As DMCA Force grows and expands the list of clients using our DMCA takedown services, we’re bringing aboard new clients from a variety of industries. Some come to us with a pretty good idea of what they’re up against in terms of piracy, having found quite a few infringements via search engines or helpful tips from their own customer base.

Many other times, however, prospective clients have come to us with little more than a general knowledge of the fact that there is piracy going on out there on the Web, and that their works might be among those being infringed upon, so they’d like us to take a look.

This is where our free initial evaluation comes in handy; it gives us a way to show people, in a very specific and detailed way, the extent of their piracy problem, without requiring them to reach into their wallets until after they are armed with that information.

Last week, we set up such an evaluation for a filmmaker who knew his works were “floating around out there on the web,” but wasn’t sure just how big the problem was. Our combination of automated spidering and human analysis provided an answer: there were over 15000 likely infringements on his work flagged by our software.

This particular rights-holder’s first response to being shown the data was a predictable one. It went something like this: “Over 15000? Holy {Expletive Deleted}!!”

We were able to offer this rights-holder a very reasonable price on our services, so his initial dismay at the extent of the problem has since transformed into relief that at least DMCA Force is now on the case, but the experience was an eye-opening one for him. For the first time, he really absorbed just how much illicit distribution of his work he has been competing with over the last several years.

It can be an unpleasant revelation, but it’s an important one to have, because the piracy of your works and products isn’t going to decline on its own. If you’re in the position that this rights-holder was in last week, don’t just sit there idly wondering how big your piracy problem is — contact DMCA Force and let us figure that out for you, for free.

It might just be the smartest zero dollars and zero cents you ever spent.