Another seller is using my product photos
Product photography is the most commonly stolen asset in ecommerce and the easiest to prove you own. The difficulty is almost never the evidence. It is knowing which of four completely different channels the complaint has to go through.
Confirm the photo is actually yours to defend
Before anything else, be certain of who owns the image. This is where most product-photo complaints fall apart, and the failure is almost always one of three things.
- You shot it yourself
- You own it. Keep the original raw or full-resolution file — its embedded capture date and camera data are excellent evidence and almost nobody who steals an image has them.
- You hired a photographer
- In the US the photographer owns the copyright unless there is a written assignment or it qualifies as a work made for hire. Paying an invoice is not the same as buying the rights. Find the contract before you file.
- The manufacturer supplied it
- You almost certainly do not own it, and neither does the other seller. Both of you are using the brand’s image, which is why a notice here will go nowhere and may expose you instead.
The manufacturer-image trap
Capture the evidence while it is still there
Image theft evidence is more fragile than text evidence, because images can be re-hosted, cropped, re-compressed or served from a CDN that changes URL.
- Save the live page as a PDF so the URL and date are captured together.
- Right-click and save the image itself, and note the direct image URL — you will need it in the notice.
- Keep your original file. The resolution difference alone is usually decisive: theirs is a downscaled copy of yours.
- If you watermarked it and they cropped the watermark out, screenshot that specifically. Removing copyright management information has its own consequences under § 1202.
A reverse image search will often find copies you did not know about. That is also what our scanner does automatically against the images on your own pages, and it only reports an identical copy of the file, never an image that merely looks similar.
Four channels, and picking the wrong one wastes weeks
Where the photo is being used decides who can remove it. These are not interchangeable and they do not forward to each other.
A normal website
The hosting provider’s designated agent
A § 512 notice. The host has a legal incentive to act quickly.
Etsy, Amazon, eBay
The marketplace’s own copyright process
Their internal form, not a § 512 notice to a host. Usually faster when filed correctly.
Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
The platform’s copyright report form
Platform-specific, and they are used to this. Often resolved in days.
Google Image results
A separate Google de-index request
Removes it from search results only. The image stays on the site it lives on.
Sending a web-host-style notice into a marketplace is the single most common wasted effort in this area. Marketplaces run their own programmes and will route you to their form regardless of how well your notice is drafted.
What a photo notice has to contain
The same six statutory elements apply as for text, with two practical differences. First, identify the image precisely: the direct image URL on their page, and the URL where your original is published. Second, be explicit about how you know it is yours.
One line does most of the work here: “The file at [their URL] is a downscaled copy of the original photograph published at [your URL] on [date], shot by [name], original file available on request.” It is specific, checkable, and it tells the reviewer they are not being asked to adjudicate a dispute.
Build the full notice with our free generator, and if there is any argument about commentary or review, run the fair-use check first.
When it is worth paying for this
One image, on one cooperative host or marketplace, is a job you can do in an afternoon with the tools on this site and it will cost you nothing.
It becomes worth hiring when the same photographs show up across multiple sellers at once, when the host does not respond, when the site is proxied so the host is not visible, when ownership has to be assembled because a photographer shot them, or when the images also need removing from image search as a separate filing.
An image case prices one rung above a plain text case in our ladder, because proving a photograph is yours takes more assembly than proving a sentence is. You are quoted that number before anything is filed, and billed only if the page comes down.
Last reviewed October 23, 2026. This is general information about a US statute, not legal advice, and we are not a law firm.
What people ask next
They cropped my watermark out. Does that change anything?
It can make it worse for them. Removing or altering copyright management information — which includes a watermark identifying the owner — is separately actionable under 17 U.S.C. § 1202. It is also strong evidence that the copying was deliberate rather than careless, which affects how a host reads the complaint.
Can I bill them instead of having it taken down?
Some services pursue licensing fees from infringers and take a share of what they recover. That is a different business from removal, and it is a reasonable route if the image has clear licensing value. Be careful putting a payment demand inside a takedown notice: it is not one of the statutory elements and in some jurisdictions it is prohibited outright.
What if they say they found it on Google?
That is not a defence and reviewers hear it constantly. Finding an image in search results does not grant a licence to use it, and no host treats it as one.
My photographer shot them. Can I still file?
Only if the rights were assigned to you in writing, or you are authorised to act as the owner's agent. If neither is true, the photographer can file and you cannot. The authorisation step is quick to fix — but it has to happen before the notice, not after.
Will they know it was me?
Yes. A notice carries the rights holder's name and contact details because the statute requires it, and hosts commonly forward the complaint to the site operator in full. You choose which name and address appear on it.
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