
Udemy Took Down My Coding Course with No Advanced Warning For an ID Check - RawData
I got an email from Udemy this morning (I didn&#x27;t see it for four hours!) saying they had randomly taken down my coding course because of a spot identity check.<p>Wow am I pissed!<p>I guess the 300+ people who purchased the course this month are just screwed. And the like 1,500 others who bought it previously are just shit out of luck too.<p>This is insane!<p>Udemy has taken my course down and given me 24-48 hours to respond with my ID and a video saying I&#x27;m me, before they will put the course back up.<p>Couldn&#x27;t they have done that BEFORE taking down my course and screwing over all my paying students?  Horrible behavior from Udemy. They should be ashamed.<p>I&#x27;ve done nothing wrong. The course is mine, was created by me, and is a popular course with great reviews.<p>I don&#x27;t mind verifying my identity, but why not give me the chance to do that before you take down my course and screw over my paying students????<p>Here&#x27;s the email they sent me:
&gt;&gt;Hello, In light of recent events (which you can read about in our CEOâ€™s blogpost here: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.udemy.com&#x2F;maintaining-the-integrity-of-our-udemy-community&#x2F;), we are conducting spot check instructor verifications and have temporarily taken down your course (NAME WITH HELD). Please email a copy of your government issued identification to copyright@udemy along with a 30 second or less video where you say the name of the course and that you are submitting this video for us for verification. Please do not submit any information already provided in your course profile. We will delete your ID from our systems within 24 hours of receipt. If we do not receive your ID and the video within 48 hours, we will delete your course from our site. Thank you in advance for keeping our learning community safe. Best regards, Udemy Copyright
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gregdoesit
Pluralsight author here. Udemy have had lots of piracy issues in the past -
for example, paid courses from authors on sites like Pluralsight have been
illegally copied and sold.

Just a few weeks ago Pluralsight circulated an email on Udemy telling us,
Pluralsight authors, that the two companies have met as Udemy has acknowledged
the piracy problem and pledged to take down any flagged courses much faster in
the future.

I don't know if there is a relation to that action and this takedown until an
ID check, but there might be. Also, if you think about why they took it down
immediately until you verify your ID: if someone flags this video and it is
indeed a copyright infrigment, Udemy could be sued for not acting immediately.

I do empathise that takedowns without notice are painful when you're not the
author - however as an outsider I am glad that Udemy on the other hand is
starting to take piracy of courses more seriously.

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RawData
I'm sure that piracy is the reason like you suggest...as per the email they
sent me that referenced that sort of thing....

But the email they sent me said that they are merely conducting a "spot
check", and for another thing - if they actually were responding to a flag,
them "acting immediately" could be "immediately sending me and email and
giving me 24-48 hours to respond" You know?

Like I said, I don't mind verifying my ID (even though I think I did that when
I first signed up). I mind the way they did it. They could have given me
warning first.

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davismwfl
Glad to hear it sounds like the course is back up. I too feel that while Udemy
has every right and reason to protect authors, but it shouldn't take down your
course without warning or the ability to first prove it is your content within
a short but reasonable time period.

Have you reached out to Udemy and asked why they took it down without first
giving you the chance to prove the content is yours? What did they say?

Reading comments here it seems people are saying, "so what its only 24-48
hours". But when you pay for marketing and have clients paying for the course
your credibility is at stake if that course becomes unavailable. And it is
different in this case then saying the Udemy platform became unavailable for
12 hours because of some technical issue which people would be more forgiving
of. So while you can point to Udemy as the issue here, it isn't fair to you or
really even to their platform. Udemy should be more cautious to their own
platform as this can negatively affect their ability to attract quality
authors for fear their content will be taken down without warning, not to
mention it will affect students who may get a bad taste in their mouth because
they paid for a course on Udemy that then isn't available.

One last point, to the few people who said its only 24-48 hours, something you
may not think about/know. Most students if they don't start a course within
the first 24-48 hours of signing up, won't complete it, and many (if not most)
will then request a refund. So you have to be laser focused on getting people
into the process and getting them moving, that is why so much marketing spend
is focused on getting people to work the course once they sign up. We do a lot
of this type of marketing for individuals and training companies, most on
custom platforms but the marketing and process is identical to Udemy et al,
and this is a critical issue.

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ferdamravenec
Would you believe anyone who asks you to email a copy of your id really knows
how to delete your ID from their systems or would care enough to follow
through?

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geographomics
Is it this course - [https://www.udemy.com/php-programming-for-affiliate-
marketer...](https://www.udemy.com/php-programming-for-affiliate-marketers/)?
I can access it just fine.

Maybe it was spot checked because affiliate marketing is often so closely
associated with spammers and scammers.

~~~
RawData
No, that's not the course.

~~~
geographomics
Ah, sorry for jumping to conclusions then.

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techjuice
Do you show your face in your courses or just have regular video with text and
audio? I do think they should have notified you in advance without taking the
course down or even send you the notification without disabling the course.

~~~
RawData
It's a course on Ruby on Rails...so the whole thing is screen casts of my
desktop as I walk through each lesson. I don't show my face...

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newgoy12
I just found your course via an ad on ArsTechnica. Small world we live in. How
long before you bring it up? I've been looking for a course.

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RawData
I should also mention, the course is not new, it's been up for a year (maybe
slightly longer) and it's not the only course I have on Udemy.

~~~
zerr
Could you please comment on sales, is it worth it? Would/do you live solely by
your courses?

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RawData
UPDATE: The course is now back up for current students and pending a quick
review to make it 100% live again.

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rajacombinator
I applaud your focus on your customers.

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taphangum
Udemy has been going downhill for a while now. I have about 2 months in
payouts from them. Still waiting.

~~~
RawData
I think they hold all payments for 2 months as a matter of course...

~~~
taphangum
Yea, I know. Been on the platform for 2 years. This is AFTER that wait period.

~~~
RawData
Yikes!

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rnovak
Unless the _only_ time your students can access your course _would have_ been
the next 24-48hrs (which I highly doubt), you/they are not being _screwed
over_.

You are not _entitled_ to anything on their platform, and this seems like an
honest attempt to combat piracy (which actually protects content creators such
as yourself).

~~~
RawData
The students paid for instant 24 hour access....they aren't getting it. If I
bought a course and suddenly I couldn't access it for 2 days, I'd be pissed.
And I guess the people asking for refunds now are doing it for an entirely
different reason?

Yes, I am entitled to something with their platform, they make a lot of money
from my content. A contract is formed, terms and conditions are agreed upon.
Mail order law must be upheld. They have every right to combat privacy, but do
it responsibly.

Why delete the course at all? A simple email saying "Hey, send us your id so
we can verify you" would have been fine and done the trick completely. Give me
24-48 hours to comply before you delete the entire course and screw up a
year's worth of work and marketing effort.

That would be an honest attempt to combat piracy. What they did was reckless.

~~~
rnovak
You haven't lost anything if you haven't pirated your content (since they said
they'd "put it back", as quoted from your original post).

It's an inconvenience, I'll give you that.

~~~
RawData
Of course I've lost something...I've lost 2 going on 3 or 4 days of income
from all the people who would have signed up but couldn't, I've lost all the
money from the people who are demanding refunds, and I've lost respect from my
students who think this is all my fault (and who it will be harder to sell
future courses to). I've lost marketing dollars for ad spends that have sent
traffic to the site the last 2 days pointing to a course that isn't there
(granted I caught this one early but it's still tangible). The course website
gets decent Google organic search traffic...but the course site has been gone
for 2 days now...how do you think Google will react? I'd be amazed if they
didn't penalize the site in the rankings after this.

What are you talking about?

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RawData
I'm getting messages from students asking where the course is...this is a
nightmare!

