19 ms·

Udemy is infringing upon my content [video]

112 points by vanilla-almond 9y ago

eyeareque 9y ago
DMCA takedown? Or if you can afford it, call a lawyer.
jrrohrssen 9y ago
I use pluralsight, I've considered using Udemy, but certainly not after this, you should definitely be seeking legal counsel. Dispicable of them.
- Bizarro 9y ago
  The problem with Pluralsight is that you can't buy individual courses..that I know of.
  - helthanatos 9y ago
    The problem I have with pluralsight is the random courses you get with your visual studio subscription.
    - Bizarro 9y ago
      They used to have 6 free months of Pluralsight, and then went down to 3 free months of everything if you just signed up for Visual Studio Code/Azure/...whatever that is.
- hortonew 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    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.
- gaius 9y ago
  I had a 3-month trial of Pluralsight and liked it, but couldn't justify it on top of Safari Books Online for personal use. For MOOCs EdX for me is by far the best. Content from real institutions with real reputations that they won't allow to be sullied by poor quality, and you pay only if you need/want a certificate at the end.
Bizarro 9y ago
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 9y ago
  > 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-as-an-instructor-and-i-am-close-to-leaving https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/less-than-24-hours-on-udemy-a... Why I stopped selling courses on udemy - The Udemy Pyramid Scheme: http://osherove.com/blog/2014/5/7/why-i-stopped-selling-courses-on-udemy.html http://osherove.com/blog/2014/5/7/why-i-stopped-selling-cour... 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-courses-udemy-neither-should-mike-stemple-/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-wont-releasing-more-cou...
- sgloutnikov 9y ago
  Indeed, sleazy marketing tricks to get you to buy. You can always find a $10 coupon if you search and get to a site like dealsea. I have enjoyed some courses on there and follow a few authors, but this kind of crap needs to be dealt with by them.
toomuchtodo 9y ago
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
- roblabla 9y ago
  And then it becomes a dumb game of cat and mouse. Not everyone has time for this shit, and IMO this is a gross way to abuse the protection given by the DMCA.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    > and IMO this is a gross way to abuse the protection given by the DMCA. How so? This is how every platform that hosts content operates (except possibly Youtube, that filters preemptively using fingerprinting, although not required to by law). How would you expect platforms to handle this? The EFF supports these provisions of the DMCA: https://www.eff.org/issues/dmca https://www.eff.org/issues/dmca "The DMCA “safe harbors” protect service providers from monetary liability based on the allegedly infringing activities of third parties. To receive these protections service providers must comply with the conditions set forth in Section 512, including “notice and takedown” procedures that give copyright holders a quick and easy way to disable access to allegedly infringing content. Section 512 also contains provisions allowing users to challenge improper takedowns. Without these protections, the risk of potential copyright liability would prevent many online intermediaries from providing services such as hosting and transmitting user-generated content. Thus the safe harbors, while imperfect, have been essential to the growth of the Internet as an engine for innovation and free expression."
    - slededit 9y ago
      It just seems there should be a difference between someone posting on a message board and someone entering into a business relationship with udemy.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
giis 9y ago
Here is the course 'authors' page https://www.udemy.com/user/niharika-23/?src=sac&kw=master%20code%20online https://www.udemy.com/user/niharika-23/?src=sac&kw=master%20... Interestingly no domain name or author name.
mattferderer 9y ago
Udemy has had this issue for years. Pluralsight & other authors complain on a regular basis. I personally refuse to use it.
- mirkonasato 9y ago
  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.)
  - akx 9y ago
    On YouTube, you get to watch the infringing material for free (well, for the low low price for watching ads, but that's not a "tangible" transaction to most folks). With Udemy, someone has put an actual price tag (and you need to get your credit card out and all) on the content someone else created, so it feels worse.
  - Sagiri 9y ago
    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.
pluma 9y ago
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.
DyslexicAtheist 9y ago
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
bdcravens 9y ago
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 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    Years ago I think I may have before Udemy jumped the shark with the perma-discounts
- sireat 9y ago
  I am partial to Maximilian Schwarzmüller courses(Vue, React etc) as he has really good diction and screen presence besides being knowledgeable. Then you have someone like Jonas Advanced CSS who is a great teacher but ridiculously monotonous. Finally, I find most the courses really not worth even $10 on Udemy as the teacher might be knowledgeable but has neither screen presence nor diction.
  - bdcravens 9y ago
    Yes, Max is one of the instructors I'm talking about.
thinkingslow 9y ago
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.

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

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

Bizarro 9y ago
The problem with Pluralsight is that you can't buy individual courses..that I know of.
- helthanatos 9y ago
  The problem I have with pluralsight is the random courses you get with your visual studio subscription.
  - Bizarro 9y ago
    They used to have 6 free months of Pluralsight, and then went down to 3 free months of everything if you just signed up for Visual Studio Code/Azure/...whatever that is.
hortonew 9y ago
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 9y ago
  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.
gaius 9y ago
I had a 3-month trial of Pluralsight and liked it, but couldn't justify it on top of Safari Books Online for personal use. For MOOCs EdX for me is by far the best. Content from real institutions with real reputations that they won't allow to be sullied by poor quality, and you pay only if you need/want a certificate at the end.

Bizarro 9y ago

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 9y ago
> 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-as-an-instructor-and-i-am-close-to-leaving https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/less-than-24-hours-on-udemy-a... Why I stopped selling courses on udemy - The Udemy Pyramid Scheme: http://osherove.com/blog/2014/5/7/why-i-stopped-selling-courses-on-udemy.html http://osherove.com/blog/2014/5/7/why-i-stopped-selling-cour... 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-courses-udemy-neither-should-mike-stemple-/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-wont-releasing-more-cou...
sgloutnikov 9y ago
Indeed, sleazy marketing tricks to get you to buy. You can always find a $10 coupon if you search and get to a site like dealsea. I have enjoyed some courses on there and follow a few authors, but this kind of crap needs to be dealt with by them.

toomuchtodo 9y ago

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

roblabla 9y ago
And then it becomes a dumb game of cat and mouse. Not everyone has time for this shit, and IMO this is a gross way to abuse the protection given by the DMCA.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  > and IMO this is a gross way to abuse the protection given by the DMCA. How so? This is how every platform that hosts content operates (except possibly Youtube, that filters preemptively using fingerprinting, although not required to by law). How would you expect platforms to handle this? The EFF supports these provisions of the DMCA: https://www.eff.org/issues/dmca https://www.eff.org/issues/dmca "The DMCA “safe harbors” protect service providers from monetary liability based on the allegedly infringing activities of third parties. To receive these protections service providers must comply with the conditions set forth in Section 512, including “notice and takedown” procedures that give copyright holders a quick and easy way to disable access to allegedly infringing content. Section 512 also contains provisions allowing users to challenge improper takedowns. Without these protections, the risk of potential copyright liability would prevent many online intermediaries from providing services such as hosting and transmitting user-generated content. Thus the safe harbors, while imperfect, have been essential to the growth of the Internet as an engine for innovation and free expression."
  - slededit 9y ago
    It just seems there should be a difference between someone posting on a message board and someone entering into a business relationship with udemy.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]

giis 9y ago

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

mattferderer 9y ago

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

mirkonasato 9y ago
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.)
- akx 9y ago
  On YouTube, you get to watch the infringing material for free (well, for the low low price for watching ads, but that's not a "tangible" transaction to most folks). With Udemy, someone has put an actual price tag (and you need to get your credit card out and all) on the content someone else created, so it feels worse.
- Sagiri 9y ago
  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.

pluma 9y ago

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.

DyslexicAtheist 9y ago

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

bdcravens 9y ago

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 9y ago
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 9y ago
  Years ago I think I may have before Udemy jumped the shark with the perma-discounts
sireat 9y ago
I am partial to Maximilian Schwarzmüller courses(Vue, React etc) as he has really good diction and screen presence besides being knowledgeable. Then you have someone like Jonas Advanced CSS who is a great teacher but ridiculously monotonous. Finally, I find most the courses really not worth even $10 on Udemy as the teacher might be knowledgeable but has neither screen presence nor diction.
- bdcravens 9y ago
  Yes, Max is one of the instructors I'm talking about.

thinkingslow 9y ago

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.