GWAA respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects the same of its users. This DMCA Policy explains how to notify us of allegedly infringing material that may appear in the public Instagram or YouTube content surfaced by our tools, and how a counter-notification can be filed if you believe a takedown was made in error.
1. Our Commitment
The GWAA tools do not host original third-party material. When you open a story viewer, a highlights browser, or a reels viewer, what you see is public content fetched in real time from upstream platforms (Instagram and YouTube) or briefly cached for delivery. We do not editorialise the content and we do not profit from individual posts.
That said, we acknowledge our responsibilities under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), 17 U.S.C. § 512. We will respond to properly formatted takedown notices and we maintain a repeat-infringer policy as set out below.
2. Filing a DMCA Takedown Notice
If you believe content displayed through any GWAA tool infringes a copyright you own or are authorised to act on behalf of, you may send us a written notification of claimed infringement. To be effective under the statute, your notice must comply with 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) and include the following:
- A physical or electronic signature of a person authorised to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
- 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, with information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material — typically the full URL on a gwaa.net subdomain plus any identifying handle or post ID.
- Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and email address.
- A statement that the complaining party has 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.
- A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorised to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Incomplete notices may delay or prevent action.
3. Where to Send Notices
Our designated DMCA agent is reachable at:
- Email: [email protected] (preferred — fastest turnaround)
- Subject line: "DMCA Notice — <subdomain> — <short identifier>"
Misrepresentations in a DMCA notice — for example, claiming infringement where there is none, or asserting authority you do not have — can subject the sender to liability under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f). Please consult a lawyer if you are not sure whether the material in question infringes.
4. Counter-Notification Process
If you receive a notification that material you submitted, hosted, or otherwise have a stake in has been removed from a GWAA surface in response to a DMCA notice, and you believe the removal was the result of mistake or misidentification, you may file a counter-notification under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g). A counter-notification must include:
- Your physical or electronic signature.
- 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.
- A statement 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.
- Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for the judicial district in which your address is located, or if your address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which we may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the original notification or an agent of that person.
On receipt of a valid counter-notification we will forward a copy to the original complaining party and, unless that party files a court action within ten to fourteen business days seeking to restrain the conduct, we may restore the disputed material.
5. Repeat Infringer Policy
It is our policy to terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the access of users (including IP-bound anonymous users) who are determined to be repeat infringers. Because GWAA does not maintain user accounts, that termination typically takes the form of IP-level blocks and the removal of any cached material associated with the offending source.
6. Disclaimer
GWAA surfaces public Instagram and YouTube content. We do not host original creator material. Cached fragments are short-lived and exist only to make the tools responsive. Inclusion of a piece of content in our cache is not a claim of ownership and not an endorsement, and removal from our cache does not, by itself, remove the material from the original platform. Disputes about ownership of the underlying content may need to be raised directly with Instagram or YouTube.
7. What Happens After You Send a Notice
On receipt of a complete and good-faith DMCA notice, we will typically acknowledge the notice by email within two business days, evaluate the identified URL, and — if the takedown appears valid — remove or disable access to the cached material. We may also temporarily disable the upstream lookup that produced it while we investigate. Where the allegedly infringing material is a passthrough display of content still live on Instagram or YouTube, we may recommend that you also pursue a takedown with the upstream platform; our removal only affects the cached copy on our edge, not the original.
8. Contact
All DMCA correspondence should be directed to [email protected]. General legal questions can go to [email protected]. We do not accept DMCA notices through social media, public comments, or unstructured contact forms — those channels are not monitored for statutory notices.