Using copyright to get videos of you taken down, and buying back the rights to your films

By Yair Cohen, Solicitor specialising in internet law. Updated 2 October 2026.

This guide is part of our pornography and adult content law section.

If videos of you are online without your agreement, or you want back control of films you once made, this article is for you. You may feel there is nothing you can do, especially if you signed something years ago. In our experience there usually is. Copyright is one of the fastest ways to get content taken down, because most sites and hosting companies remove material quickly once the rights owner objects. If you made the content yourself, the rights are usually already yours. If a studio made it, buying the rights back can give you control of every copy. In most cases a letter or notice from us does the job, and court is the fallback.

Who owns the rights in a video of you?

It depends on who made it. Under section 9 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the authors of a film are its producer and its principal director, and they usually own the copyright. If you filmed and produced the content yourself, for example for a subscription page, that is you.

If a studio made the film, the copyright usually belongs to the studio. You still have rights of your own as a performer, under Part 2 of the same Act, including the right to control copies of your performance and to stop it being made available online. Most release forms try to transfer those rights to the producer, but a transfer only works if it is in writing and signed by you, under section 191B. Where there is no signed transfer, or it does not cover what the site is doing, those rights may still be yours.

If you have been told nothing can be done

Please do not give up. Many of the people who come to us have been told, by a producer, a site or their own reading online, that because they signed something there is nothing to be done. A closer look at the paperwork, or at what is missing from it, is what usually gives us the opening we need.

Here are some of the things we find. The release form mentions one website, or no websites at all, but the film is now on dozens. The transfer of your performer's rights was never signed, or was signed by someone other than you. The form was handed over minutes before filming, in a language you did not read well. The company that made the film no longer exists. And sometimes the producer simply cannot find the paperwork, which we have seen more than once. Any one of these can change the picture, and you do not need to know which applies to you before you talk to us.

How a copyright takedown works

A takedown notice tells the site, or the company hosting it, that it is showing content without the rights owner's permission, and asks for it to be removed. Most adult sites, and the companies that host them, act on a properly prepared notice within days, because ignoring it puts them at risk of being sued themselves.

Many of those sites and hosts are in the United States, where the notice is made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, at 17 U.S.C. section 512. The notice has to identify the work and each copy, give a good-faith statement that the use is not authorised, and confirm under penalty of perjury that the sender acts for the owner. Sites outside the United States usually follow the same process. We also ask Google to remove the pages from its search results through its process for reporting content for legal reasons.

Two things are worth knowing. The person who uploaded the content can send a counter-notice, and the site may then put the content back after 10 to 14 business days unless court proceedings have started. And a notice that misstates who owns the rights can make the sender liable. That is why we check the ownership first, and why we usually combine copyright with your privacy and data protection rights, which a counter-notice cannot answer.

When the copyright is not yours

Not owning the copyright does not mean you cannot get the content taken down. Footage of your sex life is your personal data, and you can withdraw consent to its publication. If you signed a release form under pressure or without understanding it, the form itself can be challenged. Our guide is a release form by porn film actor valid explains how.

If someone shared the content without your consent at all, that is a crime as well as a civil wrong. Our guide to getting sexual images and videos of you taken down sets out the routes we use. In practice we choose whichever ground is strongest for each site, and sometimes use several at once.

Buying back the rights to your films

Buying the rights in your own films can be the most complete solution, because once they are yours, every copy online is one you can take down. It also stops the studio, or anyone it later sells to, from licensing the films again.

The first step is finding out who owns them now. Films are sometimes sold on, licensed to distributors, or left behind when a production company closes. We trace the current owner through the company records and our own investigations, and approach them on your behalf without revealing more about you than we need to.

We then negotiate the price and the terms. The transfer has to be in writing and signed by the owner under section 90 of the Act. We make sure it covers your performer's rights as well as the copyright, ends any licences granted to other sites, and requires the seller to hand over or destroy their copies. Where other performers appear in the same film, their rights are part of the conversation too.

If the production company has been dissolved, its property, including the rights in its films, passes to the Crown under section 1012 of the Companies Act 2006. The rights can then sometimes be bought from the Government Legal Department's Bona Vacantia division, or the company can be restored to the register to deal with them.

Once the rights are yours, every copy online is one you can take down.

Cases we have handled

One mother came to us years after leaving the industry. As a young woman, pushed into it by a boyfriend, she had made films for four production companies in the UK and abroad, signing forms rushed through before filming in a language she did not read well. She now had a baby and a good job, and she and her partner lived with the fear that the films would reach her employer or, one day, her child. She did not know whether anything could be done. We went through every agreement she had signed and the way each one came to be signed, challenged them, and secured her control over most of the content. Read the removal of old online adult content case study.

Another woman we helped had tried webcam modelling for a short time while she was a student. Someone secretly recorded her sessions and put them on dozens of adult sites, and then threatened to send them to her family. She deleted her accounts, stopped working and believed there was nothing she could do. Because she had streamed the sessions herself, the rights in them were hers. We used that, together with her privacy rights, to have the videos taken down from more than 30 sites. Her case is set out in our guide for anyone who has been secretly filmed.

Frequently asked questions

Do I own the copyright in videos I made of myself?

Usually, yes. Under section 9 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the producer and principal director of a film are its authors. If you filmed and produced the content yourself, the copyright is normally yours, unless you have signed it away to a platform or agency.

I appeared in a studio film. Can I use copyright to get it taken down?

Not usually on the copyright itself, which normally belongs to the studio. But you have performer's rights of your own, and they only pass to the studio if you signed a written transfer. Where they have not passed, or another ground is stronger, such as privacy or data protection, we use that instead.

What is a DMCA notice, and does it work on sites outside the US?

It is a takedown notice under United States copyright law, at 17 U.S.C. section 512. Many adult sites and hosting companies are in the US, and most others follow the same process, so a properly prepared notice usually gets content removed within days.

What happens if the uploader sends a counter-notice?

The site may restore the content after 10 to 14 business days unless court proceedings have started. That is why we check ownership carefully before sending a notice, and why we usually rely on privacy and data protection rights alongside copyright.

Can I buy the rights to my old films?

In many cases, yes. We trace the current owner and negotiate on your behalf. We then make sure the written transfer covers the copyright, your performer's rights and any licences to other sites, so that you can have every copy taken down.

The production company no longer exists. Who owns the films now?

If the company has been dissolved, its property passes to the Crown under section 1012 of the Companies Act 2006. The rights can sometimes be bought from the Government Legal Department's Bona Vacantia division, or the company can be restored to deal with them.