What can you do if someone copies your website's words or photos?

Ascent Vision · Published October 24, 2026

Save proof first, then ask the site's owner to remove the copy. If that fails, the U.S. Copyright Office describes a notice-and-takedown route for copyright owners, and Google takes legal removal requests for content on its products. Only a copyright owner, or someone authorized to act for the owner, can send a takedown notice. This is a plain summary, not legal advice.

Save proof and check it is a copy

As general advice, save the address of each page with the copy, a dated screenshot, and your original files with their dates.

Then check that it is a copy of something you own. The Office says original writing, artwork and photographs on a website may be protected by copyright, but copyright does not protect facts, ideas, or names, titles, slogans or short phrases. That suggests a business describing similar services in its own words may not be copying anything protected. If a photographer or designer made your photos or text, ask who owns them; the related answer on who owns a website a designer built covers that.

Ask first

As general advice, a short, factual message to the site's owner is often the quickest route: name the pages, say they are yours and ask for removal by a date. Google's removal page notes that content it restricts may still exist elsewhere, so you may wish to contact the site's owner.

The takedown-notice route

The Copyright Office describes the notice-and-takedown system created by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It says you do not need to hire anyone to send a notice or to register your work first, although for U.S. works registration is required before suing in court. A notice must include substantially:

the copied material, with enough detail for the provider to find it (the Office says this often may mean specific web addresses or pages), and the work of yours it copies;
a good-faith statement that the use is not authorized, plus your contact details and signature;
a statement that the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you own the copyright or may act for the owner.

Where it goes, and its limits

The Office says to send the notice to the provider's registered DMCA agent, listed in the Office's directory of designated agents and frequently in the site's terms; as general advice, for a copied site the provider is often its host. The Office says knowingly making a material misrepresentation in a notice can make the sender liable for damages, costs and attorneys' fees. It also says a provider is never obligated to comply, though providers that respond gain limits on their liability, and that the poster can send a counter-notice, after which the provider may repost the material in ten to fourteen business days unless you tell it you have filed a court action. The Office also names federal court and the Copyright Claims Board as other options.

Google's removal page says to let it know if you see content on a Google product that you believe violates the law or your rights, and that it will review the material and consider blocking, limiting or removing access. It asks for the specific web address of the content, not the site's home page. For copyright, it says its policy is to comply with notices of copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and points to its Copyright Help Center, which this answer does not cover. The Office's pages describe how the system works; they do not decide whether a particular page copies yours. This is a plain summary, not legal advice.

Sources

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