Google DMCA Takedown

One day I’m reviewing hosting solutions outside of DMCA coverage, then the next, we’re looking at ways you can have other people’s content taken down for infringing on your copyright. It should be clear that using DMCA takedowns for anything other than their intended purposes can land you in a heap of trouble, so unless you have valid DMCA concerns, skip this entire section and thank me later for saving your ass. You can straight up get your ass sued if you file false DMCA takedown requests. They ain’t playing. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you must, but I believe that the whole reason DMCA was created in the first place was so that the big corporations could protect their assets from even the smallest form of piracy.

So, how does Google factor into all of this? Well, they don’t, not directly at least. If someone’s infringing on your copyright, you should be taking action against them now and you’re certainly welcome to. You can get a lawyer and sue their asses for damages. But, that’s not what this review is about. This review is focused on the Google tool that allows you to request that infringing pages and sometimes even entire sites get delisted from Google’s results on account of proof of copyright infringement. In other words, if a fellow webmaster is stealing from you, you can request that his site be removed from Google results permanently. Isn’t that neat?

Why Use Google’s DMCA Notice

It’s pretty darn simple. Google accounts for most initial web traffic on the web. Sure, people will bookmark sites that they like and keep coming back to them, but unique visits are key. You want to scoop people up for the first time, so to speak. Then, you want to reign them in. If you’ve got quality content that you’re paying for and someone is stealing it from you, well, they forfeit their right to their SERP rating. That’s your potential and you’ll be damned if you’re going to stand by and watch while some other yahoo is making money off of your hard work.

That’s where this tool comes in handy. You can notify Google of this thievery in progress and take back what’s yours. It’s not like Google can magically funnel the traffic you lost back to you, but at least you’ll know you plugged up the hole or bandaged the wound. As for how these incidents can happen, well, there are a lot of ways. It is primarily your responsibility to protect your copyrighted materials and I’m sure that you’re already doing a fine job. Hell, the average porn tube uses an embedded player that streams the content through from a source server, encrypted and protected. That way, your videos can’t get downloaded from your site, if that’s not a service that you offer.

But, people can get really innovative when they’re greedy. They will straight up use screen recording software to rip you off for entire fucking videos. I’ve seen this happen to other webmasters. It will inevitably happen to you. Now, if you’re streaming content through an affiliate offer, this isn’t that much of a problem. If they can steal it from you, they can steal it from somewhere else. Hell, you can’t even prove they got it from you to begin with. But, if we’re talking about original content that you produce, well, that’s a different story entirely. You need to be extra vigilant in that case.

Protecting Original Content

Let me be very clear about this: If you are producing original content and selling it for a profit, for the love of God, get a legal team. Cover your spread of protection beyond just DMCA takedowns. No amount of DMCA requests is going to protect you as much as having a robust legal set-up in advance. Now, if you’re just filming videos out of your basement, maybe you can’t afford a legal team. I get it. But, if your operation’s that small, migrate to a third-party marketplace like OnlyFans. That way, the DMCA takedowns are their responsibility, not yours.

On the other hand, if you’re actually making money hand over fist on your own website, well, you have no excuse. The Google DMCA tool, along with other takedown requests, comes into play after you’ve already been burned. They’re basically damage control. Granted, they matter a lot and I’m grateful we have them, but still, you should make efforts to protect yourself in advance. You should also look into advanced technological approaches to editing your video content in such a way that when it gets ripped off, it’s clear that it’s still yours. There are many ways to make this happen, including hidden watermarks, for example.

How to Use the Tool

Ok, let’s dig into the meat of this whole report page. It’s a lot to take in at first. Starting from the top, you’ll notice that you can either fill in your personal information or submit a form in lieu of a content creator that you represent. If you’re not someone’s lawyer, you don’t care about this part. If you are, you should probably already know what to do. They teach you this legalese in school. I’ll assume you’re running your operation under a company, but you can also submit a takedown request as an individual. It doesn’t make much of a difference, as far as I know; as long as the information is accurate, you do indeed have the intellectual property rights.

Beyond the standard personal information, you’ll see a few blank text boxes that you need to cram full of specific information on the kinds of infringement that are taking place. Make sure to only report one website per form. This isn’t a wishing well. The clearer you are; the likelier Google will be to take you seriously.

Once you’ve figured out all the specifics, fill in the appropriate data. Ideally, you’ll need a link that leads straight to the content that was stolen from you, on the infringing site. This is great if your smut gets re-uploaded, but what if they’re hiding it, like say, behind a paywall? Well, you’re kind of fucked. I think that you should still submit the request, but make it as clear as possible that the content isn’t publically accessible; rather, it’s being used commercially. Try to find evidence and present it in such a way that it’s undeniable.

Get a Lawyer

Google’s own advice on the top of the page with the DMCA takedown request tool says that you should talk to a lawyer first. Specifically, they insist that you need a lawyer to tell you whether you’re eligible for a DMCA takedown request in the first place. They also mention some random example that they didn’t cite directly, about some company that lost over $100,000 in damages on account of a bad takedown request that they weren’t privy to.

As is the case with all legalese, you could be fucked even if you didn’t do anything wrong. I mean, I can see how you should be fucked if you file false reports, but if you’re telling the truth, surely there’s nothing to worry about, right? Wrong. If you pick a fight with the wrong webmaster over content they stole from you, there’s still enough legal space for them to fight back and make you out to be the bad guy. This is why I think you need to get a lawyer before you opt to use this tool.

If you’re the kind of crazy person who throws caution to the wind and urinates against the current, fuck it, use the tool yourself without a lawyer. But, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Fucking around with DMCA takedowns is not going to be a fun time. I’ll tell you that much. You also have to consider that sometimes it might be worth leaving well enough alone, if some random nobody stole one bit of content from you that isn’t exactly damaging your profits. Try to think of this tool as something you go to during a high-level emergency. It shouldn’t be a part of your daily kit, by any means.

Food for Thought

If you’re hell-bent on not getting a lawyer, then dive headfirst into learning about how DMCA works. Be warned; you’ll have to sift through a lot of legalese. Try to find a porn webmaster on a forum that’s been through this nonsense before and get some insider advice. Also, make sure that the advice you’re following is recent. At the end of the day, getting Google to remove some content thief’s page from their results page isn’t going to destroy them permanently or guarantee that other webmasters won’t try to steal your content. So, what I’m saying is, don’t be trigger happy just because you can.