Reacting to a Copyright Violation of Your Content or Photos

Heads up to the genealogy community - here's what to do if you are a victim of a copyright violation of your photos or articles.

1. Contact Site Owners

If there is no contact information on the site check their WhoIs information. There is an article outlining how to write such an initial take-down letter at Lorelle

In the one and only email I send to a person who uses my content without my permission, I give 24 hours as the timeline in which such articles must be removed or a fee for the use of the article/photo must be paid to me. 

I make it clear to the webmaster that if one of these actions is not take when the 24 hour deadline rolls around, I will file a DMCA notice with his webhost, any ad services he uses such as Google AdSense and feed services if they are used. And I do it. I don't hesitate, I don't give second chances, I file the DMCA notice. I then copy the webmaster on my filing of the notice.  



2. Contact the Host of the Site

Here is an example email to send:

To whom it may concern

You are the hosting company for [name of site] 

[name of site] is using my copyrighted material (writing and images) without my permission. My work is at [name of your own site]

Kindly see that [name of site] remove *all* my blog posts, images, and     articles from their site or shut them down completely.  

3. File a Policy Violation Complaint with Google

File a Policy Violation complaint with Google if the site has Google ads. Google will pull their ads if a site violates their rules so at least you can hit the offenders in the pocketbook with your complaint.

4. File a DMCA Complaint

You can also file a DMCA Complaint  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that helps stop copyright infringement on the Internet. There is a DMCA generator you can use if you are not sure how to do this.


If you want to learn more about copyright in the USA and Canada, see US Copyright Office and Canada Intellectual Property Office