IP & Copyright Takedown Policy

1. Our policy

Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/301053/07) respects the intellectual property (IP) rights of others and expects the users of socialbounty.cash (the Platform) to do the same. We remove content that is shown, through a valid notice and our own review, to infringe the IP rights of another person. We terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe.

This policy sets out the notice-and-takedown procedure we follow. It is the primary route for reporting copyright infringement and trade-mark misuse. Content that does not implicate IP — for example, defamation, privacy, or personality-right claims — should be reported through our Complaints & Dispute Resolution process instead. See Other disputes below.

2. Scope and legal framework

This policy applies to content hosted on the Platform. We do not host the underlying social-media posts published on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, or other third-party platforms; infringement in those posts must be reported through the applicable third-party platform's own notice procedure. We can, however, remove references to infringing posts within bounty submissions and accompanying material stored on the Platform.

The policy is drafted to align with:

the Copyright Act 98 of 1978, which confers and governs copyright in South Africa;
Chapter XI of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA), in particular sections 77 to 79, which describe the take-down notice procedure and the limitations on service-provider liability that follow from complying with it;
the Trade Marks Act 194 of 1993, for trade-mark claims; and
common-law principles of passing off, unlawful competition, and breach of confidence for adjacent claims.

Where we qualify for the intermediary limitations in ECTA Chapter XI, we rely on them.

3. Who can file a notice

A notice may be filed by:

the owner of the IP right that is said to have been infringed; or
a person authorised to act on the owner's behalf (for example, an attorney, a licensing agent, or an in-house legal officer).

The person submitting the notice must have a genuine, good-faith belief that the identified use is not authorised by the owner, its agent, or the law (for example, by a statutory exception such as fair dealing under section 12 of the Copyright Act).

4. What a valid notice contains

To be processed as a valid take-down notice under section 77(1) of ECTA, your notice must include all of the following. Notices that are missing required elements will be rejected with guidance on what to add.

Your identity. Your full legal name, postal address, email address, and a telephone number where we can reach you during business hours.
Signature. A written or digital signature. A typed full name at the end of the notice is acceptable as an ordinary electronic signature in terms of section 13(1) of ECTA.
Identification of the work. A clear description of the copyrighted work or other IP that you say has been infringed — for example, "the photograph titled Lightfall, first published 14 June 2024 on my Instagram profile @example, a copy of which is attached". Attaching a copy (or providing a URL where the original can be seen) helps.
Identification of the infringing material and its location on the Platform. Enough information for us to find the material and understand why it infringes. Useful identifiers include the bounty ID, the submission ID, the URL of the relevant page on socialbounty.cash, or, where the material is referred to from an external post, the external URL and the Platform artefact that embeds or stores it.
Statement of good-faith belief. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the identified use is not authorised by the owner, its agent, or the law.
Statement of accuracy and authority. A statement that the information in the notice is accurate and that, under penalty of perjury, you are the owner of the IP right in question or are authorised to act on the owner's behalf.
Contact for counter-notice correspondence. The email address you want us to use if the user whose content is being removed files a counter-notice.

A single-page email that works through the list above, attaches any exhibits, and is signed with your typed name is usually enough. You do not need a formal affidavit to start the process, but we may ask for one later where the matter is contested.

5. How to submit a notice

Primary channel (email): dmca@socialbounty.cash. Use a subject line beginning with "IP take-down notice" so the notice is routed correctly.

Postal alternative: Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd, attention of the Information Officer, 2 Alyth Road, Forest Town, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa.

Our timeline commitment. We aim to acknowledge receipt of every notice within two business days, complete an initial review within five business days, and act on a notice we have verified as valid — removing or disabling access to the identified material — within 48 hours of verification. Where a notice requires more information, we will come back to you promptly.

6. What happens next

When we receive a notice that looks valid on its face, we act expeditiously. In practice that means:

Validity check. We confirm that the notice contains the elements listed in section 4. Where something is missing or unclear, we ask for it.
Removal or disabling of access. Where the notice is valid on its face, we remove or disable access to the identified material. We also preserve a copy of the material and its metadata as evidence in case the matter escalates.
Notice to the affected user. We notify the user who uploaded the material that we have acted on a take-down notice, provide them with a copy of your notice (with any personal-information redactions we are obliged to make under POPIA), and tell them how to file a counter-notice if they believe the removal was wrong.
Record keeping. We keep a record of the notice, our verification, the action taken, and any subsequent correspondence, for the period required by our record-retention policy and in any event long enough to meet our obligations under POPIA and ECTA.

7. Counter-notice

A user whose content has been taken down has the right to file a counter-notice. To be processed, a counter-notice must include:

the user's full name, postal address, email address, and phone number;
a signature (a typed name at the end is acceptable);
identification of the material that was removed and where it was located before removal;
a statement that the user has a good-faith belief that the material was removed as a result of a mistake or misidentification — including, where relevant, the basis on which the user says the use was authorised by the owner, the owner's agent, or the law;
a statement consenting to the jurisdiction of the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa for the purposes of any dispute between the user and the complainant relating to the notice and counter-notice; and
a statement that the information in the counter-notice is accurate.

Counter-notices should be sent to the same address as take-down notices (dmca@socialbounty.cash), with a subject line beginning "IP counter-notice".

Where we receive a counter-notice that looks valid on its face, we forward it to the original complainant. If, within 10 business days of that forwarding, the complainant has not informed us that it has commenced legal proceedings seeking to restrain the user from continuing the challenged use, we may restore the material. If proceedings have been commenced, the material remains down pending the outcome.

8. Repeat infringer policy

Accounts that are the subject of three or more substantiated take-down notices within any rolling 12-month period are terminated. A notice is "substantiated" where the material was removed following our review and no successful counter-notice was filed, or where the matter was otherwise resolved on terms that accept the infringement.

Termination may in appropriate cases be applied immediately for a single, serious infringement — for example, wholesale copying of a copyrighted work, or a pattern of infringement across multiple accounts operated by the same person. See the Acceptable Use Policy for the enforcement ladder.

9. False notices

Section 77(2) of ECTA recognises that a person who makes a materially false statement in a take-down notice is liable for any wrongful take down. Filing a notice you know to be false — for example, claiming to own content you do not own, or sending a notice whose real purpose is to suppress a competitor's legitimate content — may expose you to liability in damages to the affected user and to us.

We reject notices that are clearly malicious, obviously outside the scope of our policy (for example, notices that relate solely to third-party platforms that we do not host), or submitted in bad faith. Repeat bad-faith complainants may be banned from using this procedure.

10. Trade marks and other IP

The procedure above also applies to trade-mark notices. A trade-mark notice must, in addition to the items listed in section 4, include:

the registration number of the relevant trade-mark;
the class or classes in which it is registered;
the territory of registration (for example, South Africa);
the goods or services for which the mark is registered; and
where the claim is common-law passing off rather than registered trade-mark infringement, the basis on which the complainant asserts reputation, misrepresentation, and damage.

The same procedure applies, with necessary adjustments, to claims based on registered designs, plant breeders' rights, performers' rights, breach of confidence, and unlawful competition.

11. Other disputes (defamation, privacy, right of publicity)

This policy is for IP claims. Other types of complaint should be routed differently:

Defamation, insult, or injurious falsehood about you — use our Complaints & Dispute Resolution process, or write to complaints@socialbounty.cash.
Privacy and personal-information concerns — contact our Information Officer.
Right-of-publicity or personality-right claims (unauthorised use of a person's name or image for commercial purposes) — either the complaints route above, or, where the content also implicates copyright or trade marks, this take-down procedure.
Content that breaches the Acceptable Use Policy (hate speech, harassment, and similar) — see the reporting section of the Acceptable Use Policy.

12. Limitations

We are not a court. We cannot make binding findings on ownership, authorisation, fair dealing, validity of a trade-mark registration, or comparable substantive questions. Our notice-and-takedown process is about protecting our neutrality as an intermediary and responding fairly to credible claims — not about adjudicating a dispute on the merits.

Where a notice and a counter-notice describe a genuine dispute and both sides appear to have arguable positions, we may preserve the evidence, keep the material down pending counter-notice outcome, and invite the parties to seek determination from a court of competent jurisdiction.

Nothing in this policy constitutes a waiver of any legal right of the Platform, the complainant, or the user whose content is the subject of a notice, and nothing in this policy constitutes legal advice to any party.

13. Contact

IP take-down notices and counter-notices: dmca@socialbounty.cash.

General legal enquiries: legal@socialbounty.cash.

Postal address for notices: Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd, attention of the Information Officer, 2 Alyth Road, Forest Town, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa.