The only means we have of verifying the ownership of an account is the email address which was used to create the account. This means that the individual who controls the original email address used at sign up, is the owner of that account.

Our account ownership policy is designed to protect the security and privacy of our community, as well as satisfying our responsibilities as a service provider, in relation to the “German Data Protection Act” which we must abide by.
 

How to proceed if you have a conflict of ownership 

If there is a conflict regarding the ownership of an account which was once shared or set up on your behalf, we must follow our account ownership policy which states that the owner of an account is the individual who controls the email address used at sign up. 
 
In such conflicts, the following options are available to you:

1. Gain access to the email address used to create the account; we can then restore this email to the account. 

2. If this is not possible, you can report the account, or content hosted on the account, for violating our Terms of Use on the following grounds;

 
i. Impersonation and/or misrepresentation: if the account is misrepresenting its affiliation with you or is impersonating you, please let us know. If we find evidence of a Terms of Use violation, we will then be able to suspend the reported account. You can find out more about impersonation here.

ii. Copyright Infringement: if the account is hosting content which you own the rights to, you can report this using our copyright infringement form: soundcloud.com/pages/copyright/report. This will allow you to remove content which you own the rights to from SoundCloud. 

iii. Trademark Violation: if the account is infringing your trademark rights, you can let us know by emailing trademarks@soundcloud.com with proof of your registration. If we find evidence of trademark infringement, we can request for the account owner to change their URL and/or Display Name. 

 
3. A final option is to follow due legal process to determine ownership of the account in question. If you can obtain a court order or settlement agreement in your favor (regarding this profile specifically) within 90 days of the reported account’s suspension, this will then be treated as a legal request, meaning that we can revert the suspension and pass access over to you.

While we can appreciate that this process may seem complex, we hope that you can understand that our primary aim is to provide a service which respects both the privacy and security of our community members and their data. This means that we must follow our account ownership policy and related processes at all times.