Helmsay is a Windows desktop app for building VRChat and VTuber avatars from a description, photos, or video you have permission to use.
Contact support@helmsay.com.
Copyright/DMCA Policy
Version 2026-10-14
TODO: [COMPANY LEGAL NAME] and TODO: [COUNTY] will be filled in before this draft is final.
DRAFT - pending attorney review This policy matches the gallery process used by the Helmsay server. It is a draft for attorney review, including whether a formal DMCA agent registration is required before launch. "We" means [COMPANY LEGAL NAME]. Contact for copyright notices: [CONTACT EMAIL]. The company expects to be a Washington limited liability company, in [COUNTY], Washington. Helmsay is a Windows desktop app for building VRChat and VTuber avatars. The public contact address is support@helmsay.com. [COMPANY LEGAL NAME], [COUNTY], and [CONTACT EMAIL] in this draft are TODO placeholders. A reported gallery post is hidden immediately. The owner can send a counter-notice. Unless a reporter confirms a lawsuit, sends proof, or the report is upheld, the post is published again after the restore window. 1. Your promise You may post to the gallery only if you own the material or have the rights to post it. Checking "I own or have rights to anything I upload" at sign-up is that promise. Helmsay does not hash one avatar against another. Two similar previews can both remain. 2. Who can report Only a signed-in account with a confirmed email can file a report, and you cannot report your own post. Send the notice from the post's report form or by email to [CONTACT EMAIL] with the same facts. A notice must include: - your name, email, mailing address, and phone if you want to give one - a description of the copyrighted work - the gallery post you mean (the post id or the page URL) - this good-faith statement: "I have a good faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law." - this accuracy statement: "The information in this notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury I am the copyright owner or authorized to act for the owner." - optional proof of ownership (text) 3. What we do with a report The first report on a published post hides the post immediately and tells the owner. The message names the post id, not the claimant's email. The hold lasts 14 days by default (HELMSAY_GALLERY_RESTORE_DAYS, allowed range 1 to 90). A later report from a different account on that same post joins the hold. It does not move the restore time and does not start a second hold. The same account cannot have two open reports on one post. A removed post cannot be reported again. Claimant contact details are stored for the report and shown to admins. They are not shown on the public post and they are not written to the log. 4. Counter-notice The owner can file one counter-notice while the post is hidden and a report is still open or waiting on detail. The counter-notice asks for the owner's name, address, and consent to jurisdiction. The post stays hidden. Each reporter on that hold is told that a counter-notice was filed. 5. The 14-day restore The reporter can send a case reference (a confirmed lawsuit) or proof while the report is open, waiting on detail, or countered. Either one stops the automatic restore. The post stays hidden. If the restore time passes and no report on that hold is a confirmed lawsuit, proof, or an upheld report, the post is published again and the open reports on that hold expire. This is the 14-day restore. It runs when a gallery page or API route is read, and about once a minute from the server sweep. Running it again does not add another audit row. 6. Admin decisions An admin may ask the reporter for more detail, uphold a report, or reject it. Upholding a report removes the post. A later sweep does not publish it. Rejecting a report publishes the post again only when that hold has no report left open, waiting on detail, countered, confirmed as a lawsuit, or proven. 7. Limits Reports are limited to 5 per account per day and 20 per client address per hour. Sharing is limited to 30 posts per account per hour. Every state change is an audit row: time, actor id, action, post id, report id, from state, to state, and a short detail code. The detail is not the claimant's email, the proof text, or a session token. 8. Misuse A notice or a counter-notice sent in bad faith can itself be unlawful. We may close an account that files repeated bad-faith reports. Repeat counts are available to admins as account ids and counts, not as a public list of avatars. 9. Changes A new version of this policy must be accepted before you continue. The acceptance record stores the policy name, version, content hash, time, and client type (desktop or web).