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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a set of laws that exist to protect copyrighted content on all digital mediums. If you find that somebody is indecently using your copyrighted works on their website, you should file a valid DMCA complaint (also called a DMCA claim or a DMCA takedown notice). It is vital that your DMCA complaint contains all the necessary information and is also written in the proper form. Otherwise, the company you are sending your complaint to (usually the web hosting provider of the infringing website) may not assist you and may even disregard your DMCA violation report.

While Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are not directly liable for hosting or displaying materials that infringe a copyright, they need to remove such materials from their users’ websites provided that they have been presented with proper notices. The law requires that hosting providers either remove or disable access to any websites on their servers that are potentially infringing upon receipt of a DMCA claim.

Writing your DMCA takedown notice

The DMCA Section 512(c)(3)(A) requires that when reporting copyright infringement, the notice for it should contain the following elements:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
• Clear identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; or, if a single notification covers multiple copyrighted works on a single online site, a representative list of such works at that site.
• Identification of the material claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
• Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
• A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Here is an example DMCA takedown notice that you can send to web hosting providers:

Dear Sir or Madam,

The following information is to assert my rights and request the removal of allegedly infringing web content under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

This is a Notice of Infringement as authorized in §512(c) of the U.S. Copyright Law.

A website that your company is hosting is infringing on a copyright-protected material that I am the legal rights owner of, uploaded to your servers and used without my permission.

I am the copyright owner of the content, and the following information is true and accurate:

- The original work, to which I own the exclusive copyrights, can be found at: 
< the URL(s) where your original work appears and is authorized >

- The unauthorized and infringing copy is located at: 
< the URL(s) where the infringing content can be found >

- (Optional) I have attached copies of my original copyright work to help with your evaluation and decision-making process.

- My contact details are as follows: 
< your contact details including your address, phone number, and email address >

This email constitutes an official notification of the infringement and my legal request that you immediately remove or disable access to the infringing material, and ensure that your customer refrains from any unauthorized use or sharing of my copyrighted materials in the future.

Under Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), you are to expediently remove the infringing work upon receipt of this notice. The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act may grant service providers immunity from liability so long as it investigates and corrects this copyright violation in a timely manner. Noncompliance may result in the loss of your statutory immunity for the infringement under the Act.

I have a good faith belief that the use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. The information provided in the notification is accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief. Nothing in this notification shall serve as a waiver of any rights or remedies, of myself, with respect to this alleged infringement, all of which are expressly reserved.

I declare, under penalty of perjury, that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner entitled to exclusive rights which I believe are being infringed.

Signed this on < day/month/year > in < Your City, State, Country >.

(Your Signature or eSignature)

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Sending your DMCA complaint

Before you send a DMCA takedown notice, you need to make sure that:

• You are the actual copyright owner or you are authorized to assert infringement on their behalf.
• The alleged infringement is not covered by laws like Fair Use or free speech.
• The material is capable of being infringed online and exists in a digital form such as:
  • Images and photos: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, SVG, BMP, EPS, TIFF, PSD, RAW, etc.
  • Video: MPG, AVI, MOV, etc.
  • Music and audio: MP3, WAV, MID, AIF, AU, etc.
  • Text: PDF, RTF, DOC(x), TXT, etc.
  • Image found on: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Behance, etc.

After you have ensured that your copyright is being infringed upon and you have all the details you need in order to fill out your DMCA claim, you must follow these steps to file the DMCA takedown notice:

1. Locate the correct person
   If you find that somebody has published your copyrighted content on another website without your permission, it can sometimes be difficult to identify the hosting company for that website. If you are sending your DMCA takedown notice to an ISP (Internet Service Provider), there should be a form or at least an email address that is usually easy to find on their website.
   Sometimes, however, you may need to do some research as there is no consistent location. Popular locations to look at are the legal documents published on the website, such as the “Copyright policy”, “Terms and conditions”, “Terms of use”, “Privacy policy”, “Legal disclaimer”, etc.
   If you cannot find the proper person/company to reach out to about your DMCA claim, you can feel free to contact our team for assistance.
2. Look for online DMCA takedown forms
   Some websites have designated online forms for DMCA takedown requests. It is highly recommended that you use such forms as your first point of contact to get a response faster. Most large websites use such forms to send copyright infringement claims to specific departments within their organization or legal representatives to deal with them.

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About Website Copyright Notices
Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA)