Copyright & DMCA Policy

Gbeya respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects the creators, businesses and users of every gbeya.com Workspace to do the same. We respond to valid notices of alleged copyright infringement in accordance with the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”, 17 U.S.C. §512), and we apply an equivalent process to notice-and-takedown requests made under the UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the European Union’s Digital Services Directive and Directive 2019/790. This policy explains how to report material you believe infringes your copyright, how affected Workspaces can respond, and how we deal with repeat infringers. It supplements our Terms & Conditions, our Acceptable Use Policy and our Disclaimer.

1. Filing a notice of alleged infringement

If you are a copyright owner, or authorised to act on behalf of one, and you believe that material hosted on a gbeya.com Workspace infringes your copyright, you may send us a written notice of alleged infringement. To be valid under the DMCA, your notice must include substantially all of the following six elements:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner, or of a person authorised to act on the owner’s behalf.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple works are covered by a single notice, a representative list of those works.
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and that is to be removed or disabled, together with information reasonably sufficient to let us locate it — including the specific URL(s) of the material on the relevant gbeya.com Workspace.
4. Your contact details as the complainant, sufficient for us to reach you — that is, your name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
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 copyright owner or are authorised to act on the owner’s behalf.

Incomplete notices may delay or prevent us from acting. Please do not use the DMCA process for complaints that are not about copyright — see our Acceptable Use Policy for other categories of report.

2. Designated Copyright Agent

Send your notice of alleged infringement to our Designated Copyright Agent by email to hello@gbeya.com using the subject line “DMCA Notice”. If you prefer to write to us, our postal address for copyright matters is:

Gbeya — Copyright Agent, [address on file]

Providing your notice by email to the address above is the fastest way for us to review and act on it.

3. Our response

On receiving a notice that we consider valid, we may remove or disable access to the material that is the subject of the notice, or take other action we consider appropriate. Where we do so, we will make reasonable efforts to notify the affected Workspace, provide it with a copy or summary of the notice, and explain how it can submit a counter-notification if it believes the material was removed in error. We may act more quickly where the material appears to present a clear or urgent risk.

4. Counter-notification

If you are a Workspace owner or user and you believe that material of yours was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification, you may send us a written counter-notification. To be effective under the DMCA, it must include substantially all of the following:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled, and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled.
3. A statement, made 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 of the material.
4. Your consent to the jurisdiction of the appropriate court, and a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who filed the original notice (or that person’s agent).
5. Your name, postal address, telephone number and email address.

Send your counter-notification to hello@gbeya.com with the subject line “DMCA Counter-Notice”. If we receive a valid counter-notification, we may forward it to the original complainant and may restore or re-enable access to the material in not less than 10 and not more than 14 business days, unless the complainant first notifies us that they have filed a court action seeking to restrain the allegedly infringing activity.

5. Repeat-infringer policy

In appropriate circumstances, and at our discretion, we will terminate the accounts and Workspaces of users who are found to be repeat infringers of copyright or other intellectual property rights. Repeated or serious infringement is also a breach of our Acceptable Use Policy and our Terms & Conditions.

6. Misrepresentation

Under section 512(f) of the DMCA, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that material was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, may be liable for damages — including costs and legal fees — incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or its authorised licensee, or by us. Please be sure of your rights before submitting a notice or counter-notice.

7. Trademark and other intellectual property complaints

Complaints about trademark infringement, or about other intellectual property rights not covered by the copyright process above, should also be sent to hello@gbeya.com. Please describe the right you hold, the material you are concerned about, and its location on gbeya.com, and provide contact details so we can respond.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this Copyright & DMCA Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law or in how Gbeya operates. When we do, we will revise the effective date shown above. Your continued use of the Services after any change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.