Bandcamp's Acceptable Use and Moderation policy

What is an Acceptable Use and Moderation policy?

This policy sets out the “Content Standards” that apply when you upload content to our site, make contact with other users on our site, link to our site, or interact with our site in any other way. It also sets out the circumstances in which we may remove or disable the content you upload, and your rights in the event that happens and you disagree with our actions. This policy is incorporated within our User Terms and should be read alongside our User Terms.

Prohibited uses

You may not use our site:

• If you are under 18.
• In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation.
• In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
• For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.
• To bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate any person.
• To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our Content Standards.  
• To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).
• To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware, or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.
• In any way that involves child sexual exploitation or abuse.
• In any way that involves exploitation of people in a violent or sexual manner.
• In any commercial activities such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes, without Bandcamp’s prior written consent.
• To upload terrorist content.

You also agree:

• Not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of the provisions of our User Terms;
• Not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
  • any part of our site;
  • any equipment or network on which our site is stored;
  • any software used in the provision of our site; or
  • any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.
• Not to scrape any text, media, or other data or content from the site, including through the use of scripts, robots, bots, spiders, scrapers, crawlers, or other automated means;
• Not to undertake any form of text and/or data mining of content, including where collected through the use of robots or other automated data gathering and/or extraction tools;
• Not to train any machine learning or AI model using content on our site or otherwise ingest any data or content from Bandcamp’s platform into a machine learning or AI model;  
• Not to create, develop, use, or offer any Unauthorised AI Tools.  ‘Unauthorised AI Tools’ means any artificial intelligence technology or services that uses, or is informed by, trained on, or developed using copyrighted works, names, likenesses, trademarks, or voices without authorization from the person(s) who own or control such copyrights or other rights. An Unauthorised AI Tool shall be deemed to include any service, product, or technology (including, without limitation, artificial intelligence technology) that uses, is informed by, or is dependent upon an Unauthorised AI Tool; or
• Not to create fingerprints or any other identifying digital files of content on our site or to exploit such fingerprints and other identifying digital files of that content.

Content Standards

These Content Standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our site (Content). 

The Content Standards must be complied with in spirit as well as to the letter. The standards apply to each part of any Content as well as to its whole.

Bandcamp will determine, in its discretion, whether any Content breaches the Content Standards.

All Content:

• Must be accurate (where it states facts).
• Must only contain opinions that are genuinely held.
• Must comply with the law applicable in any country from which it is posted and to which the website is targeted.
• If relating to content or products that you are selling, relate to content or genuine, non-counterfeit products that relate to music and which we think people would expect to see on our Site.

No Content can:

• Be defamatory of any person.
• Be obscene, offensive, hateful, or inflammatory.
• Bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate.
• Encourage, promote, or provide instructions for deliberate self-harm.
• Encourage, promote, or provide instructions for suicide.
• Encourage, promote, or provide instructions for an eating disorder or behaviors associated with an eating disorder.
• Promote sexually explicit material.
• Involve the exploitation of people in a violent or sexual manner.
• Include child sexual abuse material.
• Incite violence or hatred against particular groups.
• Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
• Include content that would be considered a criminal offense under laws relating to terrorism, child sexual abuse material, racism, or xenophobia.
• Infringe any copyright, database right, or trademark of any other person.
• Be likely to deceive any person.
• Breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
• Contain illegal content or promote any illegal content or activity.
• Be in contempt of court.
• Be threatening, abuse, or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety.
• Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm, or annoy any other person.
• Impersonate any person or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.
• Give the impression that the Content emanates from Bandcamp.
• Advocate, promote, incite any party to commit, or assist any unlawful or criminal act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
• Contain a statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, that members of the public to whom the statement is, or is to be, published are likely to understand as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
• Contain any advertising

For the avoidance of doubt, for any Content in the form of video content:

• You must tell us immediately if you upload a video containing any of the following: criminal material (relating to terrorism, sexual exploitation of children, child pornography, racism, and xenophobia).
• You must not upload a video containing harmful material.
• You must not upload a video containing any advertising. 

Actions we can take to ensure our website is safe for all users:

When we consider that a breach of this Acceptable Use Policy has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.  

We respect freedom of expression, but we also need to ensure that our website is a safe place for all users. All decisions will be made with these principles in mind. We do not use algorithmic tools in making these decisions. All such decisions are made by a team of humans.   

Failure to comply with this Acceptable Use Policy constitutes a material breach of our User Terms upon which you are permitted to use our site and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

• Immediate, temporary, or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site.
• Immediate, temporary, or permanent removal of any Content uploaded by you to our site.
• Issue of a warning to you.
• Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.
• Further legal action against you.
• Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary or as required by law.

If we decide to remove/disable your Content or disable your Bandcamp account, we will provide you with a Statement of Reasons which will explain on what basis we have decided to take that action.  Equally, if we decide not to remove/disable Content despite having received a complaint, we will provide to any affected user (the reporter), a Statement of Reasons to explain on what basis we have decided to take that action.

If we decide that it is appropriate to suspend or prohibit your access to the Site because (a) you are frequently providing what we consider to be manifestly illegal Content, or (b) you are submitting manifestly unfounded takedown notices or complaints, we may restrict your access to the Site as we consider appropriate. 

The actions we may take are not limited to those described above, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate to protect the other users of the Site and that comply with the law.  To the extent that we can, we exclude our liability for all action we may take in response to breaches of this Acceptable Use Policy.

Actions you can take:

• If you identify any Content that you think contravenes this Acceptable Use Policy, you can submit a “Take Down Request” through our website by selecting “report” on the posters page or contacting [e-mail]. Any report must provide the URL of the offending materials and which policy you believe it violates. A team of humans will review your Take Down Request (no decisions like this are automated), and we will remove the Content if we agree that it is in breach of our Acceptable Use Policy or is in any way unlawful. We will then send to you and anyone else affected by the Take Down Request a Statement of Reasons which will explain why we have made the decision we have made.
• If we have removed or disabled your Content or we have suspended or prohibited your account and you do not think that was the right decision, or you submitted a Take Down Request, and we decided that the content is not in breach of our Acceptable Use Policy, and if you are an EU citizen, within 6 months of our decision, you can email us at [e-mail] and explain why you think that we are wrong. Your email will then be reviewed by a member of our legal team, and they will aim to reply to you as soon as possible, but in any event, within 8 weeks. They may agree with you and reinstate/remove the Content, or if they think that the Content is still in breach of our Acceptable Use Policy or is otherwise unlawful, they may explain that our decision remains in place.
• If you still do not agree with our decision, and if you are an EU citizen, you may email us at [e-mail] for attention of senior management. A member of our senior management team will review the decision, and they will aim to reply to you as soon as possible, but in any event, within 8 weeks. They may agree with you and reinstate/remove the Content, or if they think that the Content is still in breach of our Acceptable Use Policy or is otherwise unlawful, they may explain that our decision remains in place.
• If you do not agree with this further response, and if you are an EU citizen, you can choose to refer the matter to an out-of-court dispute settlement body. We are currently waiting for a list of out-of-court dispute settlement bodies in the European Union to be certified. We will update this website when more information becomes available. Bandcamp will work with any appointed out-of-court body where required by law to do so. We are not bound by any decisions made by these out-of-court bodies.
• If you do not wish to use the out-of-court dispute settlement body or you have tried that approach, you also have the option to pursue any claim you may have in court. If you have legal questions or wish to examine legal options that may be available to you, you may want to consult with your own legal counsel.