Legal · Notice & Takedown

Notice & Takedown

Pre-incorporation draft. The status note below explains what that means.

If Content on Talisman infringes your rights, you can ask us to remove it. This page explains what to send, where to send it, what we will do, what happens next, and how to challenge a removal you believe was made in error. The procedure is designed to comply with US, UK, and EU notice-and-takedown frameworks at once.

Status. Pre-incorporation draft. The designated agent registration with the United States Copyright Office under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(2) will be filed prior to public launch and the registration confirmation linked from this page. Until then, please send notices to the address in section 2 and we will act on them under this Policy.

1. What this Policy covers

This Policy covers credible claims that Content on Talisman infringes:

• Copyright in a sound recording, composition, lyric, artwork, photograph, video, or written work.
• Performers' rights under Part II of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (UK) or equivalent rights in other jurisdictions.
• Trade mark rights, including unauthorised use of artist names, label names, or distinctive marks.
• Rights of publicity, voice, name, and likeness, including unauthorised AI-generated imitation of a real person's voice or likeness (see AI Policy section 3).
• Other intellectual property rights recognised in your jurisdiction (database rights, design rights, moral rights, etc.).

It does not cover defamation, harassment, privacy breaches, or other non-IP harms. For those, write to support@talismanproject.org with the subject prefix REPORT: and we will direct your report to the right team. The Online Safety Act 2023 reporting duties apply alongside this Policy.

2. Where to send a notice

Until the dedicated takedown form is published, send notices to:

• Email: legal@talismanproject.org [TBC: dedicated alias to be confirmed at launch]
• Subject prefix: TAKEDOWN:
• CC (optional): support@talismanproject.org

A dedicated web form will be added to this page at launch.

For United States DMCA notices specifically, the designated agent under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(2) will be:

• Designated agent: [TBC at filing]
• Postal address: [TBC at filing]
• Email: dmca@talismanproject.org [TBC at filing]
• Telephone: [TBC at filing]
• US Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Directory entry: [TBC at filing — link to copyright.gov listing]

We will renew the designation every three years as required by the US Copyright Office.

3. What to put in a notice

For your notice to be actionable, include all of the following. If any element is missing we may ask you for it before acting; if the notice is materially incomplete we may decline to act on it.

3.1 Identification of the work

A description of the copyrighted work or other right you say has been infringed, sufficient for us to identify it. If multiple works are covered by the same notice, a representative list is acceptable.

3.2 Identification of the infringing material

The location of the Content on Talisman that you say infringes, with sufficient specificity that we can find and remove it. The most useful form is a Talisman track URL or release URL; if you cannot find a URL, the artist handle and release/track title is acceptable.

3.3 Your contact information

Your name, postal address, telephone number, and email address. If you are acting as an agent (for example, a label or rights administrator acting on behalf of an Artist), include the name of the rightsholder you represent and a statement that you are authorised to act on their behalf.

3.4 Good-faith and accuracy statements

Two statements, each of which is required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) for DMCA notices and which we apply to all takedown notices:

"I 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."

"The information in this notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, I am the owner of, or am authorised to act on behalf of the owner of, an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."

A signature (electronic is fine).

3.5 For voice, name, or likeness claims

In addition to the above, identify the person whose voice, name, or likeness is at issue, and include a statement that the use complained of has not been authorised by that person. Where you are acting as the person's agent, include evidence of authority.

3.6 For trade-mark claims

Identify the registered or unregistered mark, the jurisdiction in which it is enforceable, and the basis on which you say the use complained of infringes (likelihood of confusion, dilution, passing off, etc.).

4. What we do when we receive a notice

When we receive a notice that meets the requirements above, we:

1. Triage and acknowledge. We confirm receipt within five working days.
2. Remove or disable access to the Content where the notice is well-founded on its face. We act expeditiously, typically within seven working days of receipt of a complete notice and faster where we judge the harm to be acute.
3. Notify the user whose Content was removed, with the substance of the notice (excluding personal contact details which are redacted unless required by law to be disclosed). We tell them about the counter-notice procedure in section 5.
4. Log the notice for the purposes of our repeat-infringer policy and our Transparency reporting.
5. Assess for fraud or misuse. Notices that are manifestly unfounded, malicious, or designed to suppress lawful expression will not be acted on; we may refer abusive notices for legal action under section 7.

We do not pre-screen Content against a global database of works. We act on notices and on detection signals from the AI Policy pipeline. Our approach is consistent with the safe-harbour conditions in 17 U.S.C. § 512 (US), the limitations on hosting providers in the UK Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, and Article 17 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 (the DSM Directive) where applicable.

5. Counter-notice procedure

If your Content was removed and you believe the removal was a mistake, the Content was permitted by an exception (fair dealing under UK copyright law, fair use under US law, an applicable licence), or the rights claim is invalid, you can submit a counter-notice.

Send a counter-notice to the same address as section 2 with the subject prefix COUNTER-NOTICE:. Include all of the following:

• Identification of the Content that was removed and its location before removal.
• Your name, postal address, telephone number, and email.
• A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the Content was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
• A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the courts in your judicial district (or, for users outside the US, the courts of England and Wales) and that you will accept service of process from the original complainant.
• Your signature (electronic is fine).

On receipt of a complete counter-notice, we will:

1. Forward it to the original complainant and tell them we will restore the Content within 10–14 working days unless they file a court action seeking to keep it down. (This is the DMCA timeline; we apply it to other notice types as a matter of operating practice unless local law dictates a different timeline.)
2. Restore the Content if the complainant does not provide notice of court action in that window.
3. Log the counter-notice for our Transparency reporting.

6. Repeat-infringer policy

We operate a written, enforced repeat-infringer policy as required by the safe-harbour conditions in US, UK, and EU law. The operating rules are:

• Strikes. A well-founded takedown that is acted on counts as a strike against the uploading account. A counter-notice that succeeds (because the original complainant does not file court action in the window) cancels the strike.
• Warnings. On a first strike, we warn the account, send the substance of the notice and a copy of this Policy, and direct the account-holder to the Acceptable Use Policy.
• Suspension. On a second strike within twelve months, we suspend uploads from the account pending review.
• Termination. On a third strike within twelve months, or on any single strike where the underlying conduct is egregious (commercial-scale infringement, repeated bad-faith re-uploads, AI-generated impersonation of an existing artist), we terminate the account.
• Stay-out. A terminated repeat-infringer is permanently barred from creating new accounts. Attempts to circumvent termination are themselves a breach of the Terms of Use.

We publish aggregate strike, suspension, and termination figures in our quarterly Transparency report.

7. Misuse of the notice procedure

Knowingly false or materially misleading notices are taken seriously. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) and equivalent rules in other jurisdictions, a person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing may be liable for damages and costs. We may:

• Decline to act on notices from a sender who has previously submitted abusive notices.
• Refer matters for legal action where misuse is repeated or commercial in scale.
• Publish redacted summaries of notable abuse in our Transparency report.

We apply the same principle to counter-notices. False statements in a counter-notice are a basis for account action.

8. EU Article 17 (DSM Directive)

Where Article 17 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 applies to Talisman in respect of users in the European Union, we comply with its obligations. Until and unless Talisman exceeds the size thresholds in Article 17(6), we operate under the reduced-obligation regime for new and small services, which applies until the service has more than five million unique monthly visitors and operates under the relevant turnover and age thresholds.

We will update this section as our scale and the operating regime change.

9. UK Online Safety Act 2023

This Policy operates alongside our duties under the Online Safety Act 2023. Notices under this Policy are treated as user reports for the purposes of those duties. Our risk assessment, content moderation, and reporting practices are summarised in the Transparency commitment and will be expanded as Ofcom's Codes of Practice apply to our category of service.

10. Records and transparency

We retain notice-and-takedown records for up to seven years for evidentiary purposes. We publish aggregate statistics on notices received, action taken, counter-notices submitted, and outcomes in our quarterly Transparency report. Individual complainants are not named in public statistics.

11. Contact summary

Drafted in pre-incorporation form, 28 April 2026, for review and finalisation by qualified UK counsel. Designated-agent details, dedicated email aliases, and the launch-time web form are to be confirmed at sign-off.

Last updated 28 April 2026