Copyright/DMCA and Repeat-Infringer Policy

Kavi Media, Inc.
Version 1.0 — Effective 20 October 2026
Published at kavi.audio/legal/copyright-policy

1. About this Policy

1.1 This Policy is one of the Kavi Creator Policies. It explains how Kavi Media, Inc., a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Alpharetta, Georgia, USA (mailing address: 169 Madison Ave STE 30314, New York, NY 10016, USA) ("Kavi"), handles notices of claimed copyright infringement and counter-notices, how its repeat-infringer policy works, and how Kavi cooperates with takedown requirements in India and Canada.

1.2 Kavi respects copyright and expects every creator to do the same. Kavi responds to notices of claimed infringement in line with the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §512 (the "DMCA"), and applies the same notice and counter-notice process to complaints from every country, except as section 9.1 provides for certain complaints in India.

1.3 In this Policy, "your signed agreement" means everything you have signed or accepted with Kavi (your Master, its Schedules, Rate Card, exhibits, joinders, riders and addenda, any other signed document with Kavi and, if you post short-form audio, the Creator Terms — Short-form).

2. Who this Policy applies to

2.1 This Policy applies to every creator, co-host, co-owner and approved short-form creator with a Kavi Creator Portal ("Portal") account, for all content they deliver or post to Kavi.

2.2 Sections 4 to 7 also explain to copyright owners and their agents how to send Kavi a notice.

2.3 Sections 4 to 8 also apply to listeners and other account holders for anything they post on Kavi (such as profile photos, playlist names and covers), as Kavi's Terms of Service (kavi.audio/legal/terms) provide.

3. Your responsibilities as a creator

3.1 Deliver or post only content you have the right to license to Kavi. Your signed agreement sets out what you must clear and how, including the rules for music in spoken-word shows (Kavi Library Music, your own music, or music you have a written license for), covers, samples and beat leases, quotations and other third-party material, and stories based on public-domain or folk material.

3.2 Upload the clearance documents and releases your signed agreement requires with the content they relate to.

3.3 Old does not mean free. Do not assume a story, song, character, artwork or recording is in the public domain because it is old. Retell traditional stories in your own words, and do not use protected names, titles, characters, artwork or text from books, magazines, comics, films or other publications without written permission.

3.4 Kavi cannot give you legal advice about whether a particular use is allowed. If you are unsure, use cleared material or leave it out.

4. How to send a notice of claimed infringement

4.1 Kavi's designated agent for notices of claimed infringement is registered with the US Copyright Office (DMCA Designated Agent Directory registration DMCA-1075495):

Copyright Manager Kavi Media, Inc. 169 Madison Ave, STE 30314 New York, NY 10016, USA Telephone: (929) 224-4143 Email: copyright@kavi.audio

4.2 To be effective, a notice must be in writing, sent to the designated agent, and include: (a) a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed or, if a single notice covers multiple copyrighted works on Kavi, a representative list of those works; (c) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Kavi to locate the material (for example, the show, episode or track title and a link to it); (d) information reasonably sufficient to permit Kavi to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number and, if available, an email address; (e) a statement that the complaining party has 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; and (f) a statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

4.3 If a notice does not substantially comply, Kavi may ask for the missing information before acting on it.

5. What Kavi does when it receives a notice

5.1 On receiving a notice that substantially complies with section 4.2, Kavi will promptly remove or disable access to the material identified.

5.2 Kavi will promptly tell the creator who delivered or posted the material, and give them a copy of the notice (redacted only as the law allows).

5.3 Content under a Master. If the material is part of content you licensed to Kavi under a Master, you agree to respond promptly and to give Kavi the information it reasonably needs, such as your clearance documents, as your Master requires. Kavi may disable access immediately where a legal deadline requires it, and will tell you as your Master provides.

5.4 A removal that ends with the notice withdrawn, or with a valid counter-notice under section 6, is not, by itself, a breach of your signed agreement.

5.5 For content under a Master, sections 5.1 and 6.3 apply only as your Master allows: Kavi removes or disables access as your Master's compliance and mitigation clauses provide. After a valid counter-notice, Kavi may restore the material within the 10–14 business-day window, but it need not restore content that it reasonably and in good faith still considers infringing. Keeping it down is then a removal under your Master.

5.6 Royalties and payments. Removing or disabling content because of a notice never takes away royalties already earned on it, although content earns nothing while no one can play it. Your Master says whether Kavi may hold royalties during a claim. Under the Music Master Agreement (clause 15.4), if Kavi receives a claim it reasonably believes credible that a Master or Composition is not fully licensed or infringes someone's rights, Kavi may hold the royalties of the affected Master (only the disputed share if the claim concerns one share) until the claim is resolved by agreement, withdrawal or a final decision. Kavi then pays the held amount to whoever is entitled to it, and held amounts are never forfeited. A counter-notice under section 6 does not by itself end that hold. The Creator Master Agreement and the Audiobook Master Agreement do not allow a royalty hold because of a copyright claim.

6. Counter-notices

6.1 If you believe material was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notice to the designated agent at the address or email in section 4.1.

6.2 To be effective, a counter-notice must be in writing and include: (a) your physical or electronic signature; (b) identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled, and the location at which it appeared before it was removed or disabled; (c) a statement under penalty of perjury that you have 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 (d) your name, address and telephone number, and 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, for any judicial district in which Kavi may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the original notice or an agent of that person.

6.3 On receiving a valid counter-notice, Kavi will promptly send a copy to the person who sent the original notice and tell them that Kavi will restore the material in 10 business days. Kavi will restore the material not less than 10 and not more than 14 business days after receiving the counter-notice, unless its designated agent first receives notice that the person who sent the original notice has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the creator from infringing activity relating to the material.

6.4 A counter-notice includes your contact details, and Kavi will send it to the person who sent the original notice.

6.5 To challenge a removal made because of a copyright notice, send a counter-notice under this section; an appeal under the Community Guidelines does not start the restoration period in section 6.3. You may still appeal under the Community Guidelines any other action Kavi took on the same content.

7. False notices and counter-notices

A person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that it was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, may be liable for damages, including costs and legal fees. Do not send a notice or counter-notice unless you have a good faith basis for it.

8. Repeat-infringer policy

8.1 The rule. Kavi will, in appropriate circumstances, terminate the content-posting and service account of any creator, subscriber or other account holder who is a repeat infringer, for the purposes of 17 U.S.C. §512(i)(1)(A). Terminating that account ends the person's ability to upload, deliver, post or otherwise use the Service through it. Kavi may keep a separate read-only channel for that person, as section 8.6 describes.

8.2 Who is a repeat infringer. As a default, Kavi treats a creator as a repeat infringer if Kavi receives three valid copyright notices about content that creator delivered or posted, within any 12-month period, where each notice was not withdrawn and was not answered by a valid counter-notice. Each notice counts once, even if it lists several items. A notice that is later withdrawn, or answered by a valid counter-notice, stops counting. A notice is not counted while a counter-notice is pending under section 6. A notice stops counting 12 months after Kavi received it. Notices about short-form items count only toward terminating short-form posting. Notices about Works under a Master count only toward ending upload and delivery under that Master, and Kavi ends Master upload and delivery only as that Master provides (Creator Master Agreement clause 16.4(e)).

8.3 Clear or willful infringement. Kavi may act sooner than the default in section 8.2 where infringement is clear and willful (for example, uploading another person's commercially released recording as your own).

8.4 Notice before action. Before terminating an account, or ending upload, delivery or posting privileges, under this section, Kavi will give you written notice with its reasons and the notices it relied on, and you may respond within 14 days. Kavi will consider your response before deciding.

8.5 What the sanction is. The repeat-infringer sanction is termination of the repeat infringer's content-posting and service account for the content to which the counted notices relate (section 8.2): for short-form, all short-form upload, posting and other user-posting privileges and Approved Creator status under the Creator Terms — Short-form (but not upload or delivery of Works under any Master, which ends only as that Master provides: for the Creator Master Agreement, clauses 16.4(e) and 16.4A); for a Master, upload and delivery under that Master, as that Master provides. Where those are all the content-posting functions the person has, Kavi terminates the whole content-posting and service account. Kavi may also block a person whose account or privileges were terminated under this section from registering again to upload or post, and may block re-uploads of material removed under this Policy.

8.6 Read-only channel; what the sanction is not. Kavi may keep a separate read-only channel for a person whose account is terminated under this section, used solely to pay accrued amounts and to provide Royalty Statements, tax forms, contracts (including Schedules) and legal notices. That read-only channel does not permit uploading, posting, delivery or any other use of the Service. If you have a Master, or Kavi owes you money, Kavi keeps that read-only channel open for you, except to the extent the law requires otherwise. The sanction never stops Kavi paying amounts owed to you. Termination of the account does not by itself terminate any Master, Schedule or copyright license; each of them is affected only as the applicable signed agreement provides (for the Creator Master Agreement, see clauses 16.4(e) and 16.4A).

8.7 Appeal. You may ask Kavi to reconsider a repeat-infringer decision within 30 days, by email to copyright@kavi.audio, explaining why. Kavi will review it in good faith and tell you the outcome and its reasons.

8.8 Records. Kavi keeps a log of the notices and counter-notices it receives and the action taken.

9. Complaints and orders from India and Canada

9.1 India. Kavi complies with orders of Indian courts and of authorized Indian government agencies, and with valid complaints under India's copyright and information technology laws, within the time the law requires. Some of those deadlines are only a few hours, so Kavi may need to disable access first and tell you afterwards. Complaints under India's IT Rules may also be sent to Kavi's Grievance Officer for India: named, with contact details, at kavi.audio/legal/grievance-officer, privacy@kavi.audio. For a complaint under section 52(1)(c) of India's Copyright Act, 1957 and rule 75 of the Copyright Rules, 2013, Kavi follows that rule instead of the restoration period in section 6.3: it disables access within 36 hours if satisfied the copy infringes, keeps it disabled for 21 days from the complaint or until it receives a court order, whichever is earlier, shows people who try to access it a notice giving the reason, and may restore it if no court order restraining access is produced.

9.2 Canada. Kavi complies with Canadian notices of claimed infringement and court decisions as Canadian law requires.

9.3 You agree to cooperate promptly with Kavi in responding to any of these.

10. Kavi's own uses

The DMCA safe harbor (and similar hosting protections elsewhere) covers material stored at a user's direction. It does not cover material Kavi itself makes or adds, such as Kavi's trailers, compilations and highlights, Kavi's translated or dubbed versions, and Kavi's posts on its own social accounts. Kavi relies on your license and your promises in your signed agreement for those uses, and remains responsible, as your signed agreement provides, for material it adds and changes it makes.

Content you license to Kavi under a Master is reviewed, accepted and paid for by Kavi. Kavi does not rely on a hosting safe harbor for that content; it relies on your license, warranties and indemnity under your Master. Short-form items you post are stored at your direction.

11. Protecting your content elsewhere

11.1 If you find your content licensed to Kavi being used without permission on another platform, tell Kavi at rights@kavi.audio with the details.

11.2 Kavi may, but need not, take action against unauthorized use or scraping of your content with your cooperation, as your signed agreement provides. Sending a notice to a platform asking it to remove copies that breach Kavi's license or exclusivity is not a claim against you.

12. Other rights complaints

Complaints that content infringes a trademark, or a right of publicity, personality or privacy, can be sent to rights@kavi.audio (or, for privacy and safety concerns, safety@kavi.audio). Kavi handles them under the Community Guidelines.

13. Contact

14. Changes to this Policy

14.1 Kavi changes this Policy only as the Policy Acknowledgements describe: (a) at least 14 days' notice by email to the address in your Portal account and by a notice in the Portal, with a summary of what changed; (b) shorter notice, or immediate effect, only where required by law, a court or regulator order, an app store or payment provider, or needed to deal with an urgent safety, security, fraud or child-safety risk, and only to the extent that requirement or risk demands, with an explanation as soon as practicable. Shorter notice affects only when the change takes effect, and paragraph (f) applies to it in full; (c) a change in your favor, or a purely administrative change (such as an updated designated-agent detail), may take effect when posted, with notice; (d) for a material change (for example, a change that reduces any notice, appeal or takedown protection), Kavi will ask you to acknowledge this Policy again in the Portal. Until you acknowledge, the earlier version keeps applying to content under any Schedule, Release Schedule or Book Schedule signed before the change, as your Master provides, and Kavi will not hold back uploads of that content, royalties already earned, or exploitation of or payment for content already delivered. Kavi may ask you to acknowledge the new version before you sign a new Schedule; (e) if you do not accept a material change, your Master says what you may do; and (f) a change does not apply to content delivered, royalties earned or disputes that arose before it took effect, and does not apply as a new acceptance criterion or an increased production or delivery burden to content under a Schedule, Release Schedule or Book Schedule signed before the change, except to the extent applicable law requires immediate application. A court or regulator order is implemented to the extent it legally binds Kavi. An app store or payment provider requirement, or an urgent safety, security, fraud or child-safety risk, may justify only action that your signed agreement or applicable law already authorizes (for example, a mandatory takedown); it does not itself amend your signed agreement or make a new obligation in this Policy apply to earlier content. Royalties already earned on removed or restricted content remain payable.

14.2 No change to this Policy can reduce your royalty rates, change your payment terms, or change the rights you have granted or kept under your signed agreement.

14.3 Every past version stays available in the Portal.

15. Language

This Policy is in English, and the English text is binding. Kavi may provide a Telugu translation or summary as a courtesy; it is for information only.

16. Your signed agreement prevails

If this Policy conflicts with your signed agreement, your signed agreement prevails.

Versions

Each version is kept unchanged at its own address. The fingerprints are listed at kavi.audio/legal/policies.json.