Content Takedown and DMCA Procedures for Course Providers

If you run an online course, you’ve probably spent months - maybe years - creating original content: videos, quizzes, slides, scripts, workbooks. Then one day, you find it on a free site, repackaged as someone else’s course. Your hard work is being sold, shared, or given away without permission. That’s not just frustrating - it’s illegal. The DMCA gives you a clear path to take it down. But if you don’t know how to use it right, your notice gets ignored. Here’s how to make sure your content gets removed, fast.

What the DMCA Actually Does for Course Providers

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a U.S. law from 1998, but it’s the most powerful tool online course creators have today. It doesn’t give you the right to sue anyone who copies your material. Instead, it gives you a way to force platforms like YouTube, Teachable, Udemy, or even WordPress sites to remove infringing content - without going to court.

Here’s how it works in practice: if someone uploads your course video to a free hosting site, you send a formal DMCA notice to that site’s designated agent. If they follow the law, they have to take it down within 24-48 hours. If they don’t, they lose their legal protection and can be sued themselves. That’s why most platforms act fast - they don’t want liability.

It’s not about revenge. It’s about control. Your course is your intellectual property. If you don’t protect it, others will treat it like free content - and you’ll lose revenue, credibility, and students who think your course is low quality because they got a bad copy.

What Counts as Copyright Infringement for Online Courses

Not every copy is infringement. But here’s what definitely is:

• Uploading your full video lectures to YouTube or Vimeo without permission
• Reposting your PDF workbooks or slide decks on Google Drive or Dropbox and sharing them publicly
• Selling your course content as a downloadable bundle on Etsy, Gumroad, or a shady website
• Using your exact wording, structure, or unique exercises in a competing course - even if they re-record the videos

It doesn’t matter if they change the title, add background music, or crop your logo. If the core content - the sequence, the explanations, the examples - is yours, it’s protected. Copyright doesn’t require registration. As soon as you created it, you owned it.

But here’s the catch: you can’t stop someone from learning from your course and then teaching the same idea in their own words. That’s fair use. The law protects the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. So if someone watches your course on Python debugging and writes their own tutorial using different examples, that’s legal. But if they copy your 12-step debugging flowchart word-for-word? That’s infringement.

How to Build a Valid DMCA Notice

A DMCA notice isn’t a complaint. It’s a legal document. If it’s missing one required element, the platform will ignore it. Here’s what you need:

1. Your contact information: full name, address, phone, email
2. A clear description of your original work: include the course title, platform where it’s hosted (e.g., “My Python Fundamentals course on Teachable”), and the date you published it
3. The exact URL of the infringing content: paste the full link, not just the homepage
4. A statement that you have a good faith belief the material is not authorized by you
5. A statement that the information in the notice is accurate and you’re the copyright owner (or authorized to act on their behalf)
6. Your physical or electronic signature

That’s it. No need for legal jargon. No need to threaten lawsuits. Just these six things. Most platforms have a form on their website. If they don’t, email it to their designated agent. You can usually find that email in their Terms of Service or Legal section - search for “DMCA agent.”

Example: “I am the creator of ‘Advanced Excel for Business Analysts,’ published on my website on March 15, 2024. I found a full copy of this course, including all 14 videos and the downloadable templates, on https://example-site.com/advanced-excel-course. I did not authorize this upload. Please remove it immediately.”

Where to Send Your DMCA Notice

Not every site is the same. Here’s where to send notices based on platform type:

• YouTube: Use their online form at youtube.com/copyright_complaint_form. They respond within 48 hours.
• Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi: These platforms have DMCA portals in your dashboard. Use them - they’re faster than email.
• WordPress sites: Find the site owner’s contact info. If they don’t respond, send the notice to their hosting provider (SiteGround, Bluehost, etc.). Hosting companies are legally required to act.
• Etsy, Gumroad, Shopify: Use their official copyright reporting tools. Etsy’s is under “Seller Dashboard > Policies > Intellectual Property.”
• Random blogs or forums: Find the domain’s WHOIS record (via whois.domaintools.com), look up the hosting company, and send the notice to their abuse department.

Pro tip: Keep a spreadsheet. Track every notice you send: date, platform, URL, response time, outcome. This helps you spot repeat offenders and build a pattern if you need to escalate.

What Happens After You Send the Notice

Once you send a valid DMCA notice, the platform has to:

• Remove or disable access to the infringing content
• Notify the person who posted it
• Give them a chance to file a counter-notice

That last part is important. The person who uploaded your course can respond with a counter-notice claiming they own the content or that it’s fair use. If they do, the platform must wait 10-14 business days before restoring it - unless you file a lawsuit.

Most people don’t file counter-notices. They know they’re infringing. But if they do, you’re not stuck. You can file a lawsuit in federal court. That’s expensive and time-consuming, so most course providers don’t go that route. Instead, they:

• Send a second DMCA notice if the content comes back
• Report the same person repeatedly - platforms start flagging repeat infringers
• Block their IP address or domain if they’re on your own platform

Platforms like YouTube and Udemy have automated systems that flag repeat offenders. After three valid DMCA notices, they often shut down the account.

How to Prevent Infringement Before It Happens

Legal action is reactive. You want to be proactive. Here’s how:

• Add a copyright notice to every video: “© 2025 [Your Name]. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution prohibited.”
• Watermark your videos with your logo and website URL - not just in the corner, but subtly across the screen during key lessons
• Use platform tools: Teachable and Kajabi let you restrict downloads and disable right-click. Use them.
• Don’t give away your full course in free webinars. Offer a sample, not the whole thing.
• Register your course with the U.S. Copyright Office. It costs $45-$65. If you ever sue, registration gives you access to statutory damages (up to $150,000 per work) and attorney’s fees.

Registration isn’t required for protection - but it’s the difference between asking nicely and having real legal teeth.

When Not to Use DMCA

DMCA isn’t your tool for every problem. Don’t use it for:

• Students sharing login credentials with friends - that’s a Terms of Service violation, not copyright
• Someone writing a blog post summarizing your course - as long as they don’t copy your text or structure
• Competitors offering similar courses with different content - that’s competition, not theft

Using DMCA for non-infringing content can backfire. Platforms may flag you for abuse. If you send five invalid notices in a year, they can ban you from using their DMCA system. Be precise. Be accurate. Be professional.

Real Example: What a Successful DMCA Notice Looks Like

A course creator named Elena had a 12-hour Excel course on Teachable. She found it uploaded in full on a free site called “LearnFreeNow.com.” She sent this notice:

Dear DMCA Agent,
I am the copyright owner of “Excel for Non-Profits: Budgeting & Reporting,” published on April 1, 2024, on my Teachable site (teachable.com/elenaexcel). I discovered an exact copy of this course, including all 14 videos, PDF templates, and quizzes, posted at https://learnfreenow.com/excel-course. I did not authorize this upload. Please remove it immediately.
Contact: Elena Rivera, [email protected], 123 Main St, Portland, OR 97201, (503) 555-0198
I have a good faith belief that this material is not authorized by me. The information in this notice is accurate, and I am the copyright owner or authorized to act on behalf of the owner.
Sincerely,
Elena Rivera (electronic signature)

They removed it in 18 hours.

What to Do If Your Notice Is Ignored

If a platform doesn’t respond within 72 hours:

• Check if you sent it to the right place - many small sites don’t have a DMCA agent listed
• Send a follow-up email to their general support team, CC’ing the legal department if you can find it
• Report the site to Google’s legal team - if the infringing site ranks on Google, you can request removal from search results
• Use the Wayback Machine to archive the infringing page - this becomes evidence if you need to escalate

Most of the time, persistence works. The platforms want to avoid lawsuits. They’ll act.

Final Tip: Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late

One course provider waited six months to act after finding her course on a pirate site. By then, 17,000 people had downloaded it. She sent the DMCA notice. It was taken down. But the damage was done - her sales dropped 40%. She never recovered.

Act fast. Monitor. Document. Be consistent. Your content is your business. Protect it like one.

Knowing how to enforce your rights isn’t optional - it’s part of running a professional course business. The tools are simple. The process is clear. What’s missing is the will to act. Don’t wait for someone to steal your work. Protect it before they do.