DMCA & Copyright Policy

If you believe your copyrighted work has been uploaded to Droploud without your authorisation, you may submit a written notice to our Designated Copyright Agent. A valid notice must include all of:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorised to act on the owner's behalf.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed (or, if multiple works, a representative list).
3. Identification of the infringing material: the full Droploud URL of the track, gate, profile or Shop listing, plus any other information reasonably sufficient for us to locate it.
4. Your contact information: name, mailing address, telephone number, email.
5. A good-faith statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
6. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner.

Send to: dmca@droploud.com with subject line "DMCA Takedown Notice".

EU residents may also notify Droploud of allegedly illegal content under Art. 16 of the EU Digital Services Act and the EU Copyright Directive 2019/790. The same dmca@droploud.com channel applies. Use subject line "EU Copyright Infringement Claim". Include the same information as a US DMCA notice (§1 above).

Per Art. 17 DSA, Droploud will provide a statement of reasons for any removal or restriction we apply, including the legal basis and the counter-notice route. EU users may also access alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms provided by their member state.

Droploud's operator is a UAE (RAKEZ) entity, so UAE copyright law applies to the platform alongside the US and EU frameworks above.

The UAE law. Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021 on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights protects musical works, sound recordings and performances automatically on creation. Registration with the UAE Ministry of Economy is not required to enforce (it only eases proof of ownership). Making a protected work available to the public over computer, online or information networks without the rights holder's written permission is an infringement (Art. 39) and can carry criminal penalties (imprisonment and fines from AED 10,000) in addition to civil liability. Authors also hold perpetual, non-waivable moral rights (Art. 5): attribution and the integrity of the work, which uploaders and Droploud must not violate.

No automatic UAE "safe harbour." Unlike the US DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512) and the EU framework, UAE law does not contain an express statutory safe harbour that immunises a hosting platform simply because it removes content on notice. Droploud nonetheless operates the notice-and-takedown process in this Policy as a good-faith, defensive measure, and relies on the uploader rights warranty (Terms §5.4 / Creator Agreement) and the Terms indemnity. The US-DMCA and EU-DSA processes remain available and govern US- and EU-facing exposure.

UAE rights holders. A rights holder may (a) use the notice-and-takedown channel in this Policy, and/or (b) pursue statutory remedies directly: a petition to the competent UAE court for provisional measures to stop the infringing publication and seize infringing copies (Art. 35), a complaint to the UAE Ministry of Economy, and the Ministry's Grievances Committee (Art. 37). To use our channel, email dmca@droploud.com with subject line "UAE Copyright Claim" and include the same information as a US DMCA notice (§1).

Lawyer review: the UAE intermediary-liability position, the absence of a formal UAE safe harbour, and the Decree-Law 38/2021 article numbers cited above must be confirmed against the official text by UAE counsel.

We review valid notices and act expeditiously. Our target response window is 72 hours.

On a valid notice we disable access to or remove the identified material (soft-delete: status='removed').

We notify the uploading user, provide the substance of the notice and record a copyright strike against the account (see §5).

For repeat or egregious cases we may suspend or terminate the account immediately, without waiting for three strikes.

The Service is provided without prejudice to any other right Droploud may have under applicable law to remove or disable any content for any reason.

If you believe your material was removed by mistake or misidentification you may send a counter-notice to dmca@droploud.com (subject line "Counter-Notification") containing:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the removed material and the URL it appeared at before removal.
3. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
4. Your name, address and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the US Federal District Court for the district in which your address is located (if in the US), or any judicial district in which Droploud may be found (if outside the US), and that you will accept service of process from the complainant or their agent.

On a valid counter-notice we forward it to the original complainant. If the complainant does not file a court action seeking an order against you within 10–14 business days, we may restore the material. You may not re-upload content that has been removed pursuant to a valid notice until the dispute is resolved.

Droploud maintains and enforces a repeat-infringer policy as required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(i)(1)(A) (and informed by BMG v. Cox, 4th Cir. 2018). The policy must be (a) adopted in writing, (b) communicated to users, and (c) actually enforced. The public-facing summary below is mirrored by an internal log.

1. Strike 1. First valid takedown against the account. Content removed. Warning email. Strike recorded with timestamp and notice reference.
2. Strike 2. Second valid takedown. Content removed. Final-warning email. Upload privileges suspended 30 days.
3. Strike 3. Third valid takedown. Account terminated. All uploads removed. Shop payouts tied to infringing items withheld pending resolution. Permanent ban on re-registration.

A strike is recorded only for a valid notice (one that meets §1 above) that the user does not successfully counter-notice. A successful counter-notice with no follow-on court action clears the associated strike.

Droploud reserves the right to terminate an account immediately, without three strikes, for blatant or large-scale infringement (e.g. a sample pack built from a commercial release, or a track uploaded as a stem of a copyrighted master).

Strikes do not expire automatically. Droploud may, at its discretion, clear a single strike after 12 months of clean standing. Strikes are recorded in an internal strike log maintained by Droploud, including user, content reference, notice reference, timestamp and status. Strike counts are reviewed as part of the takedown workflow and acted on per the ladder above.

Droploud's gate pages embed the SoundCloud player widget. The streamable preview is delivered by SoundCloud under its own licence; Droploud does not take a separate public-performance or mechanical licence for the embed. Uploading artists are responsible for the rights they grant in their SoundCloud upload (see Creator Agreement §5.4 rights warranty).

All DMCA takedown notices, counter-notifications and EU copyright claims should be sent to:

Include in the subject line: "DMCA Notice" (US takedown), "Counter-Notification", "EU Copyright Infringement Claim", or "UAE Copyright Claim" (Decree-Law 38/2021).

If a complainant repeatedly files notices that are invalid, vague or withdrawn after counter-notice, Droploud may stop processing further notices from that complainant or require additional verification.

The dmca@droploud.com channel may also be used for non-copyright illegal-content notifications under DSA Art. 16 (for example incitement, defamation, doxing). Include a clear statement of reasons under §1 of the DSA notice template.

We may update this Policy. Material changes will be posted at least 30 days before they take effect, except where a shorter notice period is required by law or operational necessity.

Droploud FZ-LLC · RAKEZ · United Arab Emirates · policy v2.0 · last updated 28 May 2026.