Getting Web Hosts To Remove Sites Hosting Stolen Content
If you’re a model in the adult industry, than you’re already aware of how big of an issue piracy is. There’s tons of different methods of fighting piracy. And tons of different tools models have at their disposal. Today, we’re going to be talking about submitting DMCA take-down notices directly to a pirate’s web host. Most web hosts don’t allow for intellectual property violations or “criminal activity” in general. Pirated content fits that criteria. Whether they honor it is a different story. Here’s what you need to know about submitting DCMA complaints to a web host.
Identifying The Web Host Of The Pirate Site
There are many tools out there that can help with identifying web hosts. Hosting Compass is a great tool that will tell you the web host, and give additional information about the IP address.. A simple Google search can pull up even more tools. These tools are especially helpful if the pirate site is using private nameservers. Private nameservers use one of the webmaster’s domains instead of the host providers.
Filing A DMCA Claim To The Web Host
Once you’ve identified the web host, it’s time to report the non-compliant sites. The process might vary from web host to web host. For example, some hosts might have a form that is used to report the site and provide supporting information. Some hosts might simply have an email address, most likely ‘abuse@websitename.com’.
When submitting a DMCA notice, it’s important to follow any instructions provided by the web host. Failure to follow the instructions precisely might make your claim invalid and result in no legal action. It’s also important to provide as much information as possible. This includes all the information on the original material, the infringing sites / urls and any available contact information for the infringing party.
Not All Web Hosts Will Remove Pirate Sites
Unfortunately, not all web hosts will act upon abuse claims. There are some shady companies out there that really don’t care. In these cases, models and producers must resort to other tactics. Submitting DMCA complaints to Google is a very good next step. There’s also ways to cut into the pirate’s traffic and income, thus making piracy less effective and profitable.
Using A DMCA Agency To Submit Takedown Notices
When submitting DMCA notices, it’s always best to use an agency. This route costs some money, but it’s valuable investment. DMCA agencies specialize in these notices. This ensures that all of them are filled out completely and accurately. The agency will also use their company contact information, protecting your privacy. These companies will also leverage all methods for getting stolen content removed, not just the one outlined above.
What To Do If The Web Host Doesn’t Remove The Site
As mentioned above, not all web hosts act on complaints. Sometimes because they’re located in countries where there’s no legal requirement to act. Sometimes it’s just because they’re a shady hosting company that doesn’t expect you to ever escalate the issue to court. Either way, it happens. The good news is, there’s other techniques that can be used to fight piracy.
Submitting DMCA Complaints To Google
Submitting DMCA complaints to Google is a very effective way to fight the impacts of piracy. It doesn’t get the content removed from the site, but it does make it insanely difficult to find. For most pirates, Google is the top traffic source. It’s possible to get content removed from Google search, video search and image search. Best of all, models have reported having success using their performer name, out of town PO Box and phone number with a different area code when submitting requests to Google.
Learn More: Getting Stolen Content Removed From Google
Trademarking Your Watermark
With a trademarked watermark, your complaint goes above copyright alone. You’re now working with a trademark and copyright infringement (2257 compliance could be brought up as well). This makes the claim go further with web hosting companies, infringing sites and other parties.
Learn More: Trademarking A Watermark
Making It Harder To Find Pirated Content
Pirated content has no real impact if it can’t be discovered. Learning how people are discovering the pirated income, and ensuring that they’re discovering your promo content instead, is a great way to drastically reduce the impact of the pirated content. There’s many different ways to do this, and they all have the added impact of increasing your traffic, which impacts revenue.
Learn More: Attacking The Pirate’s Traffic and Income