The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (or DMCA) is an amendment to U.S. copyright law that was passed in 1998. It deals with three key areas in copyright law that had not previously been addressed:
- Providing legal protection for online service providers where the service users have engaged in copyright infringement
- Providing copyright holders with greater legal protections against unauthorized use in digital settings
- Making it illegal to provide false copyright information, as well as removing or altering such information
As part of the above, the DMCA created a formalized takedown and notification process for online copyright infringement cases. This can play out in a number of ways:
- If you use copyrighted materials online, you may receive a DMCA notice asking you to remove the work. You will need to comply, or risk legal action.
- If you have posted copyrighted materials to a third party, the online service provider may receive a DMCA notice asking for the work to be removed. In these instances, you will likely receive a notice from the service provider letting you know they received a takedown notice and have, therefore, removed the infringing work. They will typically provide you with the contact information of the rightsholder, so that you can connect directly with them should you have any questions.
- If you see that material for which you are the rightsholder has been put online without your permission, you can issue a takedown notice to the site. They will have to comply or you may take legal action.
- You will need to confirm under penalty of perjury that you are the exclusive rightsholder and provide direct links to the infringing materials. You will also need to cite that your takedown request is an official notification under Section 512(c) of the DMCA.
In all of these cases, the person or entity who received the takedown notice may issue a counter notice; however, they must still comply with the original takedown request until the situation has been remediated to the satisfaction of both parties.
Relatedly, Congress established the Copyright Claims Board (or CCB) in 2020 to help manage claims and counterclaims related to the above.
Refer to the DMCA page at Copyright.gov for additional information on DMCA.
