DMCA policy: what it is, and a template for your website

What a DMCA policy is, and who needs one

It matters if users upload to your site: comments, forum posts, reviews, listings, images or files. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c), it's part of how you avoid liability for their infringement.

The page alone protects nothing. The safe harbour depends on what you do: register the agent, act on notices, terminate repeat infringers. Skip to the template.

What the § 512(c) safe harbour requires

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512, a provider storing material at a user's direction is shielded from monetary liability for it only if every one of these holds. Tick off what your site does.

Following the § 512(g) counter-notice procedure also protects you from your own users' claims over material you took down in good faith. The template builds it in.

Registering a DMCA agent with the Copyright Office

Per the Office's DMCA directory page and FAQ at the time of writing:

The directory is public. A role title and a dedicated mailbox like copyright@yourdomain keep a person's name and inbox out of it. The Office warns that a lapsed designation risks losing the § 512 safe harbour, so put the expiry in a calendar too.

DMCA policy template

Replace everything in square brackets and keep the agent details identical to your Copyright Office registration. The numbered sections follow the statute, so don't drop one unless you know what it does.

DMCA and Copyright Policy

Last updated: [date]

[Site or company name] ("we", "us") respects the intellectual property
rights of others and expects users of [website URL] (the "Service") to
do the same. This policy explains how we respond to notices of claimed
copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
17 U.S.C. § 512.

1. Designated agent

Send notices of claimed infringement, and counter-notifications, to our
designated agent:

[Agent name or title, e.g. Copyright Agent]
[Company legal name]
[Street address]
[City, state or region, postcode, country]
Telephone: [telephone number]
Email: [e.g. [email protected]]

Our designated agent is registered with the US Copyright Office.
Notices sent to any other address may not be processed.

2. Notices of claimed infringement

To be effective, your notice must be in writing and include
substantially the following:

(a) a physical or electronic signature of a person authorised to act on
    behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly
    infringed;
(b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been
    infringed or, if multiple works on the Service are covered by a
    single notice, a representative list of those works;
(c) identification of the material claimed to be infringing that is to
    be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information
    reasonably sufficient for us to locate it, such as the exact URL of
    each item;
(d) your name, postal address, telephone number and, if available,
    email address;
(e) a statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the
    material in the manner complained of is not authorised by the
    copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
(f) a statement that the information in the notice is accurate and,
    under penalty of perjury, that you are authorised to act on behalf
    of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

If a notice identifies the work, the material and your contact details
but is missing other elements, we will contact you to ask for them.

3. What we do when we receive a notice

When we receive a notice that substantially complies with section 2, we
will remove or disable access to the material expeditiously and take
reasonable steps promptly to notify the user who posted it. We may
send a copy of the notice, including the contact details in it, to that
user. [We may also send a copy to the Lumen database
(lumendatabase.org), which publishes notices.]

4. Counter-notification

If you believe material you posted was removed or disabled as a result
of mistake or misidentification, you may send our designated agent a
written counter-notification that includes substantially the
following:

(a) your physical or electronic signature;
(b) identification of the material that has been removed or disabled
    and the location at which it appeared before it was removed or
    disabled;
(c) a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith
    belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of
    mistake or misidentification of the material; and
(d) your name, address and telephone number, and a statement that you
    consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the
    judicial district in which your address is located or, if your
    address is outside the United States, for any judicial district in
    which [Company legal name] may be found, and that you will accept
    service of process from the person who provided the original notice
    or that person's agent.

When we receive a valid counter-notification, we will promptly send a
copy to the person who submitted the original notice and tell them that
we will restore the material in 10 business days. We will restore the
material not less than 10 and not more than 14 business days after we
receive the counter-notification, unless our designated agent first
receives notice that the person who submitted the original notice has
filed an action seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in
infringing activity relating to the material on the Service.

5. Repeat infringers

We will, in appropriate circumstances, terminate the accounts of users
who are repeat infringers. [Describe your rule, e.g.: An account that is
the subject of [three] valid notices within [twelve] months, none of
which is resolved by a successful counter-notification, will be
terminated.] We may also remove material or restrict accounts at our
discretion.

6. Misrepresentation

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), any person who knowingly materially
misrepresents that material is infringing, or that it was removed or
disabled by mistake or misidentification, may be liable for damages,
including costs and attorneys' fees. If you are not sure whether
material infringes your copyright, consider taking legal advice before
sending a notice.

7. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is
always available at [policy URL].

Filling it in

• Match the agent details to your registration. A mismatch confuses senders.
• Write a repeat-infringer rule you'll enforce. The statute wants one "reasonably implemented"; a rule you never apply works against you.
• Decide on Lumen. Sharing notices with Lumen is optional; delete the bracketed sentence if you won't.
• Make it findable. Link it from your footer and terms, and tell users about the repeat-infringer policy at sign-up, as § 512(i) requires.
• It isn't a copyright notice. The "© [year] [owner]" footer line is a different thing: see website copyright notices.

What to do when a notice arrives

1. Log it: date, sender, URLs and work claimed, for repeat-infringer counts and disputes.
2. Check it against the notice requirements. If it has the work, material and contact details but lacks something else, promptly ask for the rest (§ 512(c)(3)(B)(ii)).
3. Act expeditiously. There's no fixed number of hours; don't let it sit.
4. Tell the user promptly and send them the notice so they can respond.
5. Run any counter-notice on the clock: forward it to the sender, then restore 10–14 business days after receipt unless told a lawsuit has been filed. See the counter-notice timeline.
6. Apply your repeat-infringer rule and record it.

Do you need a DMCA policy if your site has no user content?

Strictly, no. § 512(c) covers material stored "at the direction of a user", so it won't shield content you publish yourself. A brochure site, portfolio or comment-free blog needs only a copyright notice and a contact address. The exception is a site that links to or indexes others' material, such as a search engine or directory: § 512(d) also requires a designated agent.

A clear contact route still helps. A rights holder who can reach you may come to you before your host or Google, which is usually quicker to sort out. If a request does reach Google Search, a DMCA check shows it.

FAQs

Keep reading

• What is the DMCA?
• DMCA notice requirements
• DMCA counter-notice timeline
• Website copyright notice: format and footer examples
• How to find a website's hosting provider for a DMCA notice