What happens when you paste a URL

Four public sources, in order. Each step is shown in the result with the source it came from, so a claim you doubt can be checked against the same record we read.

1. DNS, for the chain of names

The host name is followed through its CNAME chain and then resolved to an address, over DNS-over-HTTPS at 1.1.1.1. The chain matters more than the address. A name ending in a provider’s own domain identifies the provider directly, before any address lookup.

2. RDAP on the address, for who runs the network

The address is looked up in the regional registry over RDAP, which returns the organisation the block is allocated to. The wording that comes back is the registrant name, such as Cloudflare, Inc. or Fastly, Inc. This is the step that most often names a CDN rather than the host, and the result says so rather than hiding it.

3. RDAP on the domain, for the registrar

Registrars are service providers too, and several maintain designated agents. Where the host is unreachable or unregistered, the registrar is sometimes the only addressee left.

4. The register, for the addressee

Names and domains from the previous steps are matched against a read of the U.S. Copyright Office register of designated agents taken on 2026-08-30: 25,109 designations naming 33,739 distinct domains. A match by domain is the strong case, because the register itself names that domain. A match by organisation name is weaker and labelled as such.

Four sources, four answers, and no step you cannot repeat by hand.

What is deliberately not here

The agent’s name, address, phone and email live on the official record and are linked, not copied. Two reasons: a copy goes stale the day a provider updates its designation, and republishing a register of named individuals is not something a lookup tool needs to do to be useful.

Where it stops

It does not judge whether anything infringes, does not send notices, and does not promise removal. It answers one question, who the addressee is, and, if you ask, watches whether the page’s answer changes afterwards.