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Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Online Service Provider Interim Regulations:
Designation by Service Provider of Agent for Notification of Claims of Infringement

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, signed into law on October 28, 1998, amended the copyright law to provide limitations for service provider liability relating to material online. New subsection 512(c) of the copyright law provides limitations on service provider liability with respect to information residing, at direction of a user, on a system or network that the service provider controls or operates, if the service provider has designated an agent for notification of claimed infringement by providing contact information to the Copyright Office and through the service provider’s publicly accessible web site. 17 U.S.C. 512(c).

A directory of agents is maintained on this Website.

The Copyright Office has published requirements by which a service provider may designate an agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement. Due to the necessity of having regulations in place upon enactment of the law, the Copyright Office is not requesting public comment at this time, but will provide notice and opportunity for comment before promulgating final regulations.

The Copyright Office does not provide printed forms for filing an Interim Designation of Agent, but suggested formats for filing an Interim Designation (or an Amended Designation) are available in PDF format, and may be downloaded. You must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view and print the forms. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for free from Adobe Systems Incorporated. You have the options of filling in the blanks while viewing the form and printing out the completed form, or downloading or printing the form and then completing it. The form must then be sent to the Copyright Office.

You may also prepare your own form, but should insure that it includes all the information required in section 201.38(c) of the interim regulations. If you include extraneous information that is not required by the interim regulations, that information will be scanned and posted on the website.Please note that the entire designation or amended designation will be posted on the Copyright Office website.

The Interim Designation must be accompanied by a $20 fee, payable to the Register of Copyrights. If mailed, the Interim Designation should be addressed to: Copyright GC/I&R, P.O. Box 70400, Southwest Station, Washington, D.C. 20024. A service provider may also file the Interim Designation by hand, by delivering to the Public Information Office of the Copyright Office, Room LM-401, James Madison Memorial Building, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC, during normal business hours, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Designations and amendments will be posted online on the Copyright Office website.

The Copyright Office will not examine designations of agents for accuracy or for compliance with the law or with its regulations. The fact that the Office has accepted a designation of an agent and has included it in the Office’s directory of agents should not be construed as a judgment by the Office that the designation is sufficient.

Definition: For purposes of section 512(c), a "service provider" is defined as a provider of online services or network access, or the operator of facilities therefor, including an entity offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online communications, between or among points specified by a user, of material of the user's choosing, without modification to the content of the material as sent or received. 17 U.S.C. 512(k)(1)(A)-(B).

  • Interim Designation of Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement
  • Amended Interim Designation of Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement
  • Directory of Agents

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