How to report copyright infringement

Reporting copyright infringement, step by step

1. Establish where the material is. Identify whether it sits on a platform, on someone's own website, or only in search results. The answer decides who you report to.
2. Document your original. Capture publication dates, drafts, version history, licences and invoices. Evidence of ownership is what every route eventually asks for.
3. Record the infringing URLs. List exact addresses, with screenshots and archive snapshots. Pages change, and a complaint about a page that has already changed goes nowhere.
4. Choose the recipient. The platform for uploads it controls, the hosting provider to take a page offline, Google to remove a URL from search results, or the site owner directly.
5. Submit through the official channel. Use the recipient's own reporting form where one exists. Free-text emails to generic addresses are the slowest route and are often unmonitored.
6. Track what happened. Keep the reference numbers and dates, re-check the URLs, and watch for the material reappearing at a new address.

Start by deciding what outcome you want

"Report copyright infringement" describes at least four different actions with four different results. Being clear about the outcome you want makes the rest of the decision straightforward:

The third row is the one most often misunderstood. Reporting to Google removes a search listing. It does not remove the content, does not affect other search engines, and does not stop anyone reaching the page directly. If the copy needs to be gone rather than merely hidden, Google is at best half the job. What Google removal actually does.

Document the original first

Every route eventually asks the same question: can you show the work is yours? Assemble that before you file anything, while it is easy:

• The original file, at full resolution, with its metadata intact where relevant.
• Publication dates — your own CMS records, version history, or an independent archive snapshot.
• Drafts and working files, which are hard to fabricate after the fact and persuasive because of it.
• Commissioning emails, contracts, invoices or licences if the work was produced for you or by you for someone else.
• Registration details if the work is registered in a jurisdiction that offers it.

If a photographer, agency or freelancer produced the work, check who actually holds the rights before you assert that you do. Assumption is a poor basis for a statement made under penalty of perjury.

Capture the infringing pages properly

Record exact URLs — the specific page or file address, not the domain. For each one, take a dated screenshot showing the material in context, and save an independent archive snapshot so the timestamp is not one you control. Note what is actually there: a verbatim copy, a partial reproduction, a rewritten version, or a hotlink to your own file, because those are materially different claims.

Check the pages still show the material immediately before you file. Notices about material that has already gone are declined, and a pattern of them makes your next filing less credible.

Route one: the platform

If the material sits on a service that hosts user uploads, that service has a copyright reporting process and it is nearly always the fastest route. Use the dedicated form rather than a support ticket. Platform outcomes can go further than removal alone — strikes, monetisation changes and account restrictions are platform policy rather than copyright law, and they vary.

Route two: the hosting provider

For material on someone's own website, the host is the party who can take it offline. Identify the host from a WHOIS or DNS lookup, then find its designated agent or abuse contact — most publish one, and US providers are required to designate one to keep their safe harbour.

Be aware that a host acts on the file or the page, and occasionally on the whole account. That is a blunter instrument than a platform takedown, which is worth weighing if the site also contains material you have no complaint about.

Route three: Google Search

Google accepts copyright removal requests through its own forms, reachable via its legal troubleshooter, which routes you to the correct product. Google reviews requests and publishes most of them in its Transparency Report, which is the record a DMCA check reads.

What you should expect: URL-level delisting where the request is accepted, no action where it is not, and a public record either way listing you as the reporting organisation. What you should not expect: the page disappearing, or any effect on other search engines.

Route four: the site owner

Often the fastest and least adversarial option, and the one people skip. A short, specific, polite message naming the URL and the original resolves a large share of cases — particularly with small sites, individuals, and anyone who copied without thinking rather than as a business model. It also leaves room for outcomes a takedown cannot produce, such as attribution, a link, or a paid licence.

Keep it factual. Asserting infringement in strong terms before you have checked the facts is how people end up in an argument about their own conduct rather than the copy.

Filing a formal notice

Whichever recipient you choose, a formal notice has expected contents, and getting them right is the difference between action and a decline. The annotated DMCA takedown notice template walks through each field, and the takedown process overview explains what happens after you file.

Track what happened

Reporting is not the end of it. Keep reference numbers and submission dates, re-check the URLs after a week, and watch for the material reappearing at a new address — persistent copying moves rather than stops. If you filed with Google, your request should appear in the public record in due course, which gives you an independent confirmation that it landed.

A note on what this site does: DMCA Detector reads Google's public copyright-removal records for a domain. It does not submit complaints on your behalf, does not crawl the web looking for copies of your work, and is not a law firm.

This guide is for informational purposes and is not legal advice.

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Last reviewed 2026-08-31.