DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)

The DMCA is a U.S. federal statute that makes online intermediaries (hosts, search engines, ISPs) safe from copyright liability if they remove allegedly infringing content within ~10 business days of receiving a properly-formatted notice. The law has shaped how U.S.-located web infrastructure handles copyright complaints, but it also created an industrial-scale takedown ecosystem where automated bots fire notices at scale, often targeting content protected by fair use.

The DMCA only applies to U.S. persons and entities, or to infrastructure located in the U.S. Hosts located in jurisdictions like Iceland, Switzerland, or Panama are not subject to DMCA process. **SilentHosts does not process DMCA-format notices** — they are filed under the wrong jurisdiction and have no legal force against the operating entity. Substantive complaints under the law of the jurisdiction where the server is hosted are reviewed and may be acted upon.