Copyright: notices and counter-notices

If your work is on ACADA without your permission, the form at acada.ac/copyright sends a notice to our designated agent. It needs no account, and a complete notice is acted on within 2 business days. If a notice names your material and is wrong, you answer it with a counter-notice.

Before you send a notice

• You own the copyright, or are authorised to act for the owner.
• You have the exact acada.ac links to the material. We can act only on material on acada.ac.
• You can give a postal address. The law requires it, and the person who posted the material receives a copy of your notice.
• A name, logo or brand is not copyright. Use the Trademark policy instead.

How to send a notice

1. 1.

   Under 1. Who you are, say whether you own the copyright or act for the owner, then give your name, email and postal address.

2. 2.

   Under 2. The copyrighted work, describe the work and, if you can, where the original can be seen.

3. 3.

   Under 3. The material on ACADA, paste one link per box. + Another link adds a box, up to 50.

4. 4.

   Under 4. Statements and signature, tick both statements and type your full name as your signature.

5. 5.

   Choose Send the notice. The screen shows your reference.

What happens next

Within 2 business days

We remove exactly what the notice identifies, hidden rather than deleted, and email you. If something is missing, we email you what instead.

The poster

Gets your notice in full the same day, your name and postal address included, with a strike.

Your reference

Quote it in any email to copyright@acada.ac.

If a notice names your material

You get the whole notice by email. Settings → Account standing shows Copyright strike under Record, and a Copyright notices panel with the notice in full. Nobody else sees either.

If the work is yours, licensed to you, or misidentified, choose File a counter-notice. It asks for your full legal name, postal address and email, why the removal was a mistake, and your typed signature. You also make three sworn statements, consenting to a federal court and to accepting legal papers from the claimant.

The counter-notice goes to the claimant the moment you file it. We restore the material and withdraw the strike 10 business days later, unless the claimant tells us first that they have gone to court. A closed account files at acada.ac/counter-notice, within 30 days of the closure; the deletion waits while it is pending.

Strikes

• The first strike in 12 months is a written warning.
• A second within 12 months restricts creating and publishing courses, and press articles, for 30 days.
• A third closes the creator role, or the whole account where the material was not course content.
• A course that is substantially someone else's work is theft, not a strike: the creator role closes at once, and its earnings are withheld.
• A strike lasts 12 months. A successful counter-notice, or a notice withdrawn, removes it as if it had never been made.

Rules and limits

• A paused course refunds its students if it is not back within 14 business days. If a counter-notice is pending, it waits for that, and refunds them if the claimant goes to court.
• A removed copy is kept 90 days after a final notice. After that, a counter-notice can still clear the strike, but cannot bring the material back.
• Uploading removed material again is a new notice and a new strike.

The full terms are in Copyright & DMCA.

If something goes wrong

"The notice is missing …"

The list names each missing element. Add them and send again.

"Too many notices from this address…"

The limit is 5 notices an hour from one address. Wait, or email copyright@acada.ac.

"This notice is not in a state that can be countered."

It already has a counter-notice, or the material is back.

"That reference and email address do not match…"

On acada.ac/counter-notice: use the full reference and the address from the notice email.