DMCA Policy

HIPKit respects the intellectual property rights of others and complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. § 512. This policy explains how to submit a copyright takedown notice, how to submit a counter-notice, and the practical limits of what HIPKit can take down given the nature of the product.

1. Overview

HIPKit is a hashing-and-signing tool, not a hosting service. The files you attest are not uploaded to HIPKit — only their cryptographic fingerprints, your signatures, your classifications, and any optional thumbnails you choose to publish are transmitted to and stored by HIPKit. As a result, a DMCA takedown directed at HIPKit can reach only those records that HIPKit holds (attestation records and any optional thumbnails published through HIPKit's badge or portfolio surfaces); it cannot reach the underlying file, which lives on whatever server, storage system, or device the original publisher chose. See § 6 (Limitations) for the practical implications.

Within those limits, HIPKit responds to properly-submitted DMCA notices and counter-notices in good faith and in accordance with 17 U.S.C. § 512.

2. Designated Agent

HIPKit's DMCA designated agent is Peter Rieveschl, the operator of HIPKit at the time of this update. The designated agent is reachable by email at support@hipkit.net with the subject line DMCA Notice (see § 3). HIPKit is registering its designated agent with the U.S. Copyright Office's public DMCA Designated Agent Directory; once that registration is completed, the agent's full registered name, mailing address, and telephone number will be published there, and that directory — the canonical source, searchable at copyright.gov/dmca-directory — will list them. Once registered, the designation is renewed every three years as required by 37 C.F.R. § 201.38.

If HIPKit's commercial operations are assigned to a successor entity (see Privacy Policy § 13), the designated agent registration will be updated to reflect the successor entity's name and contact details, and a notice will appear at the top of this page.

3. How to Submit a Takedown Notice

Send your written notice by email to support@hipkit.net with the subject line DMCA Notice. Once HIPKit's designated agent registration appears in the U.S. Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Directory, mail submissions may also be sent to the address listed there (see § 2). Until then, and in any case for speed, email is the preferred and effective channel.

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

• A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyrighted work that has allegedly been infringed.
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (or, if multiple works, a representative list of those works).
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and that is to be removed or access disabled, with information reasonably sufficient to permit HIPKit to locate the material — for HIPKit specifically, this means the attestation record's content hash, credential ID, series identifier, collection identifier, or hipkit.net URL where the disputed thumbnail or record is published.
• Information reasonably sufficient to permit HIPKit to contact you: full name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address.
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

On receipt of a properly-formed notice, HIPKit will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the identified material from HIPKit-controlled surfaces (attestation records, published thumbnails, badge renderings, portfolio displays, certificate generations) and will notify the affected user of the removal and the substance of the notice.

4. Counter-Notice Procedure

If your material has been removed and you believe the removal was the result of mistake or misidentification, you may submit a written counter-notice to support@hipkit.net with the subject line DMCA Counter-Notice.

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

• Your physical or electronic signature.
• 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 disabled (typically the hipkit.net URL or the attestation record identifier).
• A statement, made 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.
• Your full name, mailing address, and telephone number; 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 the United States, for any judicial district in which HIPKit may be found); and a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the original notification under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(1)(C) or an agent of that person.

On receipt of a properly-formed counter-notice, HIPKit will promptly forward a copy to the original complainant and inform them that the removed material will be replaced or access restored not less than ten (10) business days and not more than fourteen (14) business days after receipt of the counter-notice, unless the original complainant files a notice of suit seeking a court order to restrain the alleged infringer.

5. Repeat Infringer Policy

Consistent with 17 U.S.C. § 512(i), HIPKit terminates, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who are repeat infringers. A user against whom HIPKit receives valid takedown notices in a recurring pattern — and who does not successfully counter-notice — may have their HIPKit account suspended or terminated and their HIP credential flagged via the protocol's /dispute-proof mechanism. Termination of the HIPKit account does not by itself remove existing attestation records from the protocol's verification surface; see § 6.

6. Limitations

HIPKit is a hashing-and-signing tool, not a hosting service for the underlying content. A DMCA takedown directed at HIPKit reaches:

• Attestation records stored in HIPKit infrastructure (content hash, classification, signature, timestamp, optional thumbnail). Records that are removed in response to a valid notice will no longer be served from HIPKit's verification surface.
• Optional published thumbnails that you chose to publish at attestation time. These are removable on a per-record basis.
• Badge renderings, portfolio displays, certificate generations, and series/collection landings served from HIPKit-controlled surfaces.

A DMCA takedown directed at HIPKit does not reach:

• The underlying file itself, which is not stored on HIPKit and lives on whatever server, hosting service, social platform, or device the original publisher chose. To reach the underlying file, send your notice to the actual host of that file.
• Cryptographic records held by independent verifiers, downstream caches, archival snapshots, or third-party clients of the protocol that may have observed and saved the attestation before takedown. The protocol surface is open and copy-able by design under Charter Deployment Principle 5 (Permissionless Proliferation); HIPKit cannot guarantee universal removal across every downstream observer.
• The fundamental fact that an attestation existed at a given timestamp. Once a content hash and timestamp have been anchored to an external durability layer (the Bitcoin blockchain via OpenTimestamps; see Privacy Policy § 14), the existence of that anchor is part of an external public record that HIPKit cannot retract.

Within these limits, HIPKit acts in good faith on properly-submitted notices and counter-notices.

7. Contact

For DMCA takedown notices and counter-notices, use support@hipkit.net with the appropriate subject line as described above. Once HIPKit's designated agent is registered, the full contact details — including registered legal name, mailing address, and telephone — will be published on the U.S. Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Directory.

For non-DMCA inquiries about your relationship with HIPKit, see the HIPKit Terms of Service or the HIPKit Privacy Policy.