Last updated: 3 September 2026

NextTechBlog respects copyright. If you own copyright in something that appears on https://nexttechblog.com/ without your permission, this page tells you exactly how to get it taken down, and how someone whose material was removed by mistake can get it put back.

This page is general information, not legal advice. It is a template. If you are reusing it, have a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction review it. If you are sending or answering a notice, consider getting advice — a defective or dishonest notice carries real consequences.

Where to send a notice

Copyright notices and counter-notices go to our designated contact:

• Email: [email protected] (fastest, and preferred)
• Phone: +1 (250) 979-6360

Lyssia Dasari, Designated Copyright Agent

NextTechBlog

3330 Old Vernon Rd

Kelowna, BC V1X 6P3

Canada

Please do not send takedown notices to our editorial or general addresses; it will slow things down. We acknowledge notices within 5 business days.

What a valid DMCA notice must contain

The United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act sets out, at 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3)(A), six things a notification of claimed infringement must include. A notice missing them may not be effective. Your written communication must include substantially the following:

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

In practice, item 3 means give us the exact URL, and where the page contains several items, say which paragraph, image or file you mean. “Your site uses my photos” is not enough for us to act on.

What happens after we receive a notice

1. We acknowledge receipt within 5 business days.
2. We check the notice against the six elements above. If something is missing we tell you what, so you can resend.
3. Where the notice is valid, we expeditiously remove or disable access to the material identified. We do this without judging the merits of the claim — removal is not an admission that infringement occurred.
4. We take reasonable steps to notify the person who posted the material, and we give them a copy of the notice, including the identifying and contact information you supplied. Assume the other side will see your notice.
5. We tell them how to file a counter-notification, and we record the notice against their account for the purposes of our repeat-infringer policy.

If the material was published by our own editorial team we will normally contact you first to discuss a correction, licence, credit or removal, because a lot of copyright disputes over a screenshot or a chart are resolved in one email.

Counter-notification

If your material was removed and you believe it was removed by mistake or misidentification — for example, you hold a licence, the work is public domain, or the use is a fair use — you may send us a counter-notification. Under 17 U.S.C. §512(g)(3), a counter notification must be a written communication that includes substantially the following:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the subscriber.
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 access to it was disabled.
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
4. The subscriber’s name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriber’s address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.

The restoration window

Under §512(g)(2), when we receive a valid counter-notification we promptly forward a copy to the person who sent the original notice and tell them we will replace the material in 10 business days. We then replace the removed material, or cease disabling access to it, not less than 10 nor more than 14 business days following receipt of the counter-notice — unless we first receive notice that the complaining party has filed a court action seeking to restrain the infringing activity.

Two practical points. Your counter-notification, including your name and address, is forwarded to the person who complained; that is what the statute requires and we cannot anonymise it. And the 10-to-14 business day window is fixed by statute, not by us, so we cannot restore content sooner.

Repeat infringers

We terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts and commenting privileges of people who repeatedly infringe copyright, and we may block them from the site. We keep a record of valid notices received and of the account or contributor they relate to. A notice that is withdrawn, successfully countered, or found defective does not count as a strike. Contributors whose work is removed for infringement will not be commissioned again.

False claims: the §512(f) warning

Do not send a notice or counter-notice you know to be false. Under 17 U.S.C. §512(f), any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing, or that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, is liable for damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or authorised licensee, or by a service provider, injured by the misrepresentation as a result of the service provider relying on it.

The perjury statements in items 6 of a notice and 3 of a counter-notice are real. Before sending a notice, consider whether the use might be a fair use, whether you actually hold the exclusive right in question, and whether you gave permission you have forgotten about. Notices sent to suppress criticism, competition or an unflattering review are misuse of the process and we will treat them accordingly.

Canada: the notice-and-notice regime

Canada does not have a DMCA-style takedown obligation. Sections 41.25 to 41.27 of the Copyright Act (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-42) create a “notice and notice” regime instead. A Canadian rights holder sends a notice of claimed infringement to an internet service provider, a host of digital memory, or an information location tool, and the recipient’s duty is to forward it — not to remove the material.

Under section 41.25(2) a notice must be in writing, state the claimant’s name and address and any other particulars enabling communication, identify the work or other subject-matter and the claimant’s interest or right in it, specify the location data — such as the IP address or URL — where the claimed infringement is occurring, specify the infringement claimed, and specify the date and time of the claimed infringement.

Section 41.25(3) prohibits certain content in a notice. It may not offer to settle the claim, may not demand payment or personal information in relation to the claimed infringement, and may not contain a hyperlink to such an offer or demand, or any other prescribed information. Notices carrying settlement demands do not have to be forwarded.

Under section 41.26, a recipient who is paid or unpaid must forward the notice electronically to the person to whom the identified electronic location belongs as soon as feasible, and tell the claimant it has done so or explain why it could not. It must retain records allowing the identity of that person to be determined for six months from receipt of the notice — extended to one year if the claimant commences proceedings and notifies the recipient before the six months elapse. Where the Minister has fixed no maximum fee, no fee may be charged for performing these obligations. Failure to comply exposes the recipient to statutory damages the court considers just, of not less than $5,000 and not more than $10,000. Section 41.27 addresses the position of providers of information location tools.

Because we are a Canadian publisher whose infrastructure and audience reach the United States, we operate the DMCA procedure above voluntarily as well. Canadian rights holders may use either route; sending to [email protected] works for both.

A note on what we will not do

We will not disclose a contributor’s or commenter’s personal information in response to a takedown notice. Get a court order. We will not act on notices that are plainly about something other than copyright — trade-mark complaints, defamation claims and privacy requests each have their own route; write to [email protected] or, for privacy, [email protected]. And we will not remove factual reporting or criticism because someone dislikes it.