The Digital Millennium Copyright Act If your copyrighted work is displayed illegally on a website, you may be able to take advantage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the "DMCA"), codified at 17 U.S.C. 512, to convince the ISP to delete the infringing material from the ISP's servers or to prevent it from being accessed. The DMCA contains a procedure that grants "service providers" immunity from copyright infringement liability under certain circumstances when the infringement is caused by the service providers' users. Service providers include "a provider of online services or network access, or the operator of facilities therefor." Most ISPs probably do not want the potential liability that could result from having infringing content on their servers. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides that an ISP may be able to avoid copyright infringement liability arising from infringing content on a website hosted by the ISP for a customer if the ISP follows the procedures set forth in the DMCA. One way to get your copyrighted content off the internet is to notify the ISP that it has infringing content on its servers. The copyright owner may notify the website's host ISP of copyright infringement and demand that the ISP remove the infringing material from the internet and its servers. Under the notice and takedown procedure, a copyright owner must give a proper notice to the service providers designated agent. If, upon receiving a proper notice, the service provider promptly removes or blocks access to the allegedly infringing material identified in the notice and if certain applicable requirements of the DMCA have been satisfied, the service provider will be exempt from monetary liability arising from the infringement. The service provider is also protected from any liability to any person for claims based on its having taken down the material. The notice to the service provider of infringement must be given to the service provider's designated agent and must contain the following information: # A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive copyright that is allegedly infringed. # Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site. # Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material. # Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted. # A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. # A statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. On receiving a proper notice of alleged copyright infringement, most ISPs will promptly remove or block access to the infringing material. Be sure to follow up with the ISP to make sure it complies with its obligations after receiving the notice.