Report copyright violation by emailing admin@theinvestingcircle.com
This policy explains how TIC responds to allegations of the unauthorized use of copyrighted images, text, or links to allegedly infringing materials under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). [Summary of Act, Full Text]
The DMCA
Section 512 of the DMCA outlines the statutory requirements for formally reporting copyright infringement. It also explains how to challenge a notification of claimed infringement by submitting a counter-notice.
Do You Have Rights in a Copyrighted Work?
If you aren’t sure whether you own the copyright in a particular work, please consult an attorney before sending a copyright notice to us. (Unfortunately, TIC can’t give you legal advice.)
How To File a DMCA Notice
If you believe that Subscriber Content residing or accessible on or through TIC Services infringes a copyright, please send a notice of copyright infringement containing the following information using our admin email at admin@theinvestingcircle.com or to the Designated Agent at the address below:
- A physical or electronic signature (typing your full name will suffice) of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf;
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (e.g., a copy of or link to your original work or clear description of the materials allegedly being infringed upon);
- Identification of the infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit TIC to locate the material on our website or services (e.g., a link to the infringing post);
- Your contact information, including your address, telephone number, and an email address;
- A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material in the manner asserted is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
- A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
You can report alleged copyright infringement by emailing the above information to admin@theinvestingcircle.com.
You can also mail a copyright notice to:
theinvestingcircle.com registered agent, 3458 Lakeshore Drive Tallahassee, Florida 32312
Email: admin@theinvestingcircle.comUnder 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), you may be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees incurred by us or our users, if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or activity is infringing. If you aren’t sure whether the material you are reporting is in fact infringing your rights, you should consult an attorney before sending us a copyright notification.
How TIC Processes the Claim
If you receive a DMCA notification, it means that the content described in the notice has been removed from TIC or access to the content on TIC has been restricted. Please carefully read our notice to you, which includes information about the notification we received as well as instructions on how to file a counter-notice.
When You Receive a DMCA Notification
We process copyright notices in the order they are received. Please note that submitting duplicate DMCA notifications may cause delayed processing.
TIC’s response to notices of alleged copyright infringement may include the removal or restriction of access to allegedly infringing material.
If we remove or restrict access to user content in response to a notice of alleged infringement, TIC will make a good-faith effort to contact the affected account holder and provide information concerning the removal or restriction of access, including a copy of the takedown notice, along with instructions for filing a counter-notification.
Where appropriate, TIC may suspend and warn repeat violators, and in more serious cases, permanently terminate user accounts.
Filing a Counter-Notice
If you received a DMCA notification about your material and believe that material was misidentified or removed in error, you should file a counter-notice by following the instructions below.
Re-posting material removed in response to a DMCA notification may result in permanent account suspension. If you believe the content was removed in error, please file a counter-notice instead of re-posting the material.
To submit a counter-notice, please provide us with the following information:
- A physical or electronic signature (typing your full name will suffice);
- 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 (the description from the DMCA notice will suffice);
- 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 of the material to be removed or disabled; and
- Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district 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 TIC may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the copyright notification or an agent of such person.
To submit a counter-notice, please respond to our original email notification of the removal and include the above information in the body of your reply.
After You Submit a Counter-Notice
When we receive a valid counter-notice, we will promptly forward a copy to the person who filed the original notification. If we don’t receive notice within 10 business days that the original reporter is seeking a court order to prevent further infringement of the material, we may replace or cease disabling access to the material that was removed.
Think Long and Hard Before Filing a DMCA Notification or Counter-Notice
Please think carefully before submitting a claim or counter-notice, especially if you aren’t sure whether you are the actual rights holder or authorized to act on a rights holder’s behalf. There are legal and financial penalties for fraudulent and/or bad-faith claims. Please make sure you are the actual rights holder, or you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed in error, and that you understand the repercussions of submitting a false claim.
Report copyright infringement or plagiarism
TIC deals with copyright infringement on TIC Services in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
If you believe that Subscriber Content residing or accessible on or through TIC Services infringes a copyright, please send a notice of copyright infringement containing the following information using the contact form at the bottom of this page, or to the Designated Agent at the address below:
- Identification of the work or material being infringed.
- Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing, including its location, with sufficient detail so that TIC is capable of finding it and verifying its existence.
- Contact information for the notifying party, including name, address, telephone number and e-mail address.
- A statement that the notifying party has a good faith belief that the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or law.
- A statement made under penalty of perjury that the information provided in the notice is accurate and that the notifying party is authorized to make the complaint on behalf of the copyright owner.
- A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright that has been allegedly infringed.
After removing material pursuant to a valid DMCA notice, TIC will immediately notify the Subscriber responsible for the allegedly infringing material that it has removed or disabled access to the material. TIC reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to immediately terminate the account of any Subscriber who is the subject of repeated DMCA notifications.
You can report alleged copyright infringement by emailing the above information to admin@theinvestingcircle.com.
You can also mail a copyright notice to:
Theinvestingcircle.com Registered Agent
3458 Lakeshore Drive
Tallahassee, Florida 32312
Email: admin@theinvestingcircle.com
About the No Duplicate Content rule
TIC does not allow posting duplicate content on the platform, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts, either publicly or as an unlisted post.
This applies to duplicate content on TIC only. You can still have your content on your personal blog, or any other websites.
This includes the following:
- Taking a published post to unlisted, then re-publishing the same content into a new post
- Republishing a duplicate version of an existing TIC story on TIC
- Cross-posting posts in other accounts. If your post is already included on TIC, you may not publish another instance of the same story for inclusion in another publication
TIC’s distribution system is designed to effectively and efficiently deliver your posts to the Worldwideweb. The existence of duplicate content from a single source disrupts this system, and ultimately results in a bad experience for your audience.
We understand every author has workflows and motivations, and that republishing content to TIC is often a large part of that. New audiences, iterative improvements, and missed opportunities are all reasons we are aware of, and to which we are sensitive.
The issue we are encountering is that these actions are sometimes at odds with our current system of distribution.
Our concern is that when your followers, any potential readers of your posts via our existing distribution systems, or our curators are repeatedly presented with duplicate content, it ultimately results in a bad experience and disrupts our designed system.
This can potentially impact your success in a variety of ways – you risk losing followers, and the topics or posts into which you are distributed could also see a loss of audience. So while the short-term gains might seem beneficial, the long-term effects are detrimental to not only all TIC readers but you as a writer.
Please note that writers can still self-publish translated versions of their own posts on their TIC account, and that would not violate the no duplicate content rule.
Accounts in violation of this rule will be suspended from TIC until they are brought into compliance. Repeated violations will result in permanent suspension.
Plagiarism Guidelines
Under TIC’s Terms of Service, users are required to either own the rights or have permission to post the content they publish on TIC. Please note that crediting the source does not supplant the need to secure permissions, and deletion of copyright infringement is not a basis for account reinstatement.
Plagiarism
TIC defines plagiarism as any act of taking the words and/or ideas of others and presenting them as original or without proper acknowledgement or permission. This includes directly copying ideas and text (whether entire articles, paragraphs, or sentences), as well as paraphrasing and slight re-writes (often known as “mosaic plagiarism”), translating or “spinning,” and failure to cite sources.
TIC requires that the sources of quoted or paraphrased content potentially included under Fair Use be properly cited within posts. Proper citations of sources in any of the major systems of citations are welcome, and can be added using numbered superscript text formatting, or other appropriate methods.
Detected instances of plagiarism on TIC may result in suspension of posts or accounts, and having Partner Program payments withheld.
DMCA/Copyright Complaints
TIC deals with claims of copyright violation in accordance with the DMCA. To submit a DMCA claim, you must be the rights holder, or their authorized representative. Our DMCA & Copyright Policy contains additional information on filing a claim.
Fair Use
While TIC is not able to provide specific legal advice on this matter, we recommend reading the EFF’s article on Fair Use.
People write about all kinds of things on TIC. Sometimes they reference companies or products. Sometimes they subtly (or not) promote brands. All fine by us. What TIC doesn’t allow is using someone else’s trademark in a way likely to confuse people.
What’s a trademark?
A trademark can be lots of things, but usually it’s a word, phrase or design (like a company name, a product name, a slogan or a logo). It shows you that this good or service comes from one company as opposed to some other company.
Trademarks exist to prevent consumer confusion over the source of a particular good or service. They also stop one company from free-riding on another company’s investment in branding. By contrast, they do not exist to help a company stop someone from discussing it (or its products) or to end secondary markets.
Someone’s using my trademark on TIC. What do I do?
If you think someone’s using your trademark in a way that’s likely to confuse readers, let us know and we will take appropriate action. This might include temporarily or permanently removing the content.
If you find infringement of your trademark on TIC, please email admin@theinvestingcircle.com
If someone’s using my trademark, in what scenarios would you not take it down?
TIC does not approve or verify user-generated posts or accounts before publishing. As with any financial transaction, we urge you to protect yourself and your money with at least the following steps:
- Thoroughly research the information, company, and seller using third party sources before engaging in any transaction.
- Verify you are dealing with the company itself (not an impostor).
- Navigate DIRECTLY to trusted sites before initiating any payment.
- If you have any doubts whatsoever, do not engage in transactions.
Further reading:
For consumers
TIC does not approve or verify user-generated posts or accounts before publishing. As with any financial transaction, we urge you to protect yourself and your money with at least the following steps:
- Thoroughly research the information, company, and seller using third party sources before engaging in any transaction.
- Verify you are dealing with the company itself (not an impostor).
- Navigate DIRECTLY to trusted sites before initiating any payment.
- If you have any doubts whatsoever, do not engage in transactions.
Further reading:
For companies announcing ICOs, coins or tokens
Posts and accounts that focus on cryptocurrencies which do not meet the following requirements may be considered spam and are subject to suspension, depending on context (See also: TIC Rules). TIC does not endorse or verify any coin, token, or similar announcement.
To prevent fraud and abuse, you must:
- Include a link to your active project domain in your user account bio.
- Use an email address from that domain as your verified TIC account email, and maintain that email account actively.
- Link at least one consistently-branded social media account (Facebook or Twitter) to your TIC account. That social account should also link out prominently to the same domain as is included in your TIC user bio.
- Include a prominent about page with up-to-date contact information on your project website.
You may not:
- Use an anonymous email address which is not linked to your project domain. (e.g., gmail, protonmail, yandex, mail.ru, etc.)
- Advertise or participate in bounty campaigns, pump and dumps, reviewing for reward, or other forms of brigading or inauthentic activity.
- Include shortened URLs in your posts.
- Facilitate gambling or betting.