Removing content from Derpibooru

Takedown Policy

Our takedown policy is straightforward. Our goals are to:

• Provide an environment where artists retain control of their works
• Remain in compliance with international copyright law
• Avoid needless removal of content from the site
• Prevent trolls or other nasty people from removing site content

All site administration staff are involved in processing reports, including takedown requests. We aim to resolve all reports where the claimant is responsive within several hours of a request; on average, it takes us around 3 hours to resolve a report.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to report images

To report an image, go to the image page, and underneath the image itself you will find the 'Image options' section. There is a 'report image' link which will ask you to provide a reason for your report. Provide information for the administration team here and submit the form.

Why did my stuff get here in the first place?

Content is uploaded to Derpibooru by users of the site to share artwork they have discovered with the community. Broadly speaking, someone uploaded your artwork because they thought it was worth sharing!

Uploading content to the site doesn't imply ownership or creation of an artwork; artists are credited in tags and attribution is given in the source URL shown alongside the image. The upload credit is shown purely for search, filtering and moderation purposes.

How do I stop people uploading my art in future?

If you're finding your artwork being posted here and do not want it to be posted to the site, yet find people still appear to feel entitled to do so, check which license you have licensed your artwork under, particularly on sites like deviantART. If your license explicitly permits reuse and redistribution, you are likely to find people sharing it - as the license makes it clear they are allowed to.

In these cases, switching to a more restrictive license may be the best way of stopping your content being shared on the site and others like it. We do have a do-not-post list, which is a last resort for artists who do not wish their content to be shared on the site; you can view the list and request to be added here.

Uploaders' rights

As the uploader of an image, you may request the image be removed; we review these cases individually, but do not guarantee that we will remove the image. If an artist has requested that you ask the image be removed, please provide their contact details so that we can verify this.

Commissioners' rights

We often receive takedown requests from the commissioners of artworks. In general, we cannot remove an artwork at the commissioners' request. The artist that was commissioned retains the copyright to an artwork, and so must be the one making a copyright based takedown request.

If you agreed to transfer copyright when commissioning the artwork (which must take the form of a written agreement), you may provide us with evidence of this; we will need to contact the artist and yourself to verify that copyright was indeed transferred.

Original characters

Characters and character designs are not themselves subject to copyright, but instead could fall under trademark law as a protected mark if they are registered and used. This is not the case with any non-commercial characters, and so neither trademark nor copyright law lends protection to creators of "original characters" and their designs.

This is distinct, of course, from artworks such as reference drawings and other original artworks, which are covered by copyright if they were created by the original characters' creator - that is, artworks by other artists featuring an original character do not fall under or violate the original artists' copyright.

Derivative works (that is, works that are non-transformative in a copyright sense) are of course still protected under copyright law; in this case an original characters' creator may file a takedown request. For instance, original artworks that feature an original character are generally transformative and so stand alone; very basic edits, on the other hand, are generally derivative.

Livestreams

Livestreams are not served or stored on Derpibooru; we only link to streams and embed a player in our website for those who wish to remain on Derpibooru while watching a stream. Our livestream pages encourage users to click through to the stream pages.

Artists who do not want for their stream to be shared via Derpibooru can make a takedown request in a similar manner to images (by reporting the stream page).

Links to pirated content

We will proactively remove links to pirated or leaked commercial material, and encourage users to report such links to an administrator. If you are aware of such a link that is linking to your content, you should request a takedown of the link in the usual fashion. Generally, identity verification is not required in these cases.

DMCA Notices

Please report all images you believe violate your copyright; each case will be reviewed individually. We are typically quite prompt in responding to official copyright/DMCA takedown notices and will require official confirmation of identity of the claimant. This may be done via email to ops@derpibooru.org from an official/organization email address. Emails to this address regarding takedowns will otherwise be ignored.

We strongly recommend you pursue our usual takedown process through the site before resorting to legal means; we have never had a DMCA notice that couldn't have been resolved much more readily through the takedown process (without making lawyers any richer).