The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is the rulebook for copyright online, and it cuts two ways. For content owners, it is a tool to get infringing material removed quickly. For platforms hosting user content, it is a shield against liability, provided you follow its requirements precisely. We work both sides of the DMCA, helping rights holders enforce and helping service providers stay inside the safe harbor that keeps user uploads from becoming your legal problem.
Sending Takedown Notices
A takedown notice only works if it meets the statute's specific elements, and a defective one accomplishes nothing. We draft notices that satisfy Section 512(c), identify the infringing material clearly, and trigger a service provider's obligation to remove it. For content owners facing repeat or large-scale infringement, we run organized takedown programs so removals keep pace with the copying instead of falling behind it.
Responding To Counter-Notices
If your content gets taken down by a wrongful or overreaching notice, the DMCA lets you fight back with a counter-notice that can restore it. We prepare counter-notices, walk you through the real risk, since filing one can invite a lawsuit, and manage the standoff that follows. We also counsel content owners on the flip side, weighing whether to sue once a counter-notice lands.
Keeping Your Safe Harbor
Platforms lose safe harbor protection more often through neglect than bad intent. We help you do the things the statute requires: register and maintain a designated DMCA agent, run a compliant notice-and-takedown process, respond properly to notices and counter-notices, and adopt and actually enforce a repeat-infringer policy. Done right, these steps keep liability for your users' uploads off your balance sheet.
Anti-Circumvention Under Section 1201
Section 1201 makes it unlawful to bypass technological measures that protect copyrighted works, and it reaches further than many companies expect. We advise rights holders deploying DRM and access controls on how to do it within the law, and we counsel developers, researchers, and repair-focused businesses on where activity may run afoul of 1201 and which exemptions might apply before they ship a product or publish a tool.