Effective Date: August 28, 2024
PACTM LLC d/b/a FetishFinder, a Nevada limited liability company ("FetishFinder"), the owner and operator of FetishFinder.com (the "Platform"), will withdraw all rights and privileges from its users who are deemed repeat infringers. For these purposes, FetishFinder will count "strikes." A strike will arise against a user every time (1) that user has been adjudicated, in a court of competent jurisdiction, to have committed copyright infringement, (2) FetishFinder receives a separate DMCA notice that substantially complies with 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), sent on a different calendar day from any other DMCA notice, alleging copyright infringement within any 12-month period, or (3) FetishFinder has actual knowledge that the user has committed an act of copyright infringement.
Each separate adjudication or DMCA notice gives rise to a separate strike. In addition, if a single adjudication or DMCA notice pertains to different copyrights infringed on different days, it can give rise to multiple strikes.
No strike arises from a notice of claimed infringement (regardless of whether subject to counternotification from the user) that does not comply with 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) or from facts or circumstances from which the user’s infringement seems apparent, absent actual knowledge by FetishFinder.
FetishFinder follows the “three strikes, and you’re out” rule. Accordingly, a user against whom there are three strikes will be considered a "repeat infringer." FetishFinder will terminate that user from the Platform as soon as practical (in the ordinary course of business, within one week). Nonetheless, FetishFinder may excuse a strike under appropriate circumstances, including when the user provides adequate evidence that it infringed unintentionally or in the good faith belief that its conduct did not constitute infringement, or that the adjudicating court considered the issue of infringement to be open to different interpretations. FetishFinder will also consider “appropriate circumstances” to excuse a strike as including a requirement of proportionality: A user who engages in widescale exploitation, a small percentage of which is determined to constitute copyright infringement (even if willfully so), will not gain a strike if that infringement appears aberrational in the entire context of the user’s exploitation.
A strike will arise from any act of copyright infringement. Typically, those activities will consist of the violation of rights provided under Title 17, United States Code. However, if FetishFinder gains actual knowledge that a user has violated the copyright laws of a foreign country or one of the several states, that conduct equally constitutes a strike. The subject infringement is cognizable regardless of whether it occurred in an online context or elsewhere.
Anyone who wishes to bring to FetishFinder’s attention an act of copyright infringement against one of its users may do so by sending a DMCA notice to FetishFinder’s copyright agent by email to [email protected] or by mail to Corey D. Silverstein, 30150 Telegraph Road, Suite 444, Bingham Farms, Michigan 48025.
A strike arises against a user once FetishFinder receives a DMCA notice. However, if FetishFinder gains actual knowledge that the material is not infringing, then the strike will be eliminated. If the strike arises not from a DMCA notice but instead from FetishFinder’s own knowledge, then the strike will continue as long as FetishFinder’s actual knowledge remains unaltered.
Once terminated from the Platform, the user will not be allowed to rejoin the Platform.
FetishFinder will keep a registry of its terminated users. The registry will be updated monthly and will keep all implicated names for 30 years or one year after the Platform stops operating, whichever is shorter.
Because of the risks of acting on inaccurate information, FetishFinder will not accrue strikes against its users based on allegations that another service provider has previously terminated those users.
FetishFinder will gain a strike for the user-only. If the user is an entity, that entity will be considered the only entity against whom one strike exists for this repeat infringer policy (meaning that no individual will be implicated by it).
Concomitantly, if the user is an individual, he or she will be considered the only individual against whom a strike exists for this repeat infringer policy (meaning that no corporate entity will be implicated by it). If the strike arises not from a DMCA notice but instead from FetishFinder’s own knowledge, then the entity or individual about whom FetishFinder has actual knowledge will be considered the one against whom one strike exists for this repeat infringer policy.
Once an individual or entity has been terminated, FetishFinder will not allow another individual or entity bearing substantially the identical name, email address, or IP address to create an account on the Platform, absent evidence showing that it is not the same individual or entity that was previously terminated. In addition, if FetishFinder is provided with evidence that a current user is the same individual or entity that was previously terminated, and the current user does not credibly challenge that evidence, FetishFinder will terminate service to that user.
A user’s activity of taking down challenged material or settling a lawsuit for copyright infringement, without more, will not be considered to create a strike. All the circumstances must be considered. If, for example, in the context of a settlement, the user admits to having committed copyright infringement and FetishFinder gains actual knowledge of that admission, a strike arises.