COPYRIGHT, DMCA, DSA AND ILLEGAL CONTENT POLICY

1. Purpose, scope, and legal status

1.1. This Copyright, DMCA, DSA and Illegal Content Policy (the “Policy”) applies to material made available through Aefia at https://aefia.com (the “Service”), including public AI Character pages, names, biographies, stories, text, images, videos or animations, interface materials, Service-controlled promotional material, advertisements displayed through the Service to the extent the Operator can identify or control the placement, and text voluntarily submitted through official support or reporting channels where relevant to a complaint.

1.2. Aefia is an Operator-curated adults-only AI companion service, not an open public gallery, file-sharing service, tube site, creator marketplace, public character-upload platform, or user media host. Users communicate with pre-created fictional adult AI Characters through private text chat. Users cannot upload files or media, publish, distribute, or create public character profiles, images, videos, galleries, or other public media, and cannot generate images or videos through the current Service. Aefia does not maintain a persistent server-side archive or administrative viewer for ordinary private chats.

1.3. The Operator accepts copyright complaints through the electronic mechanism at /feedback and may voluntarily apply principles similar to the notice-and-takedown framework in 17 U.S.C. § 512 where appropriate. Publication of this process does not by itself represent that the Operator is established in the United States, qualifies for every DMCA safe harbor, or has registered a statutory designated agent with the U.S. Copyright Office.

1.4. The Operator also accepts sufficiently precise and adequately substantiated notices of alleged illegal content through /feedback. Where the EU Digital Services Act or another notice-and-action law applies to a particular Service function, the Operator will apply the relevant mandatory requirements. Providing this mechanism does not constitute an admission that every Service feature is a hosting service, online platform, intermediary service, or otherwise subject to every DSA obligation.

1.5. Nothing in this Policy limits any right, defense, exception, immunity, contractual remedy, legal obligation, or enforcement discretion available under applicable law. The Operator may act under this Policy, the Terms of Service at /terms, the Acceptable Use Policy at /acceptable-use, a provider or advertising agreement, or applicable law even where a submitted report does not satisfy a statutory notice format. Information about the Service’s synthetic fictional adult content model appears in the AI Content and 2257 Compliance Statement at /2257.

• Official reporting channel: The text-only electronic Copyright and Content Report Form at /feedback. If that form is temporarily unavailable, use the official text-based contact mechanism at /feedback and clearly label the message as a copyright, illegal-content, or safety report.
• Reporter: A person or entity submitting a copyright, intellectual-property, likeness, privacy, child-safety, non-consensual intimate-content, advertisement, or other illegal-content report under this Policy.
• Affected party: A user, advertiser, advertising partner, contractor, licensor, service provider, or other person whose material, access, contractual relationship, or legal interests may be affected by a notice or enforcement decision.
• Specific material: The exact public image, video, animation, text, page, advertisement, landing page, URL, or other identifiable item alleged to infringe a right, violate applicable law, or create a serious safety concern. If a complaint concerns private-chat text, the Reporter must voluntarily paste the minimum relevant excerpt because Aefia cannot retrieve it from a chat archive.
• No legal advice or adjudication: This page explains an operational reporting process. The Operator is not a court and does not finally determine disputed ownership, infringement, criminality, defamation, privacy liability, or civil liability.

2. Original fictional content and AI-assisted creation

2.1. The Operator creates and curates the Service’s public AI Character identities, written character materials, character images, and other public character media. Character visuals are generated or digitally produced by the Operator using generative artificial intelligence, original prompts, selection, sequencing, image-processing software, manual editing, enhancement, animation, creative direction, and other digital production techniques.

2.2. The Operator does not source Aefia’s public AI Character galleries from unauthorized galleries, subscription pages, social-media accounts, films, games, anime franchises, comics, or other third-party entertainment properties. Non-character website components such as open-source software, fonts, icons, libraries, infrastructure, advertisements, or other third-party services remain subject to their own rights and licenses.

2.3. The Operator claims only rights available under applicable law. The protectability of an individual AI-generated element may vary by jurisdiction. This does not affect any available rights in human-authored names, biographies, stories, character development, selection, coordination, arrangement, editing, animation, branding, website code, interfaces, databases, or other protectable contributions.

2.4. A similarity allegation will be reviewed on the basis of specific protected expression and supporting evidence. A broad genre, visual style, trope, pose, color scheme, hairstyle, common name, body type, clothing category, or general idea does not by itself establish copyright infringement, trademark infringement, or unlawful impersonation.

• Fictional adults: Every AI Character displayed in an adult context is represented as a fictional adult who is at least 18 years old and is intended to appear clearly adult.
• No real-person product: The Service’s public AI Characters are not real models, performers, celebrities, employees, or persons available for offline contact and are not intended to portray identifiable real people.
• No franchise affiliation: The Service is not sponsored, approved, operated, or endorsed by a studio, publisher, game developer, anime producer, celebrity, model, or other third party unless an express written statement says otherwise.
• No public user uploads: Users cannot upload files or media, publish public character media, create public characters, or generate images or videos. Private text entered into AI chat is not converted into a public character page, gallery, image, video, or post.
• Reserved rights: Except for the limited personal-use license granted by the Terms of Service, no ownership right is transferred. Unauthorized scraping, copying, mirroring, dataset creation, model training, character cloning, resale, or commercial redistribution is prohibited.

3. Copyright infringement notices

3.1. A copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf may report specific material that they believe infringes an exclusive copyright right.

3.2. Submit the notice electronically through the text-only form at /feedback. A complete DMCA-style notice must contain information reasonably sufficient to identify the claimant and protected work, locate the specific reported material, evaluate the claim, and communicate with the Reporter. File and media uploads are not supported.

A complete DMCA-style copyright notice should include:

• 1. Signature: A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf. Typing the full legal name in the designated signature field may constitute an electronic signature.
• 2. Protected work: Identification and a reasonably detailed description of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed. If multiple works at a single online location are covered, provide a representative list that clearly identifies them.
• 3. Exact reported material: Identification of the specific material claimed to be infringing or the subject of infringing activity and information reasonably sufficient to locate it. Provide each complete URL and identify the relevant image, video, animation, text, advertisement, or other element on that page.
• 4. Contact information: The Reporter’s full legal name, organization where applicable, mailing address, telephone number, and working email address.
• 5. Good-faith statement: A statement that the Reporter has a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, the owner’s agent, or applicable law.
• 6. Accuracy and authority statement: A statement that the information in the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury where applicable, that the Reporter is the copyright owner or is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the allegedly infringed exclusive right.
• 7. Supporting evidence: Where reasonably available, provide exact public links to authorized originals, publication information, registration numbers or public registry links, contract or license references, source-file descriptions, comparison explanations, timestamps, authority references, or other textual evidence supporting ownership and the alleged infringement. Do not attempt to upload files through the form.

3.3. Copyright registration is not generally required merely to submit an operational takedown request. Registration or a pending application may nevertheless be relevant to litigation or a statutory claim, and the Operator may request additional evidence where ownership, authorization, protectable expression, or the applicability of a license, exception, or limitation is unclear.

3.4. Before submitting a notice, the Reporter should consider whether the use may be licensed, independently created, in the public domain, or permitted by an applicable limitation or exception such as fair use, quotation, criticism, review, parody, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research, or another legally recognized exception.

3.5. If a notice identifies the protected work, the reported material, and a reliable way to contact the Reporter but lacks another formal element, the Operator may request textual clarification, public source links, registration or authority references, or other information reasonably necessary to evaluate the claim. This does not require the Operator to act on a notice that cannot be evaluated or that does not identify specific material.

3.6. Do not combine unrelated rights owners, unrelated works, or large numbers of imprecise URLs in a manner that prevents a diligent review. Separate reports may be requested.

4. Review, action, and decision procedure

4.1. The Operator aims to acknowledge a sufficiently complete standard electronic report within approximately 5 business days. This is an operational target, not a waiver of any shorter legal duty and not a guarantee that a substantive decision will be made within that period. Urgent child-safety, non-consensual intimate-content, credible-threat, malware, fraud, or serious-harm reports may be prioritized immediately.

4.2. After receiving a report, the Operator may:

• Confirm receipt and assign an internal reference number.
• Check whether the report contains the information required by this Policy and applicable law.
• Ask for missing information, textual clarification, proof-of-authority details, public ownership or registration links, exact URLs, translations, reference numbers, or other textual supporting information.
• Temporarily preserve, quarantine, hide, restrict, remove, or disable access to specific material while the matter is reviewed.
• Review the Operator's own creation records, source files, prompts, project history, licenses, publication history, metadata, non-chat technical logs, payment records, advertising records, and other reasonably available evidence.
• Review private-chat text only if the Reporter voluntarily pasted the minimum relevant excerpt into an official text-based report or correspondence channel. The Operator cannot retrieve ordinary chat text from a server archive or chat viewer.
• Contact an advertiser, advertising partner, service provider, contractor, licensor, AI provider, hosting provider, or other relevant party where appropriate.
• Notify an affected party of the substance of the allegation and offer a reasonable opportunity to respond, except where notice would be unlawful, create a safety risk, compromise an investigation, or be otherwise inappropriate.
• Forward a report to the independent party that actually hosts, controls, delivered, or supplied the reported material, including TrafficStars or another advertising partner where the report concerns an advertisement.
• Reject or close an incomplete, unsupported, duplicative, abusive, misleading, fraudulent, irrelevant, or legally invalid report.
• Remove or disable access where removal is required by law, a binding provider or advertising obligation, the Terms of Service, the Acceptable Use Policy, or a good-faith legal or safety assessment.
• Restore or retain material where a report is withdrawn, cannot be substantiated, identifies the wrong material, or the material appears authorized or otherwise lawful.
• Restrict or terminate Accounts, integrations, contractors, licensors, advertisers, or commercial relationships associated with repeated or serious violations.
• Preserve evidence or refer information to a competent authority where legally required or reasonably necessary to address serious and imminent harm.

4.3. The Operator will act as expeditiously as reasonably practicable after receiving a complete and credible notice. Review time depends on urgency, number of items, quality of evidence, ownership complexity, applicable jurisdiction, possible exceptions, need for translations, involvement of independent providers, and procedural fairness.

4.4. A report gives the Operator notice of an allegation, not conclusive proof. The Operator may make a provisional access or enforcement decision without finally determining ownership, authorship, fair use, trademark priority, criminal liability, defamation, privacy rights, or another disputed legal question.

4.5. Where applicable law requires it and a reliable email address has been provided, the Operator will confirm receipt without undue delay and inform the Reporter of the decision whether to act. An affected recipient may receive a statement of reasons and information about an available appeal or redress mechanism where required.

4.6. If material is hosted or controlled entirely by an independent website, blockchain, wallet, exchange, payment provider, advertising platform, CDN, search engine, or social network, the Operator may be unable to remove it. The Reporter may need to contact the party that controls the material.

5. Counter-notifications and appeals

5.1. If material supplied by an affected party is removed or disabled following a copyright notice, that party may submit a counter-notification where they have a good-faith belief that removal resulted from mistake or misidentification.

5.2. Because Aefia does not currently provide public user media uploads, a statutory counter-notification process will rarely apply to ordinary User activity. It may still be relevant to material supplied by an advertiser, contractor, licensor, provider, or another affected party. A person seeking the statutory procedure under 17 U.S.C. § 512 must satisfy the statutory requirements and submit the counter-notification to a properly designated agent where required.

A DMCA-style counter-notification should include:

• 1. Signature: The affected party’s physical or electronic signature.
• 2. Removed material: Identification of the material removed or disabled and the exact URL or location at which it appeared before removal or restriction.
• 3. Mistake statement: A statement under penalty of perjury, where applicable, that the affected party has a good-faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification.
• 4. Identity and contact details: The affected party’s full legal name, mailing address, telephone number, and working email address.
• 5. Jurisdiction and service statement: Where submitted under 17 U.S.C. § 512, a statement consenting to the jurisdiction of the appropriate United States Federal District Court and agreeing to accept service of process from the original complainant or that person’s agent.
• 6. Supporting explanation: A clear explanation of the alleged mistake or misidentification, including any license, permission, authorship evidence, independent-creation record, public-domain basis, or applicable limitation or exception.

5.3. The Operator may forward a complete counter-notification, including legally required contact information, to the original Reporter. A person who does not consent to that disclosure should not submit a statutory DMCA counter-notification and should obtain legal advice about other options.

5.4. Where the statutory DMCA counter-notification procedure applies, the Operator may restore the material not less than 10 and not more than 14 business days after forwarding a valid counter-notification, unless the original Reporter gives notice that a court action has been filed seeking to restrain the allegedly infringing activity.

5.5. Outside the statutory procedure, the Operator may maintain, reverse, or modify a decision based on available information, the Terms of Service, contractual obligations, safety, and applicable law.

5.6. Restoration, retention, or reversal does not constitute a declaration that the material is lawful, non-infringing, or owned by the affected party.

6. Trademarks, likeness, privacy, impersonation, and related rights

6.1. A copyright notice is not the correct procedure for every dispute. The form at /feedback may also be used for sufficiently documented complaints involving:

• Trademark rights: Unauthorized use of a registered or unregistered mark that is likely to cause legally relevant confusion as to source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement.
• Passing off, false affiliation, and impersonation: Material falsely presented as being operated, approved, endorsed, or supplied by another person, brand, creator, business, or rights holder.
• Name, image, voice, or likeness: Unauthorized commercial or otherwise unlawful use of an identifiable real person’s name, face, photograph, voice, identity, or likeness.
• Privacy and personal data: Unlawful disclosure of private information, personal identifiers, intimate information, credentials, contact details, or other protected personal data.
• Non-consensual intimate material: Real or realistically manipulated intimate images or videos distributed without the depicted person’s consent, including unlawful sexual deepfakes, face swaps, or undressing material.
• Defamation: Specific allegedly false statements of fact that unlawfully damage the reputation of an identifiable person or entity. Identify the exact statement, why it is false, and the applicable jurisdiction.
• Contractual ownership or licensing disputes: Claims involving assignment, employment, commissioning, licensing, revenue sharing, or other contractual rights. Provide the relevant agreement or other reliable evidence.
• Advertisement-related rights complaints: A report concerning an advertisement should identify the ad, advertiser or brand, landing page, approximate date and time, country, device or browser where available, and the Aefia page on which it appeared so the Operator can identify TrafficStars or another relevant advertising partner. Provide a textual description; file and screenshot uploads are not supported, and unlawful intimate material must not be reproduced.

6.2. A person depicted in a photograph does not necessarily own the photograph’s copyright. A likeness, privacy, or non-consensual-content complaint should identify the particular right relied upon rather than falsely claiming copyright ownership.

6.3. Trademark and personality-right reports should identify the protected mark or person, applicable jurisdiction, registration details where relevant, exact reported URLs, the allegedly unlawful conduct, and the Reporter’s authority or relationship to the affected party.

6.4. Aefia does not present its fictional AI Characters as real persons or official versions of third-party protected characters. A similarity report should identify concrete protected elements, the allegedly protected right, and supporting evidence rather than relying only on a style, trope, pose, color, hairstyle, clothing category, common name, body type, or general idea.

7. DSA and other illegal-content or safety notices

7.1. Any individual or entity may use /feedback to notify the Operator of a specific item of information that the Reporter believes constitutes illegal content under applicable law or creates a serious safety concern.

7.2. Where Article 16 of the EU Digital Services Act applies to a relevant hosting function, the electronic mechanism is intended to facilitate a sufficiently precise and adequately substantiated notice containing:

• 1. Explanation of alleged illegality: A sufficiently substantiated explanation of why the Reporter alleges that the specific information is illegal, including the affected right, country or jurisdiction, and legal basis where reasonably known.
• 2. Exact electronic location: The exact URL or other precise electronic location of each reported item and any additional information reasonably necessary to identify it.
• 3. Reporter name and email: The Reporter’s name and working email address, except for reports concerning sexual abuse or exploitation of children or another category for which applicable law permits or requires submission without identifying information.
• 4. Good-faith declaration: A statement confirming the Reporter’s good-faith belief that the information and allegations in the notice are accurate and complete.
• 5. Supporting evidence: Public source links, court or authority reference numbers, public registry links, identification of the affected person, authorization details, or other textual evidence reasonably supporting the allegation. File, image, video, audio, document, and screenshot uploads are not supported. Do not reproduce unlawful intimate imagery or suspected child sexual abuse material.

7.3. Reports may concern copyright infringement, counterfeit goods, unlawful trademark use, child sexual abuse material, child exploitation, trafficking, non-consensual intimate material, credible threats, unlawful disclosure of personal data, fraud, impersonation, malware, phishing, illegal advertisements, or other content prohibited by applicable law.

7.4. Any sexual content involving an actual minor, a person presented as an actual minor, or suspected child sexual abuse material should be reported immediately. Do not download, reproduce, redistribute, paste, encode, or otherwise transmit the imagery. File and media uploads are not supported. Provide the exact URL and a textual description. Where there is immediate danger, contact the competent local emergency, law-enforcement, or child-protection authority.

7.5. The Operator may prioritize notices involving immediate danger, child safety, non-consensual intimate material, credible threats, trafficking, serious privacy violations, malware, phishing, fraud, or other severe harm.

7.6. Where applicable law requires it and a reliable email address has been provided, the Operator will confirm receipt without undue delay and notify the Reporter of the decision whether to act. A qualifying affected recipient may receive a statement of reasons and information about an available internal appeal, out-of-court dispute process, authority complaint, or judicial remedy.

7.7. The Operator may notify or cooperate with competent law-enforcement, child-protection, regulatory, hosting, advertising, or emergency authorities where legally required or reasonably necessary to address serious and imminent harm. Nothing in this Policy guarantees confidential treatment where disclosure is required for safety, procedural fairness, or law.

8. Repeat infringement, false notices, and abuse

8.1. Where appropriate and legally required, the Operator maintains a policy of restricting or terminating Accounts, contractors, licensors, advertisers, service providers, or other parties who repeatedly infringe rights or repeatedly supply illegal material.

• Repeat violations: The Operator may consider the number, severity, credibility, recency, and outcome of prior notices, whether notices concern the same underlying matter, and whether the affected party acted in good faith.
• Serious single violation: The Operator may immediately restrict or terminate access or a commercial relationship for deliberate piracy, fraud, malicious impersonation, child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate material, credible threats, malware, or another severe violation without waiting for repetition.
• Standard technical measures: Where legally applicable, the Operator will not knowingly interfere with qualifying standard technical measures used by copyright owners to identify or protect copyrighted works.
• False statements and fabricated evidence: Knowingly submitting materially false claims, forged ownership evidence, false signatures, fraudulent authority documents, or intentionally misleading counter-notifications is prohibited and may result in rejection, restriction, preservation of evidence, and legal liability.
• Harassment, extortion, and doxxing: The reporting process must not be used to harass, threaten, extort, expose private information, obtain confidential business information, suppress lawful criticism, or interfere unlawfully with competition.
• Automated or bulk abuse: Automated, template, or bulk reports may be rejected where they do not individually identify protected works, legal grounds, and specific reported material with reasonable accuracy.
• No admission: A removal, temporary restriction, settlement, or voluntary business decision does not constitute an admission of infringement, illegality, fault, ownership, jurisdiction, or liability.

8.2. Under applicable law, including 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) where applicable, a person who knowingly makes a material misrepresentation that content is infringing or that content was removed by mistake may be responsible for resulting damages, costs, and legal fees.

8.3. The Operator may close repetitive submissions that have already been addressed and contain no material new evidence, while preserving any mandatory right to submit a valid new notice or appeal.

9. Records, privacy, confidentiality, and disclosures

9.1. The Operator may process and retain text-only notices, counter-notifications, appeals, correspondence, textual evidence, enforcement decisions, Account or session references, IP addresses, timestamps, and non-chat technical logs to review reports, prevent abuse, handle appeals, resolve disputes, comply with law, and establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

• Disclosure to affected parties: A notice or counter-notification may be forwarded to an affected party or original Reporter. This may include the submitting party’s name, organization, allegations, signature, and legally required contact information.
• Service providers and advisers: Information may be processed by hosting, security, legal, support, storage, communications, and case-management providers reasonably necessary to operate the reporting procedure.
• Authorities and courts: Information may be disclosed in response to a valid court order, subpoena, regulatory request, legal obligation, or where reasonably necessary to address serious and imminent harm.
• Advertising and other partners: Where a report concerns material supplied through advertising, hosting, content-delivery, payment, AI, authentication, or another partner, information reasonably necessary to identify, investigate, and address the material may be shared with that partner, including TrafficStars where relevant.
• Retention: Complaint, evidence, correspondence, and enforcement records may generally be retained for up to 5 years after closure, or longer where reasonably necessary for an ongoing dispute, repeat-violation enforcement, fraud prevention, legal hold, limitation period, or legal obligation.
• Preserved material: The Operator may preserve the Operator's own restricted copies, hashes, fingerprints, creation records, or other identifiers of removed or restricted public material where reasonably necessary to prevent reappearance, document compliance, investigate abuse, or respond to proceedings. This does not authorize the Operator to download, reproduce, or retain suspected child sexual abuse material or other material that is unlawful to possess; such reports must be handled through exact URLs, textual descriptions, authority references, and legally appropriate escalation. Reporters cannot upload files or media through the reporting form. Other preserved material will not remain publicly accessible merely because it is retained.
• Independent third parties and blockchains: The Operator cannot erase material independently published by another party or information permanently recorded on a public blockchain.
• Data minimization: Provide only information reasonably necessary for the report. Do not submit or reproduce irrelevant government identifiers, financial data, passwords, authentication codes, private keys, seed phrases, intimate material, suspected child sexual abuse material, or unrelated personal data.
• No guaranteed confidentiality: The Operator will handle reports under the Privacy Policy but cannot guarantee that identity or correspondence will remain confidential where disclosure is required for procedural fairness, counter-notification, safety, enforcement, or applicable law.

9.2. The Privacy Policy at /privacy explains legal bases, recipient categories, international transfers, retention, security, and privacy rights relating to report data.

9.3. A Reporter should not submit evidence that is unlawful to possess or transmit. File and media uploads are not supported. Where a competent authority already holds relevant material, provide the authority reference, order number, public notice, or contact information rather than duplicating the material.

10. Official reporting channel and form operation

10.1. Submit copyright notices, counter-notifications, trademark or likeness complaints, privacy-related content complaints, non-consensual intimate-content reports, child-safety concerns, advertisement complaints, other illegal-content notices, and appeals through the text-only Copyright and Content Report Form at /feedback.

10.2. The reporting mechanism must remain operational, accept text and exact URLs without requiring file uploads or Account registration, and deliver submissions to a monitored Operator-controlled destination. A successful submission must display a confirmation and should display an internal reference number. A displayed form that does not deliver the report is not a functioning official reporting mechanism.

10.3. Do not submit an official notice through an AI Character chat, advertisement, social-media comment, or unmonitored address. An AI-generated reply is not an acceptance, rejection, acknowledgment, or legal response.

10.4. If the form is temporarily unavailable, use the official text-based contact mechanism at /feedback and clearly identify the request type. Do not submit passwords, login codes, private keys, seed phrases, complete payment credentials, unlawful intimate imagery, suspected child sexual abuse material, or unnecessary identity documents.

• Official reporting form: /feedback
• Fallback contact: /feedback
• Website: https://aefia.com
• Acknowledgment target: Approximately 5 business days for a sufficiently complete standard report; urgent safety reports may be prioritized sooner
• General substantive response target: Within approximately 30 days where practicable, depending on urgency, complexity, evidence, provider involvement, and applicable legal deadlines
• Emergency or child-safety reports: Select the urgent or child-safety category; provide the exact URL and a textual description; do not download, reproduce, paste, encode, or otherwise transmit suspected illegal imagery