Congratulations! You have worked hard to produce something original and new. That also means that as the author you now have rights and protections available to you under copyright law.
The owners and operators of TheNextBigWriter.com website (the "Site") take copyright law extremely seriously. When you upload something to the Site as the author of the item, it is automatically protected under copyright law.
However, you must be sure that all work posted to the Site is your own. You may not post the work of others. If the work is not your own original thinking it is considered plagiarized.
Proven breaches in copyright law will result in account termination.
Copyright law is a complex area of the law. Generally, your work is automatically protected the minute you put it to computer or paper. A copyright covers the specifics of the work, not the general ideas. Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You may express your ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in your description, but be aware that copyright will not protect the idea itself as revealed in your written or artistic work.
This document is not intended to be legal advice so for specific information about copyright, you should consult an attorney. You also may want to visit www.copright.gov.
Posting your work to the Site does not bind you or your work to the Site and does not restrict your freedom to market, publish, or sell work you post to the Site. By posting your work to the Site, the format of your work may be altered, but the owners and operators of the Site will not otherwise alter any copyright notices contained in your work or the content of your work except for creating excerpts for use in marketing in accordance with the terms of the Member Agreement. See the Member Agreement for additional specifics concerning rights to your work and TheNextBigWriter's use of your work.
If you believe that your work has been plagiarized or copied by another member, please follow the following reporting procedures.
Before you do, please make sure that you are absolutely certain that the work has been infringed.
It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that are covered by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office Web Site) as well as other applicable copyright laws. The owners and operators of the Site have created the process described below to respond to notifications of alleged infringement. Please note that you are liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or activity is infringing or that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification. In addition, you can be sued by the author for making a false accusation. If you have any questions about whether you should file a notification of a counter notification, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.
Infringement Notification
If you wish to file a notice of infringement with us please follow the steps below.
1 Prepare an email containing the following information about the piece of work you believe to be infringing:
Item name and location of the work as well as the Site Pen Name of author
Your real name, address, email address, and phone number
A copy of the work that you believe was infringed
2 Include the following statements in your email:
"I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
"I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
3 Sign your full name
4 Submit the email to designatedagent@TheNextBigWriter.com
If you do not provide all of the information listed above, and if after a good faith attempt to contact you, we are unable to complete your notice, the notice will be deemed void.
Our Response
Once the notice containing all the required information has been received, we will temporarily remove the implicated infringed work from public access, thereby eliminating all legal liability to the owners and operators of our Site. We will notify the author of the infringed work once it has been removed. If the author believes they have been mistakenly implicated, they may file a counter notice as described below.
Counter notice
If you believe you have been mistakenly implicated for infringing material, you may send us a counter notice via email as recourse. In your counter notice, please follow the steps below.
1 Prepare an email containing the following information:
Title and author pen name of the work that was removed and the location where it appeared before it was removed
Your real name, address, email address, and telephone number
2 Include the following statements in your email:
"I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled."
"I consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address I indicated above is located, or if such address is outside the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that I will accept service of process from the person who provided the notice of infringement or an agent of such person."
3 Sign your full name
4 Submit the email to designatedagent@TheNextBigWriter.com
If you do not provide the information above, and fail to do so after a good faith attempt by us to contact you, then your counter notice will be deemed void and your work will be permanently removed from the Site.
After we receive a copy of the counter notice containing the required information, we will promptly submit a copy to the sender of the original copyright infringement notice. They will also be informed that the disputed material will be returned to public access in 10 business days unless prior to such 10 day period the following action is taken.
We must receive a signed notice from the person that submitted the infringement notice that such person has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the accused author from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material posted on our Site. This notice must be sent to designatedagent@TheNextBigWriter.com. Once this notice is received, the material will be removed pending the result of the lawsuit.
Please note that our copyright policy is subject to change at any time with or without notice.
