How to file a DMCA takedown on Etsy for a copy of your artwork

Open the listing and save:

• The listing URL for every item that uses your work. Etsy needs the specific URLs, not just the shop name.
• Screenshots of the listing, showing the date.
• Your original file and, if you have them, sketches, work-in-progress or layered source files with dates.
• A link to where you first published the work: your portfolio, Instagram, a dated post.

Etsy's IP policy lists these elements. They mirror what US law requires in 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3).

1. A signature of a person authorised to act for the copyright owner. A typed name is accepted.
2. Identification of your copyrighted work, in enough detail that Etsy can tell what it is.
3. Identification of the material and where it is: the Etsy listing URL for each item.
4. Contact details: the owner's name, plus the notifier's name, address, phone number and email.
5. A good-faith statement that the use is not authorised by the owner, its agent or the law.
6. An accuracy statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you are authorised to act for the owner.

• Preferred: Etsy's Reporting Portal (etsy.com/ipreporting).
• If you cannot use the portal: email legal@etsy.com.
• By post: Etsy, Inc., Attn: Legal Department, 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA.

Etsy emails the affected seller about the notice and the takedown. That email contains a link the seller can use to file a counter-notice. A counter-notice has to include a statement under penalty of perjury that the removal was a mistake or misidentification, the seller's consent to the jurisdiction of a US federal court (or, for a seller outside the US, a district where Etsy is located) and agreement to accept service of process from you.

Etsy's page does not give review times or a waiting period, so do not count on a specific timeline. Keep your evidence organised in case the seller disputes the notice.

Under 17 U.S.C. 512(f), someone who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing can be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees. Etsy also says abusive or fraudulent notices may lead to account termination. If you are unsure whether a use is a copy you did not allow (for example a clear parody or a licensed use), check first.

• Send one notice per work and list all the listing URLs for it together.
• Keep the wording factual: “This listing reproduces my illustration titled X, first published on [date] at [URL].”
• Save the confirmation email and any reference number.
• Set a reminder to re-check the shop after a week, since copies often reappear under new listings.

Most copies are found by accident. A reverse image search such as Google Lens or TinEye helps, but it only checks when you remember to. TraceMyAssets looks for possible copies of the artworks you register, and its monitoring repeats the scan on a schedule you choose. A match is a possible match, never proof, and we only see public pages that a search engine indexes. You decide what to do and you send everything yourself; TraceMyAssets never contacts anyone for you.

See what to do when you find a copy of your artwork, or the plans.