Copyright Letter: DMCA, Cease and Desist, and Counter-Notices

A copyright letter is a formal written notice about a copyrighted work: most often a demand to stop using it, sometimes a takedown request sent to an online platform, and sometimes a request for permission to use it lawfully. Which type you’re holding — or drafting — determines your rights, your deadlines, and what happens if you do nothing. The stakes can be significant. Willful infringement carries statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work in federal court.¹

Cease and Desist Letters

A cease and desist letter is the most common copyright letter in circulation. A copyright holder or their attorney identifies the protected work, points to where it’s being used without permission, and demands that the recipient remove or stop using it within a set window, typically ten to thirty days. Many also include a settlement demand, often a few thousand dollars and sometimes $15,000 or more per work. Stock photo companies and copyright enforcement firms send these in volume.

The letter is doing more than asking for compliance. If the dispute reaches court, it becomes evidence that the recipient knew about the claim and continued anyway. Ordinary statutory damages run from $750 to $30,000 per work. When infringement is willful, that ceiling rises to $150,000 per work.¹ A documented cease and desist letter is one of the cleanest ways to prove willfulness later.

One point that changes the leverage behind any cease and desist letter: before a copyright owner can sue over a U.S. work, they must register it with the Copyright Office or receive a formal refusal.² Statutory damages and attorney’s fees are only available if the work was registered before the infringement began, or within three months after first publication.³ Outside that window, the owner is limited to actual damages and profits. A sender without registration can still write the letter, but the threat of a lawsuit isn’t real until registration is in hand.

DMCA Takedown Notices

When infringing material appears on a website or online platform, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides a faster route than a traditional demand letter. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512, a rights holder sends a notice to the platform, not to the person who uploaded the content, and the platform removes the material to keep its “safe harbor” protection from liability.⁴

A valid DMCA notice needs six elements:⁴

A physical or electronic signature from the copyright owner or an authorized agent.
Identification of the copyrighted work being infringed.
Enough information to locate the infringing material, such as a direct URL.
Contact information for the sender.
A good-faith statement that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner or the law.
A statement that the information is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that the sender is authorized to act for the copyright owner.

The perjury language is narrower than most people assume. It covers whether the sender is actually authorized to act for the copyright holder, not the rest of the notice. That said, knowingly sending a false takedown notice creates its own liability. Anyone who knowingly misrepresents that material is infringing owes damages, costs, and attorney’s fees to the person whose content was wrongly targeted.⁴ In Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., the Ninth Circuit held that copyright holders must consider whether the targeted use qualifies as fair use before sending a takedown, because fair use is a right authorized by law.⁵

What to Do If You Received a Copyright Letter

The worst response is no response. Ignoring the letter doesn’t make the claim go away, and silence can be used later as evidence that you kept infringing after being notified. Read it carefully and identify exactly which work is being claimed and where the alleged infringement appears. Sometimes the accusation is legitimate and the fastest resolution is to remove the material and move on. Other times the claim is weak, overbroad, or wrong. You may have a license, the content may be your own original work, or your use may qualify as fair use.

Fair Use

Fair use is the most common defense to a copyright claim. Federal law directs courts to weigh four factors together:⁶

The purpose and character of the use. Commercial use weighs against fair use; transformative, educational, or commentary-based use weighs in its favor.
The nature of the work. Using a factual work is more likely to be fair than using a highly creative one.
The amount used. A small portion favors fair use, though even a brief excerpt can be too much if it captures the “heart” of the work.
The market effect. If your use substitutes for the original, this factor cuts strongly against fair use.

No single factor decides the question. Fair use is fact-intensive and genuinely hard to predict in advance, which is why many disputes settle. If you believe your use is fair, write down your reasoning before responding. A contemporaneous analysis can help demonstrate good faith later.

Filing a DMCA Counter-Notification

If a platform removed your content through a DMCA notice and you believe the takedown was wrong, you can file a counter-notification with the same designated agent. It must include:⁷

Your physical or electronic signature.
Identification of the removed material and where it appeared before removal.
A statement under penalty of perjury that you believe the material was removed by mistake or misidentification.
Your name, address, and phone number, along with consent to the jurisdiction of your local federal district court and agreement to accept service of process from the person who filed the original takedown.

The perjury requirement here is broader than in the takedown notice itself. It covers the substance of your belief, not just your authority to act. Don’t file a counter-notification unless you genuinely believe the takedown was wrong. Once the platform receives it, the platform forwards a copy to the original complainant. If that person doesn’t file a lawsuit within 10 to 14 business days, the platform must restore your content. If they do file, the content stays down until a court rules.⁴

The Copyright Claims Board

Federal court is expensive, and many copyright disputes involve amounts that make full-scale litigation impractical for both sides. The Copyright Claims Board, housed within the Copyright Office, is an alternative for disputes involving up to $30,000 in total damages. Proceedings run online, attorneys are optional, and the process is built for individual creators and small businesses. The CCB can hear infringement claims, declarations of noninfringement, and misrepresentation claims under the DMCA. Statutory damages are capped at $15,000 per work, or $7,500 if the work wasn’t registered before the infringement began. A smaller claims track caps total damages at $5,000.⁸

Participation is voluntary, and this is where the deadline traps people. If you’re served with a CCB claim, you have sixty days to opt out.⁹ Opting out forces the claimant into federal court if they want to pursue the case. Missing the window means the case proceeds before the CCB without you having a say in the forum. Treat any CCB notice with the same urgency as a court summons.

Requesting Permission to Use a Copyrighted Work

Not every copyright letter involves a dispute. A permission request is the standard way to ask for a license before using a photograph in a book, a song in a video, or a passage in course materials. There’s no required format. A workable request tells the rights holder who you are, which specific work you want to use, how and where you plan to use it, how long you need the permission, and whether you’re offering payment.

Send the request to the copyright holder directly. For published works, the publisher usually handles permissions. For music, you may need to contact both the songwriter’s publisher and the record label, since the composition and the recording are separate copyrights. Get the response in writing. A verbal “sure, go ahead” is nearly impossible to enforce if the rights holder later changes position. When corresponding by email, ask for a signed written confirmation of the terms.

Letters From the Copyright Office

Some copyright letters come from the government. During the registration process, the Copyright Office may write to you if an examiner finds an issue with your application: a question about authorship, a request for a better copy of the deposit material, or a note that the wrong fee was submitted. Respond promptly. An unanswered inquiry can cause the application to be abandoned. When an application is approved, the Office issues a registration certificate under 17 U.S.C. § 410 that serves as initial evidence of the copyright’s validity in court.²

Sending a Copyright Letter

How you deliver the letter matters if you ever need to prove the recipient got it. For paper letters, certified mail with a return receipt gives you a signed record of delivery. That proof of service can be decisive when arguing later that continued use was willful.

For DMCA takedown notices, most major platforms provide dedicated online portals that generate confirmation numbers and timestamps. Save the confirmation page and any email receipts. When emailing a platform’s designated agent directly, keep the sent message and any automated reply. Response times vary but generally run a few business days. If infringing material stays up after a reasonable period, follow up with another notice that references your original submission date and confirmation number.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 411 – Registration and Civil Infringement Actions
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 412 – Registration as Prerequisite to Certain Remedies for Infringement
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 512 – Limitations on Liability Relating to Material Online
5
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., 801 F.3d 1126 (9th Cir. 2015)
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 107 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 512 – Limitations on Liability Relating to Material Online
8
U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright Claims Board Handbook – Damages
9
U.S. Copyright Office. Respondent Information – Copyright Claims Board