the address below. Under 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3) it needs all of the following, and an incomplete notice may delay or invalidate it:

• Identification of the copyrighted work you say has been infringed — or, for several works on one site, a representative list.
• The exact location of the material you want removed: the full URL of each page or image, specific enough that we can find it without guessing.
• Your name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by the rights owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement that the information in your notice is accurate, and — under penalty of perjury — that you are the owner of the right or authorised to act for the owner.
• Your physical or electronic signature.

Sending a trademark notice

Trademark complaints are not covered by the DMCA, so the requirements are ours rather than statutory. Send a notice by email with the subject line “Trademark notice” and include: the mark, its registration number and jurisdiction if it is registered, the goods or services it covers, the exact URLs where it is being used, why the use is likely to confuse or suggest an affiliation that does not exist, your contact details, and a statement that your complaint is made in good faith and is accurate.

A trademark that appears as an honest reference — a comparison, a compatibility statement, or the name of a substance rather than a brand — is not necessarily infringement, and we will look at the use rather than the mere presence of a word.

What we do with a notice

• We acknowledge a complete notice, usually within two business days.
• Where the notice is valid on its face, we disable access to the material identified and tell the merchant, with a copy of the notice — including your contact details, which a merchant needs in order to respond. Send a notice on the understanding that it will be forwarded.
• We keep a record of notices received and what we did. Repeat infringement leads to account termination.
• We do not decide who owns what. Our job as the host is to act on valid notices and pass on valid counter-notices.

If you are the merchant: counter-notice

If material of yours was removed and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, you can send a counter-notice. It needs: identification of the material and where it was before removal; a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief it was removed by mistake or misidentification; your name, postal address, telephone number and email; consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for the district of your address, or, if you are outside the United States, of any district in which Torva may be found; a statement that you will accept service of process from the complainant; and your signature.

On receiving a complete counter-notice we forward it to the complainant. If they do not tell us within 10 business days that they have filed a court action, we may restore the material.

Both a notice and a counter-notice are legal statements made under penalty of perjury. Knowingly misrepresenting either carries liability, including for the other side’s costs.

If Torva scanned or previewed your website

Torva’s free risk check and store builder read public web pages when somebody asks them to, and Torva sometimes rebuilds a store’s public catalogue into a private preview to show its owner what Torva would look like. A preview lives at a private, unguessable link, is marked noindex so search engines do not list it, cannot take an order, and stops working 30 days after it was made. It is not the store’s live site and it is not endorsed by that store.

If it is your website and you want a preview of it taken down, email support@torvaos.com with “Preview removal” in the subject and the website’s address. You do not need to send a formal notice or prove anything beyond being able to write from, or show you control, that website. We turn off every preview link for it, usually within one business day, do not make another outreach preview of it, and tell you when it is done.

Our scanner identifies itself with TorvaPreview/1.0 in its user agent, and it stops at bot checks and security challenges rather than trying to get past them. If you would rather block it yourself, block that user agent.

Where to send it

Designated agent: Copyright Agent, DC Northern Holdings LLC, 10177 Marmot Circle, Anchorage, Alaska 99515, United States.

Email: support@torvaos.com — this address is monitored and is the fastest route. Put “Copyright notice” or “Trademark notice” in the subject line.