
Udemy is infringing upon my content [video] - vanilla-almond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7snZrsKdGU
======
DyslexicAtheist
Troy Hunt had some problems with Udemy reusing his content too:
[https://www.troyhunt.com/the-piracy-paradox-at-
udemy/](https://www.troyhunt.com/the-piracy-paradox-at-udemy/) please do a
quick google before paying them any money!

The blog post was from 2015 here more recently on the same topic:
[https://twitter.com/troyhunt/status/922734598420815872](https://twitter.com/troyhunt/status/922734598420815872)

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Bizarro
I've bought courses on Udemy, and they have some quality content. But they've
always seemed kind of shady with the whole "$200, now $10.99 with 2 days
left". If you buy something, make sure you buy it in incognito mode, ublock,
etc, so they don't jerk you around.

But I'm going to have to rethink my patronage of Udemy after this stuff.

~~~
justboxing
> But they've always seemed kind of shady with the whole "$200, now $10.99
> with 2 days left"

I read about this from frustrated training content developers all the time.
The pricing in particular, esp. w.r.t. programming / technical content which
takes a lot of effort to put together, only to find that udemy forces you to
list it at 10, 20$ at 70, 80% 'discounts'.

Don't want to re-hash but here are a few links....

Less than 24 Hours on Udemy as an Instructor and I Am Close to Leaving:
[https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/less-than-24-hours-on-
udemy-a...](https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/less-than-24-hours-on-udemy-as-an-
instructor-and-i-am-close-to-leaving)

Why I stopped selling courses on udemy - The Udemy Pyramid Scheme:
[http://osherove.com/blog/2014/5/7/why-i-stopped-selling-
cour...](http://osherove.com/blog/2014/5/7/why-i-stopped-selling-courses-on-
udemy.html)

My Revenue Increased 300% After Leaving Udemy:
[http://www.courseminded.com/why-i-left-
udemy/](http://www.courseminded.com/why-i-left-udemy/)

Why I Won’t Be Releasing More Courses On Udemy, And Neither Should You:
[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-wont-releasing-more-
cou...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-wont-releasing-more-courses-
udemy-neither-should-mike-stemple-/)

------
mattferderer
Udemy has had this issue for years. Pluralsight & other authors complain on a
regular basis. I personally refuse to use it.

~~~
mirkonasato
YouTube has the same issue: people upload copyright-infringing material there
all the time. Do you refuse to use YouTube as well?

In fact pretty much any platform that allows users to upload content has that
sort of issues. The most common approach is to rely on other users to report
violations and then take content down.

Why do some people feel they have to "boycott" some sites but not others?
Genuine question, I'm interested to understand the reasons.

(Disclaimer: I published a few courses, including on Udemy. And I filed my
fair share of takedown notices when unauthorized copies showed up on various
sites, including YouTube.)

~~~
Sagiri
The difference is that a big part of YT's appeal is how open it is. Anyone can
post pretty much anything.

With something like Udemy, where you have to pay for courses, Udemy needs to
review every course before selling them. You need to check them for accuracy
(which would mean having them reviewed by experts in the field), as well as
verifying the author's identity and doing at least a cursory check for stolen
content.

If Udemy /wants/ to be as open as YouTube, that's fine. It just means that
it's no better in terms of guaranteeing accuracy, which doesn't make much
sense considering you have to pay for courses. If Udemy and YouTube offer
basically the same minimal guarantees that their content is accurate and not
stolen, why would you ever use the paid service?

Because you have to pay to access courses in Udemy, you may not even be able
to tell if a course is stolen or not without paying for it. Obviously, you'd
be able to tell if it was stolen whole cloth, but if it's been paraphrased,
you'll probably want to be able to look at more of the course to make sure it
wasn't just a coincidence because someone else decided to do the same topic.
Do you want to pay just to check if it's your own stolen work?

While I haven't done it myself, my understanding is that reporting stolen
content on Udemy is unnecessarily difficult, and that Udemy generally takes a
long time to take it down. Now, maybe that's not true (or maybe it's not true
anymore), but that doesn't reflect well on them if it is/was.

~~~
mirkonasato
I think many people just don't realize that Udemy is a "marketplace"[1]. Yes,
anyone can publish a course there, provided it meets some requirements. In the
early days, Udemy's stated goal was to "democratize online education"[2].

There is an "Instructor Identity Verification Process"[3] which should make
sure publishers own the content. No idea why it didn't prevent this case.

There is no "review by experts in the field". Whoever publishes a course is
responsible for its content. If a course is inaccurate users will give it bad
reviews and it won't sell. And in any case buyers get a 30-day money back
guarantee.

There is an online form to report copyright violations[4], which looks simple
enough to me.

[1] [https://about.udemy.com/](https://about.udemy.com/) [2]
[https://readwrite.com/2010/05/11/online-learning-startup-
ude...](https://readwrite.com/2010/05/11/online-learning-startup-udemy-
launches-with-plans-to-democratize-online-education/) [3]
[https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-
us/articles/229234067-Instru...](https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-
us/articles/229234067-Instructor-Identity-Verification-Process) [4]
[https://copyright.udemy.com/hc/en-us](https://copyright.udemy.com/hc/en-us)

------
bdcravens
I really wish some of the successful authors there would sell via their own
websites. There's a few that I really like their courses and teaching
technique, yet Udemy courses (always at $10-12 for courses that could sell for
$200) are their only offerings.

~~~
s_dev
Does anyone actually pay for those courses at the 200 Euro rate? They seem to
be permanently knocked down from 200 Euro to 10 sort of like JC Penny or
Penny's -- always on sale.

~~~
bdcravens
Years ago I think I may have before Udemy jumped the shark with the perma-
discounts

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pluma
Ironically YouTube showed a Udemy ad to me before this video. So I guess at
least he got paid indirectly by Udemy, even if it's a negligible amount and
unrelated to the content they infringe upon.

------
jrrohrssen
I use pluralsight, I've considered using Udemy, but certainly not after this,
you should definitely be seeking legal counsel.

Dispicable of them.

~~~
hortonew
Pluralsight has been my favorite training platform for some time now, luckily
my company bought my subscription. Speed controls on video (typically do
1.5-2x speed) and ability to download a series to your mobile device. I like
all the instructors I've come across.

~~~
rorykoehler
Being able to watch at double speed is one of the main selling points of
online video tutorials/MOOCs. Saves so much time not having to travel to the
course location and then also getting the info twice as fast as natural pace.

------
toomuchtodo
Read:
[https://www.udemy.com/terms/copyright/](https://www.udemy.com/terms/copyright/)

If conditions satisfied, file DMCA complaint here:
[https://copyright.udemy.com/hc/en-us](https://copyright.udemy.com/hc/en-us)

~~~
vortico
A company's "copyright usage terms" doesn't override law, so regardless of
what are on those pages, the copyright owner can ignore it and take the
proper, typical legal path to protect their IP.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Udemy’s copyright usage terms and reporting requirements are in compliance
with DMCA safe harbor provisions (specifically Section 512, including “notice
and takedown” procedures) thereby limiting their liability to copyright
claims.

[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/512](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/512)

Disclaimer: Not a lawyer. Not your lawyer.

~~~
anonymous5133
Right which is why you start off by suing Udemy then you get your lawyer to
give a legal demand to hand over the course uploader's information. Then you
sue the uploader directly for piracy. They are not protected by DMCA.

Then again the uploader is probably a professional pirate who has concealed
his identity wisely or they are just a foreign person who isn't even located
in the USA.

~~~
sundvor
Ironically:

[https://www.udemy.com/copyright-how-to-protect-your-work-
fro...](https://www.udemy.com/copyright-how-to-protect-your-work-from-piracy/)

------
giis
Here is the course 'authors' page
[https://www.udemy.com/user/niharika-23/?src=sac&kw=master%20...](https://www.udemy.com/user/niharika-23/?src=sac&kw=master%20code%20online)
Interestingly no domain name or author name.

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eyeareque
DMCA takedown? Or if you can afford it, call a lawyer.

------
thinkingslow
We lost a six-figure affiliate deal last year because we unknowingly
participated in their mass-discount package and the affiliate hauled us over
the coals for having two deals going at once (which we had no idea was
happening on Udemy). Painful.

