Our repeat-infringer policy
An occasional complaint is part of running real services, and we handle those without drama. A pattern is different. This is how we distinguish the two, and what happens when infringement becomes a habit rather than an incident.
Getting a copyright or abuse complaint is not, by itself, a crisis — it happens to legitimate services, and we deal with it calmly. What we cannot ignore is a pattern: the same account generating complaint after complaint. A repeat-infringer policy is how we, and every provider above us, are expected to tell those apart.
One complaint: handled
A single notice is forwarded to you to address — see copyright complaints and abuse notices. You respond, the matter closes, life goes on. Most complaints are exactly this, and nothing more comes of them.
A pattern: escalated
Repeated, unresolved complaints against the same service move things up a gear: a formal warning, a request for concrete remediation, and — if it continues — suspension. The trigger is not any one notice but the failure to deal with them and the recurrence that follows. See if a service is suspended.
Why we must have this
Our upstreams and registries require it of us, just as we require it of resellers. A provider that ignores repeat infringement loses its own standing — and then every customer on the network pays for a few. The policy protects the many by acting on the few.
How to stay clear of it
- Respond to notices promptly rather than letting them pile up
- Actually fix the underlying cause, not just the one file
- If a customer of yours is the source, deal with them — see acceptable use for resellers
We would rather resolve than remove
Suspension is a last resort, not a first reaction — we would much rather you fixed the problem and stayed. The customers who get into trouble here are not the ones who get complaints; they are the ones who ignore them. Engage early and this policy never affects you.
Still stuck? Mail support@novogara.com — an engineer answers, at any hour. Back to the knowledge base