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I don't know, is "we've never seen this page on your site before" a valid defense against a DMCA claim? If I understand DMCA correctly, ignoring the claim means risking a lawsuit if you're wrong about the content not being owned by the claimant.

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I lost a domain a while ago. It was quickly snapped up by a squatter, who promptly repopulated it with the exact content it previously contained (harvested from the waybackmachine). They made a single change to the content, adding a link on the home page to some supplement blog.

So it's my content, on a domain I no longer own or control.

How could I prove to Google that the content is mine?

DMCA doesn't require proof. The fact you are attesting under penalty of perjury is enough. If they contest it then your only remaining remedy is a court order and that would require proof. The wayback machine may be sufficient.

I recently learned that this is due to a somewhat shady SEO trick referred to as Private Blog Networks.

You take over expiring legitimate domains, and ideally immediately (before Google notices) put up almost the same content, but with a link to whatever site you're actually interested in giving better search ranking to.

Repeat this 1000x and you can apparently make enough headway that people put time and money into the approach.

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