When not to send a DMCA Take Down Notice:

1. Take a deep breath. Your first action should always be to contact the infringer directly. The infringer is someone who already proved that they love your work by copying it. Now, simply ask them to either purchase the logo or to remove it from their web site. Mention that you would be willing to make changes to the logo for them, as you normally would when someone purchases your logo on LogoGround. Give them a link to the logo on LogoGround, in case they no longer remember where they copied it from.
2. You can only send a DMCA take down notice if you are the legal copyright holder of the work in question, or if you have been authorized to act on behalf of the legal copyright holder.
3. In some cases the infringement might be beneficial to you. For example, if the infringer is not attempting to sell your logo and provides a link to the logo here on LogoGround, the extra exposure could be worth allowing the infringement. Your call.
4. Allow "fair use". For example, a teacher may legally use your logo as part of a presentation to her class about graphic design.

Remember, when you send a DMCA notice you are initiating a legal process. Do it as a last resort, make sure that you have the facts straight and make sure that the information you provide in the DMCA notice is 100% accurate.

DMCA Take Down Notice Example:

(Replace the parts in green with your own information. If you are reporting more than one infringement, you may list them all in one DMCA notice, each with the full URL's of both the infringing image and the original.)

DMCA Take Down Notice
Re: Copyright Infringement
Att: Hosting Company Name

I am the copyright owner of the design being infringed at:
Full URL of the image file, not the page on which the image appears.

The original work may be viewed at:
Full URL of the image file on LogoGround, not the page on which the image appears.

This letter is official notification under the provisions of Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) to effect removal of the reported infringement(s). I request that you promptly remove the infringing content and prevent the infringer from posting the infringing content to your servers in future.

I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion is not authorized by me, the copyright holder, or by applicable law. Under penalty of perjury I certify that the information provided here is accurate and that I am the copyright holder.

Please contact me to indicate the actions you have taken to resolve this matter.

Sincerely,

/s/ Your Full Name (Underlined and with the "/s/" in front)
Your Full Name again
Your contact information

 

Where to send your DMCA take down notice

Send your DMCA take down notice to the company hosting the infringing content. To determine who the host is, use a service like whoishostingthis.com or perform a WHOIS search where the name servers will often give an indication of who the hosting company is. Visit that hosting company's web site. Some of the larger hosting companies have a special form for submitting DMCA notices. If they do not, send your DMCA notice through their regular contact form or email it to them if they provide an email address.

 

Paying someone else to send DMCA notices:

In our experience, sending a DMCA notice is not particularly time consuming. Doing it yourself saves you money, it empowers you and you get the assurance that the DMCA notice is done right. We once paid for a DMCA to be sent and the agent mistakenly thought that the logo on our site was the copy and that the copied logo was the original. Fortunately we spotted this error right before the agent sent the notice to our hosting company!

 

If you have questions/comments about copyright and DMCA notices you are welcome to discuss it in the designer forum.