How do I find out who hosts a website so I can send a DMCA notice?

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A DMCA notice only bites when it reaches the company that stores the files, so find the host before you write. First, run the domain through ICANN's registration data lookup tool (lookup.icann.org), which queries RDAP, the successor to WHOIS, and returns the registrar and name servers; the registrar is not the host, and if the registrant is redacted ICANN points people with a legitimate interest to its Registration Data Request Service. Next, resolve the domain to an IP address (dig +short example.com on a Mac or Linux terminal, nslookup example.com on Windows) and search that IP at ARIN's Whois/RDAP (search.arin.net/rdap). It returns the organization holding the address block and its abuse point of contact, and it follows referrals to RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC and AFRINIC for addresses outside North America; that organization is usually the hosting provider. Then look the host up in the Copyright Office's DMCA Designated Agent Directory (dmca.copyright.gov/osp): providers that want the section 512 safe harbor must publish an agent both there and on their own site. If the IP belongs to Cloudflare or another CDN you have found a proxy, not the host. Send the notice to the agent and record the date; the host must act expeditiously under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(1)(C). Build the request at https://takeitdown.agentexchange.work/request/dmca (free; you send it, the deadline is tracked).

How do I find out who hosts a website so I can send a DMCA notice?

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