Intellectual Property Guidelines

Forge hosts applications, websites and files that belong to our customers. Beesworx Groupe (Pty) Ltd (Reg. No. 2024/800456/07) ("Beesworx", "we") does not review customer content before it goes live, but we respect intellectual property rights and act on valid complaints. These guidelines explain how to report content hosted on Forge that infringes your copyright, trade mark or other intellectual property, and what happens next. They form part of the Acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits hosting infringing content.

1. Our role

Beesworx provides hosting and related services. For content our customers deploy, we act as a service provider under Chapter XI of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 ("ECTA"). [ATTORNEY TO CONFIRM BEESWORX'S STATUS UNDER ECTA CHAPTER XI, INCLUDING WHETHER BEESWORX IS, OR MUST BE, A MEMBER OF A RECOGNISED INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVE BODY FOR THE SECTION 72 LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY TO APPLY]. The customer who deployed the content is responsible for it, and is often the best person to contact first.

2. Reporting infringement (take-down notice)

Send your notice to forge@beesworx.co.za, or by post to 9 Clover Street, Klippoortjie, Boksburg, Gauteng, 1459, South Africa. To be valid under section 77 of ECTA, a take-down notice must be in writing and include:

1. your full name and address;
2. your written or electronic signature;
3. the right that you say has been infringed (for example, the copyright work or registered trade mark);
4. the material or activity you say is infringing, identified precisely enough for us to find it: the full URL, hostname, or file path on Forge;
5. the remedial action you ask us to take;
6. your telephone number and e-mail address;
7. a statement that you are acting in good faith; and
8. a statement, by you, that the information in the notice is to your knowledge true and correct.

Section 77 of ECTA makes anyone who lodges a notice knowing it to be materially false liable for the resulting damages. If you are not sure the content infringes your rights, take legal advice before you send a notice.

3. What we do with a notice

• We check the notice is complete. We may ask for missing details before we act.
• We aim to respond within the targets in the Acceptable Use Policy.
• We may forward the notice, including your name and contact details, to the customer responsible so they can respond or remove the content.
• Where the notice is valid, we act against the specific content first. Depending on the case, that can mean stopping the application serving it, removing a custom domain, revoking an exposed port, or deleting images from the platform's container registry. Where a customer does not cooperate, or infringes repeatedly, we may suspend the whole account under the suspension ladder.
• We cannot edit a customer's application or files for them, and we cannot remove content hosted elsewhere, even if it is linked from an app on Forge.

4. If your content was taken down (counter-notice)

If we acted on a notice about your content and you believe the notice was mistaken, contact forge@beesworx.co.za with the notice reference, an explanation of why the content does not infringe (for example, you own it, have a licence, or the use is permitted by law), and your contact details. We may pass your response to the complainant. [ATTORNEY TO CONFIRM THE COUNTER-NOTICE AND REINSTATEMENT PROCESS; ECTA DOES NOT PRESCRIBE ONE].

5. Repeat infringers

We may suspend or terminate the accounts of customers who are the subject of repeated valid infringement notices.

6. Beesworx's own marks and content

"Forge", the Forge logo and wordmark, and the content of this website belong to Beesworx [OWNER TO CONFIRM TRADE MARK REGISTRATION STATUS]. You may refer to Forge by name to describe or link to the service truthfully, but you may not use our marks in a way that suggests endorsement, partnership or that you are Beesworx, or as part of your own product, company or domain name, without our written permission.

Forge is free to self-host. The licence file shipped in the self-hosting bundle, not these guidelines, governs your use of the self-hosted software.

7. Contact

forge@beesworx.co.za