In-class project guide on website research and documentation

IN-CLASS PROJECT GUIDE

Factual investigation. Engage in factual investigation of the defendant’s website, also looking for contact information, domain name information, and hosting company information.

• What is our opponent is doing online? Who are they, and what might they want. Theories?
• Find any discernable information about potential opponents:
  • Who is listed as the domain name owner? The domain owner (also known as a registrant) is the person who owns a domain name. The domain registrar is the company through which the domain name is registered. A domain registry is the supervising company that administers an entire domain (such as all .COMs, .NETs, or .ORGs). You need to determine who the owner and registrar are.
  • Who is the host of the site’s content? An internet host is a company that hosts the content that you can view using a particular domain name. Look again at your WHOIS results. Does it provide guidance on who hosts the content? A traceroute (as detailed on the in-class project page) may also help. Who is the host? What is their website address?

Documentation. Document everything you find out above, including: the defendant’s website, WHOIS results, and hosting results.

• Opponent site printouts: do PDF printouts of the relevant pages from the defendant’s website. I’d suggest you print to PDF. Make sure that your browser saves the date and time. Save them in an organized fashion in a folder on your computer.
• Opponent site Screencaps:
  • Make sure the screencap includes all necessary information.
  • Make sure your computer is showing the date and time of what you screencap.
  • Avoid having irrelevant or privileged information on your screen when you do a screencap.
  • Save your screencaps to a folder in an organized fashion.
• Opponent site source code:
  • For the defendant’s site, right-click your browser, select “view page source” or the equivalent.
  • Print out PDFs of the source code, again including date and time.
  • Keep them organized.
• Documenting WHOIS, Network Tools, and hosting info.
  • Save PDFs of the information.
  • Keep the information organized.

What if there are changes to the defendant’s site?

Might the defendant’s site change from time to time? Yes, websites disappear and change all the time.

• Document important information immediately, do not wait. What you see today may change or disappear tomorrow.
• Come back again to the site to see if there are any changes. If so, document them as well.

Instructions: use the instructions below to help you in doing basic research and documentation. 

1. Opponent basics.

Review the emails received to date. Compile the following information:

2. WHOIS basic.

Run a WHOIS search using http://whois.net , searching the opponent’s domain name. This will give you partial information. You should find the name of the registrar with whom the domain is registered.

3. WHOIS detailed.

Go to the registrar’s website and find the link for a WHOIS search. Run it again, you’ll get more complete info. Print the information out to a PDF file. Provide relevant additional information in the lines below, including registrant name, email, contact information, and hosting information.

4. Traceroute.

Also, run a traceroute on the domain to see what else you can find out. There are many providers that do this. We’ll use network-tools.com. Below write any additional info you find. Again, print to PDF.

5. Opponent’s website.

Finally, let’s pay close attention to the opponent’s website. What information can you find from the site about the identity of your opponent and what they are up to? What types of information is discernable? On the page? Its title? The URL itself? The underlying HTML code and meta-tags (right-click to view page source). Enter that info in the lines below:

6. Documenting opponent’s site.

You should also print out the opponent’s site, taking care to document the various types of information:

1. PDF printout. Print the page out to a PDF and save the PDF using a descriptive title tied to the date of documentation.
2. Screen cap(s) to PDF or paste in Word. Do a screen cap and save the file, either as a JPG, or as a cut-and-paste into a Word document. Make sure the date is showing, and make sure that the screencap does not capture any extraneous information.
3. Source code to PDF. Right-click to view the source code. Print that to PDF as well.

7. Hosting provider (copyright).

If time remains, let’s get some information on the internet host of your opponent’s website. You should find that information on both the WHOIS and on the Traceroute printout from Network Tools. Provide that information below.

8. Hosting provider, DMCA policy & designated agent (copyright).

Review the hosting company’s website for its copyright/DMCA policy and to find its designated DMCA agent/contact info. Find any other information of interest. Print it all out to PDF.

9. Copyright.gov website listing of designated agents: host’s designated agent (copyright).

Go to the Copyright.gov website and find the page with designated DMCA agents. Find info there listing the hosting company’s designated DMCA agent. Print it all out to PDF.

Posted Mar. 27, 2018; expanded Apr. 9