Imgur copyright takedown request and ten other desks, sorted by what was stolen

By Devin Marsh Published 12 October 2026 20 min read

The format of an Imgur DMCA takedown notice is fixed by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) and is the same on every US-facing host: a signature, the copyrighted work, the infringing copy and its location, contact details, a good-faith statement, and a statement of accuracy under penalty of perjury. Most guides stop at the format. What differs is the thing that was taken and where it now sits: an image file, a paywalled post, an article, a product design, a game, a stream, a paste. Each kind of work has its own desk, its own list of addresses to supply, and its own leftovers once the removal goes through.

This guide sorts eleven desks by the work they hold: Imgur, Pinterest, Patreon, Medium, LinkedIn, Redbubble, itch.io, Kick, Pastebin, Lipstick Alley and the Internet Archive. Drafting is covered in the guide to writing a DMCA notice, and YouTube, eBay and Course Hero are in the earlier comparison of ten copyright desks. Nothing here is legal advice, and a notice is a sworn statement.

Which desk handles which kind of stolen content?

The desk follows the file, not the person who took it. A stolen image goes to the image host, a leaked paid post to the site storing the leak, a copied article to the publishing platform, a design or a game to the marketplace, and an old capture to the archive. Every desk needs the exact addresses of the copy, and every removal leaves something that needs a request of its own.

The table sorts the eleven desks by the kind of work they hold. The first row is the commonest case, an Imgur copyright takedown request for a photograph or a piece of artwork. "Not confirmed" means the site's own policy page either does not state the rule or could not be read directly when this guide was checked on 12 October 2026.

Two things hold at every desk in the table. First, the uploader normally receives the notice, because a counter-notice is impossible without it. Pinterest says the copy it sends may include the reporter's full legal name, and Medium passes complaints to Lumen, the public archive of takedown notices run from Harvard's Berkman Klein Center. The companion guide on what a notice puts on record covers that side in detail.

Second, the statute asks for contact information sufficient to reach the complaining party, and a business address, a PO box or an authorised agent's details satisfy it. Anyone filing against a former partner or a persistent harasser should settle that before sending, because a copyright notice discloses more about its sender than a harassment report on Facebook or any other in-app report does.

After a counter-notice, a service provider restores the removed material in 10 to 14 business days unless the copyright owner files a court action and tells the provider.U.S. Copyright Office, Section 512 resource page (17 U.S.C. § 512(g))

How does an Imgur copyright takedown request work?

An Imgur copyright takedown request asks Imgur to delete an image file that copies your work. The request goes to the copyright agent named in Imgur's terms of service and has to list the address of every infringing image. Imgur hosts the file itself, so one removal breaks the picture everywhere the file was embedded, including forum threads and social posts.

An Imgur copyright takedown request has to account for the fact that each upload has more than one address. The post or album page is one, and the image file has a direct address of its own on the i.imgur.com subdomain. Forums and chat apps embed the direct address, which keeps working until Imgur deletes the file. List both addresses for each image. Where the picture was passed around on X, reporting the individual tweet removes one post and leaves the source file on Imgur untouched.

What goes in an Imgur DMCA takedown notice?

1. Your original

   Give a link to the original image where you published it, or attach the file, with the date. A portfolio page, a stock listing or the camera file with its metadata all work.

2. Every Imgur address

   List the post or album page and the direct file address for each copy. An Imgur DMCA takedown notice that says "my photos on Imgur" identifies nothing the desk can act on.

3. Contact details

   Name, postal address, phone number and email of the owner or the authorised agent. Decide which address you are willing to have forwarded.

4. Two statements and a signature

   A good-faith belief that the use is not authorised, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or act for the owner. A typed name counts as a signature.

5. A dated copy and a recheck

   Keep the sent notice and any reply. Open each address again after a few days, including the direct file addresses.

The fifth step of an Imgur DMCA takedown notice exists because of a documented failure. An acknowledgment from the desk is not a deletion, and the only proof of removal is an address that no longer loads.

Photographer Christopher Boffoli sent Imgur a DMCA notice on 21 February 2014. Imgur replied that the images "will be deleted from all of our servers within 24 hours"; his later complaint said at least 73 photos were still online more than 200 days after the notice.TorrentFreak, 29 September 2014, reporting the complaint filed in federal court in Seattle

The photos came down after the lawsuit was filed. For anyone sending an Imgur copyright takedown request today, the practical point is the paper trail: a dated Imgur DMCA takedown notice, a dated acknowledgment and a dated screenshot of the file still loading are what turn a slow desk into a provider that knew about the infringement and left it up.

Copyright covers copying, and an Imgur copyright takedown request fails when the complaint is about something else. A screenshot of your post, a meme built on a photo someone else took of you, or an insulting caption is not your copyrighted work. Intimate or private images have a faster route that needs no copyright claim at all, set out in the guide to removing leaked content.

Pinterest DMCA takedown: what do "remove all" and a strike change?

A Pinterest DMCA takedown goes through Pinterest's copyright form or to [email protected]. Opening the report with a request to remove all Pins that contain the image extends it beyond the addresses you listed, but Pinterest says it can only match identical copies, so a resized or cropped file survives. Each removal counts as a strike against the account that saved the Pin.

Pinterest is the desk in this guide that is most explicit about forwarding. Pinterest's copyright policy says the person whose Pin was removed may be sent a complete copy of the notice, including the reporter's full legal name, the copyright owner and the contact information, and that recipients may use those details to get in touch. The same page says Pinterest may strip some personal contact information when it forwards a report. "May" is the operative word in both sentences.

Strikes feed Pinterest's repeat-infringer policy, under which an account can lose the ability to save Pins or be disabled. A saver who thinks a strike is undeserved can appeal the strike without filing a counter-notification, which is a lower bar than the sworn statement the statute asks for.

There is one trap. Your own original Pin is an identical copy too, and third-party filing guides such as Red Points' warn that a remove-all request can take it down with the rest. List addresses one by one when your own Pin should stay. Most stolen Pins also have a source elsewhere: a picture lifted from a profile calls for an Instagram takedown request as well, and a re-pinned clip needs a separate copyright report to TikTok.

Patreon copyright infringement: how does a DMCA notice reach a paywalled post?

Patreon copyright infringement is reported through Patreon's DMCA form or by email to [email protected]. The notice has to give the creator's page address and enough detail to locate the post, because a desk cannot act on a paywalled post it cannot find. Patreon reviews each notice for completeness and good faith before it disables anything, then notifies the creator by email.

The phrase covers two opposite situations. In the first, someone sells your work from their Patreon page, and a Patreon DMCA takedown is the right tool. In the second, your own paid posts have leaked to another site, and Patreon is not the host of the copy. That notice goes wherever the leak sits; paid posts re-shared in channels fall under the process for copyright infringement on Telegram.

A rights holder using the Patreon report copyright infringement route supplies the original work, the creator's page address, any other addresses needed to find the material, the two sworn statements, a signature and contact details. A Patreon copyright takedown notice sent by email has to meet section 512 on its own, without the form's prompts, and Patreon's help centre says it may decline notices that do not.

Passing review is not a ruling. Patreon's help centre tells creators that an accepted Patreon DMCA notice is no finding that they infringed anything, and that the creator can settle with the sender directly, for example with a licence, or send a counter-notice. Patreon has built the creator's reply into the process since 2016, when Techdirt reported that the company would give users a chance to respond to a notice before their content came down.

A Patreon copyright takedown removes the post. It does not close the page, return money already paid to the creator, or identify the subscribers who downloaded the file. A page that pretends to be you is a separate problem with a separate form, the same split that applies when reporting a fake Facebook account: identity claims and copying claims go to different desks.

Medium and LinkedIn: where does a copyright takedown for an article go?

A Medium copyright takedown is emailed to [email protected]. A LinkedIn DMCA takedown goes through LinkedIn's Notice of Copyright Infringement form or by post to its Copyright Agent in Sunnyvale, California. Both desks tell the author. Medium also forwards takedown complaints to Lumen, the public archive of notices, and LinkedIn may pass the complainant's contact information to the member.

Medium

A Medium article DMCA notice has to contain every statutory element. Medium's help centre says the desk does not act on incomplete notices and may decline ones it considers abusive, such as a notice aimed at a lawful use. After a Medium DMCA takedown, the author receives a copy of the notice with instructions for a counter-notification. If the complainant does not report a lawsuit within ten days of that counter-notification, Medium may restore the story.

Medium copyright violation removal works address by address. A story republished inside a publication or under a custom domain has more than one address, and each one belongs in the notice. Reposting a removed story can end in permanent suspension of the account, according to the same help page. Copied ideas are a different matter: a story that paraphrases your argument without lifting your sentences is plagiarism, which Medium handles under its rules rather than under copyright.

In 2014 Medium received eight takedown notices claiming copyright infringement and permanently removed content in response to six of them.Medium Transparency Report, 2014

LinkedIn

LinkedIn's copyright policy says the company may make a good-faith attempt to forward the written notification, including the complainant's contact information, to the member who posted the content. LinkedIn publishes how often these requests succeed, which most desks in this guide do not.

Between July and December 2025 LinkedIn received 2,955 copyright removal requests reporting 3,723 infringements. LinkedIn removed 3,530 of them and rejected 193, an acceptance rate of 95%.LinkedIn Community Report, July–December 2025

Trademark runs on a separate form. A copied article, slide deck or headshot is a copyright matter; a company page trading under your registered name is a trademark matter and goes through the Notice of Trademark Infringement form with the registration number, jurisdiction and owner. A profile that poses as you or as an employee is neither, and the route for it is in the guide to a LinkedIn account takedown. The same three-way split between copying, branding and identity applies to a Facebook impersonation report. X adds its own variation, described in the guide to sending a DMCA notice to X.

Redbubble copyright claim and itch.io DMCA takedown request: how do marketplaces handle a notice?

A Redbubble copyright claim is filed as a Notice and Takedown Report, and Redbubble accepts it only from the rights holder or an authorised representative. An itch.io DMCA takedown request is an email to [email protected]. The two desks differ in what the notice has to pin down: Redbubble wants each listing and the right being claimed, and itch.io wants the project page and the specific assets inside it.

Redbubble

Redbubble copyright complaints follow a process the company describes as modelled on the DMCA. Someone who is not the owner can only flag a listing with the report link on the product page, and a flag carries far less weight than a notice from the owner. A fan who spots a stolen design should tell the artist.

Redbubble's Counter Notice FAQ sets no deadline for the artist's reply, so a listing removed today can be contested months later. Its policy covers three rights in one document, the IP and Publicity Rights Policy: a design copied onto a product is copyright, a brand name on a product is trademark, and a real person's name or face on a product is publicity. Pick the right one, because a notice filed under the wrong heading gives the artist an easy counter.

Atari first identified nearly 100 infringing items on Redbubble. Once its takedown notice arrived, Redbubble removed more than two thousand Atari-related listings.Center for Art Law, 13 March 2024, on Atari Interactive, Inc. v. Redbubble, Inc. (N.D. Cal., No. 18-cv-03451-JST)

How does itch.io remove infringing content?

The itch.io terms direct DMCA notices to [email protected] and name the federal court in San Francisco for counter-notices. People searching "itch io DMCA" are usually game developers whose sprites, music or code turned up inside someone else's project. An itch.io copyright claim against a game page works best when it names the project address and the specific assets, with a link to where each asset was first published.

An itch.io copyright infringement report that says only "this game copies mine" invites a counter-notice, because game mechanics and genres are not protected and the reviewer has nothing to compare. The terms promise no response time for an itch.io DMCA removal request. Expect the notice to be readable by anyone afterwards: itch.io keeps takedown notices on public pages under itch.io/takedowns, so write it as a document a stranger may quote.

Kick, Pastebin and Lipstick Alley: what if the desk publishes almost nothing?

Some hosts publish a route and little else. A Kick DMCA takedown request is an email to the address in Kick's DMCA policy, which lists no form and no strike count. A Pastebin DMCA takedown runs through a form at pastebin.com/dmca with no stated response time. A Lipstick Alley DMCA takedown has no desk this guide could confirm, so the fallback routes matter.

Kick

Kick's DMCA policy asks for the standard elements plus the sender's title when an agent files. Kick says it will review the submission and take the action it considers appropriate, and that it suspends or terminates repeat infringers. The policy gives no number of strikes and no expiry, and it reserves the right to act on blatant infringement without any repetition. Trademark complaints and counter-notices each have their own address.

A live stream is three things: the broadcast, the saved video and the clips viewers cut from it. Each has its own address and each belongs in the notice. Clips that travel to other apps need their own reports, the kind of follow-up a TikTok content removal service is hired for.

Pastebin

Pastebin's terms say the site does not pre-screen pastes and removes content at its sole discretion. Copyright fits when the paste is your code, your book's text or your course material. List the raw address as well as the normal one. A paste that exposes your phone number or passwords is not a copyright matter, and an abuse report to Pastebin describes the problem accurately.

Lipstick Alley

Lipstick Alley is a discussion forum, and its help pages could not be read for this guide. Start by checking where the image file lives. A picture embedded from another host is removed by that host, so the notice goes there. A picture attached to the thread itself is on the forum's servers, and the route is the forum's contact channel, then the agent listed in the Copyright Office directory, then the company that hosts the forum.

The host has acted before. In October 2012 a lawyer for Atlanta's then mayor wrote to the forum's hosting company about posts on the site; the host took Lipstick Alley offline temporarily and the forum moved to another provider, Creative Loafing Atlanta reported on 30 October 2012. That letter alleged false statements, not copying. Gossip about a person is speech, which copyright does not reach, and the applicable route is removing defamatory content.

Internet Archive copyright takedown and infringing domain removal: who acts on a copy the uploader no longer controls?

An Internet Archive copyright takedown is an email to [email protected] listing the addresses and the time period to exclude, and the Archive's help page gives no guarantee. Infringing domain removal is a different route again: a standalone site has no platform desk, so the notice goes to the hosting company, and a registrar can act only on a whole domain.

Send an Internet Archive DMCA takedown after the live copy is gone. Wayback Machine captures outlast the page they were taken from, and a capture of an infringing page keeps your work readable under the Archive's own address. Uploads made directly to the Archive are separate items with separate addresses.

For a standalone site, the order is site operator, host, then registrar. Cloudflare's abuse policy says it forwards complaints to the site operator and to the hosting provider, so the operator of a site behind Cloudflare will read your complaint. A registrar can suspend an entire domain and cannot remove one page, which makes it the last resort.

Two neighbours of this route are faster when they apply. A clone of your site that collects logins or card numbers is fraud, and a phishing takedown moves through hosts and registrars more quickly than a copyright dispute. A copy that moves into a private channel leaves the web-host route entirely; the in-app options for reporting a Telegram user or channel are the starting point there.

What can the uploader do once your notice is forwarded?

The uploader can file a counter-notice, a sworn statement that the material was removed by mistake or misidentification. The host forwards the counter-notice to you with the uploader's contact details. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g) the host then restores the material in 10 to 14 business days unless you file a court action and tell the host.

The desks apply that clock differently. Medium may restore after ten days. Pinterest says reinstatement can take up to 14 business days and accepts a Copyright Claims Board action as well as a lawsuit. Redbubble sets no deadline for the artist. LinkedIn and Kick both require a member outside the United States to accept a US federal court, the Northern District of California for LinkedIn and any district where Kick may be found for Kick. An Imgur copyright takedown request is open to the same reply, although Imgur's own clock could not be confirmed.

The Copyright Claims Board is the cheaper forum. The Board is a tribunal inside the U.S. Copyright Office that caps awards at $30,000, and a respondent can decline to take part, which sends the dispute back to federal court.

Upheld notices add up on the uploader's side. Every desk here that publishes a repeat-infringer rule ends it at suspension or termination of the account. Account-level outcomes on X are covered in the guide to an X account removal service.

Is filing free, and when does an infringement report service help?

Filing is free at every desk in this guide, and none requires a lawyer or a registered copyright. An infringement report service earns its fee in three situations: the copies sit on several hosts at once, the uploader keeps re-posting, or you do not want your own name and address travelling to the uploader with the notice.

The third situation comes up more often than people expect. The statute lets an authorised agent sign and supply the agent's contact details, so the uploader's copy and any public archive entry show the agent. You still have to be the owner, and the agent's statement that it acts for you is made under penalty of perjury.

A Medium DMCA takedown service or a LinkedIn DMCA takedown service files the same notice you could file yourself. What the service adds is a list of every address, resubmission when a copy returns, and a prepared answer if a counter-notice arrives. A LinkedIn trademark infringement report service does the equivalent on the trademark form and needs your registration details to do it.

No service can promise the outcome of an Imgur copyright takedown request, or of a notice to any other desk, because the desk decides. An offer of guaranteed removal in a fixed number of hours is a reason to walk away. The guide to choosing a content removal service lists the questions to ask before paying, and Clearline's own content removal casework starts with a written assessment of which copies can be removed and which cannot.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Using YouTube's copyright takedown form
• Filing a copyright report on Instagram
• How long content removal takes