DMCA / Copyright Policy

Plain English, and binding. A law firm did not write this page; the founder did, in plain English, so you can actually read it. That does not make it any less real: these are the operative terms of the Platform, and using the Platform means you agree to them. We will have counsel review these terms as the company grows, and any material change comes with at least 30 days notice, the same as our Terms of Use promise.

The short version: if content on this site, including any member blog, infringes your copyright, send our designated agent a complete notice and we will act on it. If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you can send a counter-notice. Members whose content draws repeated valid notices lose their accounts. All three paths are below, in plain language, with everything the law requires.

Our Designated Agent

Plain English: one named agent receives every copyright notice. Empower Network hosts content published by its members as well as its own. Under the DMCA, notices go to our designated agent:

Designated Agent: David Wood
Organization: Empower Network
Preferred: the form on this page (review queue).
Optional email alias: dmca@empowernetwork.com (forwards into the same process when configured).
Mailing address: available on request while our U.S. Copyright Office designated-agent registration completes; it will be published here with the registration.

We are filing to register this agent with the U.S. Copyright Office. Until that registration is confirmed, send notices to the email above with the subject line “DMCA Notice.”

Mark your message “DMCA Notice.” Notices sent anywhere else may be delayed; notices sent to the agent are reviewed promptly.

Preferred: use the form at the bottom of this page. Notices go into our review queue with spam protection. Email is optional and not monitored as a primary channel.

Sending a Copyright Notice

If you believe content on empowernetwork.com, including content on a member blog, infringes your copyright, send our designated agent a notice. For it to be valid under the DMCA, it must include all six of these:

1. Which copyrighted work of yours you believe is being infringed.

2. The URL on this site where the infringing material appears, specific enough for us to find it.

3. Your name, mailing address, email, and phone number.

4. A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

5. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act for the owner.

6. Your physical or electronic signature. A typed full name counts.

One honest warning that cuts both ways: the law imposes liability for knowingly false copyright claims. Send a notice only if you mean it.

What We Do With a Valid Notice

Plain English: we remove or disable the material, tell the member who posted it, and log the notice against their account. When we receive a complete, valid notice, we act on it promptly: we remove or disable access to the identified material, notify the member who published it and give them a copy of the notice, and record the notice in that member’s account history for the repeat-infringer policy below. Incomplete notices get a reply explaining what is missing.

Counter-Notices

Plain English: if your content was removed and the claim was wrong, you can push back, and the law sets out exactly how. If your content was removed and you believe the removal was a mistake or misidentification, send our designated agent a counter-notice containing:

1. Your name, address, email, and phone number.

2. Identification of the removed material and the URL where it appeared before removal.

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 consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the district where you reside, or, if you are outside the United States, the district where we are organized, and your consent to accept service of process from the person who filed the original notice or their agent.

5. Your physical or electronic signature.

We forward valid counter-notices to the original complainant. If they do not notify us within 10 to 14 business days that they have filed a court action seeking to restrain the alleged infringement, we may restore the material.

Repeat-Infringer Policy

Plain English: draw repeated valid copyright complaints and you lose your account. We count them, we warn you, and we follow through. We terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of members who are repeat infringers. How we apply that:

1. Every valid notice against a member’s content is logged against their account. A notice fully resolved in the member’s favor by counter-notice is removed from the count.

2. At the first valid notice, the member gets the notice, the removal, and a written warning that repeat infringement ends memberships.

3. Multiple valid notices within a rolling period, or a pattern that shows the blog is built on infringing material, results in termination. As a guideline we treat three unresolved valid notices within 12 months as termination territory, while reserving judgment for context: a blog assembled from other people’s work can be terminated on the first review, and an honest member with a single genuine dispute is not what this policy is for.

4. Termination under this policy follows the cancellation data schedule in the Platform Terms, except that infringing material itself stays down.

Last updated: July 2026.