Have you registered your Safe Harbor agent with the Copyright Office’s new online agent designation system? To limit copyright infringement liability from user-posted content, most companies rely on the Safe Harbor protections of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). By December 31, 2017, you must register your designated agent online to maintain Safe Harbor benefits, even if you previously designated an agent via a paper filing. To access the online agent designation form, go to: https://dmca.copyright.gov/osp/login.html

To establish or maintain Safe Harbor protection, you also must:

1. post the contact information for your designated agent on your website;
2. adopt and implement a policy for terminating repeat infringers;
3. accommodate and not interfere with standard technical measures, such as watermarks, adopted by copyright owners to identify and protect their copyrighted works; and
4. comply with the notification and take-down provision outlined in the statute.

All designations not made through the electronic system will automatically expire and become invalid after December 31, 2017.

The filing fee for the designation is just $6.00. The designation must be renewed every
three years.

Confused? Need assistance with compliance? We’re here to help.