Copyright and takedowns

1. Our position

CramShare hosts documents created by students. Uploading material you did not write — lecture slides, textbook chapters, solutions manuals, another student’s work — breaches our upload guidelines and is rejected in review where we detect it.

Review is not perfect. When something gets through, we want it reported and we act on valid reports quickly.

2. Who can file a notice

Anyone who owns the rights in the material, or is authorised to act for the owner. In practice most notices come from:

• Publishers, about textbook content.
• Universities and lecturers, about slides, handouts and exam papers.
• Students, about their own work uploaded by someone else.

3. What a valid notice must contain

The copyright report form asks for all of it in order, so nothing is missed. Incomplete notices delay the outcome because we have to come back to you. You do not need a CramShare account to file one.

• Identify the work. Title, author, edition or ISBN — enough for us to recognise it.
• Identify the listing. The full URL of each document, and the page numbers or sections at issue.
• Explain the infringement. What specifically has been copied, rather than a general assertion of similarity.
• Your details. Name, organisation and a reply address we can use.
• Two statements. That you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by the rights holder or the law, and that the information in the notice is accurate and you are authorised to act.

4. What happens next

• Within one working day we acknowledge the notice and, where it is clearly valid, remove or disable the listing immediately.
• We notify the seller with the substance of the notice, and tell them how to counter-notify.
• Within five working days we complete our assessment and tell you the outcome, including our reasoning if we decline to act.
• Repeat infringers lose selling privileges. Three upheld notices results in permanent removal from the seller programme.

5. If your document was removed

You will receive a notice naming the specific reason. If you believe removal was mistaken — for example the material is your own work, is properly licensed, or the use is covered by an exception such as quotation — you can counter-notify.

A counter-notice needs:

• The document URL and the removal reference we sent you.
• Why you believe the removal was wrong, with evidence where you have it — drafts, timestamps, a licence.
• A statement that you believe in good faith the material was removed in error.

Counter-notices are reviewed by someone other than the person who made the original decision. If we uphold it, the listing is restored and its sales history is preserved.

6. Abusive notices

Deliberately filing a false notice to remove a competitor’s legitimate work is treated as abuse of the process. We keep a record of notices and their outcomes, and we may decline to accept further notices from a party with a pattern of unfounded claims, as the Digital Services Act permits.

7. If someone uploaded your notes

This is the case we act on fastest. Use the report form and choose “a student, about my own work”. Give us the listing URL and any evidence the work is yours — the original file, its metadata, a draft with earlier timestamps, or an email where you shared it. We do not require a formal legal notice from students reporting their own work.