A Website is immune from copyright infringement under the Safe Harbor if they:

– Don’t know about the infringement and are not aware of red flags making the infringement apparent,

– Once the infringement is known, you must expeditiously take down the infringing material,

– Don’t directly financially benefit from the infringing materials,

– Designate an agent for receipt of copyright claims both on its own website and in an online U.S. Copyright Office filing,

– Manage and implement a notice and takedown procedure in compliance with the Safe Harbor, and

– Adopt and implement a repeat infringer policy.

To comply with the notice and takedown procedure, the website must:

– Create a DMCA Policy and provide it to the site’s users (usually in the site’s Terms of Use),

– Expeditiously remove infringing material or block access on proper notice, and

– Implement a counter-notice process (optional).

YouTube, Facebook, Steam and other platforms all comply with this safe harbor. This immunize them from a large swath of suits by users.

The DMCA covers U.S. copyright only, not trademark, patent, defamation or foreign copyright. However, it is not uncommon for a website to voluntarily provide DMCA-like notice and take down procedures for all intellectual property claims.