---
title: "What is a DMCA notice?"
term: "DMCA notice"
description: "A copyright takedown notice under US law that obliges a qualifying service provider to remove the material or lose its liability shield."
aliases: ["DMCA takedown", "section 512 notice"]
category: "Legal instruments"
canonical: "https://fraudox.com/glossary/dmca-notice"
publisher: "Fraudox"
publisher_url: "https://fraudox.com"
license: "Free to quote with attribution to the canonical URL."
---

# What is a DMCA notice?

**DMCA notice.** A copyright takedown notice under US law that obliges a qualifying service provider to remove the material or lose its liability shield.

*Also known as: DMCA takedown, section 512 notice.*

The DMCA covers copyright, and only copyright. It is the right instrument when an infringing page has copied a brand's photographs, code, or written content, which phishing clones almost always have. It is the wrong instrument for a trademark complaint, and filing it as one is a common reason a notice is rejected.

A valid notice has required elements: identification of the copyrighted work, identification of the infringing material and where it sits, contact details, a good-faith statement that the use is unauthorised, and a statement of accuracy made under penalty of perjury. The last one is why a DMCA notice is signed by a person, not generated by a tool.

Its force comes from the safe-harbour bargain. A qualifying provider that removes the material expeditiously keeps its protection from liability; one that ignores a valid notice risks losing it. That is what turns a request into something a provider acts on.

The recipient may forward a counter-notice from the person who posted the material, which can restore it unless court proceedings follow. In practice fraudulent operators rarely counter-notice, because doing so means identifying themselves and accepting jurisdiction.

## Getting it removed

Fraudox handles this as [stolen content removal](https://fraudox.com/stolen-content-takedown): Your own work reposted or resold without permission. This is the copyright track, so it moves on DMCA notices rather than abuse reports, and an individual creator can use it without owning a trademark.

## Related terms

- [Takedown](https://fraudox.com/glossary/takedown): The process of getting infringing or malicious content removed by the party that controls it, and confirming it is actually gone.
- [Abuse report](https://fraudox.com/glossary/abuse-report): A formal complaint to a hosting provider, registrar or platform asking them to act on content that violates their own terms.
- [Content theft](https://fraudox.com/glossary/content-theft): Publishing someone else's work as your own, or giving away work they charge for. Unlike impersonation, the claim is on the material rather than the identity.

*Canonical version: https://fraudox.com/glossary/dmca-notice. Part of the [Fraudox brand protection glossary](https://fraudox.com/glossary).*

---

Published by Fraudox (https://fraudox.com), a brand protection takedown service that
removes phishing sites, impersonating pages, fake social accounts, counterfeit apps,
scam domains and stolen content, and bills only for confirmed removals.