Kokoro Cafe - Otome Gaming Forum

Kokoro Cafe => FAQ => Legal => Topic started by: kokoro-cafe on February 25, 2017, 11:35:57 PM

Title: Kokoro Cafe DMCA Policy
Post by: kokoro-cafe on February 25, 2017, 11:35:57 PM
Information for Copyright Holders

Kokoro Cafe is a forum dedicated to otome gaming and all matters related to the heart. Our mission is to try to compile and provide information on the latest and best otome games available in English, Japanese, and Chinese. We deeply respect and appreciate the work of otome game developers—without you, this community would not exist.

Likewise, we respect the privacy of our users, and strive to provide a safe, welcoming environment for our users to discuss otome gaming and matters of the heart in general. In addition to an online forum, we provide our users with the capability to upload walkthroughs detailing their personal experiences playing otome games.

Generally, we believe that the discussions, walkthroughs and other materials posted by our users pertaining to otome games help game developers by drawing attention to their work and helping to drive up purchases/downloads of their games. However, Kokoro Cafe recognizes that sometimes copyright holders (mainly game developers) and our users may come into conflict regarding content posted by our users. Therefore, in an attempt to balance the rights and interests of game developers and our users, and to comply with the law, we have established the following policy with regard to claims of copyright infringement over user-posted content:

Kokoro Cafe complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you find content on our site which you believes infringes one of your copyrights, we will respond promptly to a valid DMCA complaint. In order to be valid, your complaint must include the following information:


Once we receive a valid DMCA complaint, we will attempt to contact the person who posted the content you reported, providing the copyright owner's name, your e-mail address, and the details of your report. After making a good faith effort to contact the person who posted the content, we will normally remove the content subject to applicable laws. We may replace the removed content with a notice containing the copyright holder's name and a copy of your report of infringement.

Please note that a copyright infringement claim is not to be made lightly, and that any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, incurred by the alleged infringer who is injured by such misrepresentation. In the United States, for example, robust “fair use” protections limit the exclusive rights of copyright holders.


Information for Users Who Have Had Content Removed

Under the DMCA, the person who posted the allegedly infringing content may submit a counter notification to Kokoro Cafe within 10 days of receiving our notice of a DMCA complaint. In order to be valid under the DMCA, a counter notification must contain the following information:


If we receive a counter notification from the alleged infringer, we will forward the full text of the counter notification to the copyright holder. The copyright holder will then have 10 business days to provide Kokoro Cafe with evidence that it has initiated a lawsuit against the alleged infringer in order to keep the allegedly infringing content down. If we do not receive evidence that the copyright holder has initiated court action to keep the allegedly infringing content down, we may reinstate access to the content we removed pursuant to the DMCA complaint.