Your Listing Got Taken Down

Sources last read 2026-08-09.

Short answer

Somebody told the service that your listing uses their work, and the service removed it without asking you first. That is normal and it is not a judge deciding anything. You can push back, using something called a counter-notice. Before you do, read what it involves. You swear a statement, you hand your name, address and telephone number to the person who complained, and you agree to be taken to federal court. That is a real decision, not a form.

What actually happened

Somebody sent the service a notice. The notice says your listing uses work they own, and it is signed with a statement made in good faith.

The service then removed your listing, fast, without asking you. The email may call it a takedown, or a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Two things about that.

Nobody checked. No lawyer read it, no judge looked at it. A form arrived and a listing went.

And the speed is not about you. Services move fast on these notices to manage their own risk. Your listing is a very small part of that, and the speed says nothing about how strong the claim is.

Why this feels so unfair

Because it is built to work one way round.

The person complaining fills in a form. You lose the listing that day. Then, if you want it back, you are the one who has to swear things and give up your address.

That is not a bug you can argue with. It is the shape of the system, and knowing the shape is what stops you making an angry decision on the first night.

What pushing back actually costs

Read both blocks above properly. Then read this list, which is the same thing in plain terms.

You swear it. Under penalty of perjury. That means a false statement is a crime, not an oops.
Your details go to them. Name, address and telephone number, handed to the person who complained about you. That is how the system is meant to work, because they need to know who to sue.
You agree to federal court. You consent in advance to that court having power over you in this matter.
You wait anyway. No less than ten and no more than fourteen business days before the listing can come back.
They can still sue. If they file in that window, nothing gets restored and the whole thing becomes a court case.

For an adult with a business, that is a normal cost of doing business. For somebody who is 16 and sells forty dollars of tote bags a month, it is not a form. It is a decision.

Whose decision it even is

On most selling services, anyone under 18 is there through an adult. The account is in a parent's name, and the money lands with them.

If that is your setup, the sworn statement is theirs. Their name, their address, their agreement to federal court. So this is not a thing you can quietly handle on your phone.

Go and tell them the day it happens. Not the week after.

When it is worth it, and when it is not

There is a real difference between these two situations, and it is worth being honest with yourself about which one you are in.

You used somebody else's work. Their character, their photo, their logo, a design pack you now suspect was never theirs to sell. Take the listing down and keep it down. This is over, and it cost you a listing rather than anything worse.

The claim is wrong. You drew it. You wrote it. Or you were reselling the actual item you bought, which is what first sale covers. Now you have grounds, and now the question is whether the sworn statement and the address and the wait are worth what the listing earns.

Sometimes the answer is no even when you are right. That is a genuinely unfair sentence, and it is still true.

What I could not check for you

This page is built on the law itself, because the law is the part I can actually read.

The services have their own versions of all this, with their own forms and their own deadlines. I tried to read Etsy's and eBay's takedown procedures for this page and could not. Both of them block automated reading of their pages.

So take section 512 as the floor. It is what these services build on, and their own process may add steps, ask for more, or move faster. Find the page on the service you use and read it before you reply to anything.

An example, to show the shape of it

Dexter is 16 and prints tote bags. The account is his mum's, because that is how the app works for anyone his age.

One morning his best listing is gone. A company says the drawing on it is theirs. It is not. He drew it in November and he has the file with the date on it.

So he is right, and he is furious, and he wants to send the form that evening.

His mum reads what the form is first. It is a statement sworn under penalty of perjury. It puts her name, address and telephone number in front of the company that complained. It agrees that a federal court can hear the matter. And even if it all goes his way, the listing stays down for at least ten business days.

The listing made about fifteen dollars a week.

They decide not to send it. He puts a different design up the next day and keeps the dated file in case the company ever comes back. It is not a satisfying ending. It was still the right call for fifteen dollars a week, and that is a sentence worth being honest about rather than pretending otherwise.

What to do this week

Save the notice email. All of it, including whatever it says the work is.

Find your own file with a date on it, if you have one. That is the single most useful thing you can own in this situation, and it is free.

Do not relist the same thing.

Show an adult, today, especially if the account is in their name.

Then decide slowly. There is no prize for replying fast, and the ten day wait applies either way.

What a counter-notice has to contain

a statement under penalty of perjury... name, address, and telephone number... a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court
US Copyright Office, on section 512

Three separate things, and each one is heavier than it looks. Under penalty of perjury means lying on it is a crime, not a mistake. The name, address and telephone number get passed to the person who complained about you, because they are the one who has to decide whether to sue. And consenting to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court means agreeing in advance that they can take you to a federal court if they want to. Nobody explains that part in the help article.

What happens after you send one

no less than ten and no more than fourteen business days
US Copyright Office, on section 512

That is the window before access is put back, unless the person who complained goes to court first. Business days, so weekends do not count, which makes it more like two to three weeks in real time. Even when you are completely right, the listing stays down for all of it. That is worth knowing before you decide whether the fight is worth having.

Questions people actually ask

Does a takedown mean I broke the law?

No. It means somebody claimed you did, and the service acted on the claim. Nobody weighed it up. Services remove things fast to manage their own risk, so the speed of it is not a sign that the claim against you was strong.

Can I just put it back up?

Do not. Relisting the same thing is what turns one removed listing into a closed account. If you think the claim is wrong, the counter-notice is the route, and it goes through the person whose name the account is in.

What if the claim is obviously wrong?

Then you may well have a real case, and it is still worth reading the two blocks above before you act. Being right does not make the sworn statement smaller or keep your address private. Talk it through with a parent. This is one of the places where an adult in the middle is the whole point.

What if I did copy it?

Take the loss and move on. Do not send a sworn statement saying otherwise. That is the one genuinely dangerous move available to you here, and it is the one an angry person makes at eleven at night.

Can the person who complained get my details another way?

That is not something I can answer from the sources here, and I am not going to guess at it. What the copyright office does say is that a counter-notice hands over your name, address and telephone number. Take that part at face value.

Where this came from

US Copyright Office, on section 512 notices and counter-notices
copyright.gov