DMCA Designated Agent Registration

File your U.S. Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent registration — required for §512(c) safe harbor if your site hosts user-submitted content.

Filed with the U.S. Copyright Office We screen out incomplete notices
Tax deductible — DMCA agent registration and filing fees are deductible as ordinary business expenses under IRC § 162.

The short version: if your website or app lets people post content — comments, listings, uploads, reviews — sooner or later someone will post something that infringes a copyright. The DMCA can shield you from monetary liability for that, but only if you have registered a designated agent with the U.S. Copyright Office (and meet a few other conditions).

Not registering isn’t illegal — no one fines you for it. The risk is what you lose. Without a registered agent you can’t use the DMCA safe harbor, so if a user posts infringing material, the copyright owner can sue you for it — with damages of $750–$30,000 per work, up to $150,000 if willful. The protection also isn’t retroactive: it only covers the time your agent is on file. Below: what it is, what the law says, who needs it, and what we do for you.

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How it works, start to finish

  1. A notice arrives — at our address, not yours

    Anyone claiming infringement uses the agent contact listed for your site.

    Mail Email Fax

  2. We log it, stamped to the minute

    The original is stored securely and the date and time received are recorded — the start of your paper trail.

  3. We check it against the law

    Signature, the copyrighted work, where the material is, contact details, good-faith statement, and the statement under penalty of perjury.

  4. Then it goes one of two ways

    IncompleteWe reply to the sender with exactly what’s missing. You can see it in your portal, marked incomplete — no alert, no interruption.
    CompleteWe alert you right away by email or text — or push it straight to your own system by secure web callback, so you can automate the takedown.

  5. You act, and confirm

    Take the post down (or let your system hide it while you review the URL), then confirm what you did in your portal.

  6. Closed out, with the receipts

    Every step is timestamped, and the request is marked completed when you are done.

We check that a notice is complete, not whether the claim is true — what comes down is always your call.

What is a DMCA designated agent?

The designated agent is the person or company that receives copyright infringement complaints (“takedown notices”) about content on your site.

  • You register the agent, together with your business details, in the Copyright Office’s online DMCA Designated Agent Directory — a public record. Anyone with a complaint can look you up there.
  • You also post the agent’s contact information on your own site, where visitors can find it.
  • The agent can be you, an employee, a job title, or a third-party service like us.

What the law says

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512(c), gives online service providers a “safe harbor”: protection from monetary liability for infringing material that their users post. To qualify, you must:

  1. Designate an agent with the U.S. Copyright Office and post the agent’s contact information publicly on your site.
  2. Act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material once you receive a valid notice.
  3. Have no actual knowledge of the infringement (or awareness of facts that make it obvious), and receive no financial benefit directly tied to infringing activity you have the right and ability to control.
  4. Adopt and reasonably enforce a policy of terminating repeat infringers (§ 512(i)).
Registering an agent is necessary, but not enough on its own. It is one of the conditions, not the whole safe harbor — you still have to handle notices promptly and enforce a repeat-infringer policy.

Why it matters

Without the safe harbor, a copyright owner can sue you over what your users post. Statutory damages run $750 to $30,000 per work infringed, and up to $150,000 per work if the infringement is found willful (17 U.S.C. § 504(c)).

Sources: copyright.gov/512 · DMCA Designated Agent Directory

What going without it can cost

These are illustrations, not predictions — real outcomes depend on the facts, the court, and whether the copyright owner registered their work in time. But this is how the risk tends to show up:

Damages

Statutory damages are counted per work, not per lawsuit: $750–$30,000 each, up to $150,000 each if willful.

Example: a photo-sharing community where users upload 40 copyrighted images a rights holder identifies — 40 × $750 = $30,000 at the low end, 40 × $30,000 = $1.2 million at the high end. The court can also order you to pay the other side’s attorney’s fees.

Lost legal defenses

With the safe harbor, a platform can often get a claim about user content dismissed early by showing it registered an agent and acted on notices. Without it, that shortcut is gone and you defend the case on its merits.

Example: a claim you expect to win can still mean months of discovery, motions and legal fees that can easily reach the tens of thousands of dollars — before a judge ever rules.

Default judgments

If you are sued and don’t respond in time, the court can rule for the other side without hearing from you, and the damages they ask for can be awarded as filed.

Example: a takedown email sits in an inbox nobody watches, the content stays up, the owner sues, and the summons is missed or ignored. A judgment for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars can follow and be enforced against your business accounts and assets.

Two things worth knowing. Statutory damages and attorney’s fees generally require the copyright owner to have registered the work before the infringement began (or within three months of publication) — many photographers, publishers and studios do. And a DMCA agent receives takedown notices, not lawsuits: what it does is make sure the notice reaches someone who acts on it, which is what keeps a complaint from turning into a lawsuit.

Who this applies to

Any website, app or platform that hosts content submitted by its users, at any size — the law has no minimum. For example:

  • Forums, communities and sites with comment sections
  • Marketplaces, classifieds, directories and review sites
  • Social, dating and messaging apps with profiles, photos or video
  • File-sharing, cloud storage, and image, video or podcast hosting
  • Website builders, blogging platforms and web hosts
  • Software products where customers upload their own content

Probably not you if you only publish content you created or licensed yourself and never host anything visitors submit — this registration isn’t what protects you in that case.

What we do for you

Registration Only — $19

  • Review your legal entity name, address and site names
  • Prepare and file your designation with the Copyright Office
  • Pay the $6 Copyright Office fee at cost — itemized, never marked up
  • Send you the confirmation

You stay your own listed agent, so complaints come to you directly.

Agent of Record — from $39/yr

  • We are listed as your designated agent and give complainants mail, email and fax to send their notices to, so they come to us instead of your inbox
  • We check each notice for the six elements the statute requires: a signature, the copyrighted work, where the material is, the complainant’s contact details, a good-faith statement, and a statement under penalty of perjury
  • Incomplete notices don’t interrupt you. They go back to the sender asking for what is missing (you can still see them in your portal, marked incomplete); complete ones are sent to you promptly so you can act
  • Growth adds counter-notice handling, unlimited notices and coverage for multiple sites

Only real, complete notices are sent to you

Not every “DMCA notice” is a valid one. Many are vague, unsigned or missing the basics, and answering each one costs you time. With Agent of Record, we screen them first.

1We receive and checkevery notice a complainant sends us by mail, email or fax against the six elements the law requires — signature, the copyrighted work, where the material is, contact details, a good-faith statement, and a statement under penalty of perjury.
2We reply to the senderif anything is missing, telling them exactly what to fix. Incomplete or unsubstantiated notices stop here — no alert to you, though you can still see them in your portal.
3We forward the restcomplete notices go to you promptly, so the clock that matters for your safe harbor starts with a notice that is actually valid.

Why this works legally: a notice that doesn’t substantially comply with 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) can’t be used to show you had knowledge of infringement (§ 512(c)(3)(B)), and the statute expects the provider to help a sender fix a notice that is nearly complete rather than ignore it. The limit: we screen for completeness, not truth — a complete notice is forwarded even if you disagree with it, and disputing it is what a counter-notice is for.

What we don’t do: we check that a notice is complete, not whether the claim is true, and we don’t give legal advice or decide whether your content comes down — that stays your call. You remain responsible for acting on notices, posting the agent information on your site and enforcing your repeat-infringer policy.

Common questions

Why can’t I just use my company’s registered agent?

Two reasons.

  1. It’s a different job. A state registered agent accepts lawsuits and official state mail for your company. A DMCA designated agent accepts copyright infringement notices and is listed in the Copyright Office’s directory. Being one doesn’t make you the other, and a registered agent service isn’t necessarily set up or obligated to handle copyright notices. A registered agent also doesn’t screen the contents of what it receives — it scans and forwards everything as-is, so incomplete, unsigned or baseless letters land on your desk along with the real ones. Checking each notice against the law’s six required elements, and replying to the sender when something is missing, is exactly what our Agent of Record plans add.
  2. The address usually doesn’t qualify. The Copyright Office does not allow a commercial mail receiving agency (CMRA) — a mailbox or virtual-mailbox address — to be used for a DMCA designated agent. If your registered agent’s address, or your own business address, is a mailbox location like that, it can’t go on the designation.

Whoever you list also has to actually watch for notices and act on them. Your options are yourself, an employee or a role (such as “Legal Department”) at a real street address, or a dedicated agent service like our Agent of Record plans.

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Choose Your Plan

Registration Only
$19 one-time
We file your designation. You remain your own registered agent.
Most Popular
Agent of Record — Starter
$39/yr
We're your agent: mail/fax/email intake, notice validation & forwarding. Up to 10 notices/mo, up to 5 sites.
Agent of Record — Growth
$99/yr
Same as Starter, unlimited notices, counter-notice handling, multi-site coverage.

$6 U.S. Copyright Office filing fee itemized at cost on every plan — never marked up.

List every domain/subdomain this designation should cover, comma-separated. One $6 fee covers unlimited alternate names for the same legal entity.

Registering an agent is one of five §512(c) safe-harbor conditions (the others involve your own takedown and repeat-infringer practices) — not a substitute for legal advice.

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