Castle respects the intellectual property rights of content creators, including Bollywood production houses, regional cinema studios, and international sports leagues. As a Neutral Content Aggregator and "Search Index," we do not host, store, or transmit any digital media files. Castle functions strictly as a Passive Intermediary and Information Location Tool, indexing only metadata from the public web. We operate as an intermediary, facilitating the discovery of content already available on the public internet.
1. Legal Framework And Compliance
Our copyright protection protocols are designed to align with both the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of the United States and the Copyright Act, 1957 of India. We maintain a strict policy of responding to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. This compliance ensures our "Safe Harbor" status as a technology provider under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
2. Our Commitment To Creators
Castle acknowledges the intellectual property rights of creators and rights holders. We actively cooperate to ensure that search results pointing to unauthorized third-party sources are removed per statutory guidelines. Castle is committed to preventing the unauthorized indexing of premium content. We actively cooperate with rights holders to ensure that search results pointing to infringing third-party sources are removed from our interface expeditiously.
3. Requirements For Takedown Notices
If you are a copyright owner or an authorized agent and believe that a link indexed by Castle infringes upon your rights, you must submit a formal written notice. For your request to be valid, it must include the following specific elements:
- Physical or Electronic Signature: The signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right.
- Identification of the Work: Clear identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (e.g., the title of the movie or web series).
- Location of the Infringing Material: The exact URL or specific link within the Castle app index that you want removed.
- Contact Information: Your full name, physical address, telephone number, and official email address.
- Good-Faith Statement: A statement that you have a "good faith belief" that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner.
- Accuracy Statement: A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner.
4. Counter-Notification And Fair Use
If you believe that your content was removed by mistake or as a result of misidentification, you may submit a Counter-Notification. Under Indian law and the Copyright Act, 1957, certain uses of material may fall under "Fair Dealing."
Your counter-notice must include your identification, the location of the material before it was removed, and a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief that the removal was an error. We will review such notices and may reinstate the link if the legal requirements are met.
5. Three-Strike Policy For Repeat Offenders
Castle maintains a rigorous "Three-Strike Policy" to protect the ecosystem and discourage the indexing of unauthorized streams from specific third-party domains.
- Strike 1 (Warning): If a specific third-party source is flagged, we issue a technical warning and filter the source's results.
- Strike 2 (Suspension): Continued indexing of infringing links from the same source leads to a temporary suspension of those results for 30 days.
- Strike 3 (Permanent Ban): Persistent violations result in the permanent blacklisting of the third-party domain from our Android-based search results.
6. Submission Instructions
Send all legal notices to our official correspondence channel. Access this via the "Contact Us" section on our Official Android APK Support site to ensure expedited processing.
We aim to process all valid takedown requests within 24 to 48 hours of receipt.