How Do You Report Leaked Content?

E. KayaContent creator at Rulta9/1/22

How Do You Report Leaked Content? 

The importance of cybersecurity and data protection has become quite prominent in this modern age of technology. Unfortunately, online content theft is an ugly truth birthed by the rise of the internet. Although an international data protection law does not exist, there are legislation laws that are in affect in most countries around the world. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development announced that 137 out of 194 countries put in place legislation to secure the protection of data and privacy, meaning that your content might not be completely protected. Having your finely-crafted hard work stolen is insulting and infuriating, but there are ways to maximize your cybersecurity, or take action if you do get targeted by an internet thief.

Why Report Leaked Content?

Having your content leaked will harm your brand, plain and simple. Your revenue, as well as your reputation will be affected. More importantly, your mental health might take a toll as being targeted this way can be quite upsetting, so it is critical that you take action to protect yourself and your brand. The bright side of this all is that you are legally protected from cyberthieves and the takedown process does not have to be stressful at all: we have outlined the procedure for you in this article.

Learn Your Rights

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a copyright law that protects the rights of copyright holders. This means that all content you create and post online belongs to you and cannot be posted or shared without your consent. It is the internet service providers’ responsibility to ensure that their servers do not contain any infringed copyright materials, or they could receive takedown notices. Because of this Act, content creators are safeguarded from internet thieves. So now you know that you are protected, what can you do if you do discover content infringement?

Gather Evidence

This part of the takedown process is quite simple. Taking screenshots of the theft is critical so you have proof of the crime, including the website’s URL. Another suggestion we will make to you is that you include your device’s date and time stamp of when you discovered the stolen content, giving you all the proof you need to file a complaint. 

Contact The Website

Some websites have a section that allows you to directly report infringements to them, so it is worth having a look to see how the website operates. Usually, this information can be found under the site’s “terms of use”, "contact" or “privacy policy”. If this is not available, you can search for a contact form or an email address and send a written takedown request.

You need to include the following:

• confirmation that you are the copyright owner
• your contact information
• a link to the original content
• and any other references that proves your work has been stolen.

Might I suggest that if you need to take this route, you must clearly state that you are requesting they remove your infringed content. You could also specify that you will be filing a DMCA takedown complaint if they do not remove the content.

Send a DMCA Takedown Notice

If the owner of the website has not been responsive to your complaint, you might need to take further action, as in contact the website’s hosting company. You can easily find the host of a website by searching the WHOIS database. Click here and follow the steps listed that explains what to include in your DMCA report and guides you through the process. 

Report to Google

Another step you could take is reporting the infringing materials to Google as, thanks to their legal team, they take copyright infringements quite seriously: they received almost 6 billion URL removal requests up to this day. This step is important as the amount of traffic a website receives significantly drops when the URL is removed from search results. You can access and complete Google’s copyright infringement form to file your complaint.

It is essential to note that reporting to search engines yourself has a response rate of 7-10 days. You can speed this process up by signing up to Rulta and letting us handle this for you as we are a part of Google’s Trusted Copyright Removal Program. We aim to remove any URL (that contains copyrighted material) from Google Search results in no longer than 24 hours. The total number of URLs Rulta reported to Google totals at 7,194,189. 

Contact Law Enforcement

Being threatened or intimidated is something that you should never have to face, but regrettably this does happen. If your content has been pirated – especially in a manner that is offensive or threatening to you, your brand, or other people – you must report this to the authorities. This should be reported via a non-emergency channel.

Scan The Internet

Finding your stolen content on the internet can be a challenge for some creators because the web is like a bottomless pit. Rulta can help with consistent monitoring of the web, ensuring that your content is not being pirated. If we do discover any cases of copyright infringement, we will take the appropriate actions on your behalf to remove the content, maximizing the protection of your brand from content thieves.

Sign Up To a Copyright Protection Service

There is nothing wrong with asking for help from a professional to assist you with your business affairs. Rulta scans the web for you on a daily basis, reports infringing materials and fights for removal on all cases of piracy. Protecting your content before any theft occurs is a more effective way of shielding yourself, and this is where we can help. Try our free 3-day trial; we are confident that you will not be disappointed.