Copyright Policy

1. Our position on copyright

Ratecrest respects the intellectual property rights of others, and we expect everyone who uses the platform to do the same. The Nigerian Copyright Act, 2022 sets out the rights of authors and other rights holders, the duties of users, and the procedures for protecting those rights.

If you believe content on Ratecrest infringes your copyright, this page tells you exactly what to do. If you posted content that was removed for copyright and you believe the removal was wrong, this page also tells you what to do.

2. What counts as infringement

Copyright infringement on Ratecrest typically involves one of the following:

• Posting a photograph that you did not take, that you do not have permission to use, and that is not freely licensed.
• Posting text copied from another website, book, or other source without permission.
• Posting a video, audio recording, or other media you do not have rights to share.
• Reproducing trademarks, logos, or other protected branding in ways that go beyond fair dealing.
• Posting copyrighted material in a business profile, review, business reply, or any other public area of the platform.

The Nigerian Copyright Act recognises limited "fair dealing" use of copyrighted material, including for criticism, review, news reporting, and research. A short quotation that supports a review's point, with credit, is usually fair dealing. Reproducing an entire article, a substantial photograph collection, or significant portions of someone else's work usually is not.

3. Filing a copyright takedown notice

If you believe content on Ratecrest infringes your copyright, send us a notice through the contact form. Write "Copyright takedown" in the subject so it reaches the right team.

3.1 What your notice must include

For us to act, your notice should include all of the following.

• Your details. Full name, organisation if relevant, address, and a working contact method.
• The work being infringed. A clear description of the copyrighted work, with a link to where it lives if it is online, or other evidence that the work exists and is yours.
• The infringing content. The URL on Ratecrest where the content sits. Include enough detail that we can find it without guesswork.
• Your right to act. A statement confirming you are the rights holder or are authorised to act on the rights holder's behalf.
• A good faith statement. A statement that you believe in good faith that the use of the material is not authorised by the rights holder, an agent, or the law.
• An accuracy statement. A statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and that you understand that knowingly false statements may carry legal consequences under Nigerian law.
• Your signature. Electronic signatures are acceptable. Typing your full name in the notice counts.

3.2 What we do with it

Where the notice meets these requirements, we will usually remove or restrict access to the content quickly. We will tell the user who posted the content that the removal happened, give them a copy of the notice (with personal contact details redacted as appropriate), and let them know they can file a counter-notice.

Where the notice does not meet these requirements, we will tell you what is missing and ask you to resubmit.

3.3 When a notice is not enough

Some claims are not as straightforward as they look. We may decline to remove content where the notice is plainly incorrect, where the content is clearly fair dealing under the Copyright Act, where the rights claim is disputed by the rights holder of an underlying work, or where the right basis appears to be something other than copyright (trademark, privacy, or defamation, for example). Where the right basis is something else, we tell you which policy applies instead.

4. Filing a counter-notice

If your content was removed under a copyright notice and you believe the removal was wrong, you can file a counter-notice. The most common reasons to file a counter-notice are that you own the rights to the work, that you have permission to use it, that your use is fair dealing under the Copyright Act, or that the complainant has identified the wrong content.

4.1 What your counter-notice must include

• Your details. Full name, address, and a working contact method.
• The removed content. A description of the content that was removed and the URL where it used to live.
• The reason. A statement explaining why you believe the content was removed in error, with enough detail that we can assess it.
• A good faith statement. A statement that you believe in good faith that the content was removed as a result of a mistake or a misidentification.
• A jurisdiction statement. A statement that you accept the jurisdiction of the Nigerian courts in respect of the dispute, or, if you are outside Nigeria, of any other forum the law allows the rights holder to use.
• Your signature. Electronic signatures are acceptable.

4.2 What we do with it

Where the counter-notice meets these requirements, we will tell the original complainant. If they do not, within a reasonable period (we usually allow 10 to 14 business days), tell us that they have taken or are taking legal action to keep the content offline, we may restore the content. If they do take legal action, the content stays down while the matter is resolved.

5. False notices are taken seriously

Sending a knowingly false copyright takedown notice to silence honest criticism is not just dishonest. It can amount to a breach of these terms, a breach of the Copyright Act provisions on bad faith claims, and may give the wrongly affected party causes of action under Nigerian law, including under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018 where the conduct affects consumer rights.

We take false notices seriously. We may refuse to process future notices from a user or organisation that has filed multiple notices in bad faith. We may also share the notice with the affected user so they can pursue their own remedies.

6. Repeat infringers

An account that is found to have posted infringing content on multiple occasions is a repeat infringer. We have a clear policy for repeat infringers: they lose the ability to post on Ratecrest, and in serious cases the account is closed altogether.

The threshold is judgement, not a fixed count. Two notices about clearly different works, both clearly infringing, and both clearly the user's responsibility, will usually be enough. Multiple notices about a contested edge case may not. We err on the side of being patient with users who try to comply, and strict with users who do not.

7. Our own content

The Ratecrest platform itself is protected. The name, logo, design, code, database structure, and original written content (including the legal documents in this section) are protected under the Nigerian Copyright Act, 2022 and applicable international copyright law.

You may not copy, scrape, mirror, reverse-engineer, or repackage the platform without our written permission. You may link to any public page. You may quote short excerpts of public reviews for news commentary or research, with attribution. The wider rules sit in the Terms of Use.

If you believe Ratecrest itself has infringed your copyright, the same takedown procedure applies. Send the notice through the contact form and we will treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

8. Trademarks are a separate matter

Trademark concerns are not copyright concerns. If a review mentions your trademarked name to describe your business, that is normally allowed. If a third party is impersonating your business through a profile, using your logo to mislead consumers, or otherwise infringing your trademark rights under Nigerian law, that is something we will also act on, but the procedure is slightly different.

To raise a trademark concern, use the contact form with "Trademark concern" in the subject. Include the registered trademark details (or evidence of unregistered rights under Nigerian law), the URL of the offending content, and what you are asking us to do.

9. Defamation and privacy are also separate

A complaint that a review says something untrue about your business is a defamation concern, not a copyright concern. A complaint that someone has posted your personal data without consent is a privacy concern. Both have their own procedures.

• For defamation, see the Content Moderation Policy and the Review Policy.
• For privacy and personal data, see the Privacy Policy.

Filing a copyright notice to raise a defamation or privacy complaint is not effective. We will redirect the complaint to the right procedure, which takes longer than filing it correctly in the first place.

10. Timelines

Copyright takedown notices that are properly formed are usually processed within 5 to 7 business days. Urgent matters that involve large-scale or commercial infringement may be processed faster. Counter-notices are usually processed within the same window.

Where a matter is complex (multiple works, disputed authorship, claims that overlap with fair dealing), we take longer and tell you so.

11. Legal process and disclosure of user information

If a copyright dispute escalates to a Nigerian court, we respond to properly issued orders. That may include disclosing the registered details of the user who posted the affected content. We do not disclose user details to private complainants without a lawful basis, no matter how strongly worded the complaint.

Where we are legally permitted to do so, we tell the affected user about a disclosure request before we comply, so they have the chance to challenge it.

12. Changes to this policy

We update this policy as the platform and Nigerian copyright law evolve. Small clarifications happen without fuss. Material changes are highlighted on the site when you next visit. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page always reflects the current version.

13. How to contact us

The contact form is the right way to reach us about anything in this policy.

• For takedown notices, write "Copyright takedown" in the subject.
• For counter-notices, write "Copyright counter-notice" in the subject.
• For trademark concerns, write "Trademark concern" in the subject.
• For general copyright questions, write "Copyright question" in the subject.