How to file, or respond to, a copyright complaint.
Last updated: 8 August 2026
Effective Date: 8 August 2026
Last Updated: 8 August 2026
This Policy expands on the "Copyright, Trademark, and Notice-and-Takedown" clause of the Terms and Conditions' User-Generated Content module (Clause 5), which already establishes the core notice-and-takedown process, the complaint contact (legal@onyatrips.com), our reliance on intermediary safe-harbor protections, and our repeat-infringer policy. This Policy does not change that framework; it sets it out in fuller, standalone detail, consistent with the broader ownership principles in the Intellectual Property Policy.
This Policy explains how Onyatrips handles copyright ownership questions and copyright-infringement complaints concerning content on the Platform — whether that content is a photo a User uploaded, a business's listing image, a review, or our own editorial content used without authorization elsewhere.
Copyright can protect, among other things: photographs and videos uploaded by Users or businesses; written content such as reviews, bios, and itineraries; and our own editorial text, illustrations, and design. It does not protect facts or ideas themselves (for example, the fact that a particular hotel exists at a particular address is not copyrightable, even though a specific description of it may be).
Onyatrips is an intermediary hosting User- and business-submitted content. We rely on the safe-harbor protections available to intermediaries under applicable law, including the Information Technology Act, 2000 and rules made thereunder, and, where relevant to content hosted or accessed in the United States, the notice-and-takedown provisions of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We are not the author or publisher of User or business content, and our removal of, or failure to remove, content in response to a complaint is without admission of liability.
If you believe content on Onyatrips infringes your copyright, send a written notice to legal@onyatrips.com, addressed to the Grievance Officer / designated agent for copyright complaints. We have not named an individual Grievance Officer; complaints are currently directed to and handled through the legal@onyatrips.com mailbox.
A valid complaint should include:
A notice missing required elements from Section 6 may not be actioned until the missing information is provided; we may contact you to request it.
We review each complaint for facial validity and completeness before acting. We do not currently commit to a specific response-time SLA for copyright complaints — this Policy does not promise a fixed number of business days. We aim to act promptly on valid, complete notices.
On a valid complaint, we may remove or disable access to the specific content identified, notify the affected User or business (see Section 10), and, for a repeat infringer, suspend or terminate the associated account consistent with Section 14. We may also decline to act where a complaint is facially deficient, appears abusive (see Section 13), or where we have a good-faith basis to believe the use is lawful (for example, a credible fair-use/fair-dealing claim apparent on the face of the content).
Where we act on a copyright complaint, we will generally notify the affected User or business that their content was removed and why, and will provide them an opportunity to submit a counter-notice as described in Section 11, except where doing so is not legally permitted or reasonably practicable in the circumstances.
A User or business whose content was removed may submit a counter-notice to legal@onyatrips.com including: identification of the removed content and its prior location; a statement under penalty of perjury or equivalent good-faith declaration that they have a good-faith belief the content was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification; their contact details; and their consent to the jurisdiction described in Section 18.
Where permitted by applicable law and following a valid counter-notice, and absent the original complainant pursuing further legal action (such as seeking a court order) within the period required by applicable law, we may restore the removed content.
Knowingly submitting a materially false copyright complaint, or using the copyright-complaint process in bad faith to suppress lawful content (for example, a business filing a false copyright claim to remove a genuine negative review, addressed further in the Review and Rating Policy), is itself a misuse of this process and may result in the complaint being disregarded, and, in serious or repeated cases, restriction of the complainant's ability to submit further notices, in addition to any liability the complainant may have to the affected User or under applicable law for a knowingly false statement.
Consistent with the Terms and Conditions, we may suspend or terminate the account of a User or business determined, based on valid complaints, to be a repeat copyright infringer. We do not currently publish a specific numeric threshold (e.g., "three strikes") for repeat-infringer termination; determinations are made based on the pattern and severity of confirmed infringement.
We may preserve records relating to a copyright complaint, the content at issue, and the accounts involved, and may disclose them in response to valid legal process, consistent with the Law Enforcement Request Policy and the Terms and Conditions' evidence-preservation provisions.
A trademark complaint (concerning unauthorized use of a brand name, logo, or mark, as opposed to a copyrighted creative work) is evaluated on different legal grounds — likelihood of confusion and brand rights, rather than copying of an expressive work — and should be directed to the same contact in Section 21 with a description of the mark, the registration (if any), and the allegedly infringing use. Business-listing-specific trademark issues (for example, brand impersonation in a listing) are additionally addressed in the Business Listing Policy.
Not every use of copyrighted material is infringing — fair use (in jurisdictions that recognize it) and fair dealing (as recognized under Indian copyright law and elsewhere) can permit limited use for purposes such as criticism, commentary, or review, subject to jurisdiction-specific tests. We evaluate a facially apparent fair-use/fair-dealing defense as part of our review under Section 8, but do not independently adjudicate a genuinely contested fair-use question — that determination is ultimately a matter for a court, and our action on a complaint pending or following such a claim does not constitute a legal determination of infringement or non-infringement.
Edge case — a User claiming a photo is public domain or Creative Commons-licensed: the User submitting content remains responsible for confirming the actual license terms apply to their specific use (for example, some Creative Commons licenses require attribution or prohibit commercial use, and a Platform license grant under Section 9 of the Intellectual Property Policy could constitute a commercial use); an unsupported claim of public-domain or open-license status does not by itself defeat a valid, well-supported complaint.
This Policy is designed primarily around Indian law (the Copyright Act, 1957, and the Information Technology Act, 2000 and rules thereunder) as our primary jurisdiction, while incorporating DMCA-style notice-and-counter-notice concepts as a widely recognized structural benchmark. Where a specific jurisdiction's copyright-procedure requirements differ from what is described here — for example, a complaint properly filed under the law of a jurisdiction other than India — that jurisdiction's applicable procedure controls to the extent legally required, and we will apply it accordingly.
Where a complaint concerns content causing ongoing, serious harm (for example, non-consensual intimate imagery also implicating copyright), we may expedite review and removal, consistent with our discretion under the Terms and Conditions and the safety-driven removal provisions of the Community Guidelines and Child Safety Policy where applicable.
We may update this Policy as our processes mature and applicable law evolves. Material changes will be reflected in an updated "Last Updated" date above.
We do not currently have a registered statutory copyright/DMCA agent or dedicated physical mailing address for notices. If Onyatrips registers a designated agent under an applicable statutory scheme in the future (for example, the US Copyright Office's DMCA agent registry, to the extent relevant to US-hosted or US-accessed content), that registration will be referenced here.
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