Copyright and DMCA Policy
AncestorOS lets people upload scanned records, photographs, obituaries and newspaper clippings. Some of that material is under copyright. This policy explains how to tell us about an infringement, how an account holder can respond, and what happens to repeat infringers.
1. Designated Agent
Commoner Apps LLC has designated the following agent to receive notifications of claimed copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512:
DMCA Agent
Commoner Apps LLC
506 Soapberry Ave.
Princeton, Texas 75407
United States
Email: legal@ancestoros.com
Please use this contact only for copyright matters. Other enquiries sent here will be slower to answer. For anything else see Section 8.
2. Sending a Takedown Notice
If you own the copyright in material you believe is being infringed on AncestorOS, or you are authorised to act for the owner, send our agent a written notice containing all of the following. These elements are set by statute and a notice missing any of them may not be effective.
- A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner, or a person authorised to act on their behalf.
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed. If several works are covered by one notice, a representative list.
- Identification of the material claimed to be infringing, with enough detail for us to locate it — for a publicly shared tree, the share link and the specific item; otherwise, as much identifying detail as you can give.
- Your contact details: name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
- A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner or authorised to act on the owner's behalf.
Please note that most content in AncestorOS is private to the account that created it and is not publicly accessible. If material is not reachable through a public link, describe it as precisely as you can and tell us how you came to see it.
3. What Happens Next
On receiving a compliant notice we will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material. We will notify the account holder, give them a copy of the notice, and tell them how to submit a counter-notification.
Where the material sits in a private research file rather than a published page, disabling public access — for example revoking a share link — may be the appropriate and proportionate step. We will tell you what we did.
Removing material is not a judgement about the merits. We are not in a position to adjudicate a copyright dispute, and we follow the statutory process precisely because it is not ours to decide.
4. Counter-Notification
If your material was removed and you believe that was a mistake, or that you have the right to use it, you may send our agent a counter-notification containing:
- Your physical or electronic signature.
- Identification of the material removed and the location where it appeared before removal.
- A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
- Your name, postal address and telephone number.
- A statement consenting to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the district in which your address is located, or, if your address is outside the United States, any judicial district in which Commoner Apps LLC may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted the original notice or their agent.
We will forward your counter-notification to the original complainant. If they do not tell us within 10 business days that they have filed an action seeking a court order, we may restore the material in 10 to 14 business days.
Your counter-notification, including your name and address, will be sent to the person who complained. Consider that before sending one.
5. Repeat Infringers
It is our policy, in appropriate circumstances, to disable and terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe copyright.
We record each valid notice against the account concerned. A notice withdrawn by the complainant, or answered by a counter-notification that is not followed by a court action, does not count. In general, three recorded infringements will result in termination, though we may terminate sooner where the infringement is flagrant or commercial in nature.
Termination under this policy does not entitle you to a refund of fees already paid.
6. Misuse of This Process
Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), a person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that it was removed by mistake, may be liable for damages, including costs and legal fees.
Do not use this process to remove material you simply dislike, or to identify an anonymous account holder. If a family member has published a photograph you appear in, that is a privacy matter, not necessarily a copyright one — see the Living Persons and Third-Party Information Policy. If you took the photograph, it may well be both.
7. A Note on Genealogical Records
Not everything in a family tree is protected by copyright, and it helps to know the difference before sending a notice.
- Facts are not copyrightable. A birth date, a marriage date, a place of death, and the fact of a relationship are facts, however much work went into finding them.
- A scan of a public-domain document generally does not attract a new copyright merely for having been scanned, though the position varies by jurisdiction and a database or compilation may be protected in its selection and arrangement.
- Photographs are protected, usually from the moment they are taken, and usually by the photographer rather than the subject or the person who inherited the print.
- Written work is protected — an obituary, a published family history, a transcription containing original commentary, an archive's descriptive text.
- Terms of use are not copyright. A commercial genealogy site's terms may restrict re-publication of images obtained from it. That is a contract question between that site and its user, and it is not something we can resolve through this process.
None of this is legal advice. If a claim matters to you, consult a lawyer.
8. Other Complaints
Privacy, or information about you held in someone's tree: privacy@ancestoros.com, and see the Living Persons and Third-Party Information Policy.
Trademark, defamation, or other legal claims: legal@ancestoros.com, describing the material and the basis of your claim.
Harassment or safety concerns: privacy@ancestoros.com with "URGENT" in the subject line.
General support: support@ancestoros.com.