OpenOcean Copyright Policy (notices, counter-notices, repeat infringers)

Effective date: 20 October 2026

OpenOcean hosts content that users upload: posts, photos, videos, voice notes, reviews, place descriptions, boat photos and messages. We respect the rights of creators and we act on copyright notices. This policy explains how to send one, what happens next, how a user can respond, and what happens to accounts that infringe repeatedly. It applies to everyone, whether or not you have an OpenOcean account. It is written around the notice-and-takedown process of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §512) and the notice-and-action rules of the EU Digital Services Act, and we apply the same process for rightsholders everywhere.

1. How to send a copyright notice

You do not need an account. Email support@openoceanhub.com with the subject "Copyright notice", or, if you are a user, report the item in the app and choose Copyright as the reason (that report reaches a person; it is never handled automatically).

For us to act, your notice must contain substantially the following:

1. Your physical or electronic signature, or that of a person authorised to act for the owner of the right you say is infringed.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work you say has been infringed (a title, a link to the original, or a description; if several works, a representative list).
3. Identification of the material on OpenOcean you say is infringing, with enough information for us to find it — a link to the post, the username and the date and time of the post or message, or a screenshot showing them.
4. Your contact details: name, address, telephone number and email address.
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of 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 owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed or are authorised to act on the owner's behalf.

A notice that is missing something is not ignored; we will ask you for what is missing. We do not act on notices that are plainly abusive, and knowingly sending a false notice can make you liable for damages under 17 U.S.C. §512(f) and equivalent laws.

2. What we do with a notice

• We confirm receipt by email, normally within two business days.
• A person reviews the notice. If it is complete and the claim is plausible, we hide the material so that no other user can see it, normally within a few business days, and we tell the user who posted it what was hidden, why, and how to respond. The author can still see their own hidden item, so they know exactly what is affected.
• We keep a copy of the hidden material and the notice as evidence while the matter is open.
• If the notice concerns a private message, the same process applies; the reporter's snapshot of the message is what we review.
• We record the outcome against the user's account (section 4).

3. Counter-notice

If your content was hidden because of a notice and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification — for example, you own the work, you have a licence, or the use is permitted — you may send a counter-notice to support@openoceanhub.com containing:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the material that was hidden and where it appeared before it was hidden.
3. 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.
4. Your name, address and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, if you are outside the United States, of any judicial district in which OpenOcean may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the notice or their agent.

We forward the counter-notice to the person who sent the original notice. Unless they tell us within 10 business days that they have filed a court action to restrain the alleged infringement, we restore the material not less than 10 and not more than 14 business days after receiving your counter-notice.

Where the DMCA process does not apply to you (for example, an EU user contesting a decision under the Digital Services Act), write to the same address; a person will review the decision and reply with reasons.

4. Repeat infringers

Every copyright report that is upheld after review is recorded against the account concerned. We terminate the accounts of users who infringe repeatedly. Our working rule is:

• First upheld report: the material is hidden and the user is told.
• Second upheld report: the material is hidden and the user is warned that a further upheld report will end the account.
• Third upheld report within any 12-month period, or any deliberate or commercial-scale infringement: the account is terminated, and the user may not open a new one.

We may terminate sooner for serious cases, and we may consider counter-notices, restorations and the passage of time in the user's favour. Terminations are carried out by our staff and are recorded.

5. Designated agent

Until our registration with the U.S. Copyright Office's DMCA Designated Agent Directory is filed, notices go to the email address in section 1, which a person reads, and the same process applies. We will name the designated agent here once the filing is made.

6. Other rights

The same email address takes notices about trademark misuse, privacy (for example, your personal data or image posted by someone else), and other unlawful content. Tell us which right you rely on and where the material is; a person will review it. Removal requests about your own personal data are handled under the Privacy Policy.

7. Contact

OPENOCEAN HUB PTE. LTD.
68 Circular Road, #02-01
Singapore 049422
support@openoceanhub.com