How to file Google DMCA Takedown Request?
When it comes to creating and publishing your content online, the fact of copying it without permission is not something to be ignored. No one can just copy-paste material and use it for their own interest as it is protected by The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
As far as we are running a business online, we encountered situations when someone copied our branding, logo, or even the interface of our website and published there download links for the books of various authors illegally. Unfortunately, we cannot remove the copied materials from these websites.
If you’re the owner of the copyrights for the books or other materials published on such websites, the easiest way to solve this issue for you is to ask the content thief or the hosting provider to remove the copied material. However, this solution isn’t always effective, as your request can be ignored. If that’s your case, you can file a DMCA removal complaint and request Google to remove the copied content from the search results.
Note that if you’re not sure that you own the right to file an infringement notice or doubt if the copied material really infringes your copyright, it is better to get a legal consultation first. Please, be aware that your misstatements in the infringement notice may subject you to liability for damages (costs for legal services, penalties, etc.).
How to send a DMCA removal request to Google?
1. Before filing a removal request, prepare the URL with the original content, the URL with copyright infringement, and the description or a part of copied content.
2. Once you have everything mentioned in the previous step, navigate to Removing Content From Google. On this page, you should specify which service includes the infringement content, the type of copyrighted content, and other details.
If you’re filing the request concerning the book cover copyrights, your answers should be the following:
What Google product does your request relate to? > Google Search
Which product does your request relate to? > Google Search
What can we help you with? > Intellectual property issue: report copyright infringement, circumvention, etc.
What can we help you with? > Copyright infringement: my copyrighted work is being used illegally without authorization
Are you the copyright owner or authorized to act on his/her behalf? > Yes, I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf
What is the allegedly infringing work in question? > choose either Image/Video (if it’s the book cover) or Other (if it’s text)
The image/video is of yourself > No
Once you’ll answer all the questions, click Create request button that will appear.
3. In the next window, fill in your contact information (first name, last name, company name, email address, country/ region). Then, set the copyright holder as “self”if you are the copyright owner of the stolen content. If you only act on behalf of the copyright owner, click Add represented copyright holder and fill in the name of the copyright holder in the appeared window.
4. Then, specify the content details. At first, you should describe the copyrighted work. If the stolen material is a text, you should provide the exact piece of text that was duplicated from the original page. If the stolen content is an image or a video, describe it as precisely as possible. After that, provide the URL with the original content and fill in the URL of stolen content.
Example of the description:
The cover of my published book “Book Title” and EspoCRM branding & logo are duplicated and used illegally. The infringement can be found at the website provided below.
5. Fill in the Sworn Statements section, check I’m not a robot checkbox, and click Submit.
The processing of complaints may take some time. However, you can track the current status of your complaint in the Google Removal Dashboard.