Copyright & IP Policy — USPropertySearch.org — DMCA, Fair Use, Edicts of Government

1. Our Copyright

The original editorial content of uspropertysearch.org/ — guide entries, the "which office holds which record" tables, comparison tables, step-by-step search guides, the six-tier source hierarchy, and our verification methodology — is protected by copyright under U.S. copyright law (17 U.S.C. §101 et seq.). All rights reserved, subject to fair use and the permitted-use clause of our Terms of Use.

2. Facts and Public Records Are Not Ours

We do not claim copyright in facts or in public records. A property’s address, parcel number, assessed value, deed reference, or tax figure is a fact held by a county office — not our property. We claim copyright only in our original editorial presentation, structure, prose, and curated selection and arrangement of information.

3. Fair Use Under 17 U.S.C. §107

Fair use of our content is permitted under the four-factor test in 17 U.S.C. §107:

When relying on fair use, attribute uspropertysearch.org/ and link to the source page where practicable.

4. Federal-Government Works — Public Domain Under §105

Under 17 U.S.C. §105, works of the U.S. federal government are not protected by copyright. This includes Federal Trade Commission (FTC) publications and guidance, federal regulations, federal statutes (the U.S. Code), and federal court opinions. We summarize and link to such material freely, with attribution to the originating agency.

5. Edicts of Government — Statutes and Official Records

6. Trade Marks and Nominative Fair Use

The site refers to many names belonging to county offices and agencies, including (without limitation) the names of county assessors, recorders, registers of deeds, county clerks, tax collectors, treasurers, and state departments of revenue. These names are used nominatively — to identify the office our editorial entry covers — under Lanham Act §33(b)(4) (15 U.S.C. §1115(b)(4)) and the nominative-fair-use doctrine recognized by:

• New Kids on the Block v. News America Publishing (9th Cir. 1992) — three-factor test for nominative fair use
• Toyota Motor Sales v. Tabari (9th Cir. 2010) — nominative use in domain-name context
• International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium v. Security University (2d Cir. 2016) — Second Circuit three-factor test

We do not use any office or agency name in a way that suggests endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation.

7. Identifying Real People — Defamation Framework

Where the site identifies real people — for example, named county officials in their official capacity — we work to factual accuracy and the standards of state common-law defamation and:

• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) — “actual malice” standard for public officials
• Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) — public-figure / private-figure framework
• State anti-SLAPP statutes where applicable to good-faith public-interest reporting

If you are identified on the site and believe a statement is defamatory, email us with the page URL, the specific statement, and your basis. We review with editorial counsel.

8. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

For any third-party content on the site — user-submitted corrections, comments, or suggestions — we rely on the immunity provided by Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. §230), which states that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Section 230 does not immunize us from federal criminal liability or intellectual-property claims (handled separately under the DMCA).

9. DMCA Section 512 Takedown Procedure

To submit a takedown notice for content you believe infringes your copyright, email info@uspropertysearch.org with the subject “DMCA notice”. Your notice must include all six elements required by 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3):

1. Signature (physical or electronic) of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (or a representative list, if multiple works on the same site).
3. Identification of the material claimed to be infringing — the specific URL on uspropertysearch.org/ — with information reasonably sufficient for us to locate it.
4. Contact information for the complaining party: name, address, telephone number, and email.
5. Good-faith statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. Accuracy statement: a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate, and that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

We acknowledge receipt within 5 business days and, where the notice is well-founded, act expeditiously to remove or disable access under DMCA §512.

10. Counter-Notice Procedure

If we remove material that you believe was lawfully posted, you may submit a counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. §512(g)(3) by email to info@uspropertysearch.org with the subject “DMCA counter-notice”, including:

• Signature (physical or electronic)
• Identification of the material that was removed and its prior URL
• Statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification
• Your name, address, and telephone number
• Consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, for non-U.S. residents, any judicial district in which we may be found), and consent to accept service from the original notice-giver

On a valid counter-notice, we may restore the material 10–14 business days after we forward the counter-notice to the original notice-giver, unless that party files an action seeking a court order against the alleged infringer.

11. Repeat Infringer Policy

Consistent with 17 U.S.C. §512(i)(1)(A), we have adopted and reasonably implement a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the participation rights of any user who is a repeat infringer — the subject of multiple, well-founded DMCA notices. We retain a record of valid notices for three years.

12. What We Cannot Do Via This Procedure

• We cannot change a county’s own property record or website
• We cannot remove a property record from a county database
• We cannot alter county, state, or federal agency publications
• We cannot suppress search-engine results — that is between you and the search engine

13. Contact

For any copyright, trade-mark, defamation, or hosting-liability question, email info@uspropertysearch.org with a clear subject line.