DATE LAST MODIFIED. July 6, 2023
The Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation (“OWCF,” “we,” or “us”) respects others’ intellectual property rights and has made every reasonable effort to secure appropriate clearances for all proprietary intellectual properties that OWCF directly makes available on oprahfoundation.org (however accessed and/or used, whether via personal computers, mobile devices or otherwise) and other interactive features or downloads (e.g., widgets) that are accessible on or downloadable through, or related to oprahfoundation.org and owned or operated by OWCF (collectively, the “Sites”) and we require our users to do the same.
OWCF intends to comply with the notice and takedown procedures set out in Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), and will respond expeditiously to allegations of copyright violations on the Sites when OWCF’s Designated DMCA Agent (identified below) receives notice of a copyright infringement claim. You may be a copyright “rights holder” if you are: (i) a copyright owner, (ii) authorized to act on behalf of one, or (iii) authorized to act under an exclusive right under copyright. Rights holders may report alleged infringements of U.S. copyrights taking place on our Sites and request that such material be removed or disabled from the Sites (“Takedown Notice”). If OWCF’s Designated DMCA Agent receives a DMCA Takedown Notice that complies with the procedure identified below, OWCF will take whatever action it deems appropriate, in its sole discretion, including, but not limited to, taking down or disabling access to the offending material from the Sites. Upon taking down or disabling material under the DMCA, OWCF will take reasonable steps to notify the user that originally uploaded the material that it has been removed or disabled. If that user believes that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material, the user may submit a counter-notification requesting the reinstatement of the material (“Counter-Notification”) using the procedure identified below. If OWCF’s Designated DMCA Agent receives a DMCA Counter-Notification that complies with the procedure identified below, OWCF will notify the user that access may be restored to the material on the Sites within fourteen (14) days unless OWCF receives notice from the rights holder that submitted the Takedown Notice that a court action has been filed against the user. You must include the information identified below in your Takedown Notice and/or Counter-Notification.
If you use the below notification process to alert us to claims of infringement other than copyright, we will consider them under our Terms of Use as non-copyright infringement notifications are not covered by the DMCA.
Please note that Takedown Notices and Counter-Notifications are real-world legal notices provided outside of the Sites’ environment. OWCF may provide copies of such notices to the participants in the dispute or third parties, which may include, but are not limited to your contact information, at our sole discretion, and as may be required by law. OWCF’s Privacy Policy does not shield or protect the information provided in these notices.
To File a Notification of Infringing Content (Takedown Notice)
A Takedown Notice under the DMCA must be in writing, and submitted to us by email, or through the mail (regular U.S. mail or courier) to our Designated DMCA Agent, at:
Tamara Carmichael
Dorsey & Whitney LLP
51 West 52nd Street
New York, New York 10019
Phone: (212) 415-9362
Email: NYTrademark@dorsey.com
To be effective, a Takedown Notice must contain substantially the following information:
a. Identify the copyrighted work(s) that you believe to be infringed. If you believe that multiple copyrighted works have been infringed, provide a representative list of the infringed works;
b. Provide your name, address, telephone number and (if available) e-mail address;
c. Identify the material that you claim to be infringing and provide its location on the Sites. You should provide the URL, reference and/or other information (such as screenshots) reasonably sufficient for us to locate the material;
d. A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, their agent or the law;
e. A statement that the information in your Takedown Notice is accurate, and state, “under penalty of perjury,” that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on their behalf;
f. The physical or electronic signature (i.e., “/s/ [print name]”) of the copyright owner or their authorized agent; and
g. (Optional) Provide information, if reasonably available and/or known to you, sufficient to permit us to identify the user(s) responsible for posting and/or displaying the material or activity that you identify as infringing in your Takedown Notice.
To File a Counter-Notification
If we notify you that material uploaded by you has been taken down or removed from the Sites under the DMCA as a result of a Takedown Notice and you believe the material was removed as the result of a mistake or misidentification of the material, under the DMCA, you may respond by submitting a request that the material be reinstated (“Counter-Notification”) by using the following procedure:
A Counter-Notification must be in writing, and submitted to us by email, or mail (regular U.S. mail or courier) to our Designated DMCA Agent, at:
Tamara Carmichael
Dorsey & Whitney LLP
51 West 52nd Street
New York, New York 10019
Phone: (212) 415-9362
Email: NYTrademark@dorsey.com
To be effective, a Counter-Notification must contain substantially the following information:
a. Identify the material that was removed or to which access was disabled, and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access was disabled. Please provide the URL, reference and/or other information reasonably sufficient to permit us to identify the material;
b. Identify your name, address, telephone number and (if available) e-mail address;
c. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of United States Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located or, if your address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which OWCF may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under a Takedown Notice or an agent of such person;
d. A statement, under “penalty of perjury” that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled; and
e. Your physical or electronic signature (i.e., “/s/ [print name]”).
Please note: The DMCA creates liability for knowingly making false claims in a DMCA Takedown Notice or Counter-Notification. If you make a claim in a Takedown Notice or Counter-Notification that you know is false, you may be liable for damages in a lawsuit including, but not limited to, the costs of the lawsuit and attorneys’ fees. We recommend contacting an attorney if you have any questions about whether your content is protected by copyright laws or whether a third-party is infringing your rights. DO NOT SEND ANY INQUIRIES UNRELATED TO INFRINGEMENT OF RIGHTS (E.G., REQUESTS FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE OR CUSTOMER SERVICE, ETC.) TO THE CONTACT LISTED ABOVE. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE IF YOU SEND COMPLAINTS UNRELATED TO LEGAL MATTERS TO THAT CONTACT.
Repeat Infringer Policy
By using the Sites, you have agreed to our Terms of Use. Our Terms of Use prohibit anyone from taking any action on the Sites that infringes or violates someone else’s intellectual property rights or otherwise violates the law. If you repeatedly post materials or content that infringes someone else’s intellectual property rights, such as copyrights or trademarks, your account may be disabled or removed under OWCF’s repeat infringer policy.
Under this policy, your ability to post photos, images, graphics, text, videos and/or other materials may be limited. Additionally, you could also lose access to certain features or functionality on the Sites, as well as lose access to the Sites entirely. The actions taken under the policy may depend on the nature of the reported material and where it was posted.
If something you posted is restored due to a Counter-Notification or because a rights owner withdrew their Takedown Notice, we will take that restoration into account under our repeat infringer policy.
Where You Can Learn More
If you have more questions or if you want to learn more about copyrights and/or the DMCA, one resource available to you at no charge is the U.S. Copyright Office’s website. There you can find resources about copyrights, limitations on using others’ copyright-protected materials, the DMCA, and more. You can access the U.S. Copyright Office’s homepage here: