DMCA & Copyright Infringement Policy

Effective Date: May 6, 2026  ·  Last Updated: September 22, 2026

1. Policy Overview

VocalMax, operated by Brilliant5 Inc. ("we," "us," or "our"), respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects our users to do the same. We respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Canadian Copyright Act, and equivalent laws in other jurisdictions.

This policy describes:

• How copyright owners can submit takedown notices.
• How affected users can submit counter-notices.
• Our policy for terminating accounts of repeat infringers.
• How to contact our designated copyright agent.

2. Content You Upload — Your Representations

By uploading documents, audio recordings, or any other content to VocalMax ("User Content"), you represent and warrant that:

• You own the User Content, OR you have all necessary rights, licenses, consents, and permissions to use the User Content for the purposes for which you upload it.
• Your upload and use of the User Content does not infringe the copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity, privacy, or other rights of any third party.
• If you are uploading audio of another person's voice for voice cloning, you have obtained their express written consent specific to AI voice cloning (see also our Voice Cloning Consent and Biometric Data Disclosure).
• You are not uploading content that violates the Acceptable Use Policy, our Terms of Service, or any applicable law.

You retain ownership of your User Content. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to process User Content solely to provide the Service to you (e.g., generating audiobook narration from your text). We do not claim any ownership in User Content or the audiobooks you create.

3. Designated Copyright Agent

To submit a copyright infringement notice or counter-notice, contact our Designated Copyright Agent:

4. Submitting a Copyright Infringement Notice

If you believe content on VocalMax infringes your copyright, you may submit a written notice to our Designated Copyright Agent. To be effective under the DMCA, your notice must include ALL of the following:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf.
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (or, for multiple works at a single site, a representative list of such works).
• Identification of the material claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, with information sufficient to permit us to locate it (such as a specific project URL or shared audiobook link).
• Your contact information: name, address, telephone number, and email.
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Notices that do not substantially comply with these requirements may not be valid and may not be acted upon.

Please note that under U.S. law (DMCA § 512(f)), any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing may be liable for damages, including attorneys' fees and costs.

5. Our Response to Valid Notices

Upon receiving a valid notice that meets the requirements above, we will:

• Promptly remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material.
• Notify the user who uploaded the material that we have removed it pursuant to a copyright notice.
• Forward a copy of the notice (with personal information redacted as appropriate) to the user.
• Track the notice as part of our repeat infringer accounting (see Section 8).

6. Submitting a Counter-Notice

If you believe your content was wrongly removed (for example, because you have authorization to use it, or it qualifies as fair use), you may submit a counter-notice. The counter-notice must include ALL of the following:

• Your physical or electronic signature.
• Identification of the material that was removed and the location where it appeared before it was removed.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
• Your name, address, and telephone number.
• A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, if your address is outside the United States, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California or another district where we may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the original notice.

Send your counter-notice to dmca@vocalmax.ai. Upon receiving a valid counter-notice, we will forward it to the original notice submitter and may restore the material in 10 to 14 business days unless the original submitter notifies us that they have filed a court action seeking to restrain the user from engaging in the alleged infringing activity.

7. Canadian Copyright Notice-and-Notice Regime

As a Canadian-operated service, we also recognize the Canadian Copyright Act's notice-and-notice regime (sections 41.25–41.27). Under this regime, copyright owners may submit notices alleging infringement, which we are required to forward to the alleged infringer. We do not remove material under the notice-and-notice regime alone — that requires a court order.

Canadian copyright notices should follow the formatting requirements of the Copyright Act and may be sent to dmca@vocalmax.ai.

8. Repeat Infringer Policy

It is our policy to terminate the accounts of users who, in our reasonable discretion and in appropriate circumstances, are determined to be repeat infringers of intellectual property rights.

We define a "repeat infringer" as any user who:

• Has been the subject of two (2) or more valid copyright takedown notices within a twelve-month period, OR
• Has been the subject of a single takedown notice involving particularly egregious infringement (such as commercial-scale infringement of a copyrighted work), OR
• Has uploaded content that has been finally adjudicated to be infringing by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Termination of a repeat infringer's account includes:

• Deletion of all User Content from the account.
• Cancellation of any active subscription without refund of unused subscription time.
• Loss of any unused Word Pack credits.
• Permanent ban from creating new VocalMax accounts.

9. Good-Faith Use Exceptions

Nothing in this policy should be interpreted as preventing legitimate uses of copyrighted material that are protected under fair use (United States), fair dealing (Canada and other Commonwealth jurisdictions), text and data mining exceptions (EU), or other applicable exceptions to copyright. If you believe your use of copyrighted material qualifies under such an exception, you may submit a counter-notice as described in Section 6.

10. Works You Own — Uploading Your Own Books

If you are an author uploading your own books, articles, or other writing to convert to audio, this policy does not apply to your own work. Your uploads are protected by your representations and warranties in Section 2 above.

If you are uploading writing under a co-author agreement, work-for-hire arrangement, or with a publisher, please ensure you have the necessary rights from your co-authors, employer, or publisher to convert the work to audio format. We are not responsible for verifying contractual rights you have negotiated with third parties.

11. AI-Generated Output — Copyrightability

Audio narration generated by VocalMax may have complex copyright status. While the underlying text you upload may be protected by your copyright (or a copyright you have licensed), the AI-generated audio output may, depending on jurisdiction, not be protected by copyright due to the lack of human authorship in the audio rendering.

This is an evolving area of law. The U.S. Copyright Office has stated that purely AI-generated content is not copyrightable. Other jurisdictions have varying positions. You should consult independent legal counsel before publishing AI-narrated audio commercially if copyright protection of the audio output is important to your business.

12. Trademarks, Right of Publicity, and Other Rights

This policy specifically addresses copyright. Other intellectual property rights — including trademarks, trade dress, the right of publicity, and trade secrets — are also protected, and we will respond to credible notices alleging violations of these rights. To submit a non-copyright IP notice, contact dmca@vocalmax.ai with sufficient information for us to evaluate the claim.

Voice cloning that impersonates a real person without consent may violate applicable Canadian privacy and personality/likeness laws and analogous laws in other jurisdictions. See our Voice Cloning Consent and Biometric Data Disclosure for details.

13. Governing Law

This policy is governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, except for the DMCA-specific procedures in Sections 4–6, which incorporate the requirements of 17 U.S.C. § 512 by reference. Disputes shall be resolved as provided in our Terms of Service.