Duplicate content is terrible for your website. It can rank higher on Google searches, which can lead to traffic being stolen from you, and it can also result in a Google penalty that can reduce your rank further and make you look like the bad person. Content theft is rife on the internet. Sometimes it’s just a misunderstanding of the rights of the user. Some think they can use any content on the internet without permission. With others, it is pure laziness, they want the content but don’t want to create it themselves.

Another option is that the owner has bought content from a third party, who has then copied the content and passed it off as their own work. However, it isn’t the third party who is responsible, under DCMA laws, the website owner is responsible.

There are ways that you can prevent this from happening. Apps, like this one, can prevent people from copying content on your Shopify store, ensuring compliance with Shopify’s legal and compliance standards. That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, however. There are still ways to copy the content, it just prevents those with less intuition and motivation from copying content.

However, you can send DCMA notices to those who have stolen content from you.

Key Takeaways
1
A DCMA Notice is a legal tool to request content removal from websites that have stolen your content.
2
Include specific details in your DCMA Notice: your website, original and copied content URLs, site name, and contact details.
3
If initial notice fails, escalate to the hosting company or make a DCMA claim for further action.

What is a DCMA Notice?

A DCMA notice is an official note for the person who has stolen the content to remove the content from their website. It is a legal notice that can be acted upon. You will find that many website owners will respond and take the content down. If they don’t, sending the notice to the hosting company can also have the desired effect. Finally, you can actually make a claim through DCMA.

What to Write in the DCMA Notice

There are several things that you need to include in the DCMA notice. The list includes:

  • Your website.
  • The URL for the original content.
  • The URL for the copied content.
  • Their site name.
  • A reminder they didn’t seek permission.
  • Contact details.
  • A notification that you can take them to court over the action.

An Example of the Content

Here is an example of the email you can send to those who are using your content without permission.

Subject: DMCA Takedown Request

Dear Website Owner,

We note that your website, [name of website], seems to be using content that was originally published and is owned by our company, [name of company]. This was done without permission from our website management team. The original content is:

  • List original content in URL format

The corresponding copied content is:

  • List copied content in URL format

You have not received permission to publish this content on your [site name/URL] by the copyright holder, their agent or the law. Therefore, we request that you remove the content as quickly as possible and refrain from publishing further content that can be attributed in any form to our website without our written permission.

Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the information contained in this notification is accurate and that I am authorized to act on the behalf of the exclusive rights holder for the material in question.

You can contact us here [contact details].

If this does not work, you can use the WhoIs Database to find the ‘abuse email’ to contact or try their hosting provider.