1/ Are you an indie #ttrpg creator whose work is being shared w/o your permission?

Today I will show you how to register a DMCA complaint. Caveats abound (I am NOT an attorney) but this inexpensive/easy way worked for me when I was self-publishing.

Let's dive in...

2/ You must have a postal address to give your DMCA teeth.

Don't use a personal postal address (unless you have an LLC tied to it). There's no telling how this information is used. I have a virtual PO Box tied to my old LLC. I recommend - https://www.postscanmail.com/locations.html 

3/ Register a Google Voice telephone number or have a business line already established. You'll include this in your DMCA request.

Once again, don't send personal cell numbers (unless you have an LLC tied to it). Which brings me to...

4/ If you are in the US, do you have an LLC? It is wise to have one for a multitude of tax reasons, and there's a lot of information out there how to register one inexpensively in your state.

This isn't the point of the thread, so we're going to skip ahead...

5/ You need to send a DMCA letter digitally to the site's copyright agent (which more often than not is the web admin aka not an attorney). Most sites will honor it:

https://justpaste.it/2jnsk 

So let's talk about the email addresses registered with the worst offenders...

6/ Most websites have an email contact:

4chan - [email protected]
The Trove - [email protected]
7chan - [email protected]
Volafile - [email protected]

Other websites have a form you can submit it through instead, and new share depots pop up constantly. It's a moving target...

7/ So what do you do if the website won't honor it?

I've got some bad news for you - unless you are willing to pay an attorney to enforce it, there's not much you can do. And most of the time, this is a costly, losing proposition...

8/ This comes up against other challenges - sending DMCA complaints can be a time waster, especially if you are seeking them out via Google.

You can use custom Google Alerts to let you know when it is shared, but how much time you want to spend on it vs create is up to you...

9/ So that brings me to my final point - is sending DMCA complaints worthwhile?

For me, it was. B/c people know I will nuke troves & share depots wholesale with #ZweihanderRPG in it. This caused 7chan to discontinue #ttrpg sharing and it's a 'No Share' on 4chan among pirates...

10/ YMMV. You need to know the stakes. And, I am not an attorney. But, I know an excellent attorney who generally will be willing to listen before taking on the case for people in tough financial situations.

Good luck & keep on creating cool #ttrpg stuff.