DMCA complaint: what is it and how to takedown it from the website

What is DMCA

DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is a law that protects authorial content in modern era. It is a part of the United States legislation on copyright law. Although the rule governs legal relations in the United States and does not apply to the legal sphere of other states, Google is still forced to adhere to the DMCA, as they are headquartered in the United States.У мережі DMCA protected includes:

videos;

audio recordings;

pictures;

texts and so on.

To use any authorial content, you should get permission from the owner or pay for it because it is DMCA protected. Let’s imagine that there is a piece of music on the website, added without the permission of the author, then it is an obvious violation. In this case, the resource will receive a complaint about the violation of DMCA. As a result, Google will restrict the display of individual pages of such resource or the entire website. But the law also specifies several situations when the use of authorial content will not be a violation. These are the situations where the content was taken for display:

not for commercial purposes;

as educational material.

How to check if there is a DMCA complaint on your website

Search Console will help you understand whether a DMCA complaint has been filed. In case of complaint, if the resource is added there, you will receive a message, which includes:

the text of complaint;

a list of documents that violate DMCA;

reference to the rebuttal form.

In addition to Search Console, there are other resources where you can perform a DMCA review of the website for complaints. All you have to do is to type in your website in the search bar, and you will receive information about complaints and requests to delete pages.

DMCA takedown: step-by-step instructions

In order to refute the claim officially, you should fill in a special form. It is available at the link in the text of the message:

Fill in all fields of the form.

Describe stolen material.

Specify the website page where the author’s material is posted and the website page where the plagiarism was posted.

Submit a complaint.

Wait for the results of the complaint. Consideration usually takes from 10 to 15 days.

After complaint reviewing and approving, Google either removes the material or blocks access to it. When content is outside Google’s servers, the search engine blocks access to it. If the claim is unfounded, the request is rejected, and the website easily returns its position on search engine results.In situations where you have become a scammer victim and saw that the authorial content was posted on a third-party resource, or you were traduced, you can fill in a DMCA claim. Then you need to provide:

a complete content description of the infringing resource;

web queries under which Google links to pages;

applicant’s contact details;

information about the resource owner where the plagiarism is located;

veracity proof of the statement.

Conclusion

DDMCA complaint can be seen as an effective tool to combat the illegal use of authorial content. But before filing in a complaint, the right holder must be aware that he is fully financially responsible for this and in some cases must be prepared to confirm the authorship of the text in the court.Filing of false claims can lead to blocking of applicant’s account and other legal consequences. After all, DMCA will not help to fight against competitors or shady promotion, it is a tool for combatting the illegal use of authorial content. If you use DMCA for other purposes, you risk hurting yourself, not the unfairly accused site.If you want the website to be in the top list, it is better to create high-quality both visual and textual content, order copywriting from professionals and use effective legal methods of SEO promotion.