The table above indicates the number of copyright infringement notices we received during each month of the reporting period. Each notice may cover more than one blog and/or piece of content. Some notices identify dozens of allegedly infringing materials.
As a U.S. company, Tumblr requires that all copyright notices be submitted in accordance with the DMCA. When we receive non-compliant requests (including foreign requests), we ask the complainant to resubmit their request in accordance with the statute.
Tumblr processes notices pursuant to the DMCA. Under the DMCA there are a number of conditions a complaining party must satisfy:
Identification of the work or material being infringed.
Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing, including its location, with sufficient detail so that we are capable of finding it and verifying its existence.
Contact information for the notifying party, including name, address, telephone number, and email address.
A statement made under penalty of perjury that the information provided in the notice is accurate and that the complainant is authorized to make the complaint on behalf of the copyright owner.
A statement that the complainant has a good faith belief that the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or law.
The complainant’s physical or electronic signature.
Counter Notices
Valid Counter Notices
Accounts Affected with Restored Content
Posts Restored
Pieces of Content Restored
January
2
2
10
20
February
2
0
0
0
March
1
0
0
0
April
7
4
15
15
May
0
0
0
0
June
0
0
0
0
TOTAL
12
6
25
35
Notes
Under the DMCA, a user can formally challenge a notice of copyright infringement by submitting a counter notice. When we receive a counter notice, we forward a copy to the individual who submitted the original DMCA notice and restore access to the content if no further action is taken.
In accordance with the statute, a valid counter notice must contain:
The user’s physical or electronic signature.
The user’s name, address, and phone number.
Identification of the material and its location before it was removed.
A statement under penalty of perjury that the material was removed by mistake or misidentification.
The user’s consent to the jurisdiction of a federal court in the district where the user lives (or the federal district court located in New York County, New York, if the user lives outside of the U.S.).
The user’s consent to accept service of process from the party who submitted the takedown notice.
In addition to the statutory requirements, we sometimes ask for the legal or factual basis for filing the counter notification.
Trademark
Number of notices received
Number of URLs Affected
Percentage Blogs Terminated
Percentage of Blog Content Removed
Percentage of URLs Changed
January
20
5
20%
5%
10%
February
17
3
18%
0%
0%
March
16
7
44%
0%
0%
April
15
4
27%
13%
0%
May
23
22
78%
0%
13%
June
25
12
32%
0%
16%
TOTAL
116
53
38%
3%
9%
Notes
Handling trademark issues (either potential infringement or instances of confusion) is complex, especially for neutral platforms like Tumblr, and consequently requires additional analysis as compared to copyright infringement. We first require documentation of a live federal or international trademark registration—often the name of a business or brand or its logo. We then look at a variety of factors to determine if reported content or a URL is misleading to users or causes confusion, and what action to take in these cases. Among them:
How the reported term is being used.
Content found on the blog.
The registered goods and services.
Landscape of similar marks related to the reported term.
When the reported term was first used.
Based on our findings, we may prescribe one or more of the following actions:
If a user is using a misleading URL, we may require them to change it. We notify the URL holder and give them an opportunity to change the URL on their own before we change the URL to something generic on their behalf.
Alternatively, we may request that a user include a disclaimer on their blog.
Sometimes, we remove specific posts that are using a term to create confusion. Like all content takedowns on the site, we always notify the user when we remove any of their content, and include as much information as possible regarding the claim made against their post.
Possible Emerging Trends
In the course of comparing our numbers from this period (January through June 2021) to those from previous period, we noticed the following trends:
There was an increase in the number of DMCA takedown notices over this period, and an increase in the percentage that were valid.
The number of posts and pieces of content identified by counter notices that we have received from users requesting the restoration of content that had been removed pursuant to a DMCA takedown notice has increased compared to the previous period.
We have seen a decrease in the number of trademark complaints we’ve received over the past reporting period, with an increase of the percentage of URLs changed for Trademark Infringement.
Transparency Report 