The Joy Of Registering Your DMCA Totally Non-Secret Agent Info

Every website and every blog that permits comments ought to have a DMCA agent registered with the Copyright Office’s DMCA Designated Agent Directory. 

Renewal is required when service provider or designated agent information has not been verified or updated within the last three years.

If you don't shell out the sum of $6, your listing will expire and be labeled "Terminated" in the directory. Even more stressful, your failure to renew your registration may result in the loss of safe harbor eligibility under 17 U.S.C. 512. 

To renew, you will need to review your designation and either amend it to correct or update outdated information or resubmit it without amendment to confirm its continued accuracy. 

Begin by logging in to your account at https://dmca.copyright.gov/osp/login.html. 

Before you log in, you will need to remind yourself of your username and your password.  The helpful government will tell you by email what it was, if you cannot remember.  You may also discover that your 3-year old PW is deemed to be expired.  This is always annoying when done on the fly.

You may not reuse a PW used for 11 previous times.... but it appears that a creative suffix (such as the word SUFFIX!) added to the original one will satisfy the bot.

Once logged in, click the pencil icon next to the designation, which will take you to a summary screen where you can review your information. 

From there, click "Edit" if you need to update anything, or click "Preview and Pay" to renew without making any changes. 

There is no value to renewing early, except that procrastinators might forget to renew altogether, and there is a certain satisfaction in getting annoying red tape "done!" but know that your renewal will be effective for three years starting the day it is submitted; renewal does not add three years to your prior expiration date. 

This DMCA agent for this blog has just renewed. It still costs $6 and there is no fee on Pay.gov for using a credit card. The site doesn't tell you this, so it's good to know. 

Using a credit or debit card also means that the DMCA agent knows almost immediately that their registration was successful. If you pay by ACH, it could take 7 days for the assurance. 

There are a few minor annoyances in the process.  There is a tiny little box to check.  If you don't see it, you will have to figure it out.  Also, once you type in your country, you have to click on the popup of how the site likes the country name to be written. That's pretty much all there is to it. 

You pay. You remember to log out. Hopefully, you are then "done" for three more years. 

All the best,

Rowena Cherry SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/