Take down copyright-infringed content from the internet
Canada has a copyright act called the Notice and Notice regime, which came into effect on January 2nd, 2015 under the Copyright Modernization Act of Canada. Its intent is to formalize the voluntary practice of discouraging online copyright infringement. As such, it describes the process of notifying a website owner and an Internet Service Provider (ISP) of copyright infringement found online.
If content that you own or created was found on the Internet, you can follow these steps to take down your published content and to protect your content in the future.
In this article:
Take down content from general websites
Copy the web address where your content was found.
Submit a copyright infringement request to the search engine through which the website was found:
In the case of a Bing search, use this link to submit the request: https://www.microsoft.com/info/Search.html.
In the case of a Google search, use this link to submit the request: https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905.
You must be signed in with your Microsoft or Google account to submit these requests. McGill University recommends that you use your institutional Microsoft account.
Once the request is complete, the webmaster of the company will communicate further steps through the account used to sign in.
Take down content from websites that redistribute course materials
To submit a take down request for content on one of these websites, please click the relevant hyperlink:
Most content-sharing websites have a copyright infringement form that you can use to take down materials. If you cannot find a copyright infringement form on the website, you can send an email, explaining proof of ownership of the content and the location of the content on the Internet, to the Internet Service Provider (ISP). ISPs are bound by the Notice and Notice regime, so they can help you remove copyrighted content from the Internet. In order to obtain relevant ISP contact information, you can use a WHOIS search on WebNames or CIRA.
Enter the website address where you found your content on one of the aforementioned WHOIS databases.
The search will return multiple results. Look for the Registrar WHOIS Server of the domain. This server name will be in the form of a link, beginning with "whois." For example, whois.hostname.com, whois.hostname.ca, and so on.
Copy the WHOIS Server link and paste it again in the search bar. You need to determine the contact information of the WHOIS Server itself and not the URL where your content was published.
This time, the contact information of the hosting server should be provided. Use this email address to send a takedown notice to an ISP agent.
Your email must contain information that will help the ISP agent understand why you are requesting that certain content be removed. This information must be provided in your email for it to comply with the Notice and Notice regime:
Your name and address.
The copyright material that is alleged to have been infringed and your interest or right with respect to that material.
The location data (e.g. the web address or Internet address associated with the alleged infringement).
Specify the infringement that is alleged.
The date and time of the alleged infringement.
Read more:
Notice and Notice Regime (Government of Canada website)
Set up alerts to identify your content online
Sign into your personal Google account. If you do not have a Google account, create a new one on the Create your Google Account page.
Once you are signed in, visit the Google Alerts page and set-up an alert with specific keywords. Google will periodically use the keywords provided to search across its database. If the keywords match with the content of a web page, Google will send your an alert with the relevant URL. You can also determine the frequency of searches and the number of results that will be sent to you.
You can make use of McGill course codes (e.g., ECSE 2XX) as keywords. Alternatively, you can use the following phrases for your alerts, replacing ECSE 2XX with your course code:
If there are specific keywords that you want to add, add them to the search items while setting up the Google alert.
While configuring the alert, we recommend that you select the following options:
How often: Once a day/ As-it-happens.
Type: Everything.
Deliver to: Email address that was used to create the alert.
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