Home » TakeDowns » Fiverr TakeDown Process

Fiverr is a portal created to advertise services by online users for low cost income and expenditure. Much debate has been raised over the portal as a method to lower the standard of work ethics, quality and service. Due to the method of practice many of the users on the portal can and do rely on methods to advertise themselves or portfolio their wares, in a way that is in violation of other’s rights. Namely, people will use found artworks claiming they created it to entice people to use their service, or use it as a method of advertising, etc. You may wish to do something about this, and request a takedown. *If should be noted at this point that a successful takedown was achieved without using this form, and by simply using their contact form to state the necessary information, that resulted in a successful takedown. Their form does have some odd aspects to the process which will be explained. You can find the form here!

The form, like most is seemingly straightforward, but has some required fields that state elements that are not legally required, which creates a potential issue. Here is a way to circumvent the issues that will occur

The first dropdown item in the form is an indicator that the form is used for many aspects of communication in the website’s daily interaction with users. You will need to scroll down on the list and select “Intellectual Property Claims” from the bottom. From that point there are a few other boxes that are required to be filled in, like your email address, the subject 9which is not required, but is good to state this is a DMCA request. In the description box it would be advised to state the basic aspects of the communication. Something like “A service provider on the Fiverr site has violated my copyright by using one of my images in an illegal manner.”

Then comes the second dropdown menu, which is where the issues kind of start becoming complicated. It has two options; “CopyrightViolation” and “Trademark Violation“, now obviously you will need to choose “Copyright Violation“. The problem starts after this, as by law, to have a successful claim against a trademark infringement you are required to register your trademark. This is the little ® or ™ you see on many logos, graphics, etc. However, since the signing of the Berne Convention, it is not a requirement to register artworks for validity in copyright claims; see here for more details. So, some aspects of the following parts of the form are awkward and unnecessary for the conclusion of copyright cases.

The next box down is OK, and can be filled in easily. This is simply a descriptor of your artwork that is being violated. Making sure as usual to include unique identifiers in the description so that the service can make a clear identification of the work. Now the next box would seem to create an issue as it is required, but as stated previously, there is not obligation to register for copyright anymore. So, if you like you can add this following text:

“Since the signing of the Berne Convention in 1989, by the United States of America, it is prohibited to require formal registration of copyright. Therefor the following statement is the only necessary evidence of my ownership, along with the declarations below. [add your information regarding ownership including a URL link to the publicly visible version of your work]”. If they persist in stating this is required, use the normal contact form to make the claim.

Again the next box is requesting proof of ownership. You can again state that;

“I am the legal copyright owner of the item being contested in this form. this is validated by the conditional statements of legality provided at the base of the form. as there is no legal requirement to register for copyright under the Berne Convention, then please accept this statement as proof along with the provided URL(s) above, to help in the processing of this claim.”

Then the form gets a little easier to complete from this point. The next box is stating that you need to explain who the user is violating your copyright. Here you add some text that describes the nature by which they have taken your image and used it. Making sure you are clear about the fact they have altered or manipulated the piece without your permission.

Then a small box is provided to paste in the exact URL link to the infringing material. This can either be the item on the user’s wall being used to generate the service, or an actual image given as proof of the delivered work. After this box you simply add you full name and address in the box provided. Seems a bit odd doing it in this fashion, but you could place them on individual lines to make it more clear.

Then, instead of tick boxes on the legal aspect of the form, they actually make you type in the statements by hand, which seems a little unnecessary. So here are the two standard ones that you can copy/paste into those last two boxes:

“I have a good faith belief that the portion of the listing(s) described above violate(s) the intellectual property rights owned by the intellectual property owner or its agent, nor is such use otherwise permissible under law.”

“I represent, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is true and correct and that I am the intellectual property owner or authorised to act on behalf of the intellectual property owner for the rights described above.”

After these two boxes are completed, it is the standard digital signature on the form before sending. So add your name again, and you are almost good to go. There is an option to upload files. This will be for the verification of legal documentation, but if you feel that you’d like to attach a DMCA takedown or a image of your original work, you can do here. Simply tick the NoCaptcha ReCaptcha and then press the “Submit” button and your DMCA is away. Good luck!