Content reports and copyright notices

What to do when someone reports a course. This is for the people who run the hosted site. Skrongle mini has no report form: its copyright page shows the contact address, and its owner handles any complaint by hand.

Where reports come from

  • Report this course. A learner opens the circle on a course someone shared with them (on /courses) and sends a report: harmful, copyright or other, with a text and their address.
  • The copyright form. Anyone, signed in or not, can send a notice from /legal/copyright (linked from /terms): name, address, the work, where the copy is, what is copied, and the good-faith statement.

Each one is stored (content_reports) and e-mailed to SKRONGLE_LEGAL_EMAIL, or to every superuser when that is unset. Open reports are listed on /superuser under Reports, oldest first.

What to do, and by when

  1. Read it within two working days. Open the course (ask the owner to share it with you if you can’t see it) and check the claim.
  2. Copyright notice: check that it has a name, an address, the work, where the copy is and the ticked statement. If something is missing, reply to the claimant and ask for it; nothing else happens until it arrives.
  3. Forward to owner. For a complete copyright notice, press Forward to owner on the same day. The Terms promise the owner a copy, and the copy carries the claimant’s name and address. For a harmful or other report, forward it when the owner can fix it; that copy never carries the reporter’s address.
  4. Take it down when the claim holds up: clearly copied material, or content that is harmful under the Terms. For a copyright notice, do this within five working days of a complete notice. Find the course in the Courses table on /superuser (search by its id or the owner’s address), open it and press Take down.
  5. Resolve the report when nothing more is to be done (taken down, rejected, or the owner fixed it). It leaves the open list; the row stays.

Flagged courses

A made course with a listed word (data/moderation/terms.txt), or one the AI check found a problem in, is flagged: it doesn’t start and can’t be shared, and its owner’s card says which words matched. Nobody reports it; it shows up first in the Courses table on /superuser.

  1. Look at it within two working days. Filter the table to Flagged and open the course. The dialog shows each match with its lesson, file and field and the text around it. For a course the AI check flagged (Flagged by: AI check), it shows the AI’s report (a few sentences on what is wrong) and the exact text it quoted, under the rule it breaks (one of the AI check’s categories, such as Hate speech or Self-harm), and the parts Jev scored high, with the categories they scored high on and the review’s word on each.
  2. The check was wrong (a word that means something ordinary in the language taught, a quote in a lesson about the word itself): press Override the flag and write a short note saying why. The course starts and shares again. The next check keeps the override for the same words; a new word flags it again. For an AI flag, write the note for the AI too: the review reads it the next time the course changes, and follows it unless the new content goes beyond it (its report then says why the note doesn’t cover it). Clear the override takes it back and checks the course again as it is.
  3. The check was right: leave it flagged. The owner can fix it, and the flag clears on its own when they save (an AI flag when they save and press Share, which checks the course again). For content that breaks the Terms badly, Take down (the owner sees why, and the shares stay for Put back) or Delete the course (the course, its files and its shares go; not undone). For an account that keeps doing it, Suspend the owner.
  4. Tell the owner when the card’s red ! is not enough: a flag on a course they shared, a take-down, or a flag that has stayed for a few days. Press E-mail the owner in the course’s dialog. The form comes filled in their language with the reason and how to fix it; change what you like and press Send. Never add who reported the course. The row then says “owner e-mailed” with the date, so check it before you send another. Nothing sends this e-mail on its own.

Every action is logged as which superuser did what to which course, never the content or the note.

Counter-notices

An owner who thinks a copyright notice is wrong replies to the forwarded message. A counter-notice needs their name, address, the course, a statement that they believe in good faith the material was removed by mistake, and their consent to the courts named in the Terms.

  • Send a copy of the counter-notice to the claimant.
  • Put the course back after 10 to 14 working days unless the claimant tells you they have gone to court.
  • Keep the notice, the counter-notice and your replies.

Repeat infringers

An account with three copyright notices that held up is closed (the Terms say so). Search the reports by owner before you resolve a notice.

Records

Rows in content_reports are not deleted when a course is, including one deleted from the Courses table. A reporter who deletes their account takes their reports with them; copyright notices sent signed out stay. Mail copies are in the mail provider’s log.