The short answer
A DMCA notice is a written request, defined in 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3), asking a platform's designated agent to remove material that infringes a copyright. Only the copyright owner, or someone they authorize, can send a valid one. It covers copied photos, text and artwork, not trademarks, so a fake with its own photos usually needs a trademark complaint.
What is a DMCA notice?
It's a written request asking an online service to remove or disable material that infringes your copyright. The statute calls it a notification of claimed infringement, most people call it a takedown notice, and it goes to the provider's designated agent, usually through the platform's own form.
DMCA stands for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The part brands deal with is section 512 of the US Copyright Act, which the Copyright Office describes as a set of safe harbors: a marketplace or host that cooperates by removing infringing material expeditiously, and meets other conditions, is shielded from paying damages for its users' infringement. That's the platform's reason to act on your notice. What happens after you send one is in how a DMCA takedown works.
You'll usually meet the term the first time you report a copy and a help page asks whether your claim is copyright or trademark. Copyright is the DMCA side. eBay's and Amazon's copyright pages list the same core elements the law does.
What does a DMCA notice have to say?
Six things, in substance: your signature, the work that was copied, where the copy is, how to contact you, a good-faith statement that the use isn't authorized, and a statement that the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you're authorized to act for the owner.
Our guide to writing a DMCA takedown notice takes each element in turn, with a template for product photos. Two details catch people out.
What's under penalty of perjury. In the statute, only the statement that you're authorized to act sits under penalty of perjury; the accuracy statement doesn't (512(c)(3)(A)(vi)). Platforms can ask for more. eBay's VeRO page and Amazon's notice procedure both ask for a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate too. Write every notice as if all of it is sworn.
What a missing element does. A notice that fails to comply substantially may not count (512(c)(3)(B)). If it at least identifies the work, the copy and how to reach you, the Copyright Office says the platform has a duty to contact you, or take other reasonable steps, to get the rest.
Who can send a DMCA notice?
The owner of the copyright that's been infringed, or someone authorized to act for them, such as an attorney or a takedown company. The Copyright Office says you don't need to hire anyone. What you do need is to own the right, and with product photos that's the part to check.
Copyright starts with the author (17 U.S.C. 201(a)), and with a photo that's usually whoever pressed the shutter. Being in the picture doesn't make it yours: the Copyright Office says someone who appears in a photo they didn't take is most likely not the owner and couldn't send a takedown for it.
| Who took the photo | Who usually owns the copyright | Can you send the notice? |
|---|---|---|
| You | You | Yes |
| An employee, as part of their job | Your company: it's a work made for hire, so the employer counts as the author (101, 201(b)) | Yes, signed by someone authorized to act for the company |
| A freelance photographer | The photographer, unless they transferred the copyright in a signed writing (204(a)) | Yes with a signed transfer or exclusive license; otherwise ask the photographer to authorize you |
| Your supplier or factory | Whoever took it, often the supplier or its photographer | Check your agreement; otherwise ask the owner to act or to authorize you |
| A stock library | The photographer or the library | Not as owner: a nonexclusive license isn't a transfer of ownership (101) |
Check the freelancer row before you file. The notice says, under penalty of perjury, that you're authorized to act for the owner, so that statement has to be true on the day you sign it. The owner of a single exclusive right, such as an exclusive licensee, gets the owner's protection and remedies for that right (201(d)(2)).
When is a DMCA notice the wrong tool?
A DMCA notice protects the photos, text and artwork you made, so a fake shot with the seller's own camera is usually a trademark matter instead. It's also the wrong tool for brand names, copied product shapes, resellers of genuine goods, and anything you're not sure is yours.
| What you found | Better route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A fake with your logo, in the seller's own photos | The platform's trademark complaint | There's no copied photo to point to. Etsy says a trademark claim needs a valid, active, registered trademark (Etsy Help) |
| Your brand name in their title | The platform's trademark complaint | Copyright doesn't protect the name of a product or business (Circular 33) |
| Your product design, photographed by them | An IP lawyer | A useful article's design is protected only to the extent it has separable artistic features (101), and an idea never is (102(b)) |
| Your artwork printed on their product | A DMCA notice can fit | Pictorial and graphic works are among the works copyright protects (102(a)(5)) |
| Genuine items resold, or sold below your price | Usually nothing to report | eBay lists controlling resale and preventing sales below a price point as reasons not to report (eBay VeRO) |
| A listing on a site outside the US | The platform's own IP route | Responding to a DMCA notice is voluntary, and eBay sends non-US-site listings not sold to the US through its VeRO Portal |
| A photo you're not sure is yours | Nothing, until you're sure | Knowingly and materially misrepresenting infringement makes you liable for damages (512(f)) |
Before you decide a fake is trademark-only, look at every image on the listing. If even one is your photo, that image can carry a DMCA notice, and the fake itself can go in a trademark complaint. You'll sometimes find the seller shot the main image themselves and lifted your detail shots or size chart for the rest.
Does a DMCA notice work outside the US?
Sometimes. The DMCA is US law, and the Copyright Office says a provider anywhere is never obligated to comply; responding is voluntary. A site that targets US users may still respond to protect itself. Marketplaces also run their own IP routes, which cover more than US copyright.
The Copyright Office suggests checking whether a foreign provider has a registered agent in its DMCA Designated Agent Directory. If the provider doesn't respond, it says you may need enforcement under the law of the country where the site's owners are, where its servers are, or where it targets users. That's a job for a local lawyer.
Marketplaces make it easier. Etsy's Reporting Portal is in US English only but, Etsy says, accessible anywhere in the world (Etsy Help). eBay says the DMCA is a US statute, and that listings on a non-US site that aren't available to the US market go through its VeRO Portal instead. The Takedown Routes Index has the route for each marketplace, including Alibaba.com's IPP platform, which asks you to sign in first.
What are the risks of sending a DMCA notice?
Three are worth knowing. A knowing, material misrepresentation makes you liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees. The seller usually gets your contact details. And some notices are published: Google shares copies of certain removal requests with Lumen, a research database.
Misrepresentation. Section 512(f) covers damages suffered by the seller, a copyright owner or the platform when a removal relied on the misrepresentation (17 U.S.C. 512(f)). That claim can also be brought at the Copyright Claims Board, the Copyright Office's small-claims forum (17 U.S.C. 1504(c)(3)).
Your details. Etsy tells sellers whose listings were removed that they'll get an email with the contact information of the party who filed (Etsy Help). If that worries you, the Copyright Office says you can authorize an attorney or a takedown company to send the notice.
Publication. Google says it generally shares the requester's name, the rights holder's name and the reported URLs with Lumen, a project at Harvard Law School's Berkman Klein Center that publishes takedown requests. It never shares the contact fields.
None of this is a reason to hold back a notice for a photo that's plainly yours. It's a reason to check first.
How do you send a DMCA notice?
Use the platform's own IP form wherever it has one. If it doesn't, email the designated agent named on the site, often in its terms of service, or listed in the Copyright Office's directory. The Copyright Office says site-specific webforms may get faster processing.
For the platform-by-platform version, including web hosts and search engines, see how to report copyright infringement. For the wording, the notice-writing guide has a template you can paste into most forms.
If you're finding copies every week, the searching and paperwork are what a DMCA takedown service takes off you. Brand Protection Tools finds the listings, you confirm each one, and the notice comes ready to file with the evidence attached. You send it, because the statements in it are yours.
Questions people also ask
Is a DMCA notice the same as a takedown notice?
Yes. The statute calls it a notification of claimed infringement, and the Copyright Office notes it's often referred to as a takedown notice. A counter-notice is different: it's the seller's reply asking for the material to be put back, covered in our DMCA counter-notice guide.
Do I need a lawyer to send a DMCA notice?
No. The Copyright Office says you don't need an attorney or anyone else if you own the copyright or are authorized to act for the owner. Bring in a lawyer once it moves past the form: a counter-notice you want to fight, a lawsuit, a subpoena to identify a seller, or a cease-and-desist letter.
Can one DMCA notice cover lots of listings?
On one site, yes. If several of your works are copied on the same site, you can give a representative list of the works. You still have to identify each copy well enough for the platform to find it, which the Copyright Office says often means specific URLs. Etsy needs each listing's URL, not the shop name.
Should I contact the seller before sending a DMCA notice?
You can, and Etsy recommends trying to resolve it with the seller before you report. A short message can fix an honest mix-up, such as a reseller using photos from a supplier pack. For a plain copy of your photos, we'd skip it and report: the notice goes through the platform either way.
Can a DMCA notice get a page removed from Google?
From Google's own products, it can. Google says it complies with DMCA notices, asks for the specific URLs, and wants a separate notice for each product, such as Search. It can restrict access in its services, but the page may still exist on the site itself, so report to the host as well.
Does a DMCA notice work against a copied product design?
Usually not on its own. Copyright covers a useful article's design only to the extent it has artistic features that can be identified separately from its function, and it never covers an idea. Artwork printed on a product is different and can carry a notice. For copied shapes, talk to an IP lawyer.
Sources
- 17 U.S.C. 512, Limitations on liability relating to material online (Cornell LII), checked November 5, 2026
- 17 U.S.C. 201, Ownership of copyright (Cornell LII), checked November 5, 2026
- 17 U.S.C. 204, Execution of transfers of copyright ownership (Cornell LII), checked November 5, 2026
- 17 U.S.C. 101, Definitions: work made for hire, transfer of ownership, useful articles (Cornell LII), checked November 5, 2026
- 17 U.S.C. 102, Subject matter of copyright (Cornell LII), checked November 5, 2026
- 17 U.S.C. 1504, Copyright Claims Board: nature of proceedings (Cornell LII), checked November 5, 2026
- U.S. Copyright Office, Section 512 of Title 17 and notice-and-takedown FAQs, checked November 5, 2026
- U.S. Copyright Office, DMCA Designated Agent Directory, checked November 5, 2026
- U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 33: Works Not Protected by Copyright, checked November 5, 2026
- eBay Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program, checked November 5, 2026
- Amazon Conditions of Use: notice and procedure for claims of intellectual property infringement, checked November 5, 2026
- Etsy Help: Why Was My Notice of Infringement Rejected?, checked November 5, 2026
- Etsy Help: How to Report Intellectual Property Infringement, checked November 5, 2026
- Etsy Help: What to Do if You Receive a Notice of Intellectual Property Infringement, checked November 5, 2026
- Google Legal Help: About Lumen, checked November 5, 2026
- Google Legal Help: Report content for legal reasons, checked November 5, 2026
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About the author
Alex Wrexford writes about counterfeiting and the people who chase it, and is the author of The Takedown: Inside the Hunt for the World's Counterfeiters. More at alexwrexford.com. So you know: The Takedown is published by Verity Publishing, and this site is run by Verity AI Ltd.