How to get a pirated copy of your course removed from Google

When someone searches for your course and finds a free copy above your own sales page, the copy is costing you sales whether or not the pirate site ever answers an email. Google will remove such a page from its results if you send it a copyright removal request. This guide walks through it. It was last checked on October 1, 2026.

This is not legal advice. A removal request is a legal statement you make in your own name.

What a removal from Google does, and does not do

Google can only take a page out of its search results. The page itself stays online, and anyone with the link can still open it. That is still worth doing: most people looking for a free copy of a course start with a search, and a page nobody can find does far less harm.

To take the page itself down you need its website, its hosting company or the platform it is on. Do both. They are separate requests.

Before you start

You need four things:

A Google account. The request is submitted signed in.
The exact address of the page that copies your work. Not the site’s home page: the page that offers your course.
A link to the real thing. Your sales page, where Google can see the work is yours.
A short description of your work, in a sentence or two.

Check first that the page really is in Google. Search for site: followed by the page’s address without https://, for example site:example.com/your-course-free-download. If nothing comes back, Google is not listing it and there is nothing to remove.

Fill in the form

Go to Google’s legal help page, choose Google Search, then the options for a copyright problem. That leads to the copyright removal form.

Your name and company. Use your real name. It is part of a legal statement.
Describe the copyrighted work. Say what it is and that you made it: “Watercolor Foundations is my original paid video course.”
Where can we see an authorized example of the work? Your sales page.
Location of infringing material. The address of the copy. You can add several pages that copy the same work in one request.
Sworn statements. You confirm that you believe the use is not authorized, and that the information is accurate and you own the rights, under penalty of perjury.
Signature. Your full name, typed.

Only report pages you have looked at. A review, a coupon page or your own listing on a marketplace is not a copy, and a false request can make you liable to the person it targets.

What happens next

Google emails you a confirmation. You can follow the request in Google’s removals dashboard, under the same account. Many requests are handled within a few days; some take longer, and Google sometimes asks for more information.

Two things surprise people:

The request is not private. Google may send a copy to the Lumen database, which publishes removal requests, and may tell the site’s owner who asked.
The owner can object. They can file a counter-notice saying the page is theirs to publish. If that happens, it is the moment to talk to a lawyer.

To confirm that the page is gone, run the same site: search again after a few days. Check again later too: pages sometimes return under a new address, which needs a new request.

Doing this for every copy

One request is ten minutes. The work is finding the copies in the first place, noticing which ones Google lists, and checking afterwards that each one stayed gone.

That is what Copyhound does. It searches for your work every day, tells you which copies come up in Google, fills in the answers for Google’s form for you to submit, and then asks Google each day whether the page is still listed.