How to report copyright infringement online, platform by platform

Where do you report copyright infringement online?

To whoever hosts the copy. On a marketplace, use its intellectual property reporting route. On an independent website, report to the company that hosts the site. Where there's no form, send a DMCA notice to the provider's designated agent. Skip the support chat and the general contact form.

You'll know the loop. You find your product photo on a stranger's listing, open the help center, and end up in a chat asking for an order number. Infringement reports run on a separate track. Etsy, for one, sends notices to its Legal Response and Enforcement team, which checks each one against its policy (Etsy Help).

The Copyright Office says site-specific webforms may get faster processing than an emailed notice, and suggests searching a site for "DMCA" to find them. Our guide to where to report copies on each marketplace and the Takedown Routes Index list every route we've opened, with the date.

How do you report copyright infringement on each marketplace?

Each one has its own route. Etsy uses its Reporting Portal, eBay its VeRO Portal or a DMCA notice to its designated agent, Amazon its Report Infringement form, and Alibaba.com its IPP platform. Shopify takes copyright reports about stores it hosts through its DMCA form.

Etsy, Amazon and Alibaba.com all want an account before you can report. Set them up on a quiet day, so a sign-in screen isn't what stands between you and a report when a copy goes up.

Etsy's portal also lets you search Etsy with keywords related to your brand and add listings straight to a report (Etsy Reporting Portal). If Etsy is where your copies turn up, that search is worth a weekly look.

What do you need before you report?

Proof the work is yours, a link to your original, the exact URL of every copy, your contact details, and the statements a DMCA notice needs. Save a dated screenshot of each listing first. Once it's removed, that screenshot is your record of what it showed.

Ownership first. Copyright starts with the author (17 U.S.C. 201(a)), so photos a freelancer took are usually theirs unless they transferred them to you in writing. Who can send a notice, and when it's the wrong tool, is in what a DMCA notice is.

Then the details platforms reject reports for. Etsy's list includes a missing address or phone number, links to the seller's material where it asked for your own work, and shop names where it needs each listing's URL. Our guide to writing a DMCA takedown notice has a template with every element, and if the problem is your photos specifically, start with what to do when someone steals your product photos.

How do you report a copy on an independent website?

Report it to the company that hosts the site, through its abuse or copyright form or its designated agent. Never send it to the domain registrar, which can only suspend the whole domain. If the host won't act, a notice to Google can restrict the page in Google's own products.

1. Find the host. A WHOIS or hosting lookup usually names it. If the store runs on Shopify, use Shopify's DMCA form.
2. Find its designated agent. The Copyright Office says providers often post agent details in their terms of service, and registered agents are listed in its DMCA Designated Agent Directory.
3. Send the notice. Use the host's form if it has one. Otherwise email the agent.
4. Ask Google too. Google says it complies with DMCA notices and can restrict access to content in its products, but that the content may still exist elsewhere on the web. It wants the specific URLs and a separate notice for each product (Google Legal Help).

Hosts outside the US are the hard case. The Copyright Office says a provider anywhere is never obligated to comply, and suggests checking whether a foreign provider has a registered agent. If it ignores you, enforcement runs through the law of the country where the owners, the servers or the targeted users are, which means a local lawyer.

What does the US Copyright Office do, and what doesn't it?

The Copyright Office doesn't take down listings: you report the copy to the platform that hosts it, and the Office's directory tells you who receives notices there. It also registers copyrights, publishes sample notices, and houses the Copyright Claims Board for small claims.

Why the directory matters: the 512(c) safe harbor applies to a provider only if it has designated an agent, posted the details on its service and given them to the Copyright Office (17 U.S.C. 512(c)(2)). A site with no current entry is worth noting in your records. If you ever sue, your lawyer will want to know.

The Office's own answer to where a takedown notice goes is the provider's registered DMCA agent. Its general FAQ answers "Somebody infringed my copyright. What can I do?" with a civil lawsuit in federal court and advice to consult an attorney, adding that the U.S. Attorney may open a criminal investigation into willful infringement for profit (Copyright Office FAQ).

What happens after you report?

The platform reviews the report, removes the listing if it complies, and tells the seller. Etsy and Google both confirm receipt by email. The seller can send a counter-notice, which brings the listing back 10 to 14 business days after the platform receives it, unless you've filed a court action and told the platform.

Etsy shows each report's status in its portal and emails you the outcome (Etsy Help). Google sends a confirmation with a reference number and may write with questions. eBay says it checks reports are complete and may ask you for details. None of those pages gives a removal time, and the law only says expeditiously. How a DMCA takedown works covers the full sequence, and the counter-notice guide covers the window.

Expect some reports to become public. Google says it generally shares the requester's name, the rights holder's name and the reported URLs from certain removal notices with the Lumen research project, but never the contact fields.

Should you report it yourself or get help?

Report it yourself when there are a few copies on platforms you know. Get help when copies turn up every week across several sites, or when it stops being a form: a host abroad that ignores you, a counter-notice you want to fight, or a seller worth suing.

The Copyright Office says you don't need an attorney or anyone else to send a takedown notice, and that you can authorize an attorney or a takedown company if you'd rather not.

If the searching is what's eating your week, that's the job we built Brand Protection Tools for. It searches for copies of your products and photos, starting with Etsy and Alibaba.com, groups them by seller, and prepares each notice with its evidence and route once you confirm it. You file. How it works shows where the software stops.