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Copyright & IP Takedown Policy

Last updated: July 8, 2026

People finish the line "KEEP CALM AND ___" in their own words, and we screen every submission, but no screen is perfect. If something on KeepCalm.org or in our shop steps on your copyright, trademark, or right of publicity, tell us and we will act fast. Our standing rule is simple: a credible intellectual-property complaint takes the poster and its products down within 24 hours, no argument, while we review.

How to report

Email Contact@KeepCalm.org with the subject "IP takedown", or write to KEEP CALM Inc., Attn: Copyright Agent. For a copyright notice under the DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)), include:

  • identification of the copyrighted work you say is infringed;
  • the address (URL) of the material on our site or the product in our shop;
  • your name, mailing address, email, and phone number;
  • a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  • a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner;
  • your physical or electronic signature.

Trademark and right-of-publicity complaints go to the same address; tell us the mark or the person involved, where it appears, and your relationship to the rights. The 24-hour takedown applies to those complaints too.

What happens next

  • Within 24 hours of a credible complaint we remove the poster from the gallery and stop the sale and printing of any product carrying it, pending review.
  • We log every complaint and outcome.
  • Where we have contact information for the person who submitted the content, we notify them and share the substance of the complaint.
  • If review shows the complaint was mistaken, we may restore the content and will tell both sides.

Counter-notice

If your content was removed for copyright and you believe that was a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notice to the same address including: identification of the removed material and where it appeared, your name, address, and phone number, a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the removal was a mistake or misidentification, your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your district (or, if outside the US, for the Northern District of California) and to accept service from the complaining party, and your signature. Unless the complaining party tells us it has filed a court action, we may restore the material in 10 to 14 business days.

Repeat infringers

Accounts that repeatedly submit infringing content are terminated, and the learned-block layer of our moderation system remembers removed phrases so they cannot simply be resubmitted.

How we try to prevent this in the first place

Every phrase passes a fail-closed moderation wall before it can be shared, and anything headed for a printed product passes an additional intellectual-property screen for trademarks, brand names, celebrities, franchises, and famous lyrics. If a screen cannot run, the content is held rather than published. Screening reduces harm; this page is the backstop for whatever slips through.

This page describes our process; it is not legal advice to you. Misrepresentations in DMCA notices and counter-notices can carry liability under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), so send accurate ones.