DMCA Takedown Notice Requirements

If someone has copied your photos, video, music, writing or artwork onto a website or app, a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is often the fastest way to get it removed. Our page on internet law, takedowns and online infringement explains where the notice fits among the other tools. This page is for the person drafting the notice: what the statute requires, where the notice goes, what the platform does with it, and how a careless notice can backfire.

How a takedown notice works, step by step

Confirm the right is yours to enforce. The notice must be signed by "a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed" (17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3)(A)(i)). That can be the owner, an exclusive licensee, or an agent such as an attorney. If you granted exclusive rights to someone else, read our page on whether an exclusive licensee can act against an infringer.
Save the evidence first. Once the platform acts, the material disappears. Capture each page with its full URL and the date, the account name, and any sign of sales, before you send anything.
Find the platform's designated agent. A platform that wants the safe harbor must list its agent on its own website and with the Copyright Office (512(c)(2)). Search the Copyright Office's DMCA Designated Agent Directory and the platform's copyright or legal page.
Draft the notice with all six elements. Use the table below as your checklist, and identify every infringing item by its exact location.
Send it in writing, the way the agent asks. Email, mail or the platform's own web form all produce a written communication. Keep a dated copy of exactly what you sent.
The platform acts. To keep its protection, a hosting platform must respond "expeditiously" to remove or disable access to the material (512(c)(1)(C)), and it must take reasonable steps promptly to tell the user it did so (512(g)(2)(A)). The statute sets no fixed number of days.
Watch for a counter-notice. The user can answer with a counter-notice. If that happens, the platform must send you a copy and restore the material in 10 to 14 business days unless you file suit, a decision explained on our page about what happens after a DMCA counter-notice.

What are the six required elements?

The list is in 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3)(A), and the Copyright Office repeats it on its directory page. It asks for a written communication to the designated agent that includes "substantially" these items. That is not a magic form, but leaving an item out entirely can sink the notice.

The six elements of a DMCA takedown notice under 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3)(A)
Element	What to include	Where notices go wrong
1. Signature, clause (i)	A physical or electronic signature of the owner or a person authorized to act for the owner	Signed by a fan, a friend or a former manager with no authority
2. The copyrighted work, clause (ii)	Title and description of your work, a link to the original, and your registration number if you have one; for many works at one site, a representative list	Naming a brand, a person or a style instead of a specific work
3. The infringing material and its location, clause (iii)	Information reasonably sufficient for the platform to locate each item, usually the exact URL of every post, listing or file	Pointing to a whole profile or saying "their entire account"
4. Your contact information, clause (iv)	An address, a telephone number and, if available, an email address	No reliable way for the platform to reach you
5. Good-faith statement, clause (v)	A statement that you have a good faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law	Sending it without checking for a license or a possible fair use
6. Accuracy and authority, clause (vi)	A statement that the information is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act for the owner of the exclusive right	Leaving out the words "under penalty of perjury"

Notice what the list does not include: a copyright registration. You can send an effective notice for an unregistered work. Registration matters if the dispute goes further, because the owner of a U.S. work generally cannot file an infringement suit until the work is registered (17 U.S.C. 411(a)). Our page on copyright registration cost and processing time covers the fees and the wait.

Where do you send it, and what if you cannot find an agent?

The notice goes to the platform's designated agent, not to its general support inbox. Since December 2016 the Copyright Office has run an online directory, and it no longer accepts paper designations. A platform pays $6 to designate an agent or to amend or resubmit a designation, according to the Office's fee schedule as of October 4, 2026.

The regulation behind the directory, 37 CFR 201.38, has details that help when a search comes up empty. Each separate legal entity, such as a parent company and its subsidiary, needs its own designation. The listing must include alternate names the public is likely to use, including website addresses and app names, so try those. The agent can be a named person, a job title, a department, or an outside takedown service.

A designation also expires three years after it is registered unless the platform renews it (37 CFR 201.38(c)(4)). The hosting safe harbor applies "only if" the platform has designated an agent (512(c)(2)). If there is no current listing, you can still write to the company, but the platform has less reason to act on a statutory notice, and a direct demand may work better; our post on cease and desist letters explains that tool.

Many large platforms now take notices through their own web forms, which the Copyright Office's 2020 Section 512 report found have added time and effort for smaller rightsholders. Use the form when offered, and check that it still captures all six elements.

What happens if your notice is incomplete or wrong?

An incomplete notice can simply be ignored. Under 512(c)(3)(B)(i), a notice that "fails to comply substantially" with the six elements is not considered in deciding whether the platform knew about the infringement. The safety valve: if your notice identifies the work, the infringing material and your contact details, the platform gets that benefit only if it promptly tries to reach you or takes other reasonable steps to get a complete notice (512(c)(3)(B)(ii)). Answer its follow-up quickly.

A false notice is a bigger problem. Anyone who "knowingly materially misrepresents" that material is infringing is liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, suffered by the user, the platform, or a copyright owner or licensee because the platform relied on the notice (512(f)). The Section 512 report says courts have required actual knowledge or willful blindness of falsity, not mere carelessness.

Fair use is part of the good-faith statement. As the Section 512 report describes it, the Ninth Circuit held in Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., 815 F.3d 1145 (9th Cir. 2016), that a copyright holder must consider fair use before sending a takedown notice, though a subjective good faith belief that the use is not fair is enough even if a court later disagrees. The Copyright Office questioned that test, but it is the reason to pause over commentary, criticism and parody. Misrepresentation claims can also be brought before the Copyright Claims Board, where total recovery in a proceeding is capped at $30,000 (17 U.S.C. 1504(c)(3) and (e)(1)(D)).

What can a takedown notice not do?

It only covers copyright. Section 512 limits a platform's liability "for infringement of copyright," so a notice is the wrong tool for a copied logo, a fake storefront, or a lookalike account. For counterfeit listings, see our page on how to stop counterfeit sellers online. When someone is posing as your company, our page on business impersonation online covers the laws that apply. A name held hostage in a web address is a domain dispute, explained on our page about recovering a cybersquatted domain name. If the image is an intimate deepfake rather than a copied work you own, see our page on getting a deepfake intimate image taken down, because a copyright notice may not fit.

It does not pay you. Money comes from a claim or a lawsuit, and our page on what you can recover for copyright infringement explains the remedies.

It does not tell you who the uploader is. A good notice does lay the groundwork, though, because a request to a federal court clerk for a subpoena under 512(h) must include a copy of a notice that meets 512(c)(3)(A). Our page on identifying an anonymous infringer with a DMCA subpoena walks through that request.

It does not stop the same person from uploading again tomorrow. Platforms must adopt and reasonably implement a policy to terminate repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances (512(i)(1)(A)), and our page on whether platforms have to ban repeat infringers explains how to use that rule.

What changes the answer

Who is sending. The owner, an exclusive licensee, or an agent authorized by either can sign (512(c)(3)(A)(i)). A nonexclusive licensee does not own an exclusive right, so it signs only with the owner's authorization.
What kind of service it is. For a search engine or directory, the notice identifies the link or reference to be removed and where to find it (512(d)(3)). For cached copies, the notice must also confirm the material was removed from the original site or a court ordered its removal (512(b)(2)(E)).
Whether the use might be licensed or fair. The good-faith statement covers uses "authorized by the law" (clause (v)), which is where fair use enters.
Whether the platform has a current agent. No designation, or one expired under 37 CFR 201.38(c)(4), changes the platform's incentives under 512(c)(2).

A worked example

For example, suppose a Savannah illustrator finds that one seller on a print-on-demand marketplace is selling 12 of her drawings as phone cases and posters. She also finds one drawing reproduced in a blog post that reviews local artists and comments on her style.

Before reporting, she saves each listing with its URL and date. She finds the marketplace's agent on its legal page and confirms it in the Copyright Office directory, where a search by the app's name brings up the operating company.

Her notice lists the 12 drawings by title with links to her portfolio, gives the 12 listing URLs one by one, includes her mailing address, phone and email, and contains both statements from clauses (v) and (vi), with her electronic signature. She considers the blog post separately: a small image used with commentary may be fair use, so she emails the blogger instead of sending a notice.

The marketplace removes the listings and notifies the seller. A week later it forwards a counter-notice covering two listings, which starts the clock on our counter-notice page. That day she files Single Applications ($45 each online) for those two drawings, since she cannot sue over them until they are registered.

Common mistakes

Sending it to the wrong place. A note to a help desk or an abuse inbox may never reach the designated agent the statute names.
Linking to the account, not the items. Clause (iii) asks for information reasonably sufficient to locate the material, which usually means each URL.
Using a copyright notice for a trademark problem. Section 512 covers copyright only, so a notice that names no copyrighted work fails clause (ii) and wastes days you could spend on the right tool.
Dropping the sworn statement. Without the accuracy and authority statement under penalty of perjury, the notice may not comply substantially.
Skipping the license and fair use check. A notice sent against a licensed or plainly fair use invites a 512(f) claim.
Ignoring the platform's follow-up. If the platform asks for missing details, a slow reply lets the defect stand under 512(c)(3)(B).

What to do this week

Capture every infringing page with its full URL and date, plus the account details, before you report anything.
Gather proof of your work: original files, creation dates, and any registration certificate.
Confirm who holds the rights, especially if a publisher, label, client or licensee may hold them instead.
Look up the platform's agent in the Copyright Office directory and on the platform's own site.
Draft the notice against the six-element table, then send it and keep a dated copy.
If the copying is commercial and the work matters, read how a copyright lawsuit in Atlanta federal court runs, so you know your next move before any counter-notice arrives.

Frequently asked questions

Can an attorney or agent send the notice for you?

Yes. The statute accepts the signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right. The authorized person makes the sworn statement about that authority.

How fast does the platform have to remove the material?

The statute says "expeditiously" and gives no number of days. The Copyright Office's Section 512 report notes that courts apply that word flexibly, looking at the circumstances of each case.

Can one notice cover many works?

Yes, if they are at a single online site: you can give a representative list of the works. You still need to identify each infringing item well enough for the platform to find it.

What if the platform ignores a proper notice?

The Copyright Office explains that a platform that fails to respond expeditiously may lose its safe harbor protection and be subject to an infringement suit. Whether a suit against the platform makes sense depends on the facts, so document every notice and reply.

Will the person who posted it be told?

Usually. A platform that removes material under a notice must take reasonable steps promptly to notify the user to keep its protection against claims by that user (512(g)(2)).

Zala IP Law helps creators and businesses prepare takedown notices and decide what to do when online infringement continues, and Shreepal J. Zala practices federal intellectual property law nationally. If your work has been posted without permission, request a consultation or call 404-313-1701 before you send the notice.

What must a DMCA takedown notice include to work?