For the aspiring United States-based online service provider, wading through the flood of DMCA takedown notices that generally comes along with the endeavor of creating and maintaining a user-friendly, dynamic content portal can be a time consuming distraction.
You’ve received a DMCA takedown notice. You’ve either decided not to read it, or have read it, and determined it’s valid, but decided not to do anything about it, whatever your reasons may be. Fair enough.
Are you thinking of ignoring that email alleging copyright infringement? If you’re a U.S. website owner serving as a portal for user-posted content, responding in a timely fashion to takedown notices is a possibly critical management task that you can’t afford to overlook.
If you have a website, you’re likely familiar with DMCA. Even if you just use the Internet, you probably know about it, whether you realize it or not. But what is DMCA? To answer this question, we need to start with its origins.