PIRATED UDEMY COURSES

Hi Instructors,

Here is a link to a website that has pirated your courses from Udemy:

https://archive.org/details/artsandmusicvideos

Please have a look to see which one of your courses this person has illegally downloaded from Udemy and been selling for the last 4 years

I contacted Udemy about this years ago, they had this guys website removed from Google search but he put it right back up the next day under a new URL. It's been there ever since and Udemy doesn't seem be interested in doing anything about it.

He has our content downloaded so unless Udemy pursues him you report him to google but he will just keep putting it back up.

Good luck!

-Joseph

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Comments

LeoNnamdiOz303

I think Udemy Admin can examine this thoughtfully and guidedly, and get us instructors informed on their stand / and steps to neutralize or counter this development.

Regards

AHardin

The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library that's been around for decades. If you find that someone uploaded your copyrighted material to their online library, you can ask to have it removed via their copyright policy:
https://help.archive.org/help/rights/

JosephPatric76

Hi AHardin,

That is correct, the internet archive has been around for decades. However, the person who pirated my course also pirated hundreds of other Udemy courses. I saw his original website before it was removed from google search and it had infinite content on it. That same person still has all of those course files and is now uploading them to the internet archive website. So instructors should check to see if their course is there and report it if it is- because I guarantee Udemy isn't going to check for you.

Best,

Joseph

AHardin

@JosephPatric76 thanks for clarifying. I recommend editing and clarifying your original post to state that a known person who pirates Udemy courses is uploading them to the Internet Archive, and the Internet Archive themselves aren't pirating and selling Udemy courses. The way it's worded, it reads that the Internet Archive is pirating and selling Udemy courses.

JosephPatric76

You're welcome. What difference does it make how instructors's content got there? Check it or don’t—I don’t care. Just trying to give people a heads-up.

ElianaC

Hi @JosephPatric76 Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I know you reported the website a year ago, but I encourage you to submit a new report. We are processing every report submitted through our form and proactively monitoring for abuse in partnership with our dedicated anti-piracy partners. When outright removal isn't possible, we are working to delist such content from search engines as a protective measure.

We recommend contacting our policy team directly at policy@udemy.com if you have additional questions!

JosephPatric76

Hi @ElianaC,

Thanks for explaining. To clarify, I reported this content as pirated 4 years ago. And Udemy did the bear minimum- as you said, to “Delist it”. The problem with "Delisting" it is that the person who pirated it just puts it back up again. It’s hard to find because they bury it in places like “The internet Archive”. I even have a google alert for my content and it didn’t warn me. Now I have to police the internet to keep track off my courses! Udemy does not monitor anything obviously and your “dedicated anti piracy partners” is just a way to pass the buck on to someone who couldn't care less.

And I reported my courses as pirated again this week. I received a response from Udemy that sounded like they were doing me a favor by looking into it - and explained “how hard it is to do anything about pirated content”. And by the way, the content IS currently still up and free to download by anyone who finds it! So far It’s been downloaded thousands of times and I have now clearly lost complete control over a course that took me two years of hard work to build.

If Udemy had pursued the person who had originally put up a website with my (and many, many other instructor’s) content, he/she might have been caught. But doing so would have been too costly or time consuming for Udemy, so they didn’t bother. Udemys attitude towards me and my “little problem” at every step of this process has been “When you make an omelet, you gotta break a few eggs”

But that was my work you allowed to be stolen.

Udemy likes to sound like it takes strong legal actions to protect instructors content from pirates. But the reality is that it doesn’t want anything to do with the issue. They send piracy cases to a 3rd party who gets them “delisted” from google search. Which is completely, laughably, ineffective.

When instructors agree to Udemys terms we go into it with this in mind. I think instructors should know how little Udemy actually cares and how little they do to help people who’s content has been pirated.

I’m sure its only going to get worse now that Udemy is using Generative AI creating derivative works from instructors content. You would have to be insane to allow Udemy to do that. I unpublished mine immediately.

-Joseph

ElianaC

Hi @JosephPatric76 Thank you for your feedback regarding the ongoing issue with pirated content. I truly understand your frustration, and I appreciate you taking the time to express your concerns.

I want to clarify that Udemy is committed to protecting the intellectual property of our instructors. We acknowledge that the anti-piracy landscape is challenging, and we employ various strategies, including working with third-party services for delisting content. Since we have changed our anti-piracy providers since your original submission, resubmitting a report is the best approach, as you have already done. Please know that I’ve escalated your case to the appropriate team, and you should be receiving a follow-up via email.

Thank you for your patience!