How to file a DMCA (and find their host)

Everyone from time to time has stumbled across content that is eerily similar to something they've seen before. After a little remembering, they realize its off their own website.

Whenever this happens, there are things you can do to get the content removed from their site. Usually it starts with a friendly letter to the webmaster/owner of the site with the copied content. Since a lot of sites can have user generated content and the owner may not be aware whats happened. It always pay to take the friendly route and notify the owner directly first.

I generally give 72 hours from initial contact to hear something back. If after 72 hours and no word, this can be taken as a no compliance with your friendly letter and then you should proceed the following way.

First, get the URL to the content you believe has infringed on your Intellectual Property (IP). Not only will the URL be useful but a screen shot of the content in question. The screen shot is for archival purposes should you decide to take this further, and you should not post the screen shot in public places. (This oddly enough could open you up to a DMCA should your suit be found void, or twisted as an attempt to steal a design).

The next step can be a final notice of cease and desist with your Intellectual Property. This should also be sent directly to the webmaster and given 24 hours to respond if you so wish. This isn't required, or necessary but can be seen as a good faith attempt at notifying the webmaster of a problem. And since email can be flaky sometimes, maybe he missed your previous email.

If you still don't have a response you can launch a full scale DMCA complaint. (Technically you can do this as soon as you find the infringing content, but if everyone ran around like a corporation, it'd be a awful place). You'll need to find the web sites host. This is easiest done with a who is look up. Sometimes you'll need to do two or three to find the host, as sometimes people with custom name servers will throw you off some.

EX: Davidmchenry.info - David Mchenry

Scroll to the Name Server:
Name Server: NS1.SUNDANCESTUDIOSVA.COM
Name Server:NS2.SUNDANCESTUDIOSVA.COM

In this example, you don't get much, if there is an IP listed you can do a direct look up on that. If not you'll need to trace the nameserver back to an IP

I use Traceroute, Ping, Domain Name Server (DNS) Lookup, WHOIS for a quick easy look up of the IP which will give you the IP address this is; 72.44.90.154

Then you can go back to the whois lookup with the IP address. Whois record for 72.44.90.154 and you can see where the site gets returned to for hosting (Future Hosting)

Before going any further, if you do not intend to go to the fullest extent of the law with your DMCA threat, just stop now. If you threaten law suits, and don't follow thru it will lead to more people copying your content knowing you won't do anything about it.

So you can now prepare your DMCA complaint letter. You'll need the URL to the questionable content. You can find shell DMCA complaint letters all over the place, I'll attach one at the end of the post thats good for general usage.

You'll have to go to their hosting, and open a support ticket to the Abuse department and attach the letter there. Be sure to use an official DMCA complaint letter, doing anything else will not require the hosting company to get involved or take action.

Some important things to remember, some hosting companies (particularly shady over sea hosting companies, 3rd world countries, and countries that don't support US law) don't have to remove the content or act on DMCA notices, at this point you might as well move on. (Or read my Advanced DMCA complaint strategies)

DMCA Complaint Letter

Other Links:
How to fight back against a DMCA complaint: http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/security-legal/how-fight-back-legally-against-dmca-4648/
Advanced DMCA Notice Complaints: http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/security-legal/advanced-dmca-notices-4698/

Note: I'm not a internet lawyer, I do not know the full extent of every law or try to come off as I do. This post merely serves as a starting point for what could be a long drawn out legal battle between two parties and is for informational purposes only. The best advice in this post is: If you need legal counsel, then seek it. Don't get it from the internet or this post. Hire professionals who do it for a living, and for the love of god, don't defend yourself in court.

This post has been promoted to an article

 

David, this part is somewhat ambiguous to me, does IP mean Intellectual Property? Or the offending sites IP address? Or you may have meant 'their IP'

I'm just suggesting that you may want to clarify.

You may want to delete this post so it does not clutter up the other comments more relevant to the topic.

 

Sorry, the IP in that case stands for Intellectual Property.

I've updated the post to make it more clear

 

Just to add, another way to find a host which only works sometime is enter an invalid url.

For example, go to http://www.questionable domain.com/a

Some websites don't set up custom 404 error pages and use the host's generic page...which has the hosts name written all over it...

It only works sometimes.