Copyright & DMCA Policy

ChefSphere respects intellectual-property rights and expects users to do the same. This document explains how to report copyright (and related rights) infringement, how we respond, how to counter-notice when your content was taken down, and our repeat-infringer policy. It supplements the Terms of Service and the Acceptable Use Policy. We follow the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §512 ("DMCA"), the EU Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (EU) 2019/790 ("CDSM") and its national implementations, and the EU Digital Services Act Notice for notice-and-action procedures.

1. Designated Copyright Agent and intake channels

Under 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(2), our registered DMCA Designated Agent is:

• Name: ChefSphere OÜ – DMCA Department
• Email: [email protected]
• Postal address: c/o E-Residency Hub OÜ, Ahtri tn 12, 10151 Tallinn, Estonia
• US Copyright Office directory listing: The designated agent is registered with the United States Copyright Office. You can locate our record by searching "ChefSphere OÜ" in the public DMCA Designated Agent Directory at https://dmca.copyright.gov/osp/search.html.

Copyright notices may be sent through any of the following channels. We offer two public paths (email and postal) that do not require a ChefSphere account so that any rights holder or their representative can notify us without first creating one:

• Email (public, unauthenticated): [email protected]. Available to anyone. The email must contain every element listed in Section 2 below.
• Postal (public, unauthenticated): c/o E-Residency Hub OÜ, Ahtri tn 12, 10151 Tallinn, Estonia — mark the envelope "Attention: Designated Copyright Agent".
• Structured online form (account-holders, recommended): POST /api/v1/compliance/takedown-notices. This endpoint requires a ChefSphere account because each submission is bound to an authenticated identity, which strengthens the §512(f) fraud deterrence and enables DSA Art. 22 trusted-flagger prioritisation. The form validates every required field (sworn statements, legal basis, content identifier, evidence URLs) against the schema used by our trust-and-safety system and returns a tracking ID. If you prefer not to create an account, use the email or postal path above — your notice is processed through the same workflow with the same SLAs.

We reply by email to the address you provide in the notice. Every submission — regardless of channel — is logged in our compliance database, reviewed under the DSA notice-and-action procedure, and is eligible for the DSA Art. 20 internal-complaint-handling system and Art. 21 out-of-court dispute-settlement procedure described in the EU DSA Notice.

2. How to file a notice (takedown request)

To be actionable, your notice must include all of the following:

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorised to act on behalf of the rights holder.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed — or a representative list where multiple works at a single site are covered by a single notice.
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and that you want removed or access disabled, with information reasonably sufficient to locate it on ChefSphere (URL, username, item reference, timestamp, or screenshot).
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you: name, address, phone, and email.
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the owner of the copyright or are authorised to act on the owner's behalf.

Warning under 17 U.S.C. §512(f): knowingly materially misrepresenting that material is infringing can subject you to liability for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees. Do not send speculative or automated notices without a genuine legal basis.

Notices that do not include the required information may be rejected or require clarification before we can act.

3. How we respond

On receipt of a compliant notice we act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material and to notify the user who posted it, following the DSA notice-and-action procedure described in the EU DSA Notice. Where appropriate we retain a copy of the content for the period needed for dispute resolution. If the notice is incomplete or evidently unfounded, we may dismiss it with a reasoned explanation.

4. Counter-notice (restoration)

If you believe your content was removed in error or misidentified, you can file a counter-notice through either channel:

• Structured endpoint (account-holders, recommended): POST /api/v1/compliance/takedown-notices/{id}/counter-notice. Requires the ChefSphere account whose content was removed. The form captures the sworn statement, your consent to jurisdiction, and starts the statutory waiting period automatically.
• Email (public path): [email protected]. Usable even if your account has been suspended as a result of the takedown. Reference the takedown tracking ID (sent to you at the time of removal) in the subject line.

Either way, the counter-notice must contain:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the material that was removed and the location where it appeared before removal.
3. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification.
4. Your name, address, and phone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of (a) the US Federal District Court for the district in which your address is located, if your address is in the United States, or (b) Harju County Court (Harju Maakohus), Tallinn (the jurisdiction of ChefSphere OÜ), if your address is outside the United States; and that you will accept service of process from the party who filed the notice or from their agent.

On receiving a valid counter-notice we forward it to the original notifier and open a 14-calendar-day statutory waiting window (DMCA §512(g)(2)(C), which allows 10 to 14 business days; we apply a fixed 14-calendar-day cursor to keep the behaviour predictable and auditable). If the notifier does not inform us within this window that they have filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the infringement, the content is automatically restored by our daily compliance sweep. The exact restoration deadline is exposed on the takedown record and the uploader is notified.

5. Repeat infringers

In accordance with §512(i) DMCA and the CDSM Directive, we maintain and enforce a repeat-infringer policy. Accounts that are subject to multiple substantiated copyright notices within a rolling window may be restricted or terminated. Payouts to marketplace sellers that become subject to a dispute may be held until the dispute is resolved.

6. Authorised content and licences

If you post User Content that incorporates someone else's copyright material, you represent that you have the rights to do so (you own it, it is licensed to you, you are using it under an applicable exception such as quotation, news reporting, parody, or educational use, or it is public domain). When you upload or publish, you grant ChefSphere the licence set out in Section 6 of the Terms of Service. That licence does not move ownership from you.

7. Marketplace-specific rules

If the alleged infringement concerns an ebook published on the Ebook Marketplace or a tool listing on the Tools Marketplace, the same procedure applies. Marketplace payouts for the affected item may be held pending resolution. Authors and sellers who repeatedly generate substantiated notices are removed from the marketplace.

8. Trademarks and other rights

If your complaint concerns a trademark, counterfeit, or personality-rights issue rather than copyright, send it to [email protected] with the same clarity and completeness expected for copyright notices. We handle those claims under the Acceptable Use Policy and applicable law.

9. EU CDSM specificities

• Where we host content uploaded by users within the scope of Art. 17 CDSM, we make best efforts to obtain authorisations from rights holders, to act expeditiously to disable access on reasoned notice, and to prevent availability of the notified content going forward, while safeguarding the right to use content for quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody, and pastiche.
• Our handling of automated copyright filters is human-reviewable: if an automated filter restricts your content in error, you can request human review through the counter-notice procedure above.

10. No legal advice

This document is not legal advice. If you are unsure whether a use of your content is permitted, or whether your upload infringes someone else's rights, consult a lawyer qualified in your jurisdiction.

11. Contact

• Copyright / DMCA notices (Designated Agent): [email protected] — ChefSphere OÜ – DMCA Department, c/o E-Residency Hub OÜ, Ahtri tn 12, 10151 Tallinn, Estonia. Directory listing: https://dmca.copyright.gov/osp/search.html.
• Other IP and trademark claims: [email protected]
• Privacy questions: [email protected]
• DSA authorities point of contact: [email protected]