Even with proper handling of takedown notices, it can be 48 hours or more before a response is received of a work comes down. That’s more than enough time to forget about filing a notice and completely lose track of it. Thus, if a host doesn’t respond or is sluggish in doing so, you may forget to follow up and, leaving the infringement online needlessly.

Previously, I had relied on spreadsheets in Google Docs to help track sent DMCA notices and the responses I was getting. However, while I still use it when working on larger projects, I’ve found a new service to supplement such manual tracking methods, it’s called Boomerang and it is an add on for Firefox or Google Chrome that works with Gmail or Google Apps to help you keep track of your sent mail.

If you’ve struggled with this issue or any email tracking issue, you will probably want to take a look at Boomerang for your own account.

What is Boomerang?

The big idea behind the service is fairly simple, in addition to enabling you to send mail at a later date, Boomerang returns (boomerangs) messages to your inbox at a designated time. It works with both messages in your inbox currently, for example, messages you don’t need right now but will want to see in a few days and also with mail that you’re sending out.

For example, if you send out a DMCA notice, you can tell Boomerang to put the message back in your inbox after X number of days. It is also smart enough to recognize if you heard back, meaning that the other party responded to the email thread, and gives you the option of choosing whether or not to boomerang the message back in that event.

This means that, if you send a DMCA notice (or any other email for that matter) and don’t hear back about it after X number of days, the message will be placed back in your inbox for follow up.

This, I’ve found, has greatly simplified email tracking, in particular with DMCA notices, and has made me much more efficient at following up on ongoing DMCA matters than I was with more manual systems.

Some Boomerang Limitations

All of this being said, Boomerang does have a few limitations that are worth noting.

First, it only works with emails that pass through Gmail or Google Apps. If you send a DMCA notice via a form, as with Google’s new DMCA system, you’ll have to find a different way to keep track of it. It also doesn’t work with notices sent via fax or postal mail obviously.

Second, Boomerang’s system for tracking replies only works if the message is in the same thread. Thus, if a host responds with a trouble ticket or changes the subject line, Boomerang won’t pick it up and will return the message to your inbox even though you’ve gotten your answer. This is a fairly small problem and easily dealt with, but annoying at times as well. However, you can go into Boomerang’s backend and remove the message from the queue by hand if it bothers you too much.

Finally, I’ve been getting errors saying that a message can’t be found when I try to boomerang something already in my inbox. It’s an erratic error but has limited its usefulness in dealing with existing messages. That being said, I am yet to have this problem with an outgoing message.

All in all, Boomerang is not a complete tracking solution, especially for DMCA notices, but it is better than the alternatives I’ve played with and it is a great aid in preventing notices from falling through the cracks.

Bottom Line

If you are sending out DMCA notices, or any other legal notices for that matter, you need to stay on top of them and follow up as appropriate. Boomerang can help with that.

Best of all, Boomerang is completely free, at least for right now, and also has a version available for Outlook (the Outlook version costs $29). If you want, you can purchase a Boomerang subscription for the Gmail product though it currently doesn’t do anything other than purchase a year’s subscription for when Boomerang leaves beta.

Overall, Boomerang has been a great addition to my arsenal and it’s a tool that I’m proud to share with my readers here in hopes that they will find it useful too.

Previously, sending a DMCA notice from Gmail involved using a template stored on your computer and either pasting it manually or using a text expansion program such as Signature, Typinator or others.

With the new Canned Responses feature, the DMCA notice, as well as your cease and desist letter, can be stored within Gmail, making it easy to file a notice from any computer that you have access to.

How you do that is surprisingly simple, all you need is access to a GMail account (Not a Google Apps one sadly) and a good stock letter.

Step 1: Turn on the Canned Responses Feature

Log into your Gmail and click on the green icon at the top to access Gmail Labs.

Then scroll down and turn on Canned Responses

Once you’ve clicked enable, scroll down and click “Save” to make it available it in your account.

Step 2: Paste Your Text into a New Email

Open up a new email and copy your stock letter to the clipboard. Then, paste the letter into your new email, being careful to overwrite your signature if you do not want it to appear when you send out a DMCA notice.

Also, be certain to add the subject line you want to use, something akin to “Notice of Copyright Infringement” works best.

Step 3: Save as a New Canned Response

Save the notice as a new canned response, it will automatically insert the subject as the title but you can change that at the next pop up.

Once you’ve done that, your canned response is ready to use.

Step 4: Paste Into New Email

Open up a new email in Gmail and click the canned response link.

If everything went as planned, the canned response should overwrite your entire email, including your signature line, leaving you with a completely clean template that you can add the relevant information into.

Some Caveats

Right now, much to my chagrin, Gmail Labs is not available for Google Apps accounts. It is only for basic Gmail accounts.

Second, be EXTREMELY careful when using this feature as it is very easy to accidentally hit “Save” and not “Open” when trying to drop in a canned response, thus overwriting your existing template. Both “Open” and “Save” use very similar pop up warnings, making it very easy to click past them without reading.

Finally, double check your subject and formatting after dropping in the canned response. Though sometimes it seems to add the correct subject, other times it does not. It is clear that this feature is not working 100% just yet.

Conclusions

All in all, I this new feature has a great deal of usability and, though I’ve focused here on sending a DMCA notice, it works just as well for any stock letter or template.

This is a feature that I’ve been waiting for for a very long time in Gmail and the fact that it is not available for Google Apps has me a bit miffed right now. However, I can use my regular Google account to send any notices that I have to.

Perhaps the greatest beauty of Gmail is its flexibility, allowing me to send mail from my address using several different Gmail accounts.