How to report copyright infringement on Facebook

Social media is a slippery zone when it comes to copyright infringement. Some may feel that Facebook and copyright infringement go together like two peas in a pod, especially with Facebook Marketplace scams and the recent growth of social commerce with Facebook Shops. Many people may wonder: how to report copyright infringement on Facebook?

Fortunately, the social media giant provides an easy avenue for rights owners to pursue if they find violations on the platform. We’ll go over exactly how to use the tool here. 

Summary: 

• How to report an infringement on Facebook step-by-step
• The process of takedown and counter-notices
• Are individuals allowed to post infringing content? 

How to report copyright infringement on Facebook

Facebook takes intellectual property rights seriously, and it makes it fairly easy to report a copyright infringement. Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Begin your claim

If you want to report an intellectual property infringement, start by visiting Facebook’s online form here. You can choose either copyright or trademark infringement. Only the intellectual property rights owner or legal representative is allowed to report a violation. 

Step 2: Reaffirm your purpose

This step exists to make sure only real infringement claims are filed here. Notice that the last two options deal with rights violations, while the others are about other problems like hacked and fake accounts. If you select any of these other options, it will lead you to the corresponding page in Facebook’s Help Center. 

Step 3: Enter your contact information

This step is pretty basic. Just enter your contact info and specify whether you or your client owns the IP. Also, note that your email will be shared with the infringing party, so you might want to use a generic business email account. 

Step 4: Link to infringing content

In this next step, you’ll paste the infringing URL(s) and say whether it’s an ad, post, or album. You can also select the reason for making the intellectual property infringement claim. 

Facebook’s reporting tool works best when you can save and submit exact URLs. If you don’t have one, Facebook will give you a little lesson on how to locate the URL for a webpage and warn you that the claim tool might not work without one. 

Step 5: Provide your copyrighted works

The last step in the process is to provide URLs or attachments of authorized examples of your work. In the attachments section, you can upload other documents like certificates and licenses but you aren’t required to do so. 

After that, agree to the statement of declaration and submit your claim.

What happens next

After you submit a copyright claim on Facebook, it will review the case. If you’ve provided good evidence, Facebook will simply remove the offending link, photo, or video from the site. 

Next, the alleged infringer is able to submit an appeal under the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) or contact you directly to submit a counter-notice. It’s not clear if the recipient has a certain number of days in which to counter. 

If you are forwarded a DMCA appeal, you have 10 to 14 business days to file a court action against the alleged infringer. If you don’t respond in that timeframe with a filing, Facebook can reinstate the content you had reported. 

How to contact Facebook’s designated agent by mail

If snail mail is your thing, you can contact Facebook’s DMCA designated agent at the address below: 

Facebook, Inc.

Attn: Facebook Designated Agent

1601 Willow Road

Menlo Park, California 94025

650.543.4800 (phone)

ip@fb.com

If you choose to go this route, you need to create a copyright report, which includes the following information:

• Your contact information (name, mailing address, and phone number)
• A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed
• A description of the content on our site that you claim infringes your copyright
• URLs of infringing content
• A declaration that use of the copyrighted content is not authorized, you’ve provided accurate information, and you are the owner or authorized agent of the rightsholder
• Your electronic or physical signature

Can individuals legally post copyrighted content on their Facebook pages?

According to Facebook’s terms, users are only allowed to post content that doesn’t violate the IP rights of someone else. Of course, many people share photos, videos, and quotes all day long. Copyright law allows for fair use of material, which permits quotation, review, parody, and criticism. The bottom line is that Facebook allows rights holders to claim infringement, and the website takes these claims seriously. 

Conclusion

As you can see, reporting a counterfeit on Facebook is very simple. The not-so-simple thing is to stay on top of all possible infringements on social media. Since it’s so easy to create accounts, counterfeiters can use a profile until it’s taken down and then pop up somewhere else. 

To combat this, Red Points’ brand protection software can use machine learning and AI to constantly scan social media platforms in search of your logos and content. Then you can review possible infringements and select which ones to file claims on. Find out how the tech works here.