What is a DMCA takedown notice? How to send one, answer one, or counter it

The DMCA takedown is the most common copyright tool on the internet. Every day, creators use it to remove copies of their photos, videos and writing, and every day people find their posts removed because of one. This guide is part of our section on copyright notices. It covers what the law requires in a notice, what platforms do with it, how to send one, how to answer one, and what happens when a notice is false.

The rules come from section 512 of the Copyright Act, added by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. The US Copyright Office explains them on its section 512 resource page, which is the best plain-language official source.

01What the law requires in a notice

Section 512(c)(3) lists what a notice must "include substantially." In plain English, the six elements are:

1. A signature, physical or electronic, of the copyright owner or someone authorized to act for them.
2. The work you own that you say was infringed. If several works on one site are involved, a representative list is allowed.
3. The infringing material and enough information for the platform to find it, usually exact URLs.
4. Your contact information: address, phone number and email.
5. A good faith statement that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
6. An accuracy statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act for the owner.

The Copyright Office publishes a sample takedown notice that follows this list. Many platforms also run their own web forms that collect the same information.

Registration is not required

You do not need to register your copyright to send a takedown. According to the Copyright Office's FAQ, registration is required only before suing in court over a US work.

02What happens after a platform gets one

Section 512 offers websites a "safe harbor" from money damages for what their users post, if they follow certain rules. For hosting platforms, the key rules are:

• register a designated agent with the Copyright Office and post that agent's contact details;
• act "expeditiously" to remove or disable access to material once they receive a valid notice;
• take reasonable steps to tell the person who posted it;
• restore it if they receive a valid counter-notice and the sender does not sue in time;
• adopt and reasonably implement a policy to terminate repeat infringers.

Platforms are not required to judge whether the use is actually infringing. Most remove first, because removing in good faith protects them, and leave the dispute to the sender and the poster.

The Copyright Office notes that responding to a notice is technically voluntary: a platform that ignores one simply loses the safe harbor for that material.

03Sending a takedown: step by step

1. Confirm you own the rights. You must be the copyright owner or authorized by them. If you appear in a photo someone else took, you probably do not own its copyright; privacy or other laws may help instead.
2. Consider fair use first. Courts expect senders to think about fair use before sending. Commentary, criticism and parody may be lawful even if you dislike them.
3. Collect evidence. Save screenshots and exact URLs of the infringing copies, and links or files showing your original and when you made it.
4. Find the right recipient. Look for a copyright or DMCA link in the site's footer or terms of use, or search the Copyright Office's DMCA designated agent directory. For a site with no agent, the web host may be the right recipient.
5. Write the notice with all six elements. Be specific; vague notices are often rejected.
6. Send it and keep a copy. Note the date. Expect the platform to forward your contact details to the poster.
7. Watch for a counter-notice. If one arrives, you have a short window to decide whether to sue.

If your work keeps reappearing on the same site, you can send new notices for the new copies. For large-scale or commercial copying, talk to a copyright lawyer licensed where you live.

04Answering one: the counter-notice

If your post was removed and you believe that was a mistake, section 512(g) lets you send a counter-notice to the platform's designated agent. It must include substantially:

• your physical or electronic signature;
• identification of the removed material and where it appeared before removal;
• a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief the material was removed "as a result of mistake or misidentification";
• your name, address and phone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your address (or, outside the US, any district where the platform may be found) and will accept service of legal papers from the person who sent the notice.

The platform then forwards your counter-notice to the sender. Under the statute, it must restore the material no less than 10 and no more than 14 business days after receiving the counter-notice, unless the sender first tells the platform it has filed a court action against you.

Before you send one

A counter-notice puts your name and address in the sender's hands and invites a lawsuit if they disagree. Send one only if you are confident: for example, you own the work, you have a license, or your use is clearly fair. If you are unsure, talk to a lawyer first.

Disputing a takedown looks a lot like the review process subscribers could use under the old six strikes program. Our archive explains how a wrongly sent Copyright Alert could be challenged.

05False notices and section 512(f)

Section 512(f) says anyone who "knowingly materially misrepresents" that material is infringing, or that it was removed by mistake, is liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, caused by that misrepresentation. It applies to both senders and counter-notice writers.

The leading case is Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., decided by the Ninth Circuit on September 14, 2015 and amended March 17, 2016. A mother posted a 29-second home video of her young children dancing to a Prince song, and a music publisher sent a takedown. The court held that the DMCA "requires copyright holders to consider fair use before sending a takedown notification."

In practice, 512(f) claims are hard to win, because the sender's belief only has to be subjective good faith. But the rule matters: a takedown is a sworn legal statement, not a quick complaint form.

06Copyright strikes on platforms

Many large platforms add their own "strike" systems on top of the DMCA. A valid takedown may count as a strike against your account; several strikes within a set period can lead to losing features, monetization or the account itself. These systems are how platforms meet the repeat infringer rule in section 512(i), but the details, such as how many strikes and how long they last, are set by each platform's terms.

Some platforms also offer content matching systems that flag or block uploads automatically. Those are private tools, not DMCA notices, and they have their own dispute processes. Disputing a match is different from sending a counter-notice, so read which process you are in before you respond.

Notices also reach people in other ways. Internet providers forward complaints about file sharing, which our guide to copyright notices from your internet provider covers. And takedowns now involve AI in both directions; see takedowns when AI copies your work or your work is called AI-made.