dmca_takedown_workflow v1.0.0

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name: dmca_takedown_workflow description: "Handle copyright takedowns both ways under the DMCA: file a complete notice with the six elements 17 USC 512(c)(3) requires, triage a notice you received, file or answer a counter notification, track the 10 to 14 business day restore window, and keep a case ledger that holds up in a repeat dispute. Use when content was removed for copyright, when someone copied your work on YouTube, Meta, TikTok, X, or a hosted site, or when a strike or removal notice lands and a deadline is running."

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DMCA Takedown Workflow

Purpose

Run a copyright takedown case from first screenshot to final outcome, on either side of the notice. The filer side gets a notice that a platform can act on the first time. The receiver side gets a calm triage that separates a valid claim from a mistake, picks between retraction, counter notification, and leaving the material down, and never misses the restore window. Both sides share one ledger and one evidence folder, so a repeat dispute starts from records, not memory.

This skill covers the United States DMCA process in 17 USC 512. It is a workflow, not legal advice. Escalate to a copyright attorney when money, a lawsuit, or an account that earns income is on the line.

Workflow

1. Triage the direction and the clock

• Decide which side you are on before drafting anything: filing a notice, or responding to one you received. The forms, statements, and risks are different in each direction.

• Read the actual notice or platform email in full. Copy out the platform, the exact URLs, the claimant or reporter name, the date, any case or reference number, and any deadline the platform states. Platform stated dates control in practice.

• Tell a takedown apart from lookalike events. On YouTube, a Content ID claim is not a DMCA removal. On marketplaces and social apps, a trademark or policy removal is not a copyright takedown. The counter notification path in this skill applies only to copyright removals under 512.

• Open a case in the ledger in references/templates-and-ledger.md on day one, one row per URL, and start the evidence folder the same day. Screenshots taken a week later are worth less.

2. Filing side: build a notice that survives review

• Confirm you may file. Only the copyright owner, an exclusive licensee, or a person authorized to act for the owner can send a valid notice. If a photographer, label, publisher, or agency kept the rights, that party files, or authorizes you in writing first.

• Run the pre-filing check and write down what you found, with dates. Check four things: (1) you hold the right you claim, (2) no license or permission covers this use, (3) the material is not public domain, (4) the use is not a fair use. The fair use check is not optional polish. In Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. (9th Cir. 2015), the court held that a sender must consider fair use before sending a notice, or the sender cannot honestly hold the good faith belief the notice requires.

• Collect the infringing URLs one by one. Each entry needs the exact post, video, or listing URL and a note on what part copies the work. A profile page or shop front page in place of exact URLs is the most common reason notices stall.

• Draft the notice with all six elements from 512(c)(3), using the template in references/templates-and-ledger.md: signature of the authorized person, identification of the copyrighted work, identification of the infringing material with enough information to locate it, your contact information, the good faith belief statement, and the accuracy statement made under penalty of perjury that you are the owner or authorized to act.

• Know what filing discloses before you send. Platforms forward your name, address, phone, and email to the uploader. X also forwards a redacted copy to the Lumen database. If that exposure is a problem, file through an authorized agent or attorney. Never use contact details you are not willing to have shared.

• Send it through the right door. Use the platform copyright form first (per platform steps in references/platform-steps.md). For an independent site, find the host and send the notice to the designated agent listed in the US Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Directory. Keep the confirmation email and reference number in the case folder.

• Registration note: you do not need a copyright registration to send a takedown notice. For US works, you do need a registration before filing a copyright lawsuit in court. That difference matters when a counter notification arrives and the court clock starts.

3. Receiving side: triage a notice that landed on you

• Do not panic delete and do not instantly counter. First answer three questions from your own records: Did I make or own this material? Did I have a license or permission that covers it? Was the material misidentified, for example an automated match on a short, licensed, or public domain clip?

• Sort the case into one of four buckets and act on the bucket, not on the stress:
• Valid and unauthorized: the material copies a work you had no right to use. Leave it down, remove other copies of the same material, and log the strike. Counter notifying here is a false statement risk, not a tactic.
• Licensed or permitted: you hold a license, a release, or written permission. Gather the document before contacting anyone.
• Mistake or misidentification: the claimant does not own the work, matched the wrong material, or targeted your original work. Note the specific error in one sentence.
• Fair use: the use is criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, or a similar purpose and the amount and market effect support it. Write the reasoning down in plain sentences. Fair use is fact specific, so this bucket carries the most risk and is the first one to take to counsel when the account matters.

• Try retraction before counter notification when you have proof. Contact the claimant at the address in the notice, attach the license or the proof of error, and ask for a retraction using the short form in references/templates-and-ledger.md. A retraction is faster than the statutory window and does not hand the claimant a fresh copy of your contact details with a jurisdiction consent attached.

• File a counter notification only for the licensed, mistake, or fair use buckets, and only with your eyes open. A valid counter notification under 512(g)(3) needs: your signature, identification of the material removed and where it appeared before removal, a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief the material was removed by mistake or misidentification, your name, address, and phone number, and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your address district plus agreement to accept service of process from the original claimant. Filing tells the claimant where to sue you. That is the design of the process, not a side effect.

• Use the platform path for the counter notification (Studio on YouTube, the form linked in the notice on Meta, TikTok, and X) and follow references/platform-steps.md. Keep the exact text you submitted and the submission confirmation.

• Never re-upload the same material while a counter notification is pending, and never file a counter notification with statements you cannot back with a document or a clear fact. Section 512(f) makes a knowing material misrepresentation in either a notice or a counter notification liable for damages, including costs and attorneys fees.

• Track account level risk alongside the single case. Platforms run repeat infringer policies and can terminate accounts with repeated valid notices. Your ledger should show the running count per account, so the third notice never arrives as a surprise.

4. Track the restore window like a court date

• The clock that matters most runs after a counter notification. Under 512(g)(2), the provider promptly forwards the counter notification to the original claimant and says it will restore the material in 10 business days. The provider then restores no less than 10 and no more than 14 business days after receiving the counter notification, unless its designated agent first gets notice that the claimant filed a court action seeking an order to keep the material down.

• Compute the window the day the counter notification goes in. Run python3 ~/workspace/skills/dmca-takedown-workflow/scripts/deadline_calc.py --counter-received YYYY-MM-DD with the date the provider received it, and add --holidays for any dates the provider does not count. Record day 10 and day 14 in the ledger. Then check the provider forwarding email: if it states its own dates, those dates override the estimate.

• If you are the filer and a counter notification arrives, your decision window is the same 10 business days. To keep the material down you must file a court action and notify the provider inside that window. That step needs a registration for US works and a lawyer in almost every real case. Decide in the first two days, not on day nine.

• If you are the uploader, check once on day 10 and once on day 14. Restored with no court notice: close the case and screenshot the live URL. Not restored and no court notice by day 14: follow up once, in writing, with the case number and the dates. Court action notice received: stop platform follow ups and move the case to counsel.

• Deadline summary:
• Notice sent: no statutory response deadline for the provider, only removal "expeditiously" to keep safe harbor. Do not promise a client or a channel a removal date.
• Counter notification received by provider: forwarding to claimant is "promptly", then the 10 to 14 business day restore window runs.
• Claimant court action notice: must reach the provider before restore, in practice inside the 10 business day window.
• YouTube practice: claimant has 10 US working days to reply to a forwarded counter notification with evidence of legal action, or the content may be reinstated.

5. Worked case: notice to restore window

• Day 0, Monday Oct 5, 2026 in this example: a creator finds her full product photo set copied into a rival listing video on a video platform. She saves timestamped screenshots, the exact video URL, and her original files with first publication dates, and opens case 2026-014 with one ledger row.

• Day 0, pre-filing check: she confirms she shot the photos, gave no license to the rival, and the video uses the photos as sales material with no commentary, so no fair use factor supports the use. She files the platform form with all six elements and saves the confirmation number.

• Day 2: the platform removes the video and forwards her notice to the uploader. The uploader, who bought the photos as part of a stock bundle from a reseller who had no right to sell them, believes in good faith the use was licensed and files a counter notification on Friday Oct 9 with the bundle receipt attached, stating the removal rested on a mistake about authorization.

• Monday Oct 12: the provider forwards the counter notification to her, one business day after receiving it, and states its restore dates. Running the calculator with --counter-received 2026-10-09 gives day 10 on Oct 23 and day 14 on Oct 29, weekends excluded, before any holiday adjustment. The creator now has until restore to notify the provider of a court action if she wants the video kept down.

• Decision inside the window: her photos are US works and are not registered, so a lawsuit cannot be filed until registration is sorted, and the value of one listing video does not justify federal court. She does not file. She instead writes to the uploader directly with proof the reseller had no rights, and the uploader agrees in writing not to reuse the photos.

• Day 14 outcome: the platform restores the video because no court action notice arrived. The restored video still contains her photos, so she logs the restore, keeps the uploader written agreement, registers the photo set, and sets a watch on the account. If the photos appear again, the second notice goes out with the registration, the prior case number, and a filer who can now meet the court deadline. The case closes as restored, with the ledger and folder holding every step. The lesson the case teaches: the restore window is not a defeat, it is a deadline that tells you exactly when your cheaper options run out.

6. Records that hold up in a repeat dispute

• Keep the evidence folder layout from references/templates-and-ledger.md for every case: original work proof, infringing copies with dates, license records, notices exactly as sent or received, counter notifications and forwarding emails, and outcome proof.

• Log facts, not impressions. "Filed, waiting" is not a log entry. "Notice sent Oct 5 via platform form, confirmation 8841, removed Oct 7" is.

• Quote prior case numbers in every later filing against the same account or for the same work. Platforms route repeat cases faster when the history is cited, and your own ledger is what proves a pattern if a dispute reaches a lawyer.

• Retain case files while the work is still published anywhere plus the life of the account that posted it. Copyright claims have long tails, and the folder is small compared to rebuilding it.

Output Contract

For a filing case, deliver:

• The completed notice text with all six 512(c)(3) elements filled, ready to paste into the platform form or send to the designated agent.
• The pre-filing check note: rights held, license check result, fair use check result, each with the date checked.
• The case ID, ledger row, evidence folder path, and the confirmation number once filed.

For a receiving case, deliver:

• The triage verdict in one line: valid, licensed, mistake or misidentification, or fair use, with the one fact that decides it.
• The chosen route: leave down, retraction request, or counter notification, with the reason the other routes were rejected.
• If counter notifying: the completed counter notification text with all 512(g)(3) elements, the day 10 and day 14 dates from the calculator or the provider email, and a plain warning that filing shares contact details and consents to federal court jurisdiction.
• The running strike or notice count for the account from the ledger.

For any case, state plainly what is verified, what is assumed, and what deadline is currently running. Never report a removal, a restore, or a retraction as done without a platform confirmation, a live URL check, or a written reply in the case folder.

Operating Rules

• Accuracy first: every date, deadline, and platform step in an output must come from the statute text, the Copyright Office, the platform help pages in references/platform-steps.md, or the actual notice in the case. If a platform changed its form, say so and recheck the help page before filing.
• Never invent a platform response time, a strike expiry, or a strike count. Section 512 sets the 10 to 14 business day restore window. Almost every other number comes from the platform notice in front of you, so read it and quote it.
• Never file a notice for a work the sender does not own or represent, and never file a counter notification for a use you know was unauthorized. Both are statements under penalty of perjury, and 512(f) attaches damages to knowing misrepresentation in either direction.
• Always run the fair use and license check before filing, and write it down. A check that exists only in your head does not satisfy Lenz and does not help in a repeat dispute.
• This workflow is United States law. Other countries and the EU run different notice systems. If the provider, the uploader, or the work sits outside the US, flag that at triage and do not present DMCA steps as the whole answer.
• Do not send notices in bulk from a template with merged URLs and no per URL check. Each URL gets its own rights and fair use check, even when one form accepts many URLs.
• Style for anything this skill drafts or reports: plain direct language, no em dashes, no filler. A notice is a legal document, so keep it factual and short. Threats, insults, and inflated damage claims slow review and weaken the file.