What to do About Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement, what can you do? Have you found your website content on another website? Found others using your trademark name? Found a website that has snatched your own personal images?

How to resolve copyright infringement

It is smart to look for your copyrighted content on other websites and take action.
It is smart to look for your copyrighted content on other websites and take action.

There are several things you can do to get the offending site owner’s notice and protect your own copyrighted content.

The first step is to send a notice with a formal takedown request. Give the website owner 10 days to take action or respond. Make sure you keep copies of your email or written correspondence.

Be specific in your request, but reasonable. Ten days to remove content or images is about the norm.

At the end of your time period review if the copyright infringement has been resolved. If not, now it’s time to contact the webhost.

Go first to Who Is Hosting This, and do a search on the site’s domain name. Then contact the web host and ask that the site that is infringing on your copyright be taken down. Make sure to mention the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and ask for a DMCA site takedown.

The host will typically take immediate action and take down the entire website, contact the site owner, and demand the offending content be removed before the host will relaunch the website.

You’d better believe that this gets quick action from the website owner who may have initially disregarded your removal notice. Don’t just take copyright infringement, protect your own intellectual property.