Copyright and Illegal Content

1. What This Policy Covers

vvault is operated by Tom Nsengiyumva, a sole proprietor established in Belgium (VAT BE1022549155, registered office Minderbroedersstraat 10, 8000 Brugge). Under Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (the Digital Services Act, "DSA") vvault is a hosting service: users upload audio, artwork and text, and we store it and make it available to the people they choose or to the marketplace.

This policy explains how to tell us that something on vvault is illegal, what we do about it, and what the person who uploaded it is entitled to in return. It is written for European law first, because that is the law we are established under and the law that governs us by default.

It covers copyright and neighbouring rights first, because that is most of what we receive. It applies just as much to any other allegation of illegal content: trademark, personality and image rights, defamation, privacy violations, fraudulent listings, hate speech, and content that is criminal under Belgian or Union law.

It also covers content that is not illegal but breaks our Terms of Use. The procedure is the same. Only the ground we rely on differs, and we always tell the affected user which of the two we used.

We do not monitor everything that is uploaded, and we are under no general obligation to do so (Article 8 DSA). What we are obliged to do is act once we know. This policy is how you make us know.

2. Who to Contact, and in Which Language

Copyright and other illegal-content notices: copyright@vvault.app. Anything else legal - orders from an authority, service of process, questions about this policy: legal@vvault.app. Requests concerning personal data: privacy@vvault.app, handled under the Privacy Policy rather than here.

These addresses are our single point of contact for the purposes of Articles 11 and 12 DSA, for authorities and for users alike. They reach a person, not only a filter.

You may write to us in English, Dutch or French. English is the language of this policy and the language in which we answer fastest; Dutch and French are accepted because they are official languages of our Member State of establishment.

We do not operate a telephone line for notices. A notice sent by post to the registered office is valid but slower, and we will answer it by email where you give us one.

3. What a Valid Notice Must Contain

Article 16(2) DSA sets out four elements. A notice containing all four is what we call a complete notice, and it is treated differently from a complaint that merely asserts that something is wrong.

(a) A sufficiently substantiated explanation of why you consider the content to be illegal. Not simply that it infringes, but what right you hold, how you hold it, and what makes this particular upload unlawful. If you are claiming copyright, identify your own work and say whether you are the author, the rights holder, or an agent acting with authority.

(b) A clear indication of the exact electronic location of the content: the exact URL or URLs. Where a URL is not enough to identify the material - a specific track inside a pack, a file behind a private link, one image in a gallery - add whatever else identifies it precisely. We do not remove a whole account because a notice pointed at it vaguely.

(c) Your name and email address. The name of the individual or entity submitting the notice, and an address we can reply to. The only exception in the Regulation is for content involving the offences in Articles 3 to 7 of Directive 2011/93/EU (child sexual abuse), which may be reported anonymously and which we act on regardless of who sent the report.

(d) A statement confirming your good-faith belief that the information and allegations in the notice are accurate and complete.

Please add, if you can, what outcome you are asking for. Removal is not always what a rights holder wants: sometimes the answer is a credit, a licence, the delisting of a paid item while the private file stays with its uploader, or nothing more than a warning. Telling us saves a round trip.

4. Why a Complete Notice Matters

A notice that contains those four elements, and that lets a diligent provider identify the illegality without a detailed legal examination, gives us actual knowledge of the content within the meaning of Article 16(3) DSA. From that moment the liability exemption in Article 6 DSA no longer protects us unless we act expeditiously.

We are not pointing that out to sound rigorous. It is the practical reason a complete notice moves quickly and a vague one does not: one of them changes our legal position and the other does not.

An incomplete notice is not ignored. If we can see what is missing, we will tell you and you can resend. But it does not start that clock, and we will not guess at the parts you left out.

We are not a court. Where illegality genuinely turns on a contested question - whether a licence exists, whether a use is quotation or parody, whether two melodies are substantially similar - we may decline to remove and tell you that a judicial decision is the appropriate route. Saying that honestly is better than removing whatever is asserted most loudly.

5. What We Do When We Receive a Notice

We confirm receipt of every notice without undue delay, normally within twenty-four (24) hours, and the confirmation states the date and time we received it.

We process notices in a timely, diligent, non-arbitrary and objective manner. Our target is a decision within five (5) business days of a complete notice. Reports concerning child sexual abuse material, credible threats to life or safety, or non-consensual intimate imagery are urgent, are acted on immediately, and go ahead of everything else in the queue.

We then notify you of the decision and the reasons for it, together with the redress available to you - including that you may bring the matter before a court and that you may complain to the Digital Services Coordinator.

Decisions are taken by a human. We use automated means only to detect exact duplicates of files we have already removed, to find other copies of the same upload, and to flag obvious spam. No removal is decided by software alone, and where automated means contributed to a decision in any way, we say so in the notification.

The possible outcomes are: remove the content; disable access to it; restrict its visibility; remove a marketplace listing while leaving the underlying file in the uploader's private library; suspend payouts relating to the item; suspend or terminate the account; or take no action. We are not required to choose the most severe measure available, and usually do not.

6. What We Tell the Person Whose Content Is Affected

Where we remove content, disable access to it, demote or restrict its visibility, suspend or end payments, or suspend or terminate an account, we give the affected user a clear and specific statement of reasons under Article 17 DSA. We do this whether the trigger was a notice or our own review, and we do it even where the account has already been suspended.

The statement of reasons tells the user: the restriction imposed and, where relevant, its territorial scope and duration; the facts and circumstances we relied on, including whether we acted on a notice or on our own initiative; whether automated means were used to detect or to decide; where the ground is illegality, the legal provision relied on and why the content is illegal under it; where the ground is our Terms of Use, the contractual clause relied on and why the content is incompatible with it; and how to seek redress.

Where we acted on a notice, we say so. We identify the notifier to the affected user only where that is strictly necessary, as Article 17(3)(b) DSA allows, and not as a matter of routine.

The two exceptions: we do not send a statement of reasons where we have no electronic contact details for the user, and we do not send one where the content is manifestly illegal and connected to a serious criminal offence, in which case the file goes to the authorities instead.

Where the affected user is a seller - a business user within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 on platform-to-business fairness - the statement of reasons is delivered before, or at the moment, the restriction takes effect. A decision to terminate our services to that seller entirely is notified thirty (30) days in advance, except where a legal obligation requires us to act sooner, where there is an overriding public-interest reason, or where the seller has repeatedly breached the Terms of Use.

7. Counter-Statement, Appeal and Other Redress

If your content was removed or your account restricted and you believe the decision was wrong, reply to the statement of reasons or write to copyright@vvault.app. You have six (6) months from the date of the decision, which is the same appeal window as Section 6 of the Terms of Use.

Tell us what was affected, where it was, and why the decision was wrong - for example that you hold a licence, that the sample is cleared, that the work is your own, that the notifier identified the wrong file, or that the artwork was not what they described. Attach whatever proves it. A counter-statement that only says the decision was unfair gives us nothing to re-examine.

A human re-reviews the decision, and it is not the software that flagged it in the first place. If we were wrong, we restore the content, we say so plainly, and we lift every restriction that followed from the original decision, including any payout hold. If we were right, we explain why in terms specific to your case.

Where a notifier and an uploader both claim the same work, we may pass a non-confidential summary of each side's position to the other, so that the dispute can be settled between the two people who actually know the facts. We do not disclose more about either party than the dispute requires.

vvault is below the micro-enterprise threshold, so the obligations in Section 3 of Chapter III DSA - the formal internal complaint-handling system, certified out-of-court dispute settlement bodies, and trusted flagger priority - do not apply to us as a matter of law (Article 19 DSA). We offer the appeal route above anyway and treat it as binding on ourselves. If vvault grows past that threshold, this page changes before the obligations bite, not after.

None of this affects your right to go to court, or to lodge a complaint with the Digital Services Coordinator of Belgium. Belgian courts have jurisdiction, without prejudice to the mandatory protections a consumer enjoys in their country of residence.

8. Repeat Infringers

We suspend, and where the pattern continues terminate, accounts that repeatedly upload or sell infringing content. Repeatedly means more than once, after a warning, in circumstances where the user knew or should have known.

We count strikes over a rolling twelve (12) month period. A strike is a notice we acted on that was not reversed on appeal. Notices withdrawn by the notifier, and decisions we reverse ourselves, do not count - a reversed decision leaves no mark on the account.

As a rule of thumb, three strikes suspends the ability to sell and five ends the account. Those are the ordinary numbers, not a promise: uploading an entire commercial catalogue, or uploading content that is criminal, ends an account on the first occurrence.

Termination of a seller's account does not extinguish licences that buyers have already paid for. See Section 12.

9. Notices Submitted in Bad Faith

A notice is not a free action. Where an individual or entity frequently submits notices that are manifestly unfounded, we suspend the processing of their notices for a reasonable period, after a prior warning, and we may decline to act on further notices from that source.

Manifestly unfounded means the claim collapses on inspection: a claim over a work in the public domain, a claim over a work the notifier plainly does not hold rights in, a claim aimed at removing a competitor's listing, or the same claim repeated after the same facts have already been explained.

We keep a record of notices, decisions and appeals. Where it appears that the process has been used to damage a competitor or to extract a payment, we say so in writing to both sides, and we may report it.

Article 23 DSA, which requires these measures against misuse, formally binds platforms above the micro-enterprise threshold. We apply it voluntarily, for the same reason we offer the appeal route in Section 7: the protection is only worth something if it runs in both directions.

10. Orders From Courts and Authorities

Where a judicial or administrative authority of a Member State issues an order to act against specific illegal content under Article 9 DSA, or an order to provide information about a specific user under Article 10 DSA, we comply where the order meets the conditions those articles set: a legal basis, a statement of reasons, identification of the content by exact URL or equivalent, information about redress, and a territorial scope limited to what is strictly necessary.

We inform the issuing authority of the effect given to the order and when it was given. We inform the affected user of the order and of the effect given to it, at the latest at the moment it takes effect, unless the authority has instructed otherwise on grounds of public security or the prevention of crime.

We do not treat an informal request from a police officer, a letter from a law firm, or a message asserting official authority as an order. If you are an authority, write from a verifiable address to legal@vvault.app and identify yourself in a way we can check.

11. Content Involving a Threat to Life or Safety

Where we become aware of information giving rise to a suspicion that a criminal offence involving a threat to the life or safety of a person has taken place, is taking place, or is likely to take place, we inform the law enforcement or judicial authorities of Belgium, or of the Member State concerned, and provide all the information available to us (Article 18 DSA).

Content depicting the sexual abuse of children is removed on sight, reported, and preserved for the authorities rather than deleted. The account is terminated. There is no appeal window for this category and we will not discuss the decision with the account holder.

12. When the Removed Content Had Already Been Sold

Removing a listing is not the same as undoing a sale, and the two questions are decided separately. The seller's position and the buyer's position are not the same position.

A licence a buyer has already paid for is not revoked because the listing came down. The buyer keeps the licence document and the invoice, and both stay retrievable from their account. That follows Section 14 of the Terms of Use: what a buyer bought survives what happens to the seller, including termination of the seller's account.

There is one situation where that cannot hold. Where the seller had no right to grant the licence in the first place - because the underlying work was not theirs - the licence is void as a matter of law, and neither we nor the seller can make it good by insisting otherwise. In that case we refund the buyer. Payment for a marketplace sale is taken by vvault and only then passed on to the seller, which means we are able to reverse or withhold the corresponding transfer, and we will.

We may place a hold on payouts relating to a disputed item while a notice is being decided. The hold is limited to the amounts attributable to that item, it is notified with a statement of reasons under Section 6, and it is released promptly if the notice fails.

13. Samples, Artist Names and Type-Beat Titles

Two categories account for most of the notices we receive, and both are avoidable before an upload rather than after it.

Uncleared samples. A beat built on an unlicensed sample of a released recording touches two separate rights - the sound recording and the underlying composition - and selling a licence to it passes that infringement straight to your buyer. A sample being short, pitched, chopped, reversed or filtered does not clear it. If you cannot show the clearance, do not list the track for sale.

Artist names and type-beat titles. Naming a track after an artist to describe a style is ordinary practice in this industry and is not automatically unlawful. It can still infringe a trademark or a personality right, and it can mislead a buyer into believing the artist is involved. We remove listings that suggest endorsement, that use an artist's photograph, logo or likeness in the artwork, or that use a name in a way the rights holder has told us they object to. Describing a genre is fine; borrowing a reputation is not.

Vocals, features and stems supplied by someone else raise the same question. If a collaborator has not agreed in writing to the sale, you are the one making the representation to the buyer, and you are the one who answers for it.

14. Automated Detection - What We Do and Do Not Run

We do not operate upload filters. No file is blocked at the moment of upload by a content-recognition system, and no account is closed automatically.

We take the position that vvault is not an online content-sharing service provider within the meaning of Article 2(6) of Directive (EU) 2019/790: that definition expressly excludes online marketplaces and services that allow users to upload content for their own use, and vvault is both. The best-efforts licensing and stay-down obligations in Article 17 of that Directive therefore do not apply to us. If that position is ever shown to be wrong, we will change this page and change what we do, rather than leave a comfortable sentence standing.

The automated means we do use are narrow and stated: matching a new upload against the fingerprint of a file we have already removed, detecting duplicate uploads of the same item across accounts, and flagging notices that look like spam. Where any of that contributes to a decision affecting you, the statement of reasons says so and you can appeal it under Section 7.

15. United States: Our DMCA Status Today

Everything above is European law. This section and the two that follow concern the United States. They exist because vvault is reachable from the United States and receives notices written in the language of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The safe harbour in 17 U.S.C. Section 512(c) - the provision that shields a hosting service from monetary liability for material stored at the direction of a user - is conditional, not automatic. One of its conditions is that the provider designates an agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement: both by publishing the agent's contact details on its site and by filing the designation with the United States Copyright Office through its online Designated Agent Directory. The filing is a short form, a modest fee, and a renewal every three years. Without it the Section 512(c) safe harbour is simply not available, however diligently the provider behaves in practice.

vvault has not designated an agent with the United States Copyright Office. We are stating that plainly instead of publishing an address that would suggest otherwise. We do not claim the Section 512(c) safe harbour, we do not name a Designated Agent, and nothing on this page should be read as a registration that has not been made.

What we do instead is act on notices under the European procedure in Sections 3 to 7, whichever legal system the notifier writes from. A rights holder in the United States is not left without a route: send the notice to copyright@vvault.app and it will be handled, acknowledged and decided the same way as any other.

The two sections below set out what a Section 512 notice and counter-notification contain. They are published now so that they are already accurate on the day the designation is filed. Until that day they describe the form of notice we accept as a matter of practice, not a statutory position we are entitled to rely on.

16. United States: Elements of a DMCA Notice

A notification of claimed infringement under 17 U.S.C. Section 512(c)(3)(A) is a written communication containing substantially the following, sent to copyright@vvault.app.

(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorised to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

(ii) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple works at a single site are covered by one notification, a representative list of those works.

(iii) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate it - in practice, the exact URL.

(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you: an address, a telephone number, and, if available, an email address.

(v) 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.

(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorised to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Under 17 U.S.C. Section 512(f), a person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing is liable for the damages, costs and attorneys' fees incurred by the alleged infringer and by the service provider. That provision cuts in the same direction as Section 9 of this policy, and we treat it the same way.

17. United States: DMCA Counter-Notification

If your material was removed in response to a notice of the kind described in Section 16, you may send a counter-notification under 17 U.S.C. Section 512(g)(3) to copyright@vvault.app, containing substantially the following.

(A) Your physical or electronic signature.

(B) Identification of the material that was removed or to which access was disabled, and the location at which it appeared before it was removed or disabled.

(C) 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.

(D) Your name, address and telephone number, together with 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 the service provider may be found - and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted the notice, or from that person's agent.

Understand what that entails before sending one. A counter-notification is forwarded to the person who submitted the original notice, including the name, address and telephone number it contains. That is not a side effect we can suppress; it is what the statute requires, and it is a real disclosure of your personal data to someone who has just accused you. If you would rather not make it, use the European appeal route in Section 7 instead, which requires no such disclosure.

Under the statutory put-back procedure, material removed on a Section 512 notice is restored not less than ten and not more than fourteen business days after a valid counter-notification, unless we are first told that the notifier has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the activity. We follow that procedure as a matter of practice while Section 15 remains true.

The European appeal route and the counter-notification route are alternatives, not steps. You do not have to exhaust one before using the other, and using the European route does not waive anything under United States law.

18. Changes and Contact

We may update this policy as the law and the product change. We update the date at the top of this page, and for material changes we give notice by email or through a prominent in-app notice before they take effect.

If you find a statement on this page that is no longer true - including the statement in Section 15 about the Designated Agent - tell us at legal@vvault.app. A legal page that has drifted away from what the product actually does is worse than no page at all, because someone will rely on it.

Copyright and illegal-content notices: copyright@vvault.app. Other legal matters, including orders from authorities: legal@vvault.app. Anything concerning personal data: privacy@vvault.app.