Important update to Instructor Terms

[JamesDunbar]

Hey instructors! You’ve chosen to share your online courses on our platform, so we’re committed to keeping you updated about changes that might affect you. On that note, we’ve made some updates to our Instructor Terms, as well as to the Promotions Policy. 

Here’s a quick look at what’s changed:

• We’re clarifying how Udemy handles taxes on instructor earnings to help you keep your business fully compliant, no matter who or where you are.
• We’re making it easier for us to fight pirated content for you.
• We’re adjusting policies regarding distribution and removal of courses on Udemy for Business to enhance our ability to market your content to organizations around the world and meet the needs of learners at work.

To learn more, head on over to our post in the Teaching Center.

[JohnBura]

I look forward to seeing what Udemy is insisting for tax pourposes. I know that a lot has changed especially with the EU. I constantly talk with my 2 accountants and the CRA (Canadian version of the IRS) so I will get their input as well. 

[RichChesterwood]

All of the policies have been updated June 24th but it's hard to find the relevant pieces as there's no "diff" and the contents are spread across multiple files. Here's the relevant section from the Promotions Policy:

"Exclusivity

Once your course is included in the Collection, you agree that you will not begin to offer any pre-recorded courses that directly compete with or injure the sales of that course on any site or platform other than your own. For clarity, this doesn’t include literary works or in-person instructional trainings. If you choose to terminate your participation in the Udemy for Business Program, you agree that this exclusivity provision will remain in place until we remove your course from the Collection."

[LawrenceMMiller]

I think I do understand this, and i understand the purpose for it. 

Udemy for Business is trying to gain competitive advantage by its ability to claim "you can only find this content on Udemy." There are a number of other platforms now that are competing with UFB and they are targeting Udemy instructors and asking us to allow them to publish our courses. I already have a number of my courses, that are included in UFB, on other platforms that compete with UFB. Those are "grandfathered" so there is no impact on them. However, if I publish a new course next month and ask UFB to include it in their offerings (which I would), then I cannot make that available on a second platform. This is the only real news in any of these changes. 

I am OK with this. I have watched the other platforms pretty closely and they are way behind Udemy. It will be an easy choice for me.

I think this reflects the marketing dollars that Udemy is putting behind UFB and that is a good thing for me. When you publish a book with a major publisher, you have a contract that says that they will spend money on marketing your book, but you then cannot publish it anywhere else. That's a fair deal.

[KarolyNyisztor]

I was struggling with the new "Exclusivity clause," but you've got the point. UfB outperforms the other platforms already, and if it keeps evolving at this pace, I have no reason to publish elsewhere.

[foxandlens]

Agreed, that exclusivity clause is a major problem.

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@RichChesterwood wrote:

Ok now this sounds extremely ominous. 

"any content that is available on Udemy for Business must be hosted exclusively on Udemy while it’s in the Udemy for Business content collection. This policy does not apply to any content you’ve made available on your own websites, existing contracts with third-party learning platforms, or to any separate offerings like in-person trainings, books, etc."

This needs some serious clarififcation. One the one hand you're saying exclusively and in the next listing a series of exemptions. Can you give an example of a course which would violate this new rule? Own websites, existing contracts and separate offerings seems to cover most bases.

This sounds worryingly like the first phase of instructor lockin.

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[VincentTurn905]

This is all very good news!

[JohnElder]

Not being able to sell my courses on other platforms is good news?