Copyright / DMCA Policy

Overview

ActionOverWords Index ("AOW Index," "we," "us," or "our") respects copyright and expects the same from anyone who uses this site. This policy explains how we handle claims that material appearing on the site infringes someone's copyright, following the notice-and-takedown process set out in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. § 512. It works alongside our Terms of Service, which covers our own intellectual property and what you're allowed to do with content on the site more generally.

This page is specifically for copyright claims. General questions, suggested corrections, and appeals of a promise's status still go through the Contact form described in our FAQ — those aren't copyright matters, even when they're about accuracy.

Our designated DMCA agent

Send a takedown notice or counter-notice to the agent below — by mail or email, not the general Contact form, which isn't monitored the same way and will slow things down.

For this designation to actually qualify the site for DMCA safe-harbor protection, the agent above also needs to be registered in the U.S. Copyright Office's online Designated Agent Directory — a separate step from publishing this page. [register at copyright.gov/dmca-directory, then confirm the registration is current here]

What this policy covers

Most of what appears on this site about an official — the news coverage behind a status, the government record behind a vote — is linked out to where it was originally published, not reproduced here. A claim about that underlying reporting belongs with the outlet that published it, not with us.

What we do host directly is narrower: officials' photos, and short quoted material (a headline, a line from a campaign statement) used for identification and commentary the way any news or reference site would. If a specific photo is the subject of a valid claim, removing it is simple — every avatar on this site already falls back to the official's initials automatically if the photo URL fails to load, so pulling an image doesn't break anything else on the page.

The site's own design, code, compiled promise database, and original written analysis are covered separately in the Intellectual Property section of our Terms of Service — this page is about claims that we're infringing someone else's copyright, not about ours.

How to submit a takedown notice

To be a valid notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), send our designated agent a written notice that includes all six of the following:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner, or someone authorized to act on their behalf.
• Identification of the copyrighted work you claim is infringed.
• Identification of the material you claim is infringing, and information reasonably sufficient for us to locate it — a URL, the official's name, or a description of where it appears is usually enough.
• Your contact information: address, telephone number, and email address.
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use isn't authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information above is accurate and that you're authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

A notice missing one of these elements may not qualify for action under the DMCA specifically, though we may still look into it as a general complaint.

What happens after we receive a notice

We review each notice against the requirements above. Where a notice qualifies, we'll remove or disable access to the material it identifies — for a photo, that generally just means pulling the image URL — and we'll try to let the person or account associated with it know what changed. This process addresses the specific material identified in a notice; it isn't a ruling on the underlying promise, status, or any broader dispute about the page it appeared on. That kind of disagreement still goes through the correction and appeal process described in our FAQ, not this one.

Counter-notification

If material of yours was removed and you believe that happened by mistake or misidentification, you can send a counter-notice to the same designated agent. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3), it needs to include:

• Your physical or electronic signature.
• Identification of the material that was removed, and where it appeared before it was taken down.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
• Your name, address, and telephone number, along with a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district where your address is located (or, if you're outside the United States, any judicial district where we may be found), and that you'll accept service of process from the person who filed the original notice.

If we receive a valid counter-notice, we'll forward it to whoever filed the original notice. Under the same statute, unless they tell us they've filed a court action to keep the material down, we'll typically restore it within 10 to 14 business days of the counter-notice.

Repeat infringers

Consistent with the Acceptable Use and Termination sections of our Terms of Service, an account responsible for repeated, valid copyright infringement can have its access suspended or terminated.

False claims

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), anyone who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing — or, in a counter-notice, that it was taken down by mistake — can be held liable for damages, including our costs and attorney's fees in sorting it out. Please only file a notice or counter-notice you believe in good faith to be accurate.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page if our process or contact information changes. The date at the top will change whenever we do.

Contact us

Copyright notices and counter-notices go to the designated agent above. For anything else — a suggested correction, a status appeal, or a general question — use the Contact form on the About tab back on the Index, described in our FAQ.