My ebook or online course is being pirated
A pirated ebook or course can be in several places at once: a file sitting on a host, several pages linking to it, and a search result sending buyers to those pages. Taking down the right one first saves a great deal of effort.
Three layers, three recipients
- The file itself
- The PDF, the video files or the zip, sitting on a file host or a document site. The notice goes to whoever serves the file. Removing it breaks every link that points to it at once.
- The pages that link to it
- Forum posts, blog pages, download portals. The notice goes to each page's host. Worth doing when the page also reproduces your content, such as the course outline or sample chapters.
- The search results
- Google can drop the linking pages from results. That does not delete them, but it stops buyers who search your title finding the free copy first.
The order matters. Start with the file. Then de-index the pages Google is showing for your title. File against linking pages when they carry your content as well as the link, or when they are the ones ranking.
Finding who serves the file
A download link can point at a domain that is not the page you found it on. Copy the link itself, not the page, and look up who hosts that domain. The host lookup gives you the network, the registrar and whether a proxy such as Cloudflare sits in front.
Then check the US Copyright Office's designated agent directory for the host or the file site. A notice to a registered agent is what the statute counts; a message through a general contact form may not be. If a proxy is in front, a notice to the proxy gets the complaint forwarded and the real host named, and the takedown is the second notice, to that host.
What to put in the notice
- Your work, identified precisely: title, author, edition, and where it is legitimately sold.
- The exact URL of each copy: the file link, not the page that mentions it.
- What it is: the full ebook, chapters one to six, the complete video course, the template files.
- Your evidence of ownership: publication date, ISBN if you have one, the sales page, a registration if you made one.
- The six statutory parts, including the statement under penalty of perjury. The notice generator writes them for you.
Check what you licensed
Previews, samples and reviews
Not every page carrying your words is piracy. A reviewer quoting a few paragraphs to discuss your book, a blog post summarizing your course with a short excerpt, a reading list linking to your free sample: these are likely fair use or no use at all, and filing against them puts you at risk rather than them.
The line is substitution. If someone could read the page or download the file instead of buying from you, it is a copy that competes with your work. If the page sends people to you, or quotes you to say something about you, leave it alone.
Free samples you published yourself are a special case. If you released chapter one for free, someone reposting chapter one is still copying, but the harm is small and the reposted sample sometimes sells the book. Decide whether it is worth a notice before treating it like a full leak. The full file, the paid modules and the template pack are where the effort is best spent.
When someone is reselling it
Resale is a different shape from free sharing. Your course resold on a marketplace, your templates listed on Etsy, your ebook offered on a seller's own store: each goes through the marketplace's own intellectual-property report, not to a host. See Etsy and Amazon for those routes.
A reseller with a payment page has more to lose than a free download site, and reports against them tend to be easier to make stick, because the listing is unambiguous about what is being sold.
Being honest about whack-a-mole
Popular ebooks and courses are reposted. A takedown removes a specific copy; it does not stop the next upload. What it does do is keep the copies off the hosts that respond to notices and off the first page of search results for your title, which is where buyers look.
Two habits make the next round easier. Stamp each sale with the buyer's email or an order number inside the file, so a leaked copy tells you where it came from. And search your exact title together with words like PDF or download every so often, so a new copy is caught while there is one of it rather than thirty.
How we handle it
Open a case and paste the link to each copy you have found, file links where you can. We confirm each one is your work, identify who serves it, file where the file lives first, and de-index the pages that rank for your title. Each copy is priced before filing and billed only if it comes down.
Last reviewed November 2, 2026. This is general information about a US statute, not legal advice, and we are not a law firm.
What people ask next
The pirate site is outside the United States. Is there any point?
Sometimes. A US notice binds US providers, and many foreign sites use US hosts or proxies. Where the host is also outside the US, the notice may still be honored, but it is no longer a legal obligation. Google Search de-indexing works wherever the site is.
Can I find out who uploaded it?
Not from a notice. Identifying an anonymous uploader takes a subpoena, which is a lawyer's job.
What about copies shared in messaging groups?
Those can be outside the reach of a US notice, and we do not offer them as a service. The file links shared inside them can sometimes be taken down at the file host.
Related
Report copyright infringement to Google
How a Google removal request works, what de-indexing achieves, what gets published to Lumen, and why it follows a host notice rather than replacing it.
If this happened to youA scraper is republishing my content
Scrapers republish your articles and product pages at scale. How to tell a scraper from a one-off copy, what stops one, and what wastes your week.
GuideHow to file a DMCA takedown
The whole process: capturing evidence, finding the right recipient, writing a notice with all six required elements, sending it, and following up.
Free to start · you approve every copy
Point us at the copy.
Scan your website for copies of your text and photos, or open a case with the link to anything else. You see exactly what we would file before we file it.
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