Takedown Notice

A Takedown Notice may be used by a party that believes their copyright material has been infringed. If the owner or licensee of the copyrighted material (or their agent or representative) believes on reasonable grounds that material which infringes their copyright has been published on internet or network facilities, they may send a Takedown Notice to the relevant internet service provider ("ISP"). The notice may be used to direct the ISP to remove or disable access to the infringing material.

This document may be used in relation to a range of intellectual property, such as art work, images, photographs, videos, logos, music, articles, books, blogs or other written content.

It is a useful document for artists and other creators of intellectual property, as it allows them to go straight to the relevant ISP and have copyright infringements removed

For example, a Takedown Notice may be used if copyrighted material (such as a picture, article, video or piece of audio content) is:

• published on a website without the approval of the copyright owner;
• shared on social media without attribution/without the approval of the copyright owner;
• used in advertising or promotional material, without the approval of the copyright owner;
• copied and offered for sale without the apporoval of the copyright owner (eg. in the case of posters or other artwork which are offered for sale online).

Upon receiving a Takedown Notice, the ISP will remove or disable access to the infringing material, and will issue an infringement notice to the party that published the infringing material.

How to use this document

As a first step, to get a better understanding of copyright infringements and what to do about them, see our guide Someone has Stolen my Intellectual Property, what should I do?

It is important to carefully determine whether a copyright infringement has actually occurred, or whether there might be a legal exception which allows the material to be published. If in doubt, seek legal advice.

If the copyright owner or licensee (or their agent or representative) concludes that there has been an infringement and they have grounds to send a Takedown Notice, then they may complete this document by adding the relevant details when prompted and by providing a clear description of the infringing material.

This notice will need to be sent to the organisation that is hosting the infringing material - in other words, to the ISP. This information can be obtained from the Whois service.

Once the document has been completed, it can be emailed to the ISP.

If the copyright infringement has also occurred in the USA (for example, if the material has been published on a website hosted in Australia, as well as another website hosted in the USA), then consider sending a US Copyright Infringement Notice as well.

Applicable law

The Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth) and the Copyright Regulations 2017 (Commonwealth) deal with copyright law and Takedown Notices in Australia.

For further information, seek legal advice.

How to modify the template

You fill out a form. The document is created before your eyes as you respond to the questions.

At the end, you receive it in Word and PDF formats. You can modify it and reuse it.