Filing a DMCA Complaint
How To File a DMCA Complaint and Take-Down Notice with Google
Once you have determined that a website or blog is illegally using your copyrighted material, you will need to carefully draft a DMCA Infringement notification letter and Cease and Desist demand, which should be sent to Google (contact information listed below), informing them of the Copyright Infringement, and identifying the offending website URL and owner. You must also list the exact Image URL of each infringing image which you want removed, and the relevant keyword search that links to the infringing pages.
Caution: Before you file a DMCA complaint, make sure that you are the legitimate owner of the image's copyright. By filing a false or fraudulent Cease and Desist DMCA infringement notification, you could be held liable for any loss of income from the alleged infringing website if it is shut down or de-listed in the search index.
One unfortunate side-effect of filing a DMCA complaint is that Google will forward your complaint to an anti-copyright website called chillingeffects.org, which is a back-handed way of insinuating that there should be no protections for copyrighted material. On the plus side, your name and address will be redacted from the archived letter. It is my opinion that this should only be done when a complaint has been deemed to be fraudulent or baseless.
DMCA Safe Harbor Provision
Once the blog's web hosting service, and Google are put on notice by a properly filed DMCA complaint notice, they have a limited amount of time to respond before they fall outside of the DMCA Safe Harbor provisions (17 U.S.C. Sec. 512), which limit their liability.
The DMCA Safe Harbor provision is designed to protect a web service provider from being held liable for monetary relief, due to residual image caching over their network. As long as the images are removed within a "reasonable period of time," they would not be liable for injunctive or other equitable relief. Of corse, the keyword is "reasonable."
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this page does not contain "legal advise." My only goal here is to help avoid costly litigation, and achieve fast results. I have included a sample DMCA complaint letter, which must include all of the following information (change everything in green).
Sample Cease & Desist Copyright Infringement Notification to Google
Google, Inc.
Attn: Google Legal Support, DMCA Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
RE: DMCA Copyright Infringement Notice
Sent via Email and Fax
Date
As required under Sections 512(c)(3) and 512(d)(3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §§512(c)(3) and 512(d)(3)), we are instructed to place you on notice that:
1. Your Company is the exclusive owner of the copyrights in and to the Your Company website, artwork, and photographs appearing therein (singly and collectively, the "Your Company Images"); and
2. Utilizing the search query, "xyz" at www.google.com, the following search results contain unauthorized copies of Your Company Images or unauthorized derivative works of the Your Company Images which infringe the Your Company Images and the exclusive rights of the Owner:
Infringing Web Page: http://www.their-website.com/xyz.html
Infringing webpage contact info:
Their Name (www.their-website.com/xyz.html)
Street Address
City, State, Country
Phone Number
E-mail : xyz@their-website.com
Please immediately remove or disable all access to the Infringing Material.
The stolen images can be found on my website at the following web address:
http://www.your-website.com/xyz.html
I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
I swear, under penalty of perjury consistent with United States Code Title 17, Section 512, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Your Signature
Your Name
Street Address
City, State, Country
Phone Number
E-mail : xyz@their-website.com
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Send your written DMCA complaint to:
Google, Inc.
Attn: Google Legal Support, DMCA Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Fax your DMCA complaint to:
(650) 963-3255, Attn: DMCA Complaints
and/or
(650) 649-2939, Attn: Google Legal Support
Email your DMCA complaint to:
help@google.com and removals@google.com and legal-support@google.com
Note: A physical or electronic signature is required in order for your claim to be DMCA compliant. If you do not have a digital certificate installed on your computer you must Fax or Mail a signed hard-copy. See: "Sending DMCA Claims Via Email" below.
Sending DMCA Claims Via Email - Using an E-mail Certificate
If you are going to send your DMCA notice by email you must have an secure E-mail Certificate installed on your computer as a digital "electronic signature" or "Digital ID." You can obtain a secure 'Personal E-mail Certificate' from Thawte Communications (link below), or VeriSign, which will enable you to "sign" your email electronically, and send it encrypted, using RSA encryption. once installed, your digital certificate will expire within a year, so you will need to renew it periodically. The certificate can be viewed and accessed through your keychain (Mac).
The ultimate goal is to have Google remove the infringing website from the SERPs (search engine results pages), and to penalize the infringing website by reducing their ranking or page-rank. It may also be possible to have Google send a DMCA Takedown Notice to the infringing website's owners and webmaster, as well as their web hosting service.
This all may seem like a headache, but the blog owners (and Google) must be put on notice that it is not OK to simply steal images, and repost them on their own websites, without first asking permission. It takes time and patience to reclaim your rights to your copyrighted material, but as the saying goes: "the squeaky wheel gets the oil."
If all of this fails, and the infringing website refuses to take down the copyrighted material, you may need to seek the help of an attorney that specializes in IP intellectual Property rights and copyright law. This can be very expensive, and should be avoided at all costs, but if the stolen images have a high monetary value, this may be the only recourse.
Back To:
Preventing Image Theft from Blogs
Reporting Image Theft
Additional Google DMCA Resources:
WHOIS Search
Infringement Notification
Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notification
DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions
Thawte - Personal E-mail Certificates
How to Use a Secure Email Signing Certificate
Blogger.com Online DMCA Infringement Notification Page
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