DMCA & Copyright Policy

Porch Approved respects intellectual property rights. If you believe content on this site infringes your copyright, this page tells you exactly how to file a takedown notice and how we'll respond.

1. Designated copyright agent

Send DMCA takedown notices to our designated agent:

You can also look up the current designated agent in the U.S. Copyright Office's DMCA Designated Agent Directory.

2. How to file a takedown notice

To be effective under the DMCA, your notice must include all six of the following (17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A)):

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (e.g., the URL of your original work, a description of the work, or the registration number).
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and that should be removed — including the exact URL on porchapproved.net where it appears (e.g., a community URL /c/<slug>, a rating ID, a chat message ID).
4. Your contact information — name, address, telephone number, and email address.
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on their behalf.

Missing any of these and we cannot act on the notice as a DMCA-compliant takedown. Send via the support form with subject line "DMCA Notice" and we'll route to the designated agent. We will not act on chat messages, social media DMs, or general comments — only on properly-formatted notices.

3. How we respond

• Within 1 business day of receiving a complete DMCA notice, we remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material.
• We notify the user who posted the material (community member, admin, or service provider account) that their content was removed under a DMCA notice, and we forward a copy of your notice so they can file a counter-notification if they believe it was improperly targeted.
• We log every DMCA notice we receive and every action we take in response, in case the matter ends up in court.

4. Counter-notification

If your content was removed and you believe the removal was in error or based on misidentification, you can file a DMCA counter-notification. Send it through the support form with subject "DMCA Counter-Notice" and include all five elements required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3):

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the material that was removed and the location where it appeared before removal (the URL on porchapproved.net).
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
4. Your name, address, and telephone number, plus a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for the judicial district where you reside (or for the Northern District of Texas if you reside outside the U.S.), and that you will accept service of process from the original complainant or their agent.
5. A signature (physical or electronic).

If we receive a complete counter-notification we'll forward it to the original complainant and, unless they file an action for a court order against you within 10 business days, we may restore the material between 10 and 14 business days after we receive your counter-notification.

5. Repeat infringers

Per our Terms of Service, we have a policy of suspending or terminating accounts (member, admin, or service provider) that are the subject of repeated DMCA takedown notices. What counts as "repeated" is judged in good faith on the totality of the conduct — typically three substantiated infringement notices against the same account.

6. Good-faith requirement and penalties

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that material was removed by mistake, is liable for damages, costs, and attorney's fees incurred by the affected party. Don't use a DMCA notice as a tool for harassment, takedown of legitimate criticism, or a competitive grudge. We will refer abusive notices to the user whose content was wrongly targeted, who may then pursue you under § 512(f).