Platform guide
Shopify: stolen photos and cloned stores
Finding your product photography on somebody else's storefront is routine in e-commerce, and the copyright claim is usually solid. The mistake sellers make is claiming everything at once, which turns a clean removal into a rejected complaint.
What you own, and what you don't
| Part of your page | Protected? | Under what |
|---|---|---|
| Your product photographs | Yes, strongly | Copyright. The clearest case you have. |
| Your written description | Yes, if it's actually written | Copyright. The expression, not the facts inside it. |
| Specs, sizes, materials, prices | No | Facts are never protected, however you arranged them. |
| Your brand name and logo | Yes, but not here | Trademark. A copyright notice is the wrong instrument. |
| The product design itself | Sometimes | Design patent or trade dress, not copyright. |
| Your theme and layout | Rarely | Unless they copied your custom code or images wholesale. |
Claim the photos, not the feeling
"They copied my whole store" reads as a business complaint and gets triaged as one. "These eleven photographs, which I shot, appear at these eleven URLs" is a copyright notice and gets acted on. File the strong claim, and take the weaker ones through the right channel separately.
When the store is a clone
Wholesale copies are usually built by a scraper: your images, your copy, your collection structure, sometimes your About page with the names swapped. Two things to check before you file:
- Is it actually on Shopify? Shopify can only act on stores it hosts. A cloned storefront on WooCommerce or a random host is a matter for that host, and for the domain registrar and the CDN in front of it.
- Are the images hotlinked from your server? If so, your access logs prove the theft, and you can serve those requests something else in the meantime. It's crude, and it works while the notice is processed.
Document before you file. Full-page screenshots with the URL and the date visible, saved copies of the page, and your own originals with their creation metadata. Cloners delete fast once they see a notice, and a claim you can't evidence is worth nothing if this goes further.
Filing the notice
Shopify publishes a copyright policy with the address of its designated agent and runs a reporting form. Use the form. It lands in the queue that acts. All six statutory elements still have to be there, and the generator will assemble them for you.
One thing to know in advance: Shopify forwards the notices it receives to the Lumen Database, where they are published. Your name and contact details travel with the complaint. If you trade under a personal address, this is the moment to use a business one.
If a complaint landed on you
Merchants get reported wrongly too, especially by suppliers who provided the imagery in the first place. Before doing anything, check what your supplier agreement actually says about using their photography. A permission that was withdrawn, or that never covered resale, is a different problem from a mistaken claim, and a counter-notice would be the wrong move.
If you shot the photographs yourself, or your licence plainly covers what you did, the counter-notice is available and Shopify restores within the statutory window. Repeat complaints against a store can put the whole store at risk, so this is not one to leave sitting.