Taking down a copy of your art in the UK and EU: what replaces the DMCA

• UK: no DMCA-style statute. A host is protected from damages if it does not know about unlawful content, or acts “expeditiously” once it does. A clear notice is how you give it that knowledge.
• EU: the Digital Services Act requires hosts to offer an easy electronic way to report illegal content, says what a notice must contain, and gives you a way to challenge a decision.
• For artists: the big marketplaces mostly run DMCA-style forms for everyone, so you will often use those anyway. Your own law matters for the cases they do not solve.

The UK rules for online hosts sit in the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002. Regulation 19 says a hosting provider is not liable for damages or criminal sanctions for content stored by a user if it does not have actual knowledge of unlawful activity or information, or, once it has that knowledge, it acts expeditiously to remove or disable access to it.

Regulation 22 explains how a court decides whether the host had actual knowledge. It looks at all the circumstances, and in particular at whether the host received a notice through the contact channel it provides and how complete that notice was: the sender's name and address, where the information is, and why it is unlawful.

Two things stand out. There is no prescribed form and no stated deadline: the text says “expeditiously”, not a number of days. And nothing in these two regulations sets out a counter-notice procedure like the DMCA's. A complete, specific notice is simply the best way to make the host aware. Regulation 19, regulation 22.

Copyright itself needs no registration in the UK. gov.uk says protection arrives automatically, there is no register of copyright works, and you are responsible for defending your rights. It also advises checking whether the other party's use is allowed before you try to stop it. gov.uk on copyright.

The Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) is more specific. Under Article 16, hosting providers must offer a mechanism that is easy to access and use, and that takes notices by electronic means. A notice should be precise and well supported, and must include:

• your reasons for saying the content is illegal;
• its exact location, such as the URL, and any other detail needed to identify it;
• your name and email address;
• a statement that you honestly believe the information and allegations in the notice are accurate and complete.

A notice that lets a diligent provider identify the illegality without a detailed legal examination counts as giving it actual knowledge. The host must confirm receipt (if you gave an email address), tell you its decision along with how you can challenge it, and handle notices in a timely, diligent, non-arbitrary and objective manner. As in the UK, there is no fixed number of days in the text we read.

Two more articles help artists. Article 17 requires the host to give the affected user a statement of reasons when it removes content, which should say whether it acted on a notice and what the user can do about it. Article 20 requires an internal complaint system open to users and to people who submitted a notice, for at least six months after a decision, and it covers a decision not to act on your notice.

Our counter-notice guide covers the DMCA side.

• Use the platform's own form first. Etsy, Redbubble and Temu each run a DMCA-style reporting route, and our guides cover them step by step. See also our notice template.
• Write the notice so it satisfies both. Your name and contact details, the exact URL, what your work is, and why this use is not authorised. That covers the DMCA, the DSA's four elements and the UK's completeness factors at once.
• In the EU, look for the notice mechanism. Platforms that operate there must offer one. If a platform ignores your notice, the internal complaint route and, beyond it, the out-of-court and court options named in its decision are the next step.
• Keep the same evidence. Working files, a dated first publication, screenshots and a log of what you sent. See how to prove you made your artwork.

For a UK claim, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has a small claims track for straightforward cases, mainly copyright, designs, passing off and trade marks. Claims must be for less than £10,000, the parties are frequently unrepresented, hearings are short and informal, and the loser seldom has to pay the winner's costs. It cannot hear applications for an interim injunction. IPEC small claims track.

That is a real option for a single clear case, not a reason to rush. Take advice from an intellectual property professional before you start; gov.uk's own pages say you can get advice on specific legal issues from one and that the IPO's helpline gives only general guidance.

Whichever law you rely on, a notice you know is wrong can backfire. The DMCA has an explicit rule (17 U.S.C. 512(f)) against knowingly false claims, and a host that rejects a sloppy notice may be less ready to act on your next one. If a use might be licensed, a parody or a similar but independent design, check first.

• The EU text: EUR-Lex's own page would not load the article text for us, so we read Articles 6, 16, 17 and 20 as published on eu-digital-services-act.com and checked them against each other. Read the official text before you rely on a detail.
• National laws of individual EU states, and the separate EU copyright rules for large sharing platforms.
• Whether the 2002 Regulations have been amended since, or any other UK rule that adds to them.
• How each platform applies these rules to your notice. Their practice differs, and we found no stated deadlines.

If a case matters to you, ask a solicitor or an artists' rights organisation. This post is a map, not advice.

All of this starts with knowing a copy exists. TraceMyAssets checks the artworks you register on a schedule and shows possible matches for you to review. We only see public pages that a search engine indexes, and a match is a possible match, never proof. You decide what to do and you send every notice yourself; we never contact anyone for you. See three ways to find copies of your artwork.

• The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, regulation 19
• The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, regulation 22
• Digital Services Act, Article 16 (notice and action)
• Digital Services Act, Article 17 (statement of reasons)
• Digital Services Act, Article 20 (internal complaints)
• gov.uk: Copyright
• Judiciary: IPEC small claims track