Guide
DMCA.com review: is it legit, and what does a takedown cost?
By Josh Pigford, founder of Knockoff
Yes, DMCA.com is legit, and it isn't a government site. It's a private company that sends copyright takedowns for you at $199 for each website with a copy, and you find the infringing URLs yourself. When copycats keep coming back, the bill grows with every site, and so does the list of URLs you have to find.
Who runs DMCA.com, and is it a government site?
A private company runs it. Its About page says DMCA.com is owned and operated by Digital Millennium Copyright Act Services Ltd., "A private company", headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, with an office in New York. It says it has protected online content "since 2006". It isn't a law firm either: "We are a professional service, not a law firm."
The name is what trips people up. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is the US law, and DMCA.com's own FAQ asks "Is DMCA.com the Government?" and answers that it's "a content protection service company". When a site owner on Trustpilot blamed it for a notice it hadn't sent, it replied, "we are not a government agency".
It's also the takedown company AI assistants mention a lot. In our October 2026 test of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Mode, DMCA.com came up in 58 of 240 answers to brand protection questions.
You don't need DMCA.com, or anyone, to send a takedown. The US Copyright Office says the copyright owner "may send" a takedown notice to the platform's designated agent (the contact each platform lists for copyright complaints), in writing, and lists what the notice must include. Our takedown notice template covers each part, and the free notice generator writes one from your details. What DMCA.com sells is someone to send it and chase the host for you.
What does one DMCA.com takedown cost, and what does it cover?
You pay per site. The Standard takedown is "$199/site", and DMCA.com says its team "handles everything for a single website or platform", from writing the notice to "chasing the host until it's down".
| Service | Price | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Standard takedown | $199 a site | One website or platform, from the notice to the follow-up |
| Premium takedown | $399 a site | Many infringing URLs, difficult hosts, or platforms that need extra research |
| Platinum takedown | $599 a site | Trademark enforcement, cease and desist letters, counter-claims and legal escalation |
| DIY Takedown Toolkit | $10 a month or $100 a year | Templates and guides, and you send and chase the notices |
| Monitoring | From $10 a month | Tracks where your images and text show up online |
From DMCA.com's pricing page and takedown page, October 2026.
Some platforms start at Premium. DMCA.com's list of platforms tags Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, Telegram and eBay as Premium, because they "use complex, multi-step systems". eBay is the one it lists for "Counterfeit listings & stolen product photos". Amazon and Etsy carry no tag.
The pricing page also lists lower Standard prices at higher counts, $179 and then $165, under a "notice count" of 10 to 25 and 26 to 50 that it doesn't define. On speed, DMCA.com says half of its takedowns finish within 48 hours. It doesn't give a time for the other half.
What do you still do yourself?
You find the copies. The first step on DMCA.com's takedown page is "Locate the page where your content appears without permission and copy the URL", and it asks for a link to your original. It publishes no limit on how many URLs a Standard takedown covers. Its FAQ on multiple takedowns says "Over 75% of all client takedowns are multiple takedowns" and asks for a complete list of infringing URLs to give the best pricing.
If you don't have the list, collecting it is an extra. A customer named Damon wrote on Trustpilot in August 2026: "I was also expected to provide 10-20 individual URL comparisons myself-or pay another $250 for their team to collect them." DMCA.com replied that "The trademark, Google and evidence-collection prices were options, not conditions", and that "Our $199 standard service is a managed copyright notice against one website".
What does the DMCA.com money-back guarantee cover?
Standard takedowns only. DMCA.com says "Premium and Platinum services do not include the money-back guarantee." If a Standard case ends with the copy still up, you get a refund only if it qualifies. To qualify, the content must be "clearly infringing with no fair use defence", your original must be verifiable, and the standard notice process must have run its course.
Its guarantee FAQ lists the cases it leaves out. Three matter most to a store:
- The seller pushes back. If the host says it received a counterclaim and won't remove the copy, "no refund shall be provided."
- The copy comes back. If the same content is re-posted, removing it again "constitutes a new takedown service not covered by DMCA.com's Takedown Guarantee."
- The host is outside the US. DMCA.com says it "cannot guarantee" removal there, and that the work may take longer and "may come with additional costs".
You also have to keep up with the case. Its refund policy ends the guarantee if you don't respond "within 24 hours of case inactivity email notification", and the guarantee FAQ ends it if you don't answer the case worker's request for information within 7 business days of paying.
What does DMCA.com cost when copies keep coming back?
Every site is another $199. Copies on four different sites in a month come to $796. A fifth site makes it $995, more than Knockoff's $799 a month, and six make it $1,194. At the lower bulk Standard prices, five sites still cost $895 or $825. Those are list prices. They leave out any extras, and a Premium platform such as eBay or Instagram costs $399 instead of $199.
Two things can change that count. DMCA.com doesn't say how it counts several copycat stores on the same platform, so ask before you pay. And every relisted copy is a new takedown service. Copycats relist often enough that we wrote a whole guide to relisted copies.
What do DMCA.com customers say on Trustpilot?
On Trustpilot, DMCA.com has 4.2 out of 5 from 64 reviews. 64% give it five stars and 23% give it one, and it has replied to half of its negative reviews.
One happy review comes from Tanya Lake, whose blog was cloned, in August 2026: "I paid them again to take down the offending cloned website, and they did this within a few days."
Several of the unhappy ones are about scope and what costs extra. Bill Price wrote in March 2026: "Despite paying nearly $200, they kept sending notices that were not getting answers." In its reply to Damon's review above, DMCA.com conceded the point on scope: "we should have said in the same message that a whole-site multi-domain removal sits outside that service."
How does Knockoff handle the same copies for a Shopify brand?
Knockoff is built for Shopify brands whose product photos keep getting copied, and it's one plan with finding the copies included. You sign up on the site and sign one Letter of Authorization, a short form that lets us act as your agent. From then on we look for copies of your product photos every day, so you never have to send us a URL, and we file a takedown on every confirmed copy on Shopify stores, eBay, Walmart and Temu as your authorized agent. Confirmed means your photo is in the seller's own listing gallery. Weak cases are never filed.
| DMCA.com Standard | Knockoff | |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the copies | You find them and send the URLs, or pay extra for evidence collection | We look every day |
| One copy on one site this month | $199 | $799 a month |
| Copies on five different sites this month | $995 at $199 a site | $799 a month |
| The same copy back next month | A new takedown service, outside the guarantee | Checked daily for 90 days after removal, and filed again |
Not sure whether your photos are being copied at all? Run a free scan of 20 of your products. For the other companies in this market, read our reviews of Red Points, Bustem and StoreLock.
Questions
Do DMCA takedowns cost money? +
Not if you send one yourself. The copyright owner can send the notice straight to the platform's designated agent, in writing. You pay only when you hire someone to do it: DMCA.com starts at $199 a site, and Knockoff is $799 a month with finding the copies included.
How do I send a DMCA takedown myself? +
Find the platform's designated agent or its copyright form, then send a notice that names your original, links the copy, and includes the good-faith and accuracy statements the law asks for, signed. Our DMCA takedown notice template explains each part, and the free notice generator fills one in from your details. For a copy on a Shopify store, our Shopify DMCA takedown page walks through Shopify's own form.
What happens if DMCA.com sends a takedown about my store? +
It's acting for a client, not for the government. DMCA.com has said it does not issue takedown notices without a client's explicit instruction. If you believe the claim is wrong, answer it through the platform's counter-notice process. Our BrandShield review lays out the counter-notice steps.
More on doing it yourself: the notice template, the notice generator, Shopify's takedown form and the counter-notice steps.
