DMCA Policy

1. Designated Agent

Our designated agent for receipt of DMCA notifications is reachable by email at info@assessorpropertysearch.org. Please use the subject line “DMCA notice” for takedown requests and “DMCA counter-notice” for counter-notifications. We process all notices submitted in good faith and that include the six statutory elements set out below.

2. Filing a DMCA Notice

If you believe content on assessorpropertysearch.org/ infringes a copyright you own or are authorised to enforce, send a written notice to the designated agent. The notice should be sent in plain text or PDF and include all six statutory elements.

3. Six Required Elements (17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3))

1. Physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner, or a person authorised to act on the owner’s behalf.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed — a specific work, or, if multiple works at the site are covered, a representative list.
3. Identification of the allegedly infringing material — sufficient to permit us to locate it (full URLs to the specific guide or guides on assessorpropertysearch.org/, not the homepage).
4. Reasonably sufficient contact information — your name, address, telephone number, and email.
5. A good-faith statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. An accuracy statement under penalty of perjury — that the information in the notification is accurate, and (under penalty of perjury) that you are authorised to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

4. Counter-Notice (17 U.S.C. § 512(g))

If your content was removed in response to a DMCA notice and you believe the removal was based on mistake or misidentification, you may file a counter-notice. A counter-notice must include:

• Your physical or electronic signature
• Identification of the material that was removed and the location at which it appeared before removal
• A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification
• Your name, address, and telephone number
• A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, if outside the U.S., for any judicial district in which assessorpropertysearch.org/ may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted the original notice

If we receive a valid counter-notice, we will forward it to the original complainant. If the original complainant does not file a court action seeking a restraining order against the user within 10–14 business days of receipt of the counter-notice, we may restore the removed material.

5. Repeat-Infringer Policy (17 U.S.C. § 512(i))

assessorpropertysearch.org/ maintains a policy, in compliance with Section 512(i), of terminating in appropriate circumstances the access of users (including contributors and commenters) who are repeat infringers of copyright.

6. Misrepresentation Liability (17 U.S.C. § 512(f))

7. Fair Use & Educational Property-Records Content (17 U.S.C. § 107)

Section 107 of the Copyright Act establishes the fair-use defence. The four statutory factors are: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether it is for nonprofit educational purposes or transformative; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

8. Federal and State Government Works

Federal government works are generally not subject to copyright (17 U.S.C. § 105) — including most Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), General Services Administration (GSA), and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) publications relevant to property matters. Many state government works are similarly available for non-commercial reuse with attribution under each state’s open-records or transparency framework, though the rules vary state by state. We comply with each state’s stated reuse policy and link to the original published page rather than reproducing it. County assessor publications follow each county’s own framework, supervised by the relevant state oversight body.

9. Trademark — Nominative Fair Use

We use the names of state property-tax oversight bodies and county assessor offices — for example, “California State Board of Equalization (BOE),” “Florida Department of Revenue Property Tax Oversight,” “Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Property Tax Assistance Division,” “New York State Department of Taxation and Finance Office of Real Property Tax Services (ORPTS),” “Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT),” “Pennsylvania State Tax Equalization Board (STEB),” “Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Division of Property Assessments,” “Louisiana Tax Commission,” “Missouri State Tax Commission,” “Idaho State Tax Commission,” “Indiana Department of Local Government Finance,” “Kansas Department of Revenue Property Valuation Division,” “Maine Revenue Services Property Tax Division,” “Massachusetts Department of Revenue Division of Local Services,” “Michigan Department of Treasury State Tax Commission,” “Minnesota Department of Revenue Property Tax Division,” “Nebraska Department of Revenue Property Assessment Division,” “New Jersey Division of Taxation Property Administration,” “New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Property Tax Division,” “North Carolina Department of Revenue Property Tax Division,” “Oregon Department of Revenue Property Tax Division,” “Vermont Department of Taxes Division of Property Valuation and Review,” “Washington Department of Revenue Property Tax Division,” “Wisconsin Department of Revenue Bureau of Assessment Practices,” and many others — to identify the office our guide covers. We similarly use county-level office names (for example, “Los Angeles County Assessor,” “Cook County Assessor’s Office,” “Harris County Appraisal District,” “Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser”) in the same way.

This is nominative fair use. Under the Ninth Circuit’s framework in New Kids on the Block v. News America Publishing, Inc., 971 F.2d 302 (9th Cir. 1992) and subsequent case law, nominative use is permitted where (a) the product or service in question is not readily identifiable without use of the trademark, (b) only so much of the mark is used as is reasonably necessary, and (c) the user does nothing that would suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the mark holder. We meet all three requirements.

We also reference professional standards bodies — the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO), the Appraisal Foundation (administering USPAP), the Appraisal Subcommittee, and the National Association of Counties (NACo) — nominatively to identify the standards or organisations referenced. The same fair-use framework applies.

If you are the mark holder for a referenced office or organisation and you believe our use exceeds nominative fair use, email us with subject line “Trademark concern” — we respond within 5 business days. We will not entertain trademark objections that are functionally objections to accurate identification of the office our editorial content describes.

10. Defamation Framework

Defamation requires a false statement of fact published with the relevant degree of fault. Our content is editorial reporting on county assessor procedures — exemption procedures, appeal frameworks, portal walkthroughs, and procedural descriptions. We rarely have occasion to publish defamation-relevant content; when we do reference county officials, state oversight body officials, or assessment-related conduct, we attribute statements to the official record and we correct factual errors when shown they are factual errors.

For matters of public concern, the U.S. Supreme Court’s framework in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) requires public officials to prove “actual malice” (knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth). County assessors, senior officials at state property-tax oversight bodies, and assessment-related public officials acting in their official capacity are typically public officials or public figures for Sullivan purposes when commentary concerns institutional conduct. For private figures involved in matters of public concern, Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (1974) and its progeny require at least a showing of fault.

We report on assessment practice. We attribute. We correct factual errors. We do not retract accurate content in response to objections from people who don’t like that the content is accurate. If you believe a statement on the site is factually incorrect, email us with subject line “Defamation concern” or “Correction” — provide the page URL, the specific statement, and the source you believe shows it is incorrect. We respond within 7 business days.

11. What We Can’t Help With

• We can’t remove property records from a county assessor’s published portal — we describe how to find what the county publishes; the county is the authority
• We can’t remove accurate content drawn from public county and state agency pages
• We can’t remove information about you from any county property database — that’s the county’s record; you must contact the county directly, and many states protect specific records (judges, law enforcement, domestic violence survivors) under state confidentiality laws
• We can’t represent you in litigation against any third party — consult a lawyer
• We can’t process exemption applications or appeal filings on your behalf
• We can’t remove your search history from search engines — that’s between you and the search engine

12. Contact

For DMCA notices: info@assessorpropertysearch.org with subject line “DMCA notice”.
For counter-notices: subject line “DMCA counter-notice”.
For trademark concerns: subject line “Trademark concern”.
For defamation concerns: subject line “Defamation concern” or “Correction”.