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Piracy is a major problem affecting most industries which involve digital content. Unfortunately Envato isn’t immune and there is no easy way to solve the issue. Though it’s worth being aware that there are some things which you can do to help protect your copyright online.
First, make sure you’re aware of how to submit a DMCA infringement notice to offending sites. You can find information on how to do this correctly in our knowledgebase. You can also use tools such as FreshKiller (which is developed by our very own community member, FreshFace), or third party services like Piracy Sniper to make sending these notifications simpler.
Envato currently sends takedowns on behalf of our community and has done so for years, but it’s nearly impossible to stamp the issue out entirely. We encourage all authors to actively protect their own copyright online as well.
Piracy is a serious issue and Envato is currently considering the issue. We will keep you updated with any developments in this area.
*Editors Note: You can also use another program called myows to help defend against piracy.
Hi
You could also have mentionned http://myows.com, specially created to help freelancers protect their copyright and recommended by envato since 2009…
Hi!
I didn’t know about this! Interesting! Is this copyright protection only for new created files or for old published files too?
@eka – while the timestamp will only be useful for new files, you could still use Myows’ other features (Cease-desist, DMCA takedowns, copy detection, contract generation, case management etc…) for old files… think of it as a “Basecamp for Copyright” as mentioned in this article: http://vc4africa.biz/blog/2012/05/22/myows-my-original-works-is-the-basecamp-for-freelancers-copyright/
Yeah, my website is protected by Myows
Thanks dudes 
We know everyone has to try and protect their copyrights but Envato, seriously, i have 4 items that have only sold 1-2 times and are on illegal piracy websites, and yet you cant find who it is?
Really?
If It Is Not Registered, Then it Isn’t Copyrighted, plain and simple. US Legislation states that in order to sue someone for copyright, your work must first be registered. So sending out a DMCA notice for copyright without having proper documentation is a waste of time… and you must know DMCA is an American Legislative law, which means u need to register your work in America. Good luck with fighting piracy, it will never end, these guys steal our work for what? What do they get out of it? Nothing!
Envato do not trying to find those pirates because the pirates are even buy something (even though each item only once) and so they are continous customers, it’s the masses they buy which counts. Envato paid the pirates also for referrals from their warez-sites because they generate new customers. Take the ref-links username from the pirates sites and look here for the profile, then you will see how many new customer each one generates.
Hi AMcCoy! We are currently in the process of finding and disabling accounts where referrals come from warez related sites. Paying these guys is in no one’s best interest, certainly not ours
Thanks! – Josh
@derek – as far as i know, most envato authors, and those who redistribute files illegally, are not US citizens… And USCO registration doesn’t apply to the rest of the world. Stating that “if is not registered its not copyrighted” is false: you own copyright on anything you create instantly and most hosts will honor DMCA notices or else loose their safe-harbor status.
@bob… Very good remark. Some rotten fruits should be taken out of the basket for good.
Please go speak with a copyright lawyer about this instead of blurting out the mouth. We ran into a competitor of ours using our product images on their website. Went through Utah state court system and eventually got thrown out of federal level court because even though it’s our product images, we have no copyright documents to back it up. So you have no idea what you are talking about.
Yes, most hosting provider will honor it, but when you send the DMCA notice, the provider has time to take down the files or they can rebutle and state they are doing nothing wrong. After that you must take them to court in order to get justice and the web hosting provider is not held accountable.
@Derek – not sure what you are arguing about… I speak to copyright lawyers worldwide on a daily basis…
I will state again: “You do not need to register anything to own copyright”. No lawyer will argue this fact.
With that said, if you want to sue IN THE US, you will need a USCO registration.
And for DMCA notices it helps to be able to prove that you created a work, and thats where tools like Myows can help.
Wouldn’t it be more suiting to have a post from Ibrahim who is supposed to be Head of Anti Piracy at Envato, could he shed some more light on the subject?
@myows – I think that’s a fine line and Derek has a valid point. You cant just make something and say its yours if that was the case i cant imagine where this world would be. There is a legal process there or else who really knows you even made it. I could rip some guy/girl off craigslists off his design, post the psd on themeforest and no one would even know.
FreshKiller is totally awesome. I’ve used it for a few years and it’s a huge time saver.
One thing I’ve never understood is how Envato can send “takedowns” (I can only assume this means DMCA) without my explicit consent? Is this verbiage somewhere in the signup agreement? Because otherwise it seems the notices being sent out might not actually be legitimate.
@Eric – I have to respectfully disagree. If you make something it is yours. Who says you can’t own what you make, except maybe in fascist and communist countries. Can you imagine a world where that was true! There is no fine line. Being able to stop someone may be difficult in some cases, but come one, someone using your work for their commercial gain is wrong in every country I know. Take-down actions are not only applicable in the US, furthermore you only need to register your copyright with the USCO if you ever want to sue someone in court. It doesn’t transfer ownership to you by registering it with them, you already own it. Domain registrars do not need a court order to take a site down. A site like Myows provides you with all the documentation you need to get a site taken down, in the US and the rest of the world. Piracy is here to stay, but just like racism and sexism, we don’t have to accept it as a de facto acceptable behavior. We can change the consciousness of users over time.. maybe a long time, but its a good fight I think. Please, I’m not taking a dig at you
thanks 
I also use MyOws . . .
Agreed with Trevor’s post.
I am a graphic designer and a long-term Myows user. Among other things I have found Myows very useful for sending takedown notices providing that have previously registered my work with them which makes the whole process a lot easier and quicker. It has now became a standard process for me – design, upload to Myows, send to client for review.
When one of my items was aproved on Graphicriver, was sold only once. After that, I found my item distributed illegaly on pirate websites. I contacted the support team for this… but they didn’t respond me until today (two or three monts now). The first buyer of my item was the one who distributed. What is so hard to detect him and close his account?
I’m very dissapointed by the support team. They didn’t answer to my email and they must be ashamed for that.
Hello,
The problem is deeper then that. The pirate websites themselves have no pirated items. All they have are links which they claim are submitted by their users. Laws that go after webmasters because of the content posted by users are dangerous. Tracking the person who distributed the item is useless since a stolen credit card could have been used or a disposable card with a fake name to make the purchase.
So far no software is piracy proof. Even the Eyespy malware toolkit got cracked and its security schema was light-years ahead of anything legally sold. Software is evolving, and in 10-20 years, perhaps something will exist to scale down piracy.