Tl;dr: User Registration is free, and then each 30-day subscription for a project is only $20 for everything.

For an unlimited number of takedown and nearly no leg work needed on your part, CS’s Services are offered at $20 per 30-day Cycle, per project. Compared to our competitors –which charge $199 per takedown and you have to do most of the work yourself– we aim to offer a rate that saves you a ton of time and money, and helps you push traffic to your legitimate sales sites rather than the $50bn illegal piracy industry. We’ve got your back.

Copyright Slap is designed to make it easier for independent producers of intellectual property (starting with film/tv/web/literary works) to fight online piracy.

Our main tool is the “Takedown tool” … you copy the URL of a website that is stealing your work, paste it into the Takedown Tool page, hit “Submit” and we take care of the rest. All the rest. YES, THAT SIMPLE. Unlimited URLs, still only $20 per 30-day period.

Copyright Slap makes it possible for you to send takedowns within a matter of minutes. We have additional proprietary measures which we utilize to help further convince stubborn site holders to remove pages.

First step is to register by clicking this “Register” link or the one at the top of this page. Registering is free. Then, go to the FAQ & Tutorials Page for videos and step-by-step instructions that walk you through all of the site’s features and how to initiate your first project!

Yes. Set up your project and select “documentary” as the format (make sure to name your wedding video as specifically as you can), and away we go! Then use the Takedown Tool to get to work.

“No. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work.” (Source: copyright.gov) Thus, you can issue copyright infringement claims but if you decide to take legal action for damages you may need a copyright certificate. We always recommend contacting a copyright attorney if you ever have specific copyright questions. To copyright a film you can refer to the following US Government Copyright document, in addition to talking with an attorney. Here is the direct link to the US Copyright Registration Portal.

No. Copyright Slap specializes in alerting and documenting (and has a high success rate of infringement removal) on behalf of copyright owners. We are not attorneys. Lawyers and Copyright Slap are not a zero sum — If you wish to take legal action against a specific infringer you will need the services of a copyright lawyer. We are your Internet Army, not your legal team. Copyright Slap is strictly a takedown site that aids in getting copyrighted materials removed from websites.

No. The United States has copyright relations with countries all around the world. How many? This many. Copyright Slap works to provide international copyright protection services on your behalf by not only requesting takedown from the specific site hosting the infringing materials, but also in escalating ways all the way up to and through international ISPs/OSPs. In addition, we are on top of the various International Copyright Treaties and Agreements and leverage those when contacting sites hosted on non-US-based servers.

Click on the “Forgot Password” link on the Login Page or, if logged in, you can click the “Account” menu tab and reset from there.

The nuance that comes with online piracy relates to the location of the servers of the hosting sites that host these illegal streaming and sharing sites. Different countries treat intellectual property differently, and if a hosting company only exists in one specific country, depending on that country, hurdles can be put up to make it more difficult to go after the criminals stealing your work.

[More to come on specific countries in the near future.]

INFRINGEMENT is when someone, not the copyright holder, uses a copyright holder’s intellectual property for their own gain, without permission. Their is one EXCEPTION though: FAIR USE.

FAIR USE is “any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and ‘transformative’ purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work”¹. The key aspects of Fair Use is that any clips are short (the whole film or large parts untouched is infringement) and must transform the piece (like a meme, dubbing over words for parody, as part of a review, etc.).

What is most important is to RESPECT Fair Use and not claim it as infringement. The line is easy to see the difference and Fair Use can help spread the word of your project, AND is within legal rights of individuals. Everything else, let us take them down for you.

Another great resource is this blog post by George Thuronyi on identifying Fair Use.

¹https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/