Today I’d like to cover how to report stolen content on Google’s new webspam form that was rolled out last week.
The first step you must take to begin the spam report process is logging into your Google account and then going to the following URL shown on the screen (
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport). Once logged into this page, you can then click on the “Copyright and other legal issues” link at the top right of the page as shown.
In the copyright section, you should see a question that reads “What Google product does your request relate to?”. Since we are reporting stolen content that can impact search results, we will select the “Web Search” option.
Next, select “I have an issue not mentioned above which is legal in nature” under the area that says “Please specify the nature of your request”.
Now, select “I have found content that may violate my copyright” under the area that says “Choose from the following options”.
Finally, select “Yes…” under the question, “Are you the copyright owner or authorized to act on his/her behalf”.
After answering this question, you will be given an option to fill out a form as shown on the next screen.
When clicking through the link to the form, you will be sent to a DMCA form to submit to Google found at the URL shown at the bottom of the slide (
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dmca-notice). Sometimes you can actually reach this form directly without completing the prior steps, so it may be a good idea to bookmark the page to possibly save time in the future.
You will now need to complete the form by listing your contact information, a description of the copyrighted work, the URL of where the copyrighted work is located, and the URL of where the infringing work is located. When you’ve completed this, you simply insert the date, your digital signature and you can submit the form.
Once submitted, it will be up to Google to determine whether or not to remove the page(s) from its index. However, if you are unsuccessful in having the page removed with Google, you may also take the legal process further and contact the hosting provider of the URL with a legal document asking for the infringing page(s) to be taken down. This tends to be a lengthier process, so it is always better to try to report the violating site to Google first.
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