Copyright and Legal Information
Register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office: U.S. Copyright Office Registration Portal
Copyright Basics circular from the U.S. Copyright Office. PDF file, 10 pages.
Proving Infringement: Burdens of Proof in Copyright Infringement Litigation. PDF file, 60 pages.
World Intellectual Property Organization
Federal Trade Commission – Report Fraud.
The Ultimate Guide to Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Hosting Companies
Cloudflare
Cloudflare abuse form: https://www.cloudflare.com/abuse/form
When dealing with Cloudflare take into account that is says on their DMCA abuse form “Because Cloudflare does not have the ability to remove content from a website, it is our practice to forward abuse complaints to entities like the hosting provider and/or website owner to follow up.”
If you file an abuse form with Cloudflare they will reply to you with the name of the hosting company and an abuse email for that company. You will need to follow up on it. Cloudflare may forward your abuse report to the website owner and hosting company but I have seen no indications that’s ever accomplished anything.
Namecheap
When the name of a company has “cheap” in it you know you’re getting quality. Namecheap.com is a registrar and hosting service popular with the scum of the internet.
Their abuse form is here: https://support.namecheap.com/index.php?/Tickets/Submit
Amazon Hosting (Amazon Web Services)
Amazon is the only entity which has ever argued with me about my DMCA notice not being worded correctly.
How do I report abuse of AWS resources? https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/report-aws-abuse/
How do I submit a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice to AWS? https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/submit-dmca-notice/
WIX
WIX DMCA chat bot access: https://support.wix.com/en/article/reporting-copyright-infringement
Publishers
Scribd and Slideshare
Scribd and Slideshare abuse form: https://support.scribd.com/hc/en-us/articles/210129146
Soundcloud
How do I report content on SoundCloud that infringes my copyright?
Soundclouse abuse form: https://soundcloud.com/pages/copyright/report/form – This requires you have a Soundcloud account.
Social Media
Reddit abuse form: https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=73465
Instagram abuse form: https://help.instagram.com/contact/372592039493026
Discord DMCA form: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Facebook DMCA form: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/copyrightform
Twitter DMCA form: https://help.twitter.com/en/forms/ipi/dmca. This requires you to have a Twitter account. Twitter does not to my knowledge provide an alternative to reporting a DMCA violation without a Twitter account.
Pintrest DMCA form: https://policy.pinterest.com/en/copyright
Telegram: https://telegram.org/faq “All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them. But sticker sets, channels, and bots on Telegram are publicly available. If you see a bot, channel, or sticker set that is infringing on your copyright, kindly submit a complaint to dmca@telegram.org. Please note that such requests should only be submitted by the copyright owner or an agent authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.”
WhatsApp: To report copyright infringement and request that WhatsApp remove any infringing content it is hosting (such as a WhatsApp user’s profile picture, profile name, or status message), please email a completed copyright infringement claim to ip@whatsapp.com. https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/ip-policy
Tumblr DMCA form: https://www.tumblr.com/dmca or you can send an email to dmca@tumblr.com.
Google, YouTube, and any other Google owned service
To get something removed from Google search results or from a Google owned platform start here: https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905?hl=en
YouTube DMCA form (requires a Google/YouTube account): https://www.youtube.com/copyright_complaint_form
Google Admin Toolbox: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/#A/
MicroSoft
Microsoft online infringement forms: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/intellectualproperty/infringement
Payment Processors
PayPal
PayPal will not provide details regarding the result of a review or the possible consequences. PayPal also claims your information will be kept secure and anonymous throughout the reporting process.
Follow these instructions if you encounter a seller’s website that is engaging in a DMCA/copyright violation:
- Log in to your PayPal account.
- Click Legal at the bottom of the page.
- Click PayPal Acceptable Use Policy.
- Select report under Violations of the Acceptable Use Policy.
https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/contact-us/aupviolation
Be as specific as possible in the message you enter. Include a description of the prohibited item(s) being sold, as well as the specific URL of the website offering the product (if applicable).
Email address to contact PayPal: We encourage you to report violations of this Acceptable Use Policy to PayPal immediately. If you have a question about whether a type of transaction may violate the Acceptable Use Policy, you can email PayPal’s AUP Compliance Department at: aupviolations@paypal.com – https://twitter.com/askpaypal/status/940356627756064769?lang=en
Cloud Storeage
MEGA Takedown Guidance Policy: https://mega.io/takedown
“All copyright infringement “takedown” notices should be made via the specific webform at https://mega.nz/copyright published on MEGA’s website or by email to copyright@mega.nz with all the information specified in clause 21 of the Terms of Service.”
MEGA Copyright Notice Form: https://mega.nz/copyrightnotice
Investigating A Website
To effectively initiate DMCA requests you need to know who is hosting a site, who is the registrar for the site, and the IP address of the site. These links can assist you in finding this information. Or you can hire me to do the work for you. That’s what I’m here for.
Find out who is hosting a site:
ARIN Whois/RDAP (search with IP address): https://search.arin.net/rdap/
Lookup Nameserver records of any domain: https://dnschecker.org/ns-lookup.php
Whois lookup with IP address: https://dnschecker.org/ip-whois-lookup.php
https://whois.domaintools.com/
https://www.whoishostingthis.com/
Whois lookup for domain names:
https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/whois-lookup/
Find the IP address of a site:
https://www.uptrends.com/tools/find-ip-address-of-my-website
https://ipinfo.info/html/ip_checker.php
Other Tools
Check a page for broken links: https://dnschecker.org/website-broken-link-checker.php
Find the URLs hosted on a specific server: https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/web-sites-on-web-server/