Justyna Dorsz

DMCA takedown notice – form vs. email

My artwork is stolen so often that I need to send thousands of DMCA takedown notices each year.

To make the process as fast as possible, I use email templates. But most websites prefer to receive takedown notices via their forms. For example, every time I email a takedown notice to Etsy I receive an email asking me to submit future notices via their form.

Do they not realize that their form takes a few minutes to fill? Sending an email takes just a few seconds. I don’t want to waste my time filling out forms. I prefer to send emails wherever possible.

I can understand that Etsy prefers to receive filled out forms. They are easier to process. But I calculated that if I keep sending forms to Etsy, I will waste over a day of my life per year. And that’s just on Etsy. There are many more websites that I need to send takedown notices to.

If you need to send takedown notices, send them via email, instead of via form. Don’t waste more time than you need to.

Homunculus

There are many ways of dealing with hard decisions.

For example, there’s a method called “fear setting” which Tim Ferriss is fond of. In short, he describes it this way: imagine the worst-case scenario and you will realize it’s really not that bad.

There are many more methods, of course. Here’s a collection of them.

My favorite is Homunculus. Nate Soares describes the technique, and it goes like this: imagine you are a homunculus, which is a tiny human, and you get to steer your body however you want. Now, imagine also that you are a very new homunculus, and arrive in your body for the first time. What would you change?

As a new homunculus, you have the privilege of pruning the things that obviously need pruning. Maybe you’ll look and say “Ah, yes, we’re going to cancel lunch with that person; this body was secretly dreading it. I also see that this body is currently spending a lot of cycles feeling guilty about a date that went poorly last week; we can dismiss that, it’s no longer useful for this homunculus. And also, “exercise” doesn’t seem to be on today’s schedule at all! How strange. This body definitely intended to exercise today; somehow it fell off the list. I’ll put it back on.”

– Nate Soares “Be a new homunculus”

It’s a very easy method. I’ve already imagined my new homunculus, and it made me delete 3 items from my to-do list. That’s one of my major struggles — I keep adding things to my list and have a tough time recognizing which tasks are not important. But my homunculus knew right away.

Etsy accepts fake DMCA counter notices

The problem is:

  1. Someone is selling my art illegally on Etsy.
  2. So I file a DMCA takedown notice.
  3. Then Etsy removes the listings that I reported.
  4. But sometimes the infringers file fake counter notices, claiming that they have the rights to sell my designs.
  5. Etsy accepts those fake notices and restores the illegal listings.

I don’t yet know how to deal with this — I will need to consult my attorneys. Etsy is clearly accepting fake counter even though the notices are clearly not valid — for example, they don’t contain an address.

I don’t have a solution for this issue yet. I am simply writing it here to rise awareness. I know other must be facing the same problem.

Do people laugh at us?

I was watching a presentation by David Perell, a writer, and Jack Butcher, a designer. They talked about how they started their careers, what lead them to the work they do now, what were the setbacks and failures. It was a very motivating talk. But one thing that David said surprised me. Around minute 40, he said that when he was starting his business, his friends mocked him. He even got an email from a friend who told him that some people that they both knew were making fun of David’s efforts.

I’ve never really thought about it. Maybe some of my friends were making fun of me too? My first designs were awful. My first game had a lot of problems. Did my friends think I was ridiculous? Not that it would have mattered.

Anyway, the whole video is worth watching (but I time stamped when David talked about people making fun of him):

Social pressure

Have you ever noticed how people dislike when you do something uncommon? I used to be vegan and my colleagues tried to get me to eat meat. I started going to the gym every day and I would hear that it’s “excessive” and “unhealthy”. Even small things have this effect. I remember once a friend offered me chocolate, and I didn’t want it, and yet I was pressured to accept it.

Lately, I’ve noticed the same thing about consuming news. I don’t do that. In fact, I actively avoid news. When someone tries to tell me anything about politics or sports or crime, I often say I don’t want to know. But they persist! Even if you say it a few times, they really feel they need to tell you what they know. I sometimes resort to blatantly changing the topic.

It’s not that I am completely uninterested in what is going on. But most of the news that people want to share are awful things because that’s what elicits the strongest emotions. If I knew those things, they would stay in my head. I would think about them and worry. So, I would rather not know all that stuff.