Do you know what copyright is? If you do, great! You can stop reading and enjoy Orkut! If you don’t; you might be interested in learning more because this is something that can affect you and the content you post on Orkut.

When somebody creates something; a poem, a painting, a song, a research paper, etc; copyright law usually protects it automatically, with some specific exceptions.

So, what does this mean to Orkut users? It means you should only post or upload something that belongs to you. If it doesn’t belong to you, you need to make sure that it’s something for which you have adequate permissions or is in the public domain, i.e. something so old that its copyright has lapsed, for instance. Or else make sure that you’re reusing content in a way that is permitted under your local copyright laws. If there’s content out there that is violating someone’s copyright, even if you’re not the one who originally posted it, you should avoid linking to it from your Orkut account.

What happens if I post content in violation of someone else’s copyright?

We want you to take full advantage of Orkut to freely post and share your own stuff and things that interest you. But if we receive a complaint from someone who is the rightful owner of something you’ve posted, Google follows the notice-and-takedown procedures set out in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Most countries have rules which protect intermediaries (like Google) from liability for information posted by users, provided we act quickly to remove or disable access to material when the copyright holder complains. If this happens, you’ll be notified and able to challenge the complaint, but we need to comply with these rules in order to keep providing you with a great experience on Orkut.

You’ll find all our help center material regarding copyright here. There, you will also find a link to the form that you can use to make a copyright complaint.

While copyright law can sometimes be complicated, we hope what we’ve explained here and the information in our help center will help you make responsible choices when posting all the fun and interesting things you enjoy sharing with your friends on Orkut.

Posted by Andressa - Google Legal Team