So basically I thought I’d give a detailed run-down on what to do if your art does get removed on false copyright claims. I did a quick run down of it already in this post, but I thought I’d give a detailed step-by-step so people know exactly what to do because I know when it happened to me out of the blue, I was a little overwhelmed.

EDIT: I’ve been informed that emailing your situation to abuse@tumblr is faster and more efficient in getting your work back so please try this method first. Be sure to thoroughly explain what is going on and also include the url of your art in question. It may take a few days for them to reply (I have discovered through personal experience -_-), but this way is much faster and I believe more highly recommended.

First of all, if you’re reading this your art probably has already been removed, so you’re probably already aware but tumblr sends you an email informing you some of your content has been removed. It looks something similar to this:

The email includes the links to the content in question (when you click on the links to your work in question in the email it will say ‘url not found’), the person who filed the claim, and a link to the steps to contest the claims if false.

Quick note that the person or person(s) who are filing these claims are not who they say they are, they are filing under a pseudonym and it varies from person to person - in my case the person filed under fictional character names (Eren Jean) and that was all the information I received about them. In cheppo’s case they filed under an actual name, Jessica Derus, and added additional comments saying they were from France and stated she asked the op to remove her art but received no answer, but it is all false information. They are just trying to make these claims look legit.

To file your counter-notification, click the link in the email to go to tumblr’s terms of service. Scroll down to the subheading 'submitting a dmca counter-notification’ and it gives a run-down of the steps as well as the information that you need to email to tumblr’s designated agent.

In the email you need to include your name, address, phone number, email address, the urls to your content that was removed, statement of consent to the Federal District Court in your city/state, a statement agreement, and your signature. That sounds like a handful, but it should look a little something like this:

Check the dmca counter-notification subheading for the list and also the statements where you can essentially copy & paste into your email. In addition to all that technical mess, please, pleasee be clear that these are false claims and the person is purposely doing this like I stated earlier. Make that very clear.

After you have all the technical stuff thoroughly written out, email it to tumblr’s designated agent at this email address: dmca@tumblr.com

After that they send you an email asking for confirmation of your information- email them back 'yes’ -  they send you a final email stating that according to dmca regulations you must wait 10 business days for your content to be restored. This is only for actual copyright violations where they’re giving the other party a chance to sue if need be, but since these claims are false it’s just waiting out the 10 days.

After 10 days your content should be restored. Because of delays, technical or other,  if your content is not back up after the 10 day waiting period, just email the designated agent again saying you waited the subsequent amount of days and would like your content back (I ended up having to do this). After they receive your final email and reply, your stuff should be back up shortly after.

It’s also been brought to my attention that if you’ve had multiple copyright violations filed against you and even if you file a counter-claim to get your stuff back, apparently you’ll only get one piece of your work back. I noticed with mine that once both of my pieces in question were restored, I was able to view both of my pieces in my post list, people were able to view both on their dashes and reblog them, but one of the two pieces appears on my blog and others blogs like this:

So to all of this there is still a downside and as of right now I’m not sure if it’s possible to remedy that situation, but I would definitely stick to filing a counter-claim regardless because not only is it worth it to see your stuff back up after all the hassle, the person or persons filing these false claims doesn’t deserve the satisfaction of winning.

I wish you all luck in your endeavors of pursuing this!! Sending you lots of love <3