In the digital age, copyright infringement is a prevalent issue where individuals often reproduce and present content as their own without crediting the original creator.
In such instances, you retain the right to have the appropriated content removed by sending a formal copyright notice. By submitting a DMCA takedown request to Google, you can request the removal of the content from their search results. This action diminishes the visibility of the copied material, safeguarding your original work.
Therefore, understanding what the DMCA entails is essential.
Introduction to DMCA
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as defined by Wikipedia, is a copyright law enacted in 1998 in the United States to enforce two treaties from the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1996.
Under this legislation, if your content or product has been unlawfully copied, you possess the right to issue a legal notice and have the material removed from search engine results. Utilizing the DMCA is a fundamental method for upholding your intellectual property rights.
Now, to discern which platforms have replicated your content, what steps can you take?
Utilize Plagiarism Detection Tools
An array of plagiarism detection tools exists to identify duplicated or plagiarized content across the internet. Personally, I recommend using the Copyscape website, a complimentary tool that reveals websites infringing on your content.
CopyScape not only compiles a list of the offending websites but also highlights the copied sections and provides a percentage of the plagiarism detected, facilitating easy identification of the replicated content.
To conduct a search, simply input your blog’s URL into the search field and initiate the query. The tool will analyze the web and present you with matches found.
You can proceed by copying the URL of the content you wish to report to a notepad file and submitting a DMCA notice through Google to remove the post from Google Search. Provide the original source URL and the copied content to Google for review. This process typically takes about a week.
How to submit a DMCA notice to Google?
Step 1: Search for “remove content from Google” in Google search to access the legal help page. Select the Google search option to proceed.
Step 2: Choose the “intellectual property issue” option.
Step 3: Select the copyright infringement option and indicate whether you are the copyright owner or submitting on behalf of someone else.
Step 4: Click on “create request” and fill in details such as Name, company name (Blog Name), Country, etc.
Step 5: Briefly describe the incident in the first box. Paste your blog URL in the 2nd box and the copyrighted blog URL in the 3rd box.
Step 6: Accept the terms & conditions, sign the document, and submit it for approval.
After successfully submitting the DMCA notice, you can track the status by visiting the Google DMCA dashboard.
This guide aims to assist you in sending a DMCA takedown request effectively on Google. If you have found this information useful, feel free to share it on social media to help others learn about the process.
