Has anyone been able to successfully serve a DMCA takedown notice to FileDude.com or AppTrackr.org?

Question

Has anyone been able to successfully serve a DMCA takedown notice to FileDude.com or AppTrackr.org?

I realize this is not quite a programming question, but I was wondering if any other devs had tried to get pirated apps (in this case an iPhone app) removed from AppTrackr.org or FileDude.com. The latter ostensibly has a DMCA fax number, but it does not function correctly. The former seems to have no contact information whatsoever.

Their registrar (GoDaddy.com in both cases) says their servers are in the Netherlands.

I can't cost-justify serving a civil subpoena to GoDaddy (to get contact info), or really any serious legal action. But since FileDude at least pretends to respect the DMCA, I thought someone might have actually gotten them to take down infinging files.

Answer 1

Do you hope to make more money by reducing piracy, or do you just find piracy objectionable enough that you want to put an end to it?

It's easy to become emotionally attached to your work, but it's better if you aren't (this is more true when you're working on something with other people; Apple doesn't help by adding "Created by" at the top of the file). Nobody's entirely sure whether small amounts of piracy hurts or helps sales, but I'd be surprised if one count of piracy was equivalent to much more than 1% of a "lost sale".

I've measured the amount of piracy for one app (isn't phoning home great?), and it's too low to justify spending any more effort (it might be worthwhile checking rates for other apps).

Life's too short.

Answer 2

Actually I just sent a fax to filedude.com successfully. Be sure to prepend the UK country code (+44). Let's see if they actually take down the file (our cracked iPad app).