> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://earthlinc.gitbook.io/protocol/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://earthlinc.gitbook.io/protocol/legal-and-policies/ip-and-dmca-policy.md). # IP & DMCA Policy *Version 1.0 · Effective July 4, 2026 · `earthlinc.earth`* This Policy explains who owns what on the Earth LinC Service — your content, AI-composed pages, NaviStars, and the Service itself — and how copyright complaints are handled. It is part of the Terms of Service. The Service is operated by **Kong Group** ("**we**," "**us**"). Capitalized terms follow the Terms of Service and the Earth LinC Protocol Specification. *** ## 1. Your authored content is yours You retain all rights you hold in the expression you author and supply — the words, images, and other material you bring to a Station or attach to a Cast. We do not take ownership of it. By using the Service you grant us a **worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license** to host, store, reproduce, adapt (only as needed for display and formatting), publish, and display your content — solely to operate, provide, and improve the Service: serving your Station's living page, delivering Broadcasts, rendering the page a NaviStar points to, and showing your content to the recipients you choose. This license lasts as long as your content is on the Service, plus the period needed for backups and legal compliance. It ends when you delete the content, except that (a) pages already pointed to by minted NaviStars may continue to be served to their holders, and (b) on-chain records are permanent and outside anyone's power to delete. **You are responsible for having the rights to what you upload.** Do not compose with content you do not own or have permission to use. ## 2. AI-composed pages NaviCanvas composes a living page **from your authored expression**. As between you and us, the composed page is treated as **your content** — your input, your direction, your page — and is covered by the same license in §1. Two honest notes: * The **degree of copyright protection in AI-assisted output varies by jurisdiction** and is an evolving area of law; we make no warranty about the protectability of a composed page. * Composition is built from your authored input. The protocol's integrity boundary means AI never generates the verified-fact layer — so the facts in a NaviStar are not "AI content" at all; they are verified records. ## 3. What the on-chain assets are, in IP terms The minted station and the NaviStar are on-chain assets; the NaviStar is an on-chain token. Holding it makes the token **sovereignly yours** — but the token and the copyright in the page it points to are **two different things**: * **The token** — yours, fully transferable, permanent. * **The page it points to** — authored content, owned per §1, licensed to be displayed to the holder. * **The verified-fact layer** — facts are not owned by anyone; the record of them is permanent and public. Transferring a NaviStar transfers the token (and with it, the right to view and keep the page as part of the Service), not the underlying copyright in the authored content. ## 4. What is ours The Service itself — its software, design, interfaces, text we wrote, and the marks **Earth LinC**, **Navi**, **NaviCanvas**, **NaviStar**, **Naviscape**, and associated logos — is owned by us or our licensors. The Terms of Service grant you a limited license to use the Service; nothing grants you rights to use our marks without written permission, except fair, accurate references (for example, "kept as a NaviStar on Earth LinC"). The **protocol** — its open standard, objects, and on-chain substrate — is open by design; building on it does not require our permission (Protocol Specification). The Service is one implementation; this section covers the implementation, not the protocol. ## 5. Feedback If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them without restriction or obligation — it helps us say yes to feedback without a negotiation each time. ## 6. Copyright complaints (DMCA) We respect copyright and follow the **Digital Millennium Copyright Act** (17 U.S.C. §512). If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent: > **DMCA Agent — Kong Group** Email: **** (subject line: "DMCA Notice") Kong Group LLC, 4 Pheasant Run, Holmdel, NJ 07733, United States U.S. Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Registration No. **DMCA-1074810** Your notice must include: (1) identification of the copyrighted work; (2) identification and location (URL) of the allegedly infringing material; (3) your contact information; (4) a statement of good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law; (5) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner; and (6) your physical or electronic signature. **What we do:** on a valid notice, we remove or disable access to the off-chain material (the hosted page or media) promptly and notify the user who posted it. **What we cannot do:** edit or delete on-chain records — the token and verified-fact layer are permanent; takedown applies to the authored page we serve. ## 7. Counter-notice If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notice with: (1) identification of the removed material and where it appeared; (2) a statement under penalty of perjury of good-faith belief the removal was a mistake; (3) your name, address, phone; (4) consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your district (or, if outside the U.S., for the district of our agent); and (5) your signature. If the complainant does not file a court action within **10–14 business days**, we may restore the material. ## 8. Repeat infringers Accounts that repeatedly infringe are terminated, consistent with the DMCA's repeat-infringer policy. Termination does not move or confiscate sovereign on-chain assets (Terms of Service §14). ## 9. Other IP complaints For trademark, privacy, or publicity-rights complaints, write to **** with the same identifying detail as §6, and we will review under the Acceptable Use & Content Policy. ## 10. Changes We may update this Policy; material changes are announced as described in the Terms of Service. *** *Part of the Earth LinC legal set: Terms of Service · Privacy Policy · Donation Terms & Charitable Disclosures · Digital Asset / NaviStar Terms · Acceptable Use & Content Policy · Payment & Refund Policy.* --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://earthlinc.gitbook.io/protocol/legal-and-policies/ip-and-dmca-policy.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.