What to do next, in order.

1. Save the evidence today

Pages change and disappear, sometimes the moment their owner notices attention. Before you do anything else, take a full-page screenshot of the copy with the address bar and the date visible, and save the page to the Internet Archive with its Save Page Now button at web.archive.org. Note the exact address of every copying page in one plain list.

Do the same for your own page. If the question of who wrote it first ever comes up, a dated capture of your page is worth more than anything you can say about it.

2. Check that you were first

It sounds obvious, but it is the step people skip. Look up your page on the Wayback Machine and note the date of its first capture. Find your own records too: the draft, the publish date in your website editor, an invoice from the writer or photographer.

If their page turns out to be older than yours, stop here and work out why. You may have copied a supplier, or both of you may have used the same source. Filing on a page that was there first is how a dispute starts going the wrong way.

3. Rule out permission and fair use

Some copies are allowed. Manufacturer descriptions are often handed to every reseller. Speaker bios and press kits are written to be republished. A review that quotes a few lines of yours in order to discuss them is very likely fair use.

The law expects you to consider this before you send a notice, not after. If the page comments on your work, criticises it, or quotes a small part of it, think twice.

4. Decide whether to ask them first

You do not have to contact the site owner, but sometimes a short, polite message is the fastest route: many copies are made by a freelancer or an agency the owner never checked. Say which page, which of yours it copies, and that you would like it removed. Leave out threats and legal terms you are not sure of.

If there is no contact route, or the site looks built to scrape, skip this step.

5. Find who hosts the copy

A takedown notice goes to the company hosting the page, not to the site owner. Look the domain up at ICANN Lookup for the registrar, and check which company the site's address points to. If it sits behind a proxy service such as Cloudflare, that service forwards complaints to the real host on request.

US hosts list the person who receives notices in the Copyright Office's directory of designated agents. Use that address or the host's own copyright form.

6. Send a notice that holds up

A notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A) needs six things, and hosts can ignore one that leaves any out:

• your physical or electronic signature;
• the work that was copied, such as the address of your original page;
• the address of the copying page, precise enough to find it;
• your name, address, phone number and email;
• a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised by you, your agent or the law;
• a statement that the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner or are authorised to act for them.

Keep it factual. Name the pages, quote a passage from each side, and attach your dated captures.

7. Ask Google to drop it from search

Separately from the host, Google accepts copyright removal requests for its search results through its legal removal form. This does not take the page down. It stops it from competing with yours in results. Google publishes a copy of these requests, so do not put anything in yours you would not want public.

8. If they send a counter-notice

The other side can object. Under § 512(g) the host may then put the page back 10 to 14 business days later unless you file a lawsuit. That is the point to speak to a lawyer, not before. Registering your copyright is not needed to send a notice, but in the US it is needed before you can sue over a US work.