Digital Millennium Act of 1998

Horry Telephone Cooperative, Inc. (“HTC”) respects the intellectual property rights of third parties, including rights granted under the US copyright laws, and the interests of its subscribers and content providers on the Internet. You may not use HTC’s network, systems or servers to transmit, upload, download, store, disseminate, post or submit any material, content, images or data in any manner that constitutes an infringement of third- party intellectual property rights, including under the US copyright laws. HTC assumes no responsibility, and you assume all risks, regarding the determination of whether material is in the public domain or may be used by you for such purposes.

HTC is committed to complying with U.S. copyright and related laws, and expects all of our customers, users, and visitors to comply with these laws. All HTC services are furnished subject to the condition that such services will not be used for any unlawful purpose. HTC reserves the right to discontinue services after receiving proper written notice if any enforcement agency, acting within its apparent jurisdiction, advises that such service is being used in violation of the law. HTC further reserves the right to refuse to furnish service when it has reasonable grounds to believe that such service will be used in violation of the law. HTC shall in no event be liable for any damage resulting from any action taken or threatened pursuant infringement of local, state, or federal law.

Furthermore, users may not store any material or content on, or access, share, or disseminate any material or content over, any of our product or service offerings that in any manner that infringes upon third party intellectual property rights, including U.S. copyright rights. HTC complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) and provides a method for copyright owners to communicate information about alleged infringements to us, and for us to inform our users about them, as further described below. Users may receive notices if their HTC account is identified by a copyright owner as having been used in connection with acts of alleged copyright infringement.

You understand and agree that any and all use of the Service, as defined in the HTC’s Terms of Service, is subject to the terms of HTC’s Copyright Infringement Policy and Copyright Notification Policy, as detailed herein, and incorporated by reference into HTC’s Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), which are available on HTC’s website. From time to time HTC may revise these terms, effective upon posting of such revisions to our website.

 

DMCA COMPLIANCE AND COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION POLICY

For Subscribers

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”) provides that owners of copyrighted works who believe that their rights under US copyright law have been infringed may report alleged infringements to services providers like HTC when use of the Internet service involves system caching, information residing on systems or networks at the direction of users, or information location tools, or more generally when a customer is storing or hosting content on HTC’s equipment. In addition, under its Copyright Notification Policy, HTC voluntarily accepts and processes allegations of infringement over peer-to-peer technologies by a customer’s use of HTC’s transitory network communications services, so long as the content provider, or its agent, submitting such allegation abides by HTC’s business rules.

In accordance with the DMCA and other applicable law, it is the policy of HTC to terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the Internet service provided to any subscriber or account holder who is deemed to infringe third party intellectual property rights, including repeat infringers. HTC may limit, suspend or terminate your service at any time, with or without notice to you. It is also HTC’s policy to remove or disable access to any material claimed to be infringing by a copyright owner that is residing at the direction of a subscriber on HTC’s system or network.

 

HTC’s Policy for Subscriber Notification of Alleged Copyright Infringement:

 HTC’s Copyright Notification Policy is to inform you about alleged copyright infringement occurring on your Internet service account (like unlawful video or audio file sharing) so that you, as the account owner, can take steps to prevent any future possible infringement. File sharing copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright owner or its authorized representative is in many instances unlawful and can subject infringers to potential civil and criminal liability. We will inform you about possible copyright infringements occurring on your account by sending you email alerts and/or pop-up screens to let you know that your account is potentially being used for copyright infringement.

We may also notify you through automatic voice mail messages to the telephone number we have on file for you. For customers who fail to stop the allegedly infringing activity from occurring over their Internet connection and for whom HTC continues to receive copyright notifications, we may take a number of actions, including but not limited to redirecting the account holder’s Internet access service to a webpage where the account holder must review material on the importance of copyright and the lawful use of content available over the Internet; limiting the account holder’s access to certain web content and services while restricting access to other material; reducing Internet speeds on a temporary basis; and terminating the account holder’s Internet access service.

It is also HTC’s policy to inform you about claims that you have stored material or caused material to reside on HTC’s system or network that infringes on copyrights. We will promptly remove or disable access to such stored material, and we will notify you that we have removed or disabled access to such stored material when we no- tify you about the claim. The unlawful use of copyrighted materials violates HTC’s Terms of Service and Accept- able Use Policy, which can be found on HTC’s website.

Copyright owners use certain automated techniques to identify Internet users who they believe are engaged in possible copyright infringement, including illegal file sharing. When they find this kind of activity, the copyright owners send HTC the name of the copyrighted work alleged to be infringed and the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address of the computer that is suspected of sharing copyrighted content. HTC matches the IP address to the specific customer who was assigned that IP address at the time of the activity, and then notifies our customer of the possible copyright infringement.

Copyright owners do not know the actual identity of the user assigned to the IP address associated with the activity that they believe may be illegal. While HTC may know which customer was assigned to the IP address, HTC does not share that information with the copyright owners. HTC will always respect your privacy and will not share information that identifies you personally or provide your identity to copyright owners without a legal requirement to do so, such as a subpoena or court order.

If HTC has removed or disabled access to material that you have stored or caused to reside on our system or network as a result of a claim by a copyright owner that the material is infringing, you may provide HTC a count- er notification, and HTC will provide that counter notification to the person who notified HTC about the alleged infringement. HTC will replace the removed material or cease disabling access to it in not less than 10 business days and not more than 14 business days unless HTC receives a notice from the person who submitted the alleged infringement claim that such person has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain subscriber from engaging in infringing activity related to the material stored or residing on HTC’s system or network at subscrib- er’s direction.

Subscriber’s counter notification to HTC must be in writing and sent to HTC’s designated agent, as identified below. The counter notification must also include:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the subscriber
2. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled; and
4. The subscriber’s name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriber’s address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged copy- right infringement for material stored or caused to reside on Service Provider’s system or network at direction of the subscriber.

 

Designated Agent for Subscriber Counter Notifications:

HTC Entities:                                HTCinc.net, SCcoast.net, htcconnect.com
Appointed Designated Agent: Jimmy Anderson NW Engineering Systems
Address:                                           PO Box 1820 Conway, SC 29528

Telephone Number:                    (843) 369-8748
Fax Number:                                   (843) 369-8716

Email Address:                               dmcanotifications@htcinc.net

Under the DMCA, anyone who knowingly makes misrepresentations regarding alleged copyright infringement may be liable to HTC, the alleged infringer, and the affected copyright owner for any damages incurred in connection with the removal, blocking, or replacement of allegedly infringing material in accordance with U.S. copyright law, which provides substantial penalties for a false counter notice filed in response to a notice of copyright infringement.

 

PROCEDURES FOR COPYRIGHT OWNERS TO MAKE CLAIMS OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

 

HTC respects the owners of copyright materials and their rights under federal law. We do not permit our service to be used to infringe copyrights. Using HTC services to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting or otherwise) that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary rights of any third party, including, but not limited to, the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, the unauthorized transmittal of copyrighted software, the digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, is a violation or HTC’s Acceptable Use Policy and appropriate action will be taken in accordance with that Policy.

The DMCA can be accessed by going to U.S. Copyright Office Web Site, www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf. Under the DMCA, copyright owners may contact the authorized agent of HTC to report alleged infringements of their protected works by those who subscribe to HTC’s ISP for Internet connection purposes. If one of our Internet subscribers is alleged to be an infringer, we will take actions to attempt to stop such conduct, including and up to terminating the service of a repeat infringer in appropriate circumstances.

HTC and certain affiliates and subsidiaries are registered under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”). HTC has registered its designated agent with the United States Copyright office, complying with U.S. copyright law under the DMCA.

If, as a copyright owner, you believe that a subscriber of HTC or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries has used material that infringes an exclusive right you have with respect to such material, you or your authorized agent may file a Notice of Claimed Infringement with us. The Notice of Claimed Infringement must be sent to our designated agent identified below. If you are the owner of a copyrighted work who believes that your rights under  U.S. copyright law have been infringed by any material on our offerings, you can report that to us by sending our authorized agent a notification of claimed infringement.

When we receive a notice of claimed infringement that satisfies the requirements of the DMCA, we will respond expeditiously to either directly or indirectly remove the allegedly infringing work(s) residing on our offerings or disable access to the work(s) residing on our offerings, if applicable. HTC may, in appropriate circumstances and its discretion, disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may be repeat infringers. We will also notify the affected user when we take any of these situations. Copyright owners should know that in some cases users of our offerings may be unregistered an anonymous, such as visitors to a website. In those cases, our ability to process and act on a DMCA notification may be limited or unavailable. HTC will not however be a party to disputes over alleged copyright infringements.

If you believe that your work has been copied or used in a way that constitutes copyright infringement or your rights under U.S. copyright law have been violated, you may file a complaint with HTC’s designated Copyright Agent named below.

HTC Entities: HTCinc.net, SCcoast.net, htcconnect.com
Appointed Designated Agent: Jimmy Anderson NW Engineering Systems
Address: PO Box 1820 Conway, SC 29528
Telephone Number: (843) 369‐8748
Fax Number: (843) 369‐8716
Email Address: dmcanotifications@htcinc.net

For a claim to be effective under the DMCA, your notification to HTC’s designated agent must include the information described below.

1. Physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest
2. A description of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of the infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled as well as information reasonably sufficient to permit HTC to locate the material
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit HTC to contact the party who is reporting the copyright infringement, such as address, telephone number, and, if available, electronic mail address
5. A statement that the party who is reporting the copyright infringement has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner reported is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or law
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the party reporting the copyright infringement is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that has been allegedly infringed

Upon receipt of a Notice of Claimed Infringement from a copyright owner that contains all required information, if we have sufficient information to identify the subscriber, we will follow our Copyright Infringement Policy by notifying the subscriber of the alleged infringement and taking other action as appropriate, consistent with our policy. No personal, subscriber information is shared with the copyright owner unless required by law.

 

HTC REPEAT INFRINGER POLICY FOR SUBSCRIBERS

 As an Internet service provider, HTC typically receive notifications of alleged infringement from content owners that include a non-personally identifying set of numbers (known as an Internet protocol or IP address). This IP address is visible to third parties on the Internet and is associated with activity that the copyright owner alleges is infringing.

If HTC can match the IP address on the date and time listed in the content owner’s notification with our records, then we may generate a DMCA notification to our customer whose account was assigned that IP address, as well as a repeat infringer notice (if applicable).

We do not disclose any information about a customer’s identify to content owners under the DMCA (unless there is a valid court order requiring HTC to do so).

HTC treats any customer account for whom we receive multiple DMCA notifications from content owners as a repeat infringer in accordance with our DMCA Repeat Infringer Policy. HTC places accounts of customers for whom we receive multiple DMCA notifications of alleged infringement into a multi-step DMCA Repeat Infringer Policy. Upon receipt of repeated DMCA notifications in a calendar month, the customer account will progress from one policy step to the next one.

Actions that we may take under the DMCA Repeat Infringer Policy include sending notice to the account holder of the account’s customer of record. Notices may include, but not be limited to, an email alert to the preferred email address on the account, a letter to the address listed on the account, a phone call to the contact number listed on the account, or a recorded message to the contact number listed on the account.

Additionally, we may lock the user’s internet browsers, suspend, and/or ultimately disconnect, the HTC Internet service of any customer for whom we have continued to receive DMCA notifications of alleged infringement even after we have sent repeat infringer alerts. As such, HTC may terminate in our sole discretion other HTC services provided to these customers when we terminate the Internet service under this policy.

If the HTC Internet service is suspended, the customer will have no Internet access or service during suspension. This will affect any services and devices that use the Internet such as a computer, tablet, gaming console, internet- based telephony, cable, or security services.

If the HTC Internet service is ultimately disconnected, HTC will disconnect Internet service within fourteen (14) days of the final notice made under the DMCA Repeat Infringer Policy. If you also have HTC Internet-based cable services, they will be terminated at the same time. When services are cancelled in connection with the Repeat Infringer Policy, any early termination fees may apply and unreturned equipment charges will apply. Additionally, HTC reserves the right to keep the account disconnected for up to one hundred and eighty (180) days.

If available, the customer has the right to restore cable television and voice services on a platform which is not Internet based. Any installation and equipment charges will be applicable at such time.

 

Revised  November 2022