Copyright policy

Check your rights before sharing

Permission may be needed for photographs, footage, artwork, written work and music. Music can involve separate rights in the recording and composition. Owning a copy, giving credit, using a short extract or finding content publicly accessible does not automatically grant the right to upload it.

Licences can be limited by territory, duration, audience, platform and commercial use. Availability in a search result or another post is not proof that every use is licensed. Statutory exceptions, including applicable fair dealing, must be assessed in context; no blanket rule makes every remix or educational post lawful.

Send an infringement notice

Email [email protected] with the subject Copyright notice. The rights holder or an authorised representative should provide enough information to identify the work and the disputed material. Do not send more personal information than needed.

• Your full name, a working contact email and the rights holder you represent, with the basis of your authority if acting for someone else.
• A description of the copyrighted work and a reliable reference, such as its official publication or original location.
• The Yupzap URL, post or account identifier and specific material complained about. A broad request to remove an entire account needs an explanation of the relevant infringements.
• An explanation of the rights involved and why you believe the use is not authorised by the owner, its representative or applicable law.
• A good-faith statement that the information is accurate and that you are entitled to make the complaint, with your physical or electronic signature.

How a notice is handled

We assess whether the material can be identified, whether the notice provides a basis for action and whether further information is needed. Appropriate action can include restricting access, muting audio or removing material. Applicable legal requirements and deadlines govern the response.

Where appropriate and permitted, we notify the person affected and explain how to dispute the decision. Relevant parts of a notice may need to be shared so the claim can be understood and answered. Tell us about a specific safety concern before including personal details; we cannot promise anonymity where disclosure is legally required.

We acknowledge a notice within 24 hours of receiving it and act on a valid notice within 36 hours, or sooner where the law requires. Content that is the subject of a court order or a direction from an authorised government body is handled within the time that order or direction sets.

If you believe a removal was mistaken

Reply to [email protected] with the decision reference, content identifier, your contact email and a clear explanation. Relevant evidence can include ownership, permission, the applicable licence or the legal exception you rely on. State in good faith that the explanation is accurate.

We may ask for further information, review the restriction or restore content where appropriate. A binding legal order may prevent restoration. We do not require a person to accept foreign court jurisdiction merely to send an ordinary appeal; if a jurisdiction-specific statutory procedure applies, its actual requirements must be explained separately.

Where a complete counter-notice is received, we send it to the person who made the original notice. If they do not show us within 21 days that they have started court proceedings or obtained an order about the content, we will normally restore it, unless the law, a court order or another policy prevents this. A successful counter-notice removes the related strike.

Do not repeatedly re-upload disputed material to evade a restriction. A good-faith appeal is allowed and is not itself a policy violation.

Repeat infringement and misuse of notices

Each valid copyright notice against your content counts as a strike. First strike: a warning. Second strike: the content is taken down and posting is limited for 7 days. Third strike: the account is banned from posting. A banned account can still use its chats and calls but cannot post, comment or reshare. Strikes removed by a successful counter-notice, an appeal or a withdrawn notice do not count. Serious cases, such as an account that exists mainly to share infringing material, may be banned sooner.

Notices must not be used to harass, censor criticism, assert rights you do not own or obtain private information through false claims. Knowingly false or abusive notices may lead to action against the account that sent them and may carry legal consequences.

Trademark, impersonation, privacy and safety concerns should be described accurately and sent to support. A copyright notice is not a substitute for an urgent child-safety or intimate-image report.

No music or media from Yupzap

Yupzap does not provide, host a library of or license any music, sounds or other third-party media. There is no music picker or sound library in the app, and nothing on Yupzap gives you permission to use someone else's work.

Everything you post must be yours, or used with the permission of the rights holder or under a legal exception that applies to you. This includes any music, song, voice, sound effect, clip or footage inside your videos and photos. Music usually has separate rights in the song itself and in each recording of it. Buying a track, having a streaming subscription, giving credit or using only a short clip does not by itself give you the right to post it.

Yupzap is an intermediary under section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Users choose what they post and who sees it. We host and deliver that content and act on valid notices as set out in our Copyright policy.

Reporting and takedown

Anyone can report copyright infringement from the 3-dot menu on any post, video or Moment. Choose Copyright infringement, give the owner's name and a link to or description of the original work, and confirm that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner. We acknowledge a notice within 24 hours and act on valid notices within 36 hours, or sooner where the law requires. Repeat infringement is handled under the strike policy in our Copyright policy.

Trademarks, portraits and confidential material

Copyright ownership does not automatically resolve privacy, publicity, trademark, performer or confidentiality rights. Do not upload confidential workplace material, private correspondence or another person’s likeness where doing so violates applicable rights.

For a brand or impersonation complaint, identify the protected name or mark, the misleading account or content, your authority and the confusion or harm alleged. Clearly identified commentary, parody or criticism must be assessed in context; a disagreement with an opinion is not itself proof of infringement.

Keep evidence of the rights you use

Before uploading a commissioned recording, collaboration, sample, cover or licensed asset, check which rights you actually received. Permission from one contributor may not cover a composer, performer, producer, publisher, photographer or another person represented in the work.

Keep the relevant licence, written permission, receipt and contributor agreement. Check the permitted platforms, territory, duration, editing and commercial-use conditions. A receipt proves a purchase, not necessarily a right to upload or sublicense. Provide only the relevant portions when a dispute requires evidence, redacting unrelated private information.

If permission expires or is withdrawn in accordance with its terms, stop new unauthorised use and address existing uses as the applicable agreement and law require. Do not falsely claim exclusive ownership of shared, public-domain or non-exclusive licensed material.

Exceptions, public-domain material and disputed ownership

A legal exception depends on the relevant law, work, purpose and circumstances. There is no universal safe number of seconds, percentage or disclaimer that makes an upload lawful. Credit, a non-commercial purpose or an educational label is not enough on its own.

Explain the specific exception or public-domain basis when disputing a claim. A composition and a particular recording may have different rights and protection periods. An automatic match or similarity allegation is evidence to assess, not a final legal determination of ownership or infringement.

If multiple parties assert ownership, provide the chain of permission or relevant legal decision. Yupzap may apply proportionate restrictions while assessing a sufficiently supported complaint, subject to applicable legal procedures. We do not adjudicate ownership as a court would.

Jurisdiction-specific copyright procedures

Some jurisdictions and types of hosting have specific notice, court-order and restoration procedures. Those procedures apply only where their legal conditions are met; they do not create a universal deadline or automatic restoration right for every upload.

If a specialised statutory procedure applies, provide the information required by that procedure and identify the content precisely. The applicable requirements take priority over this general complaint guide. An ordinary report or appeal remains available without falsely declaring that a particular foreign procedure applies.

Operator and grievance contact

Yupzap is operated by Merdot Private Limited (Merdot Pvt Ltd). Correspondence address: 4-D, Vardan Tower, Near Sardar Patel Stadium, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India 380009.

Grievance Officer: Mr. Amit Sharma. Email: [email protected]. Contact this address for a grievance or to seek review of an unresolved concern. Keep passwords, sign-in codes and unnecessary sensitive information out of your message.