Copyright and DMCA

Effective date: September 21, 2026 Last updated: September 21, 2026

Platform Technology Ventures LLC respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects the people who use Cert.Photos to do the same. This page explains how to send us a notice of copyright infringement under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512), and how to send a counter-notice if your content was removed.

1. Designated agent

Notices of claimed copyright infringement should be sent to our designated agent:

This designation is on file with the U.S. Copyright Office and has been effective since June 7, 2026. It covers cert.photos, certified.photos, watermarkchain.org, and the CertifiedPhotos iOS and Android applications. You can confirm it in the Copyright Office's public DMCA Designated Agent Directory at https://dmca.copyright.gov.

2. Sending a notice

To be effective under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), your notice must include all of the following:

  1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner, or a person authorised to act on their behalf.
  2. Identification of the copyrighted work you say has been infringed. If several works are covered by one notice, a representative list.
  3. Identification of the material you say is infringing, with enough detail for us to find it — for a certified photograph, the verification URL (https://cert.photos/v/<id>) or the photo ID.
  4. Your contact details: address, telephone number, and email address.
  5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
  6. A statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and — under penalty of perjury — that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on their behalf.

Notices that are missing these elements may not be effective, and we may come back to you for the missing parts rather than act on an incomplete notice.

3. What we do with a notice

Removing a photograph disables its public verification page. The certification record itself is retained, because it is the evidence of what was certified and when.

4. Repeat infringers

The following is quoted from Terms of Service §12.

We will respond to valid notices and, in appropriate cases, will terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

5. Counter-notice

If your material was removed and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, you may send a counter-notice to dmca@cert.photos. To be effective under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3), it must include:

  1. Your physical or electronic signature.
  2. Identification of the material that was removed, and the location where it appeared before removal.
  3. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
  4. Your name, address and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the district in which your address is located (or, if your address is outside the United States, any district in which we may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice.

If we receive a valid counter-notice, we will forward it to the person who sent the original notice. Unless they tell us within 10 business days that they have filed a court action seeking to restrain the activity, we may restore the material in 10 to 14 business days after receiving the counter-notice.

A counter-notice is a legal statement made under penalty of perjury. Misrepresenting that material was removed by mistake can make you liable for damages under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f). If you are not sure, talk to a lawyer.

6. Not a copyright question?

Platform Technology Ventures LLC, One Broadway, 14th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.