Copyright Law and SEO Part 3

Sample DMCA Notifications, in HTML and MS Word Format.

DMCA Notification Criteria

A Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notification must contain certain information legally, and each ISP and Search Engine has slightly different rules as to what they accept and how they accept it. Since it is a legal document, not only is the content very important, but also the manner of delivery. When you are using the templates below, pay careful attention to the delivery method and signature requirements – they are different for each company.

You can Download a PDF version of the DMCA from the Library of Congress website and look at the information yourself. Another excellent resource is the Chilling Effects website.

If you haven’t already, I also suggest you also read the first 2 parts to this series:

• Copyright Law and SEO Part 1
• Copyright Law and SEO Part 2

In general, you need to:

• Send the notification to the correct party.
• Send it using the correct delivery method (ie fax, email, registered mail).
• Clearly identify the date and jurisdiction (your location).
• Clearly identify yourself and your website.
• Clearly identify the copyright violator.
• Clearly outline the copyright violations using searches, screenshots, and so forth.
• Demand removal of the offending material.
• Attest that you are the owner of the copyright and send it’s registration (if you registered it).

Sample DMCA Template Forms

Search Engines

Google DMCA – MS Word Document (32k)

MSN DMCA – MS Word Document (32k)

Yahoo DMCA – MS Word Document (32k)

Other Parties

ISP DMCA – MS Word Document (38k)

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