Houfy Copyright Policy

Our Terms of Service require that everything members post is accurate, lawful, and does not infringe anyone else’s rights. This policy explains how to tell us when something does, and what we do about it. We do not review or approve what members post before it appears.

Whether or not we remove content, we may pass the notice — including your contact details — to the member who posted it, so they can respond.

Any copyright notice or counter-notice you send us must be truthful and is submitted under penalty of perjury. A false one can make you personally liable, so you may want to take legal advice before sending either. The same duty of honesty applies to a trademark complaint, even though the law does not ask you to swear to that one.

We are not able to decide who owns a copyright or a trademark. If you and another member disagree about that, it is a matter between the two of you and, if it comes to it, for a court.

Copyright and trademark: the difference

Copyright protects original creative work — photographs, listing descriptions, videos, articles. It belongs to whoever made the work, and it decides whether and how anyone else may use it.

A trademark is usually a word, phrase or design — a company name, a logo, a slogan. It tells people which business a product or service comes from.

Houfy responds to claims about both, but the two processes are not the same. Copyright complaints follow the procedure set out in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512), and we have a designated agent to receive them. Trademark law works differently, and trademark complaints are dealt with separately further down this page.

Reporting copyright infringement

Before you send a notice, please consider whether the use might be permitted anyway — for example as fair use, or because you or a previous owner licensed it.

If you believe in good faith that your copyright has been infringed on Houfy, send us a written notice containing all of the following:

• identification of the work you say has been infringed — a link to your original, or a clear description

• identification of the infringing material, and enough detail for us to find it on Houfy

• your name, address, telephone number and email address

• a statement that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorised by the owner, its agent, or the law

• a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner of an exclusive right in the work, or authorised to act for the owner

• your physical or electronic signature — typing your full name is enough

Send it to Houfy’s designated Copyright and Trademark Agent:

Houfy, Inc. — ATTN: Copyright Agent
1500 N Grant St # 4282
Denver, CO 80203, USA
+1 970 355 3003
info@houfy.com
Registered in the US Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Directory, no. 1080034

When we receive a notice that meets the requirements above, we act on it quickly — normally by removing the material or restricting access to it while we look into it.

If someone is using your listing photographs. This is the most common report we get. It helps us a great deal if you send the original files, or a link to where they were first published, and tell us whether the photographs are of a property you own or manage. If you paid a photographer, the photographer may own the copyright even though you commissioned the work — check what your agreement says before you send a notice.

If you are outside the United States. You can send us a notice wherever you are. The process above is the one US copyright law sets out, and following it exactly matters most if you want us to act under that law. If you are reporting from outside the United States and cannot give a statement under penalty of perjury, tell us what you can — who you are, what you own, where it appears on Houfy, and why you believe the use is not permitted — and we will still look at it.

Trademark complaints

If you own a trademark and believe a Houfy listing, profile or post uses it in a way that is likely to confuse people about who they are dealing with, write to the address above and tell us:

• the mark, and where it is registered — the registration number, the country, and the goods or services it covers — or an explanation if the mark is not registered

• who owns it, and your authority to act if you are not the owner

• where the use appears on Houfy, with links

• why you believe the use is likely to confuse people about the source of a product or service

• your name, address, telephone number and email address

Trademark law is not the same as copyright law, and the DMCA process described above does not apply to trademark complaints. Using someone’s brand name to describe something accurately is often lawful — a host may say a home is a ten-minute drive from a named attraction, or that it has a particular appliance. We look at trademark complaints one at a time and decide what to do, which may include removing the content, asking the member to change it, or leaving it in place.

If you want to use Houfy’s own name or logo, see our Brand Usage Terms.

Notices sent in bad faith

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), a person who knowingly misrepresents that material is infringing a copyright — or that it was removed by mistake — may be liable for damages, including the costs and legal fees we or the member you reported incur as a result.

If you are not certain the material you are reporting actually infringes your rights, take advice before sending the notice.

Counter-notice

When we remove material because of a copyright notice, we tell the member who posted it, send them a copy of the notice, and explain how to reply.

If you believe material of yours was removed by mistake or misidentified, you can send us a counter-notice. Reply to the email we sent you when we removed it, or write to our Copyright and Trademark Agent at the address above, and include:

• identification of the material that was removed, and where it appeared before removal

• your name, address and telephone number

• a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the district where you live — or, if you are outside the United States, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado — and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice, or their agent

• the statement: “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.”

• your physical or electronic signature

When we receive a valid counter-notice, we send a copy to whoever sent the original notice and tell them we will put the material back unless they go to court. If they do not tell us within 10 business days that they have filed a court action seeking to stop you posting it, we will restore the material, normally between 10 and 14 business days after we received your counter-notice. We may still keep it down if it breaks our Community Standards or our Terms of Service for some other reason, and if so we will tell you why.

Members who infringe repeatedly

In appropriate circumstances we close the accounts of members who repeatedly post content that infringes other people’s rights, and we may prevent them from opening a new one. If we act against your account, you can appeal within 30 days, as set out in section 12 of our Terms of Service.

Complaints about anything else

For content that is not an intellectual property issue — inappropriate content, safety concerns, a fake profile, a suspicious listing — see our Community Standards, or write to info@houfy.com.

Our Listing & Platform Guidelines and Photo Guidelines explain what may and may not go in a listing.