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How to safely take down stolen Artwork from OpenSea

Authors

NFT marketplaces make it very difficult to take down stolen art. They often require sensitive personal details to verify your identity and these details are shared with the art thief. Please, do not submit your personal information this way as it can put you at risk of identity theft!

Although your art is stolen and placed on these marketplaces, it often hasn't been converted into an NFT yet (since this is expensive). You often have a chance to take the art down before it is purchased.

Instead, there are safer methods for taking down stolen artwork and I have listed them below. Thanks to @CalpainEqD for the research! I took much inspiration from his blogpost about the same subject.

If you find new methods, or if one doesn't work for you, tag our socials @guildofartists and we'll edit this blogpost and try to help you out.

Only the legal copyright owner of the artwork can report it as being stolen. There can be severe liability for damages if you misrepresent a copyright claim.

Originally reported by @arvalis

Contact copyright@opensea.io, or call +1 (347) 641-9373 and report your artwork as having been stolen.

You may use/edit the following template email:

To Ozone Networks, Inc.

My artwork has been copied without I, **full legal name**, the legal copy-right owner's permission and is being redistributed on your website in a way that constitutes copyright infringement.

Please remove the following infringing content from OpenSea.io:
**short description of artwork**: **opensea link**

My authorized work can be found on my social media pages, or personal website:
**links to your official artwork**

You may contact me back at the following email address: **email**

Sincerely,
**your full legal name**
**country of residence (important!)**
**link to personal website**

Method 2: Google DMCA

Originally reported by @Hapiel and @batbandage

The NFT listing will remain, but the image will be removed.

  1. Find your artwork on OpenSea
  2. Right click (or long press the image) and “copy the image address”
  3. Visit https://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_dmca?product=googlecloudstorage
  4. Fill in your personal details (these won't be shared with the art thief)
  5. Add the link you copied to the “Allegedly infringing URLs” field, as shown below. Your url must contain “googleusercontent.com” for google to take it down!
Google allegedly infringing content screenshot

We hear you

Let me know how it went on Twitter and I'll try to help you out. I'll also update this blogpost with more information.

TheElusiveMarcMarc ⛄☕ The Guild of Artists@TheElusiveMarc
Let me know what recommendations or experience you have taking down NFTs from OpenSea