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Template/Toolkit

Form Takedown Notice

January 7, 2019

Under Section 512 of the Copyright Act, to take advantage of safe harbors that protect service providers from copyright infringement actions for materials they passively host or link to, any internet service provider that hosts or links to content that infringes copyrights must take down the infringing content if it receives a takedown notice from the copyright owner or an authorized party.

The service provider must post an email address to which takedown notices should be sent. The address usually can be found in the copyright policy or the general terms of service for the site. The big service providers like Google, Facebook, and Amazon have forms to fill out that ask for all required information.

Required Information

A takedown notice must have all of the information required under Section 512:

  1. The title/a description of the work infringed;
  2. An exact description of where the material about which you complain is located (ie. the URL);
  3. Your address, telephone number, and email address;
  4. A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  5. A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner of the copyright interest involved or are authorized to act on behalf of that owner; and
  6. Your electronic or physical signature.

Form Takedown Notice

You can use our form takedown notice below to make sure you include all of the required information:

Dear _________,

I am the author of the book(s) noted below. It has come to my attention that, without permission from either me or my publisher _________ [insert name], you are making my book(s) available to read and/or download on your website _________ [insert URL]. Please remove my book(s) from that site and any other website(s) owned or controlled by you.

My book(s) is/are entitled: [list all books made available for reading on or downloading from either site without permission]

They are located at the following URLs on your site: [provide URL for each book]

My contact information is: [insert address, telephone number, and email address]

I attest under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and further that the information in this notification is accurate, and that I am the copyright owner.

Electronic signature: [provide e-signature or type name]