DMCA.com

What it is

DMCA.com is a copyright protection and takedown service for creators, publishers and site owners. It does not pay anyone: it is a cost an earner takes on to keep stolen copies of their work off the web. Its own pages say it has been protecting online content since 2006 and describe it as "the internet's original copyright protection service". Its plan page lists a free badge plan with paid monthly plans above it, and managed takedowns are sold separately at a flat fee per site.

The service is written for all kinds of rights holders. Its About page says content protection help should be available at any budget, and names a Fortune 500 company, a celebrity, an indie artist and a dentist with a blog as the range of clients it has in mind. For adult creators it publishes dedicated guides, including one on protecting OnlyFans content and one on removing stolen adult content.

How it works for a creator

DMCA.com offers two methods of filing takedown notices. In the do-it-yourself method you process your own notices. In the professionally managed method the team does the work for you. The managed claim form takes about 3 minutes to fill out, according to the pricing page, and the homepage says the team then drafts the notice, follows up with the host and keeps you updated.

Protection Pro is the preventive side. The homepage says it includes badges, scanning, watermarking, DIY takedown tools and case management, and that plans start with a free badge tier. The plan comparison lists items such as DIY takedown templates for the US, EU and India, and image lookup that scans daily, weekly or monthly for images you upload. For a creator with a website of their own, the same plans add right-click blocking and page scanning, and the FAQ says a badge installed and registered for at least 30 days may qualify for a free standard copyright takedown. It notes that image monitoring uses scan credits and can be upgraded from the dashboard. The same table lists a maximum number of profiles of 3, 10 and 100 across its plan levels, and a content registry where you can add items to a third-party record of ownership with a digital signature. It says over 400 million assets are already under protection.

Monitoring is sold separately and billed by the item. In October 2026 the pricing page prices image monitoring at $1 per image per month. It lists text monitoring in packages of 10, 50 or 100 texts and title monitoring in packages of 100, 500 or 1,000 titles, each in three steps from $10 to $30 per month. Alerts go out when DMCA.com finds matches on the internet to your monitored text or images.

For platforms where you cannot edit the page yourself, the OnlyFans guide says "The DMCA.com Badgeless Protection is perfect for websites like OnlyFans where you cannot alter the page yourself." That guide also describes what OnlyFans itself does, such as watermarking with the creator's username and restricting downloads, and it suggests creators use a pseudonym and a separate email address. Those are statements about OnlyFans, not features of DMCA.com.

The takedown FAQ says the service files against major social platforms, marketplaces, file hosts, search engines and hosting providers. Named examples are Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, Shopify, Amazon, Discord and Google Search. It says it handles hosts worldwide, not only in the United States. A registered copyright is not required to request a takedown, because in most countries content is protected from the moment it is created.

The adult-content removal guide gives practical tips. Find as many copies and URLs of the content as you can, including cropped or altered versions, and make a list. Often only one website was the original source of the upload, and if you can get at the source you can stop the spread. A customer testimonial on the page describes using managed takedowns for some removals and the DIY Kit for others. A creator with several copies of the same content can add more entries to one takedown form with the '+' button.

The homepage quotes a running counter of 495,593,249 items protected and 90 million badges delivered daily. These are the site's own marketing figures.

Money and rules

Protection Pro is a flat subscription, billed monthly or yearly, with a free tier under it. As of October 2026 the features page lists Pro at $10 per month and Business at $15 per month, and the homepage gives a yearly price for Pro as well.

Managed takedowns are a flat fee per site, not a subscription, with a money-back guarantee on qualifying cases. In October 2026 the takedown page lists a professional Standard Takedown at $199 per site, with Premium and Platinum tiers for complex cases and specialized enforcement reaching $599. The DIY Takedown Toolkit is a monthly subscription, listed at $10, and the page says it includes professional notice templates, host lookup tools and step-by-step instructions. You can upgrade to a managed takedown at any time. The FAQ says the guarantee depends on the details of the case, so it is not unconditional.

Terms of Service points that matter to a buyer: the agreement renews automatically on a month-to-month basis at the month-to-month rate unless canceled in writing before the renewal date. The terms set a late payment fee as a percentage of the standard monthly rate, and state that amounts past due by 90 days are subject to immediate closure. The company reserves the right to raise prices on the expiration of a contracted term and says increases are posted on its website 30 days before taking effect.

The terms list payment by credit card (Visa, MC and Amex), PayPal or wire transfer, with bank charges for wire transfers at the client's expense, and the plan page also shows a crypto option and an annual billing choice that it says saves about 2 months. Refunds are narrow: the terms say only yearly Protection Pro is refunded, on a request within 10 days of payment, with no prorating, no refunds on monthly subscription payments and none on payments made with coupon codes. Refunds go back by the same payment method. The professionally managed takedown carries its own money-back guarantee, with listed exceptions such as a client who does not answer within 24 hours of a case inactivity email.

DMCA.com says it is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. There is no payout to a creator at all, since this is a paid service.

Who it suits

It suits a creator who already has copies showing up on other sites and wants a flat per-site price for a managed takedown, or one who prefers to send notices personally and wants templates and host lookup for a monthly fee. It also suits a creator on a subscription platform such as OnlyFans, since the badgeless option is aimed at pages the creator cannot edit.

There are limits. The Standard price is per site, so a leak spread across many hosts means several orders. The money-back guarantee covers qualifying cases only. Monitoring is billed per item, which adds up for a large catalog. The terms say monthly plans renew automatically until you cancel in writing. Speed is not guaranteed either: the takedown page says half of takedowns complete within 48 hours, and the adult-content guide says removal can take hours or days depending on the site and the conditions of the notice.