Copyright Policy

Last updated: October 23, 2026

WhereWe respects the work of photographers, writers, and creators, and expects everyone who uses WhereWe to do the same. Public maps, profiles, notes, and photos on WhereWe are posted by the people who use it, and our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines forbid posting content that isn’t yours to share. This page explains how to tell us about content that infringes your copyright, and what happens next. It follows the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

1. Where to send notices

Send copyright notices and counter-notices to WhereWe’s designated agent, registered with the US Copyright Office (registration number DMCA-1083907):

Email is the fastest way to reach us: put “Copyright notice” (or “Counter-notice”) in the subject. We read every notice. Please use this subject line for copyright notices and counter-notices only; for anything else, use the contacts in the Community Guidelines.

2. Sending a notice

Your notice must be in writing and include all of the following:

1. Your physical or electronic signature (typing your full name works by email), as the copyright owner or someone authorized to act for them.
2. The work you say is infringed, such as a photo or a written guide, with a link to it or a copy of it if you can.
3. The content on WhereWe you say infringes it, and where we can find it: the link to the map or profile on wherewe.net (for example wherewe.net/@username/map-name), or the map’s title and the creator’s @username in the app, and which place, note, or photo.
4. Your name, postal address, phone number, and email address.
5. A statement that you believe in good faith that the use isn’t authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act for them.

We may not be able to act on a notice that’s missing any of these. Before you send one, consider whether the use might be allowed, for example as fair use: under the DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512(f)), someone who knowingly misrepresents that content infringes can be liable for damages. We may send a copy of your notice, including your name and contact details, to the person who posted the content, so they can respond.

3. What we do

• When we receive a complete notice, we promptly make the content unavailable, usually by taking down the public map or profile it’s on until the infringing photo, note, or place is gone.
• We tell the person who posted it, in the app, what was removed and why, and how to send a counter-notice.
• If the map was for sale, it’s taken off sale while the notice is resolved, and the Creator Terms say what happens to what it earned.
• Private maps aren’t public on WhereWe, so they rarely come up. If a notice is about one, we act on it the same way where the law requires it.

4. Sending a counter-notice

If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, or that the content was misidentified, you can send a counter-notice to the address above. It must be in writing and include:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. What was removed, and where it appeared before it was removed (the link, or the map’s title and your @username).
3. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you believe in good faith the content was removed as a result of a mistake or misidentification.
4. Your name, postal address, and phone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district where your address is (or, if your address is outside the United States, any judicial district in which WhereWe may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice, or their agent.

We send a copy of a complete counter-notice to the person who sent the original notice. Unless they tell us within 10 business days that they have filed a court action to stop the infringement, we may put the content back 10 to 14 business days after we received the counter-notice. Under the DMCA, someone who knowingly misrepresents that content was removed by mistake can be liable for damages.

5. Repeat infringers

We close the accounts of people who infringe copyright again and again. Each complete notice we act on counts against the account that posted the content, unless a counter-notice restores it. An account with three such notices within 12 months is banned, as the Community Guidelines describe, and we may close an account sooner when the infringement is deliberate or large, such as selling a map copied from someone else’s guide.

6. Outside the United States, and other complaints

• If you’re outside the United States, you can use the same process: send us the same information, and we’ll act on it under the law that applies to you.
• For a trademark complaint (for example, a username or map that pretends to be your brand), a privacy complaint, or anything else that isn’t about copyright, email support@wherewe.net or use Report in the app, as the Community Guidelines explain.
• If someone copied your map or your notes on WhereWe, you can also report the copy in the app with links to your original and to the copy.

This page explains our process; it isn’t legal advice. If you’re not sure whether content infringes your rights, ask a lawyer.