DMCA / Takedown

The Platform hosts, archives, and displays extensive user-generated content (“UGC”), including grower journals, cultivation photographs, community strain adjustments, and written commentary. As an online intermediary, we respect the proprietary intellectual property rights of copyright holders and maintain an active, expedited protocol to evaluate, address, and execute valid takedown requests regarding unauthorized content.

To initiate a formal review of an unauthorized posting, the copyright owner or their legally authorized representative (“Complainant”) must transmit a written notification to our Designated Copyright Agent via email with the mandatory subject line: “DMCA Takedown Request” to our monitored mailbox: support@growandtell.net. Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), such notification must encompass the following specific parameters:

Identification of Covered Work: A sufficiently descriptive identification of the copyrighted work or proprietary assets claimed to have been infringed upon, or, if multiple works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such items.

Specific Location Parameters (URLs): The exact uniform resource locator (URL) links, network pathways, or asset file paths on growandtell.net where the allegedly infringing material is actively displayed (e.g., growandtell.net/journals/123 or a specific server-hosted image link). Specificity is required to enable immediate localization and technical identification.

Complainant Contact Information: The full legal name, physical mailing address, telephone number, and direct electronic mail address of the Complainant.

Perjury and Authorization Attestations: An explicit statement, executed under penalty of perjury, affirming that: (a) the Complainant is the exclusive copyright owner or is explicitly authorized to act on behalf of the owner; (b) the disputed use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its legal agent, or under federal copyright exception frameworks (such as Fair Use).

Legal Signature: The physical or verified electronic signature of the copyright owner or an authorized corporate representative.

STATUTORY LIABILITY WARNING: Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), any person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be held contractually and financially liable for damages, including administrative costs and reasonable attorneys' fees, incurred by the alleged infringer or the Platform. Do not submit a notice if you do not hold uninhibited underlying title or legal authorization.

Upon the receipt and validation of a legally sufficient infringement notification, the Platform will initiate the following good-faith enforcement procedures:

Expedited Disablement: The Platform will immediately remove, de-index, or disable public access to the target asset or text block identified in the Complainant's notice.

User Notification: The Platform will issue an immediate digital alert to the specific registered user who originally uploaded the content, providing notice of the restriction and the fundamental basis for the takedown.

Unredacted Document Forwarding: To preserve due process and statutory compliance, the Platform will forward a complete copy of the original infringement notice—including the Complainant's legal name, contact credentials, and corporate allegations—directly to the target user who uploaded the material.

While standard undisputed notices are typically reviewed and resolved within several business days, complex structural determinations—including disputed joint ownership, counter-notice interventions, or suspected systemic patterns of repeat infringement—may extend the resolution timeline.

If your uploaded content was disabled or removed under this Policy and you maintain a good-faith belief that the removal resulted from an administrative error, clerical mistake, or misidentification, you may submit a formal counter-notification. The counter-notice must be transmitted to support@growandtell.net with the exact subject line: “DMCA Counter-Notice”. Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3), the counter-notification must contain:

Identification of Restricted Asset: Clear identification of the specific text block, comment, photo, or journal data that was disabled, along with the precise location URL where the content was displayed prior to removal.

Good-Faith Attestation under Perjury: An explicit statement, written under penalty of perjury, affirming that you possess a good-faith belief that the content was removed or disabled as a direct result of a mistake, systemic failure, or misidentification by the Complainant.

Contact Info and Federal Jurisdictional Assent: Your full name, physical mailing address, telephone number, and email address, accompanied by an explicit statement consenting to the exclusive personal jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your physical address is located. If your residence is situated outside the United States, you must explicitly consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the District of Iowa, where the Platform's operational infrastructure resides, and agree to accept service of process from the original Complainant or their legal representative.

Legal Signature: Your physical or verified electronic signature.

Upon receipt of a valid, contractually sufficient counter-notification, the Platform will promptly forward a full copy to the original Complainant. If the Complainant fails to deliver verified written notice within ten (10) to fourteen (14) business days proving they have filed a formal federal court action seeking an injunction against the user's account, the Platform maintains the absolute right to restore, re-index, and publish the disabled material back to its original location.

Pursuant to the safe harbor mandates of the DMCA, the Platform implements a zero-tolerance termination policy for repeat offenders. Accounts that receive multiple substantiated infringement notices will be subject to temporary administrative suspension, and in clear or undisputed cases, permanent account termination. When evaluating termination protocols, the Platform analyzes behavioral trends and structural patterns rather than strict numeric counts. For instance, a single unverified user uploading an entire copyrighted gallery of twenty (20) photos will face more immediate termination metrics than an established user who commits a single mistaken image upload over an extended operational period.

For content grievances that do not fall under federal copyright statutes (including allegations of doxing, personal harassment, cyber-bullying, non-consensual imagery distribution, or explicit violations of our core Terms of Service), users are instructed to bypass the DMCA protocol. Instead, utilize the built-in, automated in-app Report option directly attached to the journal, entry, or comment thread, or contact our moderation desk at support@growandtell.net. Non-copyright structural safety violations undergo the same expedited evaluation and prompt removal metrics administered by our compliance team.