Are screenshots from videos blocked?

A user in one of our courses asks:

> Why its not allowing to take the screenshot of the course?

> Why its not allowing to take the screenshot of the course, for my reference I took screenshot of architecture diagram but it is coming blank(black screen)

This does appear to be true: you can't make a screenshot from a video, either when the video is running, or when it's stopped. Is this a Udemy thing (that can be configured on or off) or is it just a limitation on the video engine Udemy uses?

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Comments

ElianaC

Hi @Rob-KodeKloud
Due to anti-piracy initiatives that are in place for certain Udemy courses, screenshot functionality is not supported. These security measures leverage a variety of changes on how course videos stream, including video encryption and time-bound licensing to protect courses from being illegally consumed. Instead of attempting to take screenshots of the course with these security measures applied, we advise students use the notes feature to help review important sections more easily in the future.

If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to our Instructor Support team.

Eliana Cerna

Udemy Community Moderator

Michael_D_Nwaogu

Good to know this feature is in place. Thanks!

AITCD

Hello @ElianaC
,
Thank you for providing this information in reply to @Rob-KodeKloud
regarding the anti-piracy initiatives and the limitations on screenshot functionality for certain Udemy courses.

It's good to know that Udemy is taking measures to protect the content and ensure the integrity of the learning experience.

The suggestion to use the notes Feature for reviewing important sections is a great alternative, and I appreciate your guidance on this matter.

Best regards,
Team AITCD

BartSteed

This is ridiculous. I'm paying for the content and can easily screenshot it on a computer or in the mobile web browser. Remove this ridiculous limitation from your mobile app or I won't use it. Consider your customer's experience!!!!

ThomasMitchell

@BartSteed You’re paying for ACCESS to the content. If I’m an instructor and I want you do be able to download my content, I’ll make it downloadable.

BartSteed

@ThomasMitchell No one owns the knowledge. Are you saying I'm not allowed to take notes? I'm only permitted to persist my knowledge in the way the course instructor feels I should? Give me a break! Once I've made a memory or a transcription of the knowledge, it's MINE. — I don't think you should be able to redistribute course material, but you should be able to screenshot.

ThomasMitchell

@BartSteed You can argue that nobody owns the knowledge, yes. But, the instructor owns the medium that presents that knowledge (slides, videos, PDFs, etc). That’s just a fact. You’ve purchased ACCESS to the knowledge/medium.

BartSteed

@ThomasMitchell I get it, and I appreciate the work that the instructors put into creating great content. But, we're not talking about abusing that (downloading the course and redistributing it). I'm talking about screenshots, which would have no impact to the owner. This is serious overkill for "copyright protection". Maybe it'll just be me that ceases to use the app, maybe not. You definitely lost one user, though: it's far too inconvenient to type notes in on my mobile phone

ThomasMitchell

@BartSteed Thats an inaccurate statement. Instructors with courses in Udemy for Business, or in the personal subscription are paid based on minutes watched, so when you go into a course, screenshot everything, and watch it over and over again, the instructor gets nothing for those rewatches.

If taking notes on your phone is so inconvenient, online courses may not be the best medium for you.

BartSteed

@ThomasMitchell agree to disagree. I RARELY re-watch a course; they aren't losing anything if I screenshot something. Sounds to me like the instructor payment model needs to be reevaluated. Like I said, maybe it's just me; maybe not. I appreciate your perspective on the matter.

Jjp

@ThomasMitchell with all due respect, if someone intends to engage in piracy, a screenshot restriction (which only applies to the mobile app) will hardly make any difference. I find it hard to believe that anyone who illegally distributes content would rely on screenshots to copy a video.

Regarding the point about instructors being paid based on minutes watched, it seems like Udemy might be creating a problem to sell the solution. Taking notes on a phone while watching a video is nearly impractical, so why not allow us to take screenshots that are stored in a designated place within the platform itself? This way, I would still have to access the platform (which I find to be a subpar experience), but it would be far more efficient than having to pause the video to write notes.

It feels like this decision was made and never reassessed, without taking into account the platform's main goal: user learning. All the reasons given for this 'restriction' seem quite superficial.

vzlobin

I completely agree with BartSteed there are simple ways to overcome those so called antipiracy measures you implemented. Instead you simply create inconvenience for those users who want to use it for legitimate reasons. Those who would want to record videos will be able to do that and hardly any measures would help. Besides who would want to record videos on the phone? So please stop creating learning impediments for your users and allow taking screenshots, because many visual presentations can not be described through the textual notes.
And one more thing if you focus more on your user experience rather than money (as all capitalists see as an ultimate goal of their selfish existence) perhaps your community would grow more rapidly.

cagirtas

I visited a course after 2 years and surprised with this screenshot blocking feature.

As a PM let me tell you this is ridiculous! You are actually punishing general users who want to learn stuff by taking notes to their own notebooks. If I would like to do pirating or has bad intent, do you think this feature would stop me?

I could take just a picture by my phone or record screen or do whatever…

Just put a term on the user flow informing that they should not share the materials. It needs to be bound with trust you can never control.
This is a real churn causing feature for users.

FrankKane

If an instructor offers a PDF of the course slides (most do, I think), why do you need screenshots?