Consider a scenario in which you own a business. You work hard to create high-quality content for your website by using your industry knowledge and taking surveys from your customers, and you publish regular reports, putting in your 100% effort.

However, while searching your website on Google to assess your online ranking, your world comes crashing down. So, what ghost did you see? It turns out that your competitor is ranking well above you and using your content without adding a backlink or a reference.

Such a plagiarism dilemma is not unknown in the digital world. You have to make sure that your content is safe from the gawking eyes of individuals with mischievous schemes.

Now the question is, “How can I stop others from copying my content?”Another common question is, “When someone copies my content, how am I supposed to get back with a fierce reply?”

If you feel frustrated after finding your content plagiarised, then it is perfectly okay to feel that way. Luckily, you are protected by law, thanks to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

Anyone who uses the internet can make use of this solution to create a strong response against copyright infringement.

This guide will help you learn about the fundamentals about DMCA and help you file a DMCA takedown notice.

Around 20 years ago, the USA implemented DMCA, thanks to the Congress. To understand the need behind the DMCA, one has to grasp the history behind the internet, SEO, and content.

While the actual advancements in “internet” technology were completed a lot earlier, it truly became available to the public in the late 1980s to early 1990s. This was a time when Java Applets were still a thing! This was the era of static websites.

Websites were a completely new technology for mankind. Slowly, people began using websites to market their services. Earlier, people relied on brick-and-mortar stores for shopping. Thanks to the advancements in the internet, people can now shop online from the comfort of their own homes.

As more and more businesses began establishing online shops, soon there were two types of website owners. The first kind poured their hearts in to creating high-quality content. Unfortunately, the second group resorted to cheating and stole the content from their rivals to outpace them.

Hence, it was possible for anyone to copy anything from anywhere. Therefore, the DMCA was established to make sure that there are no copyright infringements with respect to online content.

The first question you might have on your mind i, how to categorise the DMCA. Well, the DMCA is an American law that imposes penalties on those individuals and/or organisations who are guilty of breaching the “Digital Rights” of a copyrighted piece of work.

Likewise, the law is responsible to safeguard the rights of OSPs (online service providers) and ISPs (internet service providers).

In simple words, if your website content has recently been copied at another website, then the DMCA is the one to rely on. Hence, whenever any individual copies information from your business, file a DMCA takedown notice.

A DMCA takedown notice is served to a company as an official notification that are they plagiarising your content. It can also be provided to ISPs like Yahoo and Google.

When a party receives the notice, they must delete the copyrighted stuff. In case they hesitate, the ISP can do the needful. So what type of duplicated content on your website warrants you to file a DMCA takedown notice?

Before going further in the article, you have to understand that there are some artefacts which do not match with the DMCA standards. They include ideas, names, and trademarks.

For example, in today’s “app” world, you created a “Carpooling” app. Now, if another user creates an app on the same idea, then you cannot file a DMCA takedown notice against them.

As mentioned above, the DMCA is applicable on all types of content on your website. You should monitor the online space and identify if anyone is copying your content.

You can file a DMCA takedown notice to completely delete the content. Remember, DMCA is required when you find copied copyrighted content from your website without any approval from your side.

All websites which are hosted in the US have to comply with DMCA. Therefore, they have to obey all the DMCA rules. Notice how we use the term “hosted”. This means that if your business is based abroad, but your website is hosted in the US, then you have to comply with DMCA.

At first, may think that the DMCA is useless for those websites which are outside of the USA. However, the law holds weight in other countries too.

There are several hosting providers who comply with this law and acknowledge DMCA notices, despite the fact that their websites are not hosted in the US. Some experts believe that this is done by the webmaster in order to escape any legal issues in the country of residence.

DMCA safe harbours are used by OSPs and similar web intermediaries to avoid copyright infringement. The Congress has approved a total of four safe harbours up till now.

Safe harbours not violate the copyright, and they include the following: system caching, temporary digital network communication, information location tools, and saving information at the network or system, according to user’s preference.

DMCA safe harbours were designed for a specific aim: they allow the expansion of the internet and enhance the variety and performance of various internet services. DMCA facilitated the internet by increasing the reliability of the ISPs.

If safe harbours were not there, then the ISPs would have battled copyright infringements. It is absolutely necessary for ISPs to create copies of copyrighted information to achieve a greater degree of speed. Likewise, the re-direction of websites and hosting websites would have similar concerns.

Ask yourself the question, “How important is the deletion of a copied content?” If it does not affect your work much, then you can use this situation to your advantage.

Ask the website to add your content as a backlink or add your reference. If they agree, then you can take advantage of their mistake to improve the SEO of your website. However, if you must file a DMCA takedown notice, then follow these steps.

While a DMCA takedown notice is an efficient and fast process for content removal, it should be used with some proper thought process. Sometimes, your case may not fit the criteria for DMCA.

In haste, you may file a DMCA takedown notice when there was no need for one. For example, suppose you believe that your image is copied by another website. Now go over the following scenarios.  

If you are fully sure that a website did copy your content and also attempted to take a commercial advantage, then you should not hesitate to file a DMCA takedown notice.

There are several websites which are heavily filled with user content, mostly social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These websites are also known as designated agents.

You can check them by clicking on this  link . Check for the website and file a DCMA takedown notice.

Mostly, the host of a website is quick to reply on receiving a DMCA takedown notice. Hence, if you are unable to get a designated agent, then directly send your complaint to a website’s host.

If you do not know how to locate the host of a website, open  https://www.whoishostingthis.com/ . Now, type the address of the website and you can then get the name of the website host.

Subsequently, check the website or alternatively, make use of Google to verify an email for copyright purposes.

If you find a web page which copies your content without your approval, then you can instantly have it removed from Google’s search engine result pages.

In this way, you can effectively eliminate them from the digital space. If you find any website host rejecting your demands, then this is an excellent solution to inflict a heavy punishment.

Your notice must contain the following information:

Let’s take an example of a DMCA notice. You can use a similar format when you feel the need to file a DMCA takedown notice.

VIA email at xyz[at]abc.com

Re: Takedown Notice, Copyright Infringement Claim

To the Hosting Company or the ISP:

My name is Mr. A and I own the copyrights for the following pictures which were used on the following links. This notice is an official document which comes under provisions of Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) to ask for deletion of the copyrighted content. It is recommended to comply with the law which directs you, as a service provider, to “expeditiously remove or disable access to” the copyrighted pictures after receiving the document. Any action resulting in noncompliance may culminate into a liability for another copyright violation.

With a good faith belief, I, the copyright holder, verify that the below-mentioned contents were never permitted by me. Each and everything listed here is correct, as per my knowledge. I swear under penalty of perjury that I am the copyright holder.

Any information to contact me is listed below with my signature and you can reply me to explain your correction steps for the resolution of this issue.

Sincerely,

/s/ John Adams, 656 Bar St., Boston, MA 55555 | Tel. (xxx) xxx-xxxx | email: asd [at] jkl.com

List and location of infringing materials:

Page: http://www.example.com/pictures.htm

Images: http://www.example.com/pics/56.jpg
http://www.example.com/pics/62.jpg
http://www.example.com/pics/88.jpg

I have also added a screenshot which presents the use of these copyrighted images by your organisation.

Well, if you encounter any of these scenarios, then  contact us . We will help you make sure that no one gets away with the duplication of your copyrighted material.