9oole Limited provides users with an online platform and social media website (the “9oole Platform”) and allows users to upload and share images, videos, and other content to the 9oole Platform. We take the rights of intellectual property owners very seriously and comply as a service provider with all applicable provisions of the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
As stated in our End User License Agreement and Terms of Service, 9oole enforces its policy barring the upload of infringing material onto the 9GAG Platform. We respect the rights of copyright owners and we ask that you do the same.
What is copyright?
Copyright is the right of an author of a creative work to prevent others from using that work, including performing or displaying the work publicly, reproducing a work, distributing a work, or using it to create new works (a derivative work). We strongly encourage users of the 9oole Platform to familiarize themselves with copyright law before uploading content on the 9oole Platform. We offer the following links to copyright law resources for informational purposes only:
- Hong Kong Intellectual Department – Copyright
- U.S. Copyright Office – Copyright FAQ
- Lumen – Copyright Topics
What types of materials are copyrighted?
Copyright can cover almost any creative expression, including photographs, images, videos, audio/visual creations, live streams, articles, and other works of authorship. If you did not create a work and do not have the consent of the copyright holder to publish or use it (e.g., upload it to the 9oole Platform), your use of that work may be unauthorized and you may be subject to liability for copyright infringement.
What happens if I upload content to the 9oole Platform for which I don’t own the copyright, have a license to use the work, or have consent of the copyright holder?
If you upload content and you don’t own the copyright and don’t have permission to upload, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, or create a derivative work of that content or any portion of that content, you may be sued by the copyright owner thereof for copyright infringement. The damages for copyright infringement can be severe. In the United States, statutory damages (available to a copyright owner without proving actual harm) can range from $750 – $30,000 per work infringed, and run as high as $150,000 for willful infringement. Damages vary in other jurisdictions.
If we are notified that material you have uploaded to the 9GAG Platform infringes someone’s copyright, we will notify you and take down the content you posted. This is required by law. If you persist in uploading unauthorized content, we will, pursuant to our Repeat Infringer Policy, ban you from using the 9GAG Platform.
What about fair use?
The “fair use” doctrine is an affirmative defense to copyright infringement in the United States that allows the use of a work for certain limited purposes such as criticism, commentary, parody, news reporting, research, and teaching. Fair use is a complicated doctrine, and it is an open question whether a particular use of a copyrighted work constitutes fair use. You are responsible for the content you upload to the 9oole Platform and may be liable for money damages if it is determined that you wrongly assumed that your use of certain content constituted “fair use”.
We offer the following links to various copyright law resources relating to the fair use doctrine for informational purposes only:
- Law and Technology Centre, University of Hong Kong – Permitted Acts
- U.S. Copyright Office – Fair Use
- Stanford University Libraries – Copyright
- Lumen – Copyright and Fair Use
Further Information Regarding Copyright Infringement:
- The extent to which content uploaded to the 9oole Platform makes use of a copyrighted work may not matter: even the use of a small portion of a copyrighted work may cause you to be liable for copyright infringement.
- A copyright notice (i.e., © or ℗) is generally not required for a work to be protected by copyright law.
- Distributing content containing copyrighted material without the copyright owner’s permission may be a violation of copyright law even if you give the content away for free.
- There is no exception for “private” copying in U.S. law. Even if you share a work with only a small group of your friends or family, you could still be liable for copyright infringement.
- You can be liable for copyright infringement even if you give attribution to the owner or author of the copyrighted content.
- Even if you used your creativity to create new content that contains another person’s copyrighted work, you may be liable for copyright infringement.
- The only way that you can know for certain that content does not infringe anyone else’s copyright is if you created the entire work yourself without using anyone else’s copyrighted materials.
If you want to report content that you believe violates or infringes your copyright
Please fill out the 9oole DMCA Copyright Infringement Notification form below. Note that a report alleging infringement or violation of legal rights must come from the rights owner or someone authorized to report on their behalf (e.g. attorney, agent). If you are not the rights owner or their authorized representative, we will not be able to process your report.
