Copyright policy (DMCA)

What this covers

Throttle is a marketplace where people post their own listings. This policy covers material that people post on Throttle: listing photos and descriptions, profile and business pages (including logos and banners) and photos sent in messages. It follows the notice-and-takedown process in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §512).

The most common case is simple: someone copies photos of a vehicle from another listing or another site into their own listing. If those are your photos, this is the page for you.

Where to send a notice

Send copyright notices and counter-notices to our copyright agent by email.

Our designation with the U.S. Copyright Office is in progress. We’ll post the agent’s postal address and phone number here when it’s complete. Notices by email are accepted now.

Use the subject “DMCA” so your notice reaches the right queue. The same address takes counter-notices; use the subject “DMCA counter-notice” for those.

What a notice must include

To be effective under the law, your notice needs to be in writing and include all six of these:

1. Your physical or electronic signature, as the copyright owner or as someone authorized to act for the owner. A typed full name works as an electronic signature.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work you say is being infringed, such as your original photos or text. A link to where your originals appear, or copies of them, helps. If one notice covers several works, a representative list of them is enough.
3. Identification of the material you say is infringing and want removed, with enough detail for us to find it: a link to each listing and which photos or which part of the text you mean. If you don’t have a link, the listing’s title, city and the seller’s display name help us find it.
4. Your contact information: your name, mailing address, phone number and email address.
5. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the way you’re complaining about isn’t authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
6. A statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.

If a notice is missing something we need, we’ll write back and ask for it before we act.

What happens next

1. We read the notice and check that it has the six parts above.
2. When it’s complete, we remove or disable access to the material. Depending on what the notice covers, that can mean removing a photo or taking down the whole listing.
3. We notify the person who posted it and forward them a copy of your notice, including your name and the contact information in it, so they can reach you or send a counter-notice. When a listing is taken down, the seller is told it was removed because we received a copyright notice for it.
4. We keep a record of every notice and what we did about it.

Counter-notices

If something you posted was removed because of a copyright notice and you believe that happened by mistake or because the material was misidentified, you can send a counter-notice. Email it to support@throttlemarketplace.com with the subject “DMCA counter-notice”. It must include:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the material that was removed or disabled and where it appeared before it was removed, such as the listing’s link or title.
3. 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.
4. Your name, address and phone number.
5. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district where your address is located (or, if your address is outside the United States, any judicial district in which Throttle Marketplace may be found), and that you’ll accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice or that person’s agent.

Only send a counter-notice if you believe the removal was a mistake. If you’re not sure whether you have the right to use the material, it’s worth talking to a lawyer first.

After a counter-notice

When we receive a complete counter-notice, we forward a copy to the person who sent the original notice, including your name and contact information, and tell them we’ll put the material back in 10 business days.

We restore the material no sooner than 10 and no later than 14 business days after we receive your counter-notice, unless the person who sent the notice tells us first that they’ve filed a court action seeking to stop you from infringing. In that case, the material stays down while the court case goes on.

False claims

Under 17 U.S.C. §512(f), anyone who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that it was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, can be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees.

Before you send a notice, consider whether the use could be fair use or otherwise allowed. Copyright notices are for copyright. They aren’t a way to take down a competing listing or settle a disagreement with a buyer or seller.

Repeat infringers

Everyone who posts or messages on Throttle accepts our community standards, and rule 6 says it plainly: “Photos are yours. Stolen photos are removed and repeat offenders are banned.”

We keep track of the valid notices each account receives. An account that posts infringing material more than once can be banned. A ban removes all of that account’s listings and stops it from posting or messaging. Notices that are withdrawn, or where the material is restored after a counter-notice, don’t count against an account. We may also ban an account after a single case when the copying is clearly deliberate.

Trademark and other complaints

This process is for copyright only. For trademark concerns, impersonation, privacy or anything else about content on Throttle, email support@throttlemarketplace.com and tell us what you’ve found and where. You can also use Report on any listing, profile or message in the app. A person reads every report.

If someone copied photos of your vehicle into their listing, you can report that listing in the app with the reason “Photos stolen from another listing” as well as, or instead of, sending a formal notice. For other ways to reach us, see Contact.

Changes to this policy

We’ll update this page when our process changes, including when our agent designation is complete. The date at the top shows when it last changed. Our terms of service and privacy policy also apply.