DMCA
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Warm Heart Gifts respects the work of artists, writers, illustrators and photographers. This page explains how to tell us if you believe something on warmheartgifts.com, or a product we have made, uses your copyrighted work without permission, and how we respond. It follows the notice-and-takedown process of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and we apply the same process to notices from rights holders in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Warm Heart Gifts is a single shop that designs and sells its own personalised gifts; there are no third-party sellers on our site, so every notice comes directly to us and is handled by us.
At a glance
- Where to send a notice: support@warmheartgifts.com with the subject “Copyright notice”, or by post to 688 Millsap Road, Fayetteville, AR 72703, US.
- What to include: the six items listed in section 3.
- Our first reply: within 1 business day to confirm we received it.
- Typical outcome: material that infringes is removed or disabled, and products using it are withdrawn.
- Customer content: text or images a customer asked us to print can be the subject of a notice, and the customer may send a counter-notice.
1. What this page covers
This process is for copyright: original creative works such as illustrations, photographs, poems, quotations from published books, song lyrics, fonts sold under licence and written descriptions. It covers anything that appears on our website, such as product designs, photographs and page text, and anything we print on a product, including text or images supplied by a customer for their personalised order.
Concerns about trademarks, such as brand names, logos or character names, are handled under our Intellectual Property Policy. Concerns about your privacy, for example your name or photo appearing somewhere without your consent, can be sent to the same address and are handled under our Privacy Policy.
2. Before you send a notice
Many concerns can be settled by a simple message. If you are not sure whether something infringes your work, or you would simply like us to credit you or remove a design, write to us informally first. We are a small shop; we would much rather fix a problem quickly than argue about it. A formal notice is still available to you at any time, and an informal message does not affect your rights.
Please also consider whether the use might be permitted, for example a short factual phrase that is not protected by copyright, or a common saying that many people use. Sending a notice that you know is false can have legal consequences, as explained in section 6.
3. How to send a copyright notice
A formal notice should be in writing and include:
- Your full name, postal address, telephone number and email address, and if you act for someone else, the name of the copyright owner.
- A description of the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed, for example the title of the illustration or poem and where it was first published.
- The exact location of the material on our site, ideally the full web address of each product or page, or the order number and a photo if the concern is about a printed product.
- A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
- A statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the owner’s behalf.
- Your physical or electronic signature. A typed full name at the end of an email is accepted.
Send it to support@warmheartgifts.com with the subject line “Copyright notice”, or by post to Warm Heart Gifts, 688 Millsap Road, Fayetteville, AR 72703, US. Email is much faster.
4. What we do when we receive a notice
| Step | What happens | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Acknowledge | We confirm we received your notice and tell you if anything is missing | Within 1 business day |
| 2. Review | We locate the material and compare it with your description | Usually within 3 business days |
| 3. Remove or disable | If the notice is complete, we remove the page, image or design, or disable access to it, and stop printing it | As soon as the review is done |
| 4. Inform | If the material came from a customer, we tell the customer and give them a copy of the notice without your private contact details where possible | Promptly after removal |
| 5. Close or restore | We close the case, or restore the material if a valid counter-notice is received and you do not start legal action | See section 5 |
If the notice concerns an order that has not yet been printed, we pause the order and contact the customer before production. If the notice concerns a design in our own catalogue, we withdraw the design from sale while we review it. We keep a record of every notice and what we did about it.
5. Counter-notification for content you submitted
If you are a customer and we removed or refused text or an image you asked us to print because of a copyright notice, and you believe this was a mistake or that you have the right to use the material, you can send us a counter-notice. It must include:
- Your full name, address, telephone number and email address.
- A description of the material that was removed and where it appeared, or the order number.
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed because of a mistake or misidentification.
- A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your address, or, if your address is outside the United States, the federal court for the Western District of Arkansas, and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice.
- Your physical or electronic signature.
When we receive a complete counter-notice, we forward it to the person who sent the original notice. If they do not tell us within 10 to 14 business days that they have started legal action, we may restore the material or complete the order. If you would simply prefer to change the text or image instead, we will happily help you choose something else and make your gift without delay.
6. False or misleading notices
Under US law, anyone who knowingly makes a material misrepresentation in a notice or counter-notice can be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees. Please only send a notice if you are confident the material infringes copyright you own or represent. If you are unsure, an informal message is the better first step.
7. Repeat infringement
We do not continue to work with customers who repeatedly ask us to print material that infringes other people’s copyright after being told about the problem. In those rare cases we may decline future orders and close the customer’s account, after explaining why.
8. How we try to avoid infringement in the first place
Our own designs are created for Warm Heart Gifts. We do not print licensed characters, team logos, brand names or song lyrics, and we read every personalised order before printing. When a customer asks for text that looks like a quotation from a published work, such as a poem or a lyric, we may ask where it comes from or suggest wording of their own. We know this occasionally disappoints someone who wanted a favourite line on a gift, and we explain our reasons kindly. It is part of how we respect the people who write the words we all love.
For example, a customer might ask for the chorus of a popular song on an anniversary canvas. We would explain that we cannot print song lyrics without the publisher’s permission and suggest a few words of their own, perhaps the name of the song and the year it played at their wedding, which carries the same memory without copying anyone’s work.
9. Situations we are often asked about
Can I send a photo taken by a professional photographer?
Where a product offers photo personalisation, a portrait taken by a wedding or family photographer usually belongs to the photographer, even though you are in it. Many photographers give clients a print release that allows personal prints on gifts; if you have one, keep it, and we may ask to see it before printing. If you do not, a short message to the photographer usually settles it.
Can you print a picture I found online?
Images found through a search engine almost always belong to someone. We cannot print them unless you created the image yourself or the owner has given permission. We will suggest one of our own designs instead.
What about old poems and verses?
Very old works are often in the public domain in the United States, and short traditional blessings are usually free to use. We may still ask where a verse comes from, because modern translations and arrangements of old texts can have their own copyright.
I am an illustrator and I think one of your designs resembles mine.
Please write to us with a link to your work and the product page. Even if you are not sure whether it is close enough to be a copyright matter, we will look at it carefully, tell you honestly what we find, and withdraw the design if it copies yours.
A customer printed my company’s slogan on a mug. Is that a copyright matter?
Short slogans and brand names are usually protected as trademarks rather than by copyright. Please send your concern anyway; we will handle it under our Intellectual Property Policy, which follows a very similar process, and we will not print the slogan again while we review it.
How long do you keep notices?
We keep each notice, our correspondence and the outcome for as long as is reasonable to show how we handled it, usually several years. If a counter-notice is sent, we share the parts of each document that the law requires, and protect personal details where we can.
10. Notices from outside the United States
Rights holders in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries can use the same process and the same address. You do not need to refer to US law; describe your work, where it appears on our site and why you believe the use is not permitted, and include your contact details and signature. We will treat your notice with the same care and timing as a DMCA notice and, where your local law gives you specific rights, we will respect them.
11. Contact
Copyright notices, counter-notices and informal questions can be sent to support@warmheartgifts.com or by post to Warm Heart Gifts, 688 Millsap Road, Fayetteville, AR 72703, US. For general questions, see our Contact Us page or the Terms of Service.