Email 1: Kid gloves. Give them a little time to respond and fix it. Mention that you’re capturing copies of these pages on a regular basis to record the activity. Include a casual reference to the DMCA page.
Email 2: Tell them you’re serious, and that you’re going to get legal. Talk about the DMCA specifics and how copyright applies to the creator as soon as a work is created. Refer to your work as original work. Tell them you’re capturing documents, perhaps attaching a PDF file showing their pages with dates on them. This spooks the dickens out of people knowing that you’re watching.
Contact the hosting provider.. You can use DNS tools to figure this out, sometimes it takes a couple of tries. Create an email and request receipt. By informing the host, you’ve legally involved them, and they are now liable for lack of action. This can be harder if the host is halfway around the world as laws are different. But safe harbor laws apply only if the provider is NOT AWARE of the infraction. You take them out of safe harbor by making them aware.
Time to call in the big guns. Letter/Fax/Email (yep, all) to the hosting provider with tracking (registered mail.)
“Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the [web host] will be held liable for damages by allowing this activity to continue by your hosting client.â€
If this doesn’t do the trick, you have yourself a wierd one. In the tiny chance you still have stuff being used, time to file a suit. Gather up your evidence and get ready to rumble.
