Copyright Claims
This page explains how the books.dev catalogue is built, how to tell us that something on the service infringes your rights, and what happens next. The service is operated by NewGen Books LLC, a limited liability company of the State of Wyoming, United States, 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA. Claims go to copyright@books.dev.
1. Two kinds of material, and why the difference matters
1.1. There are two kinds of text on books.dev: material we publish ourselves — the public-domain catalogue and the AI adaptations made from it — and books a reader uploaded to their own account.
1.2. The safe harbour in 17 U.S.C. 512(c) covers material stored at the direction of a user. Here that means uploaded books, and only uploaded books. For those we act as a host: we did not choose the file and do not see it before it arrives, and a claim about one is resolved through sections 5 to 7.
1.3. For the catalogue and the adaptations, NewGen Books LLC is the publisher. We selected each title, checked it and put it up, and we do not rely on 512(c) for any of it. There is no user whose direction we could point to.
1.4. That is a strength rather than a problem: the catalogue is curated, not crowdsourced. Nothing reaches it automatically, which is why section 2 can set out the gate every book passes, and why most claims about catalogue material are answered by that gate rather than by a takedown. Either way you write to the same address.
2. How the catalogue is built
2.1. The catalogue consists only of works in the public domain. Books still in copyright are not in it, and we have no plans to add any.
2.2. Book files come from two open sources, Standard Ebooks and Project Gutenberg, and are added by hand. No automated import can pull in something unchecked.
2.3. Each book passes a two-part check before publication. The author of the original is assessed separately from the translator, and the rule applied to each is life plus 70 years. A work whose author is long out of copyright can still fail on the translator; then it is not published.
2.4. If the death year of the author or of the translator is unknown, the book counts as unverified and is not published. We do not publish on the assumption that a date is probably old enough.
2.5. We strip the packaging the sources add — the Project Gutenberg licence block and trademark, the Standard Ebooks colophon — and alter nothing in the work itself.
2.6. AI adaptations. A language model rewrites a full catalogue text to a chosen difficulty level, with no human proofreading. Each adaptation is a separate edition that ends with a notice saying a language model wrote it, crediting the author of the original as author of the original and naming NewGen Books LLC as publisher. Only works that passed 2.3 and 2.4 are adapted; the detail is on the /ai.
2.7. We do not claim copyright in the machine-generated text of an adaptation. What restricts redistribution of files obtained through the service is the contract — the /terms — and that stands whether or not copyright subsists in a particular adaptation.
2.8. Dictionary and reference data starts from external open sources, listed with attribution at /credits, and is supplemented by language models. If you believe we have failed an attribution condition, write to copyright@books.dev; that is handled here too.
3. Books readers upload
3.1. A reader can upload their own book files. An uploaded book is visible only to the account that uploaded it: uploads form no shared catalogue, and one reader's file is never served to another.
3.2. At upload the reader confirms that they hold a lawful copy and are making a personal version of it. That is a condition of the /terms, not a licence we grant.
3.3. This is the material 512(c) covers, and claims about it run through sections 5 to 7, counter-notice included.
4. Where to send a notice
4.1. Notices of claimed infringement reach us here:
- Organisation: NewGen Books LLC
- Address: 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA
- Email: copyright@books.dev
4.2. Notices sent through other channels — support tickets, social messages, comments — may not reach the right person in time. Use the email address or the postal address above.
5. How to file a notice
5.1. Send notices to copyright@books.dev. Postal notices go to the address in 4.1.
5.2. To be effective under 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3), a notice must contain all six elements:
- Identification of the work. Title and description of the copyrighted work you say has been infringed; where one notice covers several works on the same site, a representative list.
- Identification of the material and where it is. A direct link to the edition page on books.dev, plus the edition identifier if you know it. Without a location we cannot find it.
- Contact details. Your name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
- A good-faith statement. An express statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement of accuracy. That the information is accurate and that, under penalty of perjury, you are authorised to act for the owner of the right.
- A signature. Physical or electronic, of a person authorised to act for the owner.
5.3. We do not ignore an incomplete notice — if something is missing we reply and ask for it. But the period in section 6 runs from the moment a complete notice arrives.
5.4. Useful, though not required: what your right rests on — succession, assignment, registration — with whatever supports it. That matters most where a translation or a late edition is involved.
6. What we do next
6.1. We review the notice and, where it is well founded, withdraw the material from publication expeditiously — in practice within 10 business days of a complete notice, and sooner where the claim is clear.
6.2. Withdrawn from publication means the edition stops being served: it leaves the catalogue and the reader and is no longer downloadable. Readers who had it open lose access.
6.3. While we review we may restrict access to the disputed material. That is not an admission that the claim is right; it keeps possible harm from growing.
6.4. If the claim is about an AI adaptation, we check the original edition separately. The original comes down only if the claim reaches it too.
6.5. We answer you on the substance: what we did, or why we think the claim unfounded. We will not close a claim in silence.
6.6. If a reader uploaded the material, we email that reader: that it was withdrawn, on whose claim and on what basis, and that they may file a counter-notice. Your contact details go to them — the DMCA procedure requires it. If you would rather they did not, weigh that before you send.
7. Counter-notice
7.1. A reader whose uploaded material has been withdrawn may file a counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. 512(g) to copyright@books.dev. It exists for uploaded material; for what we publish ourselves there is nothing to counter-notify, and we answer as publisher under section 6.
7.2. A counter-notice must contain:
- the physical or electronic signature of the reader;
- identification of the withdrawn material and where it appeared before withdrawal;
- a statement under penalty of perjury of a good-faith belief that the material was withdrawn as a result of mistake or misidentification;
- the reader's name, postal address and telephone number;
- consent to the jurisdiction of the United States federal district court for that address, or, for a reader outside the United States, of any district where the service may be found, and consent to accept service of process from the person who sent the notice.
7.3. We forward the counter-notice to the person who filed the claim, and the timetable in 512(g)(2)(C) applies: unless they tell us within 10 business days that they have filed a court action seeking to restrain the reader from the activity, we restore the material not less than 10 and not more than 14 business days after we received the counter-notice.
7.4. A counter-notice is not a formality. A knowingly false statement in one carries the same consequence as a knowingly false notice — see section 9.
8. Repeat infringers
8.1. We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances, as 17 U.S.C. 512(i) requires. Our threshold is three confirmed claims against one account, and termination follows the suspension provisions of the /terms. It does not cancel the 14-day refund right (/refund).
8.2. A claim counts as confirmed when the material was withdrawn and not restored on a counter-notice. A claim we found unfounded does not count, and neither does one the claimant withdrew.
8.3. We keep a record of the claims we receive and the decisions we take: what arrived, when, what we did and why. It is what keeps 8.1 honest.
9. Knowingly false notices
9.1. Under 17 U.S.C. 512(f), a person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that it was withdrawn by mistake or misidentification, is liable for the damages resulting from our reliance on it, including costs and attorneys' fees.
9.2. This cuts both ways: notices and counter-notices alike. Where a party has been harmed by such a misrepresentation, we give them the relevant part of our record.
10. Rightsholders outside the United States
10.1. We accept claims from rightsholders in any country: same address, same timetable, same substantive review.
10.2. You do not have to invoke US law to be heard. If your right arises under the law of your own country rather than the United States Copyright Act, say so and name the basis; we deal with the claim on its merits rather than rejecting it for not being a DMCA notice. What we need is practical, not formal: what the work is, where the material sits on books.dev, who you are and how to reach you, and a statement that you are entitled to act for the rightsholder.
10.3. Such a notice does not start the 512(c) process or the section 7 timetable. It produces a reasoned decision from us.
10.4. Personal data runs on a separate route and is not a channel for copyright notices: see the /privacy, or write to privacy@books.dev. If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, that is your address too, and you keep the right to complain to the supervisory authority of your own country.
10.5. The governing law of this document is that of the State of Wyoming, United States. Consumers in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom keep the mandatory rights of their own country and may sue where they live. Nothing here limits that.
11. Contacts
- Copyright claims: copyright@books.dev
- Legal matters: legal@books.dev
- Personal data: privacy@books.dev
- Support: support@books.dev
- Legal notices by post: the address in 4.1
Effective 17 October 2026