My Udemy Course Has Been Pirated

Hi fellow instructors,

I recently discovered that my newest course, and a lot Udemy courses not just mine but from others instroctors, “Baneful Magic for Protection and Power – Return to Sender,” was purchased by the fake account troll who purchased from Xqrjbdsue5748@Hotmail .comand made a refund the same day the course was published from has already been pirated and uploaded on several websites:

https://freewebcart.com/baneful-magic-for-protection-and-power-return-to-sender/

https://sanet.st/video-courses/lifestyle/5240274-baneful-magic-protection-power-return-sender

https://cupones.cursotecaplus.com/

My Udemy is https://www.udemy.com/course/baneful-magic-for-protection-and-power-return-to-sender/learn/lecture/51461435?referralCode=C99CBA0AB70E28E000B0#overview

I'm incredibly frustrated, as I just launched this course and poured so much into creating it. I’ve contacted Udemy Support, but I’m also wondering:

Has anyone successfully taken down pirated content from these sites?

Is there a fast way to file a DMCA or find their hosts?

Any tools or tips to prevent future piracy?

I’d appreciate any insight or moral support — it’s honestly so disheartening to see this happen right away.

Thanks in advance, Beti.

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Comments

RonErez

Sorry to hear you're dealing with this, I can totally see how frustrating it must be. Honestly, situations like this make me question whether it’s worth continuing to create courses. I’m not familiar with the DMCA process, but I’m sure you can report it directly to Udemy’s Trust & Safety Team at policy@udemy.com .

PuneetGupta453

The critical question for Udemy is: how are users able to download course videos?
Is this a result of the platform being compromised?
Could it be that Udemy lacks sufficient penetration testing or other security measures to prevent unauthorized (or fake) users from accessing and downloading course content?

From a technical standpoint, there are well-established methods to prevent such breaches. Allowing video downloads through backdoor tools or trojans not only undermines Udemy's business model but also negatively impacts instructors’ revenue.

This is demotivational for Instructor's too!!

Is Udemy actively addressing this issue, or is it being overlooked under the assumption that such incidents are too rare to warrant action?

DebraDentPT

the same happened to me on all my courses over my two accounts. I contacted Udemy and they sent me to a site where I registered which courses had been stolen. It took about three weeks of the working on it and my constant emailing them to cease and desist to stop it. Need to check again to see if they are back up.

MarinaT

Hi Beti,

Thank you for your post. We're truly sorry to hear that your newly published course has appeared on a piracy site. We understand how much time and effort goes into creating a course, and know it's frustrating to see it misused.

Unfortunately, piracy is a complex challenge, often made more difficult by issues like non-compliance from certain hosting sites and especially the host’s location. Please rest assured that we continue to explore legal avenues to address these cases, and protecting your content remains one of our top priorities.

That said, in partnership with a vendor, we issue takedown notices to ensure pirated versions of courses struggle to gain visibility. We also use SEO and other strategies to make sure that when students search for courses, they’re directed to legitimate sources. If you’d like to submit a takedown notice, you can do so by clicking here or by sending an email to takedowns@udemy.com.

Lastly, to address @PuneetGupta453 questions: By default, video lectures are not downloadable to computers, as a measure to help prevent piracy. You can find more information about this here. Beyond this, Udemy uses a range of anti-piracy measures to protect your courses. These include encoding videos with a proprietary player and applying a Udemy watermark to all videos.

For courses included in our subscription offerings, we add another layer of protection, such as video encryption and time-bound licensing, which makes unauthorized access even more difficult. These protections are offered in addition to the services of our anti-piracy partner, which are available to all Udemy instructors at no cost. If you’d like more information, feel free to contact our Trust & Safety team at policy@udemy.com.

Regarding users who purchase a course and immediately request a refund, we’d appreciate it if you could report this to our Policy team at policy@udemy.com so they can look into it.

Again, thank you for starting this discussion. We understand how important it is to feel that your content is protected, and we’re continuing to take steps to combat piracy and support you in every way we can.

Beti P

I did all that, Marina. I am waiting to be resolved. Thank you.

And Marina, I have submited every month's tickets about these refunds made instantly from fake accounts, and that revenue was never returned to me, and I have been an instructor for over 4 years.

Maybe Udemy needs to keep this money for 30 days as per the saying in the refund policy, then decide about a refund instead of instant money back.

Beti P

I have and waiting for a resolution.

Col (Dr) Shabbar Shahid (Veteran)

@Beti P I’m sorry to hear about your experience with course piracy. It’s understandably frustrating, but please don’t let it weigh too heavily on you—this is, unfortunately, a common challenge in the online course industry. While reporting such incidents is important, try not to lose sleep over it. Many of us, at some point, may have unknowingly engaged with pirated content ourselves.
When my first course was pirated, I felt the same distress. Over time, I’ve seen this happen with all my courses—often within hours of publishing, someone enrolls and quickly requests a refund, and soon after, the content appears on pirate sites. While it’s disheartening, I’ve learned to focus on what I can control. Udemy is likely doing its best to address these issues, but no system is foolproof.
Keep creating valuable content and know that piracy doesn’t define your success. Stay resilient, and don’t let this deter you from your goals.

PuneetGupta453

Related to below

"Regarding users who purchase a course and immediately request a refund, we’d appreciate it if you could report this to our Policy team at policy@UDEMY .com so they can look into it."

Is there any such report where I can see when a student has purchased a course and refund sought. I looked into Student reports, revenue report , refund report but no where this is showing "when a student has purchased a course" and "when he has sought refund".

There is no date information in refund report. May be I have not looked deeply into this topic but was not able find this information in the current reports.

@MarinaT If you could help this query