Takedown Notices
Draft a DMCA or EU Digital Services Act notice that asks a website to remove leaked copies of your work.
A takedown notice asks a website or hosting service to remove copies of your work that were shared without your permission. Once you've traced a leak with Leak tracing, Imprint can draft the notice for you from a few details you enter.
This is not legal advice. Imprint drafts the notice from what you enter. Check that it fits your situation before you send it, and ask a lawyer if you're unsure.
🚀 Starting a Notice
You can open the notice form from two places:
- A lookup result: click Draft a takedown notice on the result page of a finished lookup.
- An order page: in the Leak Lookups section, click Draft a takedown notice. See Managing Orders.
The Title of the work is filled in for you, from the product of the traced download (or the order's first product). You fill in the rest. The link at the top takes you back to the lookup or order you came from.
🧩 Choosing the Notice Type
Under Notice type, pick which law the notice cites:
- United States: DMCA (the default): for websites and hosting services based in the United States, and for platforms that name a DMCA agent, as most large ones do.
- European Union: Digital Services Act: for hosting services that offer their service in the EU, such as file hosts, marketplaces and social networks, especially when they have no DMCA process.
✍️ Filling In the Form
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Title of the work | The name of your product. Required. |
| Where you sell it | Optional. The page where customers can buy the original. |
| Copyright owner | The person or company that owns the copyright, usually you or your business. Required. |
| Web addresses of the copies | One full web address per line, up to 50. List the exact pages or download links, not just the website. Required. |
| Your name and Email | Your contact details. Required. |
| Postal address | Required for a DMCA notice, optional for a Digital Services Act notice. |
| Phone | Optional. |
| Signature | Type your full name. It serves as your electronic signature. Required. |
Finally, tick the box confirming that the information is accurate and that you own the copyright or are authorized to act for its owner, then click Draft notice.
A DMCA notice includes a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you own the copyright or may act for its owner. Only send it when that's true.
🔒 What the Notice Never Includes
- No customer data. The notice never includes your customer's name or email, the order number or the copy codes. The site only needs to know where the copies are. Keep that evidence for yourself.
- Nothing is saved. Imprint doesn't store what you enter. Copy or download your notice before you leave the page.
- English only. The notice is always written in English, whatever language Imprint is shown in.
📨 Copying and Sending the Notice
Your drafted notice appears under Your notice:
- Copy: copies the text, ready to paste into an email or a form.
- Download .txt: saves the notice as a text file.
Read it through first. To change a detail, edit the form and click Draft notice again.
Then send it to the website's copyright or abuse contact, or paste it into its takedown form. Most sites name a copyright agent (often called a DMCA agent), an abuse address or a takedown form in their terms or help pages. Keep a copy of what you sent and when.
🔗 Related Pages
- Leak Tracing: find out whose copy a leaked file is.
- Copy Tracking: copy codes, licence codes and the Download Log.
- Tracing Marks: hide the copy code in every PDF download.