How to remove pirated episodes of OTT shows, audio series and micro-dramas

To get a pirated episode taken down, the copyright owner or someone it authorises reports every copy where it is hosted: YouTube's copyright removal request, Spotify's infringement form (which handles audiobooks uploaded without permission), Apple's Podcast Content Dispute form and the show's hosting provider, Meta's copyright form, Telegram's copyright address, Google's copyright process for Play apps and, for pirate sites and APK pages, the site's host. Each platform decides on each report, and search results can keep pointing to copies, so ask Google and Bing to de-list the same links. In India, a platform's Grievance Officer must acknowledge a copyright complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within seven days. Before you file, be clear which rights you hold in each episode: the book or script, the recording, the video, or an exclusive licence.

Before you report: your rights and your evidence

Which rights you hold

An episode or audiobook usually carries more than one copyright. Under India's Copyright Act, 1957, copyright subsists in original literary and dramatic works, such as a book or a script, in sound recordings, and in cinematograph films, which include the sound recording that accompanies the visual recording. The author of a sound recording or film is its producer, the person who takes the initiative and responsibility for making it, and the owner has the exclusive right to copy it and to communicate it to the public.¹ So an audio app that produces its own series is usually the author of the recording, while the book or script behind it may belong to an author or publisher who licensed it. The copyright in a recording or film doesn't affect the separate copyright in the book or script it is made from.¹

If you license titles rather than produce them, check that the licence is exclusive for the territories you police. An exclusive licensee counts as an owner of copyright for civil remedies under the Act, and YouTube's Content ID and Prevent Copies require exclusive rights.^1,2,3 A non-exclusive licensee is not an owner under the Act. DMCA notices, YouTube's among them, ask you to state under penalty of perjury that you own an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed or are authorised to act for its owner, so with a non-exclusive licence, ask the owner to file, or get its written authorisation to file on its behalf.^1,4,5

What to collect

• A direct link to each copy. YouTube asks for a link to each video, Short or clip and won't take a request for a whole channel or playlist; Spotify, Meta and Bing also ask where exactly each item is.^4,6,7,8 A season posted as one compilation is one link; a season posted one episode per Short is one link per Short.
• The work. Series title, episode numbers, release dates, an audiobook's ISBN if it has one, and a link to your official listing.
• Proof of authority. If you act for a publisher, studio or label, keep the authorisation letter on file; YouTube may ask for evidence that you can act for the owner.⁴
• Dated evidence. Captures of each copy, the uploader's name and any download or payment links, saved before you file, because they go when the copy does.
• A tracking sheet recording, for each link, when it was found, the route used, any reference number, the outcome and any re-upload.

Platform by platform: where to report and what happens next

YouTube: full episodes, audio over a still image, Shorts and clips

Copyright owners, or an authorised representative such as an attorney, file a copyright removal request in YouTube Studio (Content detection, then New removal request) or by email to copyright@youtube.com, fax or post. It needs your contact details, a description of the work, a direct link to each copy, two required statements and, as signature, a person's full legal name, not a company's.⁴ A request can be scheduled to take effect in seven days, which lets the uploader delete the video and avoid a copyright strike. The Studio form also offers Prevent Copies, with which YouTube's systems try to block re-uploads of the same content; it needs worldwide exclusive rights, and short clips may not be caught.^3,9

What happens next. Automated systems and human reviewers check each request. If it appears valid, the content is removed and the channel gets a copyright strike; channels with three strikes in 90 days are subject to termination. If details are missing, YouTube asks for them, and the video may stay up meanwhile. The uploader can request a copy of your request, which includes your full legal name and email address, and can file a counter notification.^4,9,10

Finding re-uploads. Once a request is approved, the Copyright Match Tool scans uploads for full or nearly full copies of the videos you reported and, after you remove a video that used your audio, for other videos whose audio could match.^11,12 Content ID, which scans every upload against audio and visual files that owners submit, is only for owners of exclusive rights to a substantial body of original material that is frequently uploaded to YouTube.¹³

Instagram and Facebook: reels and clips

Only the copyright owner or an authorised representative can report. Meta's copyright links for Instagram and Facebook open its Intellectual Property Reporting Form; Instagram says a copyright report, however it is sent, needs your contact details, a description of the infringing content, enough information to find it (most easily a URL for each item), a declaration and your signature.^7,14,15 Meta regularly passes the rights owner's name (your client's, if you are an authorised representative), your email address and the report's details to the person who posted the content; Instagram's page says it passes on your name, contact information and the report's contents.^7,14 Owners of exclusive rights in video and audio can request Rights Manager, Meta's tool for detecting matching content on Facebook and Instagram.¹⁶

Spotify: audiobooks and podcasts

Spotify for Authors says that if you or your publisher didn't upload your audiobook, you can claim its removal through Spotify's infringement form; questions go to authorsupport@spotify.com.¹⁷ The form takes copyright notices from rights holders or their agents for any content, one form per category, such as audiobooks or podcasts.^6,18 A notice must say where each item is (a URL helps) and acknowledge that your contact details or notice will go to the alleged infringer; notices can also go to Spotify's copyright agent at infringement-claim@spotify.com.⁶

What happens next. Spotify evaluates each claim and may remove the content or disable access in a specific country or countries. It has a repeat-infringer policy, may offer an appeal, and also detects infringing content with automated and manual signals.⁶

Apple Podcasts and the show's hosting provider

Apple's Podcast Content Dispute form takes claims from the rights owner or an authorised agent such as a firm or agency: a link to each show or episode on Apple Podcasts, or a search for it (up to 50 podcasts per dispute), the issue, the territories where you assert rights, an explanation and a sworn statement. Your name, email address and comments go to the provider.¹⁹ Apple then contacts the provider and asks that they work with you directly.²⁰

So notify the host too. A show's RSS feed can be self-hosted or issued by a hosting provider, and listeners can follow a feed directly from its host, outside Apple's catalogue.^21,22 Each episode's <enclosure> tag in the feed gives the location and host of the episode file: send your notice there.²²

Telegram

Telegram takes copyright complaints about public channels, bots and other public content at dmca@telegram.org, from the copyright owner or an authorised agent, and names a grievance officer for India at grievance-in@telegram.org.²³ Our guide to removing pirated content from Telegram covers private channels, India's grievance timelines, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's route for films and de-listing t.me links.

Google Play, modded APKs and clone apps

Google Play doesn't allow apps that infringe copyright or that induce or encourage infringement, such as streaming apps that let users download a local copy of copyrighted content without authorisation, and it responds to clear notices filed through Google's copyright procedures, which ask whether you are the copyright owner or authorised to act for it.^24,25 An app that copies your name or icon to look official falls under Play's Impersonation policy, whose examples include an app icon copying a famous TV show's character and title; flag it from the app's page with Flag as inappropriate.^26,27 If your complaint rests on your trademark, such as the app's name or logo, Play asks trademark owners to contact the developer first and, if that fails, to use its trademark complaint form.²⁴ Google wants a separate notice for each Google product involved.²⁸

Report a modded copy of your app that unlocks paid episodes wherever it is offered: to the download site, to its host and to search engines. In India, circumventing an effective technological measure that protects copyright, with the intention of infringing, is an offence under section 65A of the Copyright Act; the Act doesn't define the term, so whether it covers a particular mod, or a site that offers one, is a question for independent counsel.¹

Pirate sites and streaming apps: go to the host

Content on a website, or on the server behind a pirate app, can be removed by the site's operator or its host, so when the operator ignores you, go to the host.²⁹

• Find the host. ICANN's registration data lookup returns current data for a domain name or an IP network, and networks publish abuse contacts: in the RIPE database, every network needs one, with a mailbox for reports about abusive behaviour that is available through whois.^30,31
• Behind Cloudflare. If Cloudflare's IP addresses appear in a site's WHOIS and DNS records, use Cloudflare's abuse form, not email, with every element the DMCA requires. Cloudflare forwards copyright complaints to the website operator and the host and gives you the host's contact; to have Cloudflare clear a copy from its cache, include a court order or evidence that the host has removed the content.^29,32
• The registrar, if accredited by ICANN, must keep an abuse contact for reports of illegal activity and respond appropriately, but ICANN's contract obliges it to mitigate only DNS abuse, such as malware and phishing.³³

Google and Bing: de-list the same links

Google removes search results that link to infringing content when it is told about them, though it may decline a URL, for example when it cannot find the content reported. A page deleted from a site can still show in Google's results until its description or cache is updated; Google's Refresh Outdated Content tool asks for that.^34,35 File the same URLs with both:

• Google, through its copyright removal form for Search, after signing in or verifying an email address. Google puts its average processing time for requests sent through this form at about six hours; it accepts URLs not yet in its index and shares qualifying notices with the Lumen database, and high-volume senders with accurate records can apply to its Trusted Copyright Removal Program.^34,36,37 The Telegram guide has more on the process.
• Bing, through its Notice of Infringement form for web, image and video results, from a copyright owner or authorised agent under the DMCA only. It wants one notice per work, takes a bulk file of up to 1,000 URLs, and may share what you send with third parties or the public, including the alleged infringer.⁸

Where to report pirated episodes, route by route (checked 16 October 2026):

What every notice needs

Most of these routes ask for the elements that section 512(c)(3) of the US Copyright Act sets for a DMCA takedown notice:⁵

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorised to act for the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
2. Identification of the work, or a representative list if one notice covers several works on one site.
3. Identification of each infringing copy, with enough information to locate it: in practice, a direct URL.
4. Your contact details: address, telephone number and, if available, email.
5. A statement of good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by the owner, its agent or the law.
6. A statement that the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorised to act for the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Be accurate. Under US law, anyone who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing can be liable for the resulting damages, costs and attorneys' fees.⁵ In the EU, online platforms other than micro and small enterprises must suspend, for a reasonable period and after a warning, the processing of notices from anyone who frequently submits manifestly unfounded ones.³⁸ YouTube, Spotify and Meta warn that misusing their processes can cost you your account.^4,6,14 Leave out licensed copies and your own promotional clips, and consider exceptions such as fair use or fair dealing before you file: YouTube may ask you to confirm that you have.⁴

In India: grievance officers, appeals and the law

Platforms operating in India as intermediaries must publish their Grievance Officer's name and contact details and how to complain. The officer must acknowledge a complaint within 24 hours and, since 20 February 2026, resolve it within seven days instead of fifteen, and copyright complaints are expressly excluded from the 36-hour track that applies to some removal requests. If you disagree with the decision, or get none in time, you can appeal online to the Grievance Appellate Committee within 30 days, but only after going to the Grievance Officer. An intermediary must remove or disable access within three hours of a court order or an authorised officer's reasoned notice.^39,40,41 Our Telegram guide sets these rules out in detail.

For films, nodal officers at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Central Board of Film Certification take complaints about pirated copies on the internet from copyright holders, people they authorise or others, and notify intermediaries to disable access.⁴² The mechanism is set up for films; whether it reaches a web series or micro-drama episode is a question for independent counsel. The Telegram guide explains how to file.

Under the Copyright Act, doing without a licence anything that the Act reserves to the owner infringes copyright, the owner can seek an injunction, damages and accounts, and knowing infringement is an offence.¹ Where an uploader or app operator can be identified, a legal notice or a suit goes through independent counsel. A groundless threat carries its own risk: anyone aggrieved by a threat of legal proceedings over an alleged infringement can sue for a declaration that there was no infringement, an injunction against the threats and damages, unless the person who made the threat brings and pursues an infringement action with due diligence.¹

When reports aren't enough

An episode leaks on release day

Have the episode list, official links and authorisation letters ready before release. For a leak, don't schedule the YouTube request, since a scheduled one gives the uploader seven days, and tick Prevent Copies if you qualify. File search notices at once: Google processes notices even for URLs it has not yet indexed, so that a page does not surface later.^3,9,34

The same uploaders and apps keep coming back

On YouTube, channels with three copyright strikes in 90 days are subject to termination, and the number of removal requests against a channel counts in its enforcement policies; Spotify and Meta can disable repeat infringers' accounts.^6,10,11,14 Keep records by uploader and app, so each new report can point to earlier removals. If an operator keeps returning with new sites or apps, ask independent counsel about a court order, which an intermediary in India must act on within three hours.³⁹

The uploader disputes the takedown

After a counter notification, YouTube may reinstate the video unless you show within 10 US business days that you have filed a legal action against the uploader; Meta lets uploaders appeal, and Spotify may offer them an appeal.^6,9,14 Treat a counter notification as a deadline, and decide quickly, with independent counsel, whether to start proceedings.

Doing this at scale

For one title, the steps above are manageable by hand. For an audio app with a catalogue of series, a micro-drama platform with new episodes every day or an OTT service with a release calendar, they become continuous work: search every platform, capture evidence, file in each format, follow up and check for re-uploads.

• Group by work. Send one notice per title and platform, listing every link; YouTube accepts a representative list of works, and Bing wants one notice per work.^4,8
• Use the platforms' tools. Prevent Copies and the Copyright Match Tool on YouTube, Content ID or Meta's Rights Manager if you qualify, and Google's Trusted Copyright Removal Program once volumes justify it.^2,3,11,16,37
• Watch where viewers find copies: search results, app listings and Telegram, as well as the platforms you already know.
• Close the loop. Re-check each link after you report it, record the outcome, and search again for each title under new names.

Bytescare offers this cycle to OTT, audio-series, audiobook and micro-drama apps, publishers and music labels: monitoring on your plan's scan cycle, the notices you approve, search de-listing requests and, if you choose, legal escalation through independent counsel. Each platform decides on removal. Our anti-piracy service page explains how. This guide is general information, not legal advice. Bytescare is not a law firm; for a specific dispute, consult independent counsel.

FAQs

Further reading

• How to remove pirated courses, videos and books from Telegram
• How to remove pirated books and course PDFs from Scribd, Studypool, Issuu and Yumpu

Sources

1. The Copyright Act, 1957 (IP India consolidated text; sections 2, 13, 14, 51, 54(a), 55, 60, 63 and 65A cited here are current) · Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (IP India) · accessed 2026-10-16
2. Qualify for Content ID · YouTube Help · accessed 2026-10-16
3. Prevent reuploads of removed videos · YouTube Help · accessed 2026-10-16
4. Submit a copyright removal request · YouTube Help · accessed 2026-10-16
5. 17 U.S. Code § 512 - Limitations on liability relating to material online (subsections (c)(3) and (f)) · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School · accessed 2026-10-16
6. Spotify Intellectual Property Policy · Spotify · accessed 2026-10-16
7. Information you need to include in a copyright report to Instagram or Threads · Instagram Help Center · accessed 2026-10-16
8. Report Copyright Infringement (Notice of Infringement form) · Microsoft Bing · accessed 2026-10-16
9. About copyright removal requests · YouTube Help · accessed 2026-10-16
10. Understand copyright strikes · YouTube Help · accessed 2026-10-16
11. Learn about the Copyright Match Tool · YouTube Help · accessed 2026-10-16
12. Use the Copyright Match Tool ("Find song matches") · YouTube Help · accessed 2026-10-16
13. How Content ID works · YouTube Help · accessed 2026-10-16
14. How copyright works at Meta ("Reporting copyright infringement", "Repeat infringer policy") · Meta Help Centre · accessed 2026-10-16
15. Meta Intellectual Property Reporting Form (the Instagram form linked from Meta's copyright page; Facebook's link, facebook.com/help/contact/1758255661104383, opens the same form) · Meta · accessed 2026-10-16
16. Rights Manager and content protection eligibility requirements · Meta Business Help Centre · accessed 2026-10-16
17. Audiobook uploaded to Spotify without permission · Spotify for Authors · accessed 2026-10-16
18. Report illegal content on Spotify (infringement form) · Spotify · accessed 2026-10-16
19. Podcast Content Dispute (dispute form) · Apple Legal · accessed 2026-10-16
20. Podcasts Dispute Forms: Podcast Content Dispute · Apple Legal · accessed 2026-10-16
21. How Apple Podcasts distributes your shows to listeners · Apple Podcasts for Creators · accessed 2026-10-16
22. Podcast RSS feed requirements · Apple Podcasts for Creators · accessed 2026-10-16
23. Telegram FAQ ("A bot or channel is infringing on my copyright. What do I do?", "India: designated grievance officer") · Telegram · accessed 2026-10-16
24. Intellectual Property (Developer Program Policy) · Play Console Help · accessed 2026-10-16
25. Report Content On Google (Google's legal removal troubleshooter: the copyright route) · Google Legal Help · accessed 2026-10-16
26. Impersonation (Developer Program Policy) · Play Console Help · accessed 2026-10-16
27. Flag an app or review on Google Play · Google Play Help · accessed 2026-10-16
28. Report Content for Legal Reasons · Google Legal Help · accessed 2026-10-16
29. Assisting copyright holders · Cloudflare Trust Hub · accessed 2026-10-16
30. Registration data lookup tool (About ICANN's Registration Data Lookup Tool) · ICANN · accessed 2026-10-16
31. Abuse Contact Management in the RIPE Database (ripe-705) · RIPE NCC · accessed 2026-10-16
32. Reporting abuse · Cloudflare Trust Hub · accessed 2026-10-16
33. 2024 Global Amendment to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (section 3.18, effective 5 April 2024) · ICANN · accessed 2026-10-16
34. Google Search removals due to copyright infringement FAQs · Google Transparency Report Help Center · accessed 2026-10-16
35. Refresh outdated content · Google Search Help · accessed 2026-10-16
36. Report content on Google: copyright removal form for Google Search · Google · accessed 2026-10-16
37. Trusted Copyright Removal Program Guidelines · Google Legal Help · accessed 2026-10-16
38. Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on a Single Market For Digital Services (Digital Services Act): Articles 19 and 23 · EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union · accessed 2026-10-16
39. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 [updated 10.02.2026, Corrigenda 26.02.2026] · Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India · accessed 2026-10-16
40. Frequently Asked Questions on the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026 (10 February 2026) · Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India · accessed 2026-10-16
41. Grievance Appellate Committee portal · Grievance Appellate Committee, Government of India (hosted by NIC) · accessed 2026-10-16
42. Nodal Officers for issue of notifications to intermediaries for removing internet links showing pirated films under the Cinematograph Act, 1952 (public notice No. M-11017/1/2023-DO(FC), 3 November 2023) · Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India · accessed 2026-10-16