DMCA vs NTD: How Usenet Takedowns Work

When a copyright holder wants content removed from Usenet, the process they follow depends on where the server is located. In the United States, the mechanism is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In the European Union, particularly the Netherlands where many Usenet providers operate, the mechanism is Notice and Takedown (NTD) under Dutch law.

NewsDemon operates servers in both jurisdictions: US East and US West fall under American law, while our EU Netherlands servers fall under Dutch law. This page explains how both systems work and what that means for content availability.

The DMCA was enacted in 1998 to address copyright infringement in digital environments. Under the DMCA, a copyright holder (or their authorized agent) sends a takedown notice to a service provider identifying the infringing content. The provider must remove or disable access to the content promptly to maintain its safe harbor protection.

For Usenet providers, this means: the copyright holder identifies specific articles by their Message-IDs, sends a properly formatted DMCA notice, and the provider removes those articles from their servers. The provider is not liable for the infringement as long as they respond promptly.

DMCA notices must include: identification of the copyrighted work, identification of the infringing material (Message-IDs for Usenet), contact information for the complainant, a good-faith statement, a statement of accuracy under penalty of perjury, and a physical or electronic signature. Our DMCA page has the full submission requirements.

The Netherlands uses a Notice and Takedown procedure that developed through case law rather than a single statute. Dutch courts have established that hosting providers must act on takedown requests when they are made aware of clearly unlawful content. The procedure is less prescriptive than the DMCA, and there is no equivalent of the DMCA counter-notice procedure.

In practice, the NTD process for Usenet providers works similarly to DMCA: copyright holders identify specific articles, notify the provider, and the provider removes them. The timelines and formalities differ, but the end result is the same. Articles get removed from servers in the Netherlands.

The key difference: NTD does not have the same statutory safe harbor framework as DMCA. Dutch providers rely on the EU E-Commerce Directive and court precedent for their liability protections. This means the legal landscape is somewhat less predictable than in the US.

Takedown notices remove articles from the specific provider that receives the notice. Usenet is a decentralized network, so removing content from one provider does not remove it from all providers. A DMCA notice sent to NewsDemon removes the article from our servers. The same article may still exist on other providers until those providers receive their own takedown notices.

This is why backbone independence matters for content availability. Providers that share a backbone share the same takedown processing. When an article is removed from the shared backbone, it disappears from every provider on that backbone simultaneously. Independent providers like NewsDemon process takedowns independently, which means our article inventory diverges from the shared network over time.

This is not about evading takedowns. We comply fully with all valid DMCA and NTD requests. It is about the structural reality of how a decentralized network handles content removal at different speeds and through different legal processes across jurisdictions.

We take copyright seriously. NewsDemon maintains a current registration with the U.S. Copyright Office and complies with both DMCA and NTD procedures. We respond promptly to all valid takedown notices. Users who post infringing material through our service may have their posting privileges or their entire account suspended.

To submit a takedown notice, see our DMCA page or email [email protected].