This is the second of our four-part series written in partnership with Bruqi to help creators better understand their rights with DMCA Takedowns. In the last resource, we talked about the basics of DMCA and copyrights. In this resource, we are diving into the actual DMCA takedown process in the case of stolen and redistributed content. We are covering the step-by-step process. Then we are getting into the what-next of it all, from best-case scenarios to counter-notices.
Legal disclaimer: I am not an expert in the field, nor am I a copyright lawyer. Please consult a licensed professional with any concerns or questions. This resource is written in paid sponsorship with Bruqi.
Finding Your Leaks Manually
Step one: Search Engines
If you do not have a DMCA service (which we will discuss in the next resource), and even if you do, it is a good idea to search for your own leaks. There are many, many ways to do this, but the best is to get in the mindset of a cheap creep and how they would find your content.
Start by hopping into incognito mode on a browser (so your history won’t influence results) and dig through search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Search for the following terms:
- “Stage Name leaks”
- “Stage Name free”
- “Stage Name download”
- “Stage Name rip”
- “Stage Name Mega folder”
- or your stage name combined with the platform where you sell your content
Search different variations of your name and different keywords as well.
💡 Important Safety Tip: Google remembers what you search, and can suggest it to other users. Never search your stage name and your legal information at the same time.
When searching on Google, you can use the following search formatting to directly search different platforms for any public mention of your information.
site:reddit.com “Your Stage Name”
Using that prompt, search all the social platforms you can think of. You can also search file-sharing sites this way, such as Mega, Google Drive, Dropbox, MediaFire, GoFile, and WeTransfer. Any public files should come up in this search.
Step Two: Reverse Image Search Engines
Reverse image search engines will absolutely be your wake-up call to how public we are online and how easily everything can be tied together. All we, or creeps, need to do is upload a clear image of us, and multiple sites can use reverse image searching to find every single photo our face shows up in. Note how I said every single photo our face shows up in, and not everywhere the same photo is posted. I meant that. Some sites can take a screenshot from your promotional posts and find everything from your paid sites to your personal, private social media.
Below are two sites I always encourage everyone to go through the opt-out process on.
- TinEye
- PimEyes
- Opt-out form
- The team at Bruqi wanted to be sure to share the heads-up that, to opt out, you will have to do an anonymized scan of your ID.
💡 Tip: Something to note regarding their opt-out and image removal forms is that they do not send DMCA requests for you, nor do they attempt to remove your content from the hosting website. That will be your responsibility. Removal requests only remove the content from their search results.
There are other tools out there that do the same thing, not listed here. Consider also checking Google reverse image search, Bing, etc.
Step Three: Automated Alerts
There are really good tools out there that you can set up to alert you of any mentions of any keywords on the internet. I currently use the following three:
- Google’s Results About You – This will alert you any time your legal information is posted. You can simply click a button to have the search result delisted. Remember though: delisting is not removal from the webpage itself. It just removes the search result from the search engine.
- Google Alerts – I have alerts for my stage name, usernames, and branded terms set to pop up. This sends me an email any time Google catches something new.
- F5Bot – This one is for the Reddit folks. If someone mentions any keyword you plug in, you will get an email alert telling you where on Reddit you were mentioned and what was said.
💡Read more about finding your own leaks here
DMCA Takedowns: The Deep Dive
Step one: Collect the Evidence of infringement
Before we contact literally ANYONE, collect the evidence. Screenshot the stolen content. Copy the exact link where you found it. Screenshot the entire page if you can, not just the photo or video floating in the middle of it. Get the username that posted it, the profile it came from, the site’s name, and anything else that shows us exactly what was there and where we found it. Consider even saving the offending web page as a PDF with the site’s link and the date attached at the bottom for even harder-to-argue proof.
Get as much digital evidence as you can find that someone has infringed upon your rights. This is not being dramatic or overkill. Think of it like a client interaction going bad. We already know to start screenshotting everything to cover our ass, and this is the same. In fact, it’s actually required. A valid DMCA notice has to identify the infringing material and give the service provider enough information to actually locate it.
Get this evidence before you start poking at the person who stole it or sending takedown notices all over the place. Pages can disappear. Usernames can change. Posts can get edited. Links can stop working. Get the receipts organized before kicking the hornet’s nest reduces the chances of the thieves doing any of the above to prevent a takedown.
Step two: Preserve your own ownership evidence
At the same time, grab the OTHER side of the story. Screenshot where you originally posted the content and save the original URL if there is one. If this is content from a subscription platform, grab the original post. If it’s a video from your own website, save that page. Document that you created and maintain ownership of the content. Finding the raw versions will help as well. If your content is watermarked that will even further help in proving that the content was originally yours.
Step Three: Find Who Controls the Infringing Content
This step is still all about collecting information. This step can also be a bit of a confusing one for creators. Because you might think, well, I see the username of who posted my content, so I’m ready. Nope. We are not looking for the poster; we are instead interested in the company that controls the service, page, or server where our content is sitting. Section 512’s takedown process is built around sending notice to the relevant online service provider or its designated DMCA agent.
If your content is sitting on something obvious like Reddit, Instagram, X, YouTube, or another established platform, start with the platform itself. Look for its Copyright, DMCA, Intellectual Property, or Report Copyright Infringement page. For an easy walkthrough guide for platforms like Reddit, X, YouTube, Fapellino, and more, check Bruqi’s self-removal guides.
But what if we’re dealing with some random leak site that doesn’t exactly have a beautiful little report-your-stolen-shit-here button waiting for us?
Then I want to know who is hosting the site.
I suggest using this site to do so: Accu 21 Web Hosting. Type the domain into the search bar and press Enter!
Type in the URL, leaving out https:// or www., and hit search. The specific information you are looking for is the hosting provider. That will give you all the information you need, like in this example below:
💡Tip: If it comes back to you with the host labeled ‘Cloudflare’, hold there! According to the team at Bruqi, this is NOT the host! But if you file through their reporting form, they will forward it to the real host!
Step four: Drafting a valid takedown notice
Now we put everything in writing and get to yell at people. If the site provides its own form for filing a notice, use it! It could help expedite processing if you give them exactly what they need. However, when sending a manual email, our notice can’t just be scribbled frustration and unstructured information thrown at someone. There is a whole procedure for this. Section 512 says it needs to include six specific pieces of information.
Your notice needs:
- Your physical or electronic signature.
- Identification of the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed. If we’re reporting multiple copyrighted works on the same site, the law allows us to provide a representative list in some circumstances.
- Identification of the material you want removed, plus enough information for the service provider to actually find it. This is where all those exact stolen-content URLs we collected earlier come in.
- Your contact information, with enough information for the service provider to contact you.
- A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use isn’t authorized by the copyright owner, their agent, or the law.
- A statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act for the copyright owner.
DMCA takedown notice template:
Subject: DMCA Copyright Infringement Notice
To the Designated DMCA Agent,
My name is [YOUR LEGAL NAME], and I am the copyright owner of the work identified below, or I am authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
Copyrighted work:
[Describe your original photo, video, written work, etc.]Original/authorized location of the work:
[LINK TO YOUR ORIGINAL CONTENT, IF AVAILABLE]I have identified the following material on your service that I believe infringes my copyrighted work:
Infringing material:
[Describe the infringing copy]Location of infringing material:
[EXACT URL TO THE STOLEN CONTENT][ADD ADDITIONAL INFRINGING URLS IF NECESSARY]
I have a good-faith belief that the use of the copyrighted material described above is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
I request that you expeditiously remove or disable access to the infringing material identified above.
The information contained in this notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, I state that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Contact information:
Name: [YOUR LEGAL NAME OR YOUR BUSINESS NAME]
Address: [YOUR ACTUAL ADDRESS OR BUSINESS ADDRESS]
Phone: [ACTUAL LEGAL PHONE NUMBER]
Email: [EMAIL ADDRESS]Physical or electronic signature:
[FULL NAME / ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE]
💡Tip: The Copyright Office also publishes a one-page official sample notice if you want to be sure you have everything.
Yes, you must use your legal information here as this is a legal notice. You cannot hide your identity. This is often why creators will use a takedown service like Bruqi who will send these notices in their name as your representative.
Step five: Filing the DMCA notice
Before you hit submit, give everything one final little idiot check. Make sure the infringing URLs are the actual infringing URLs, your original work is identified correctly, your contact information is accurate, all the required statements are there, and you’ve signed it.
Then SEND IT and save your receipts again. Screenshot the confirmation page. Save the confirmation email. Save whatever case or ticket number they give you. Write down the date you submitted it, where you submitted it, and which URLs were included. If you filed by email, keep a copy of the sent email. If you used a platform form, save whatever confirmation they give you. Always keep every piece of information you can throughout the process.
At this point, you did it. The notice is finally out of your hands. Expeditiously does not mean overnight, so if you don’t see it gone in 6 hours, don’t think it failed. The response process, review time, and even WHAT gets removed can vary depending on who we filed with.
After You File: What Happens Next?
Potential outcomes or next steps
For some reason, when I submitted my takedown notices, this was the most nerve-wracking part. So let’s walk through it. Best-case scenario, they review your notice, agree with everything there, and remove or disable access to your content. Some removals happen incredibly fast, some take a few days, some providers come back asking for more information, and some sites are just a pain in the ass.
If your request gets kicked back, READ the response before immediately submitting the exact same thing again. Maybe they need a more specific URL. Maybe they can’t tell what your original work is. Maybe something required by Section 512 is missing.
Then CHECK THE CONTENT. Don’t just assume an email saying “resolved” means the thing you care about is actually gone. Open the offending URL. Search for it again. Check whether the file itself is unavailable or whether only one page or search result disappeared. Sometimes the next step is filing with both the source site or host AND the search engine.
And unfortunately, removal is not always the end. Someone can repost the same content under another URL, upload it to another account, or move it to another site entirely. Bruqi’s removal guides specifically recommend continuing to monitor for reuploads after a takedown, especially when the same material keeps popping back up. This is often why creators lean on DMCA takedown services like Bruqi. We will cover what those are and what they do in an upcoming segment of this series.
Counter Notices: What are they, and what to do
Counter notices are what no one is hoping to see come their way. When a service provider removes someone’s content because of your DMCA notice, the provider generally notifies the person who uploaded the material. That person then has the ability to send a counter-notification if they believe the content was removed because of a mistake. This is basically them saying nah, this is mine, put it back up.
Section 512 requires the person submitting it to provide a physical or electronic signature, identify the material that was removed and where it appeared before removal, state under penalty of perjury that they have a good-faith belief the removal was the result of mistake or misidentification, provide their name, address, and phone number, consent to the appropriate federal court jurisdiction, and agree to accept service of process.
After receiving a compliant counter-notice, the service provider generally must restore the material in no less than 10 and no more than 14 business days unless you notify the provider that you’ve filed a court action seeking to restrain the alleged infringement. So once a legitimate counter-notice lands in your inbox, we are no longer just casually filling out a platform form. This is when you should be talking to an actual copyright attorney.
TLDR: Many DMCA takedowns will end with a delist, if not removal. A counter-notice means someone has formally disputed that the content is theirs. That is when this is no longer content cleanup and is now a legal copyright dispute.
This is part two of our four-part series covering everything on DMCA Takedowns and Protection, created in partnership with Bruqi, the DMCA Takedown service for creators. Keep your eyes peeled for part three!
Have a Question or Comment? Join the Conversation!