Udemy is Expanding its Anti-Piracy Efforts

Udemy is Expanding its Anti-Piracy Efforts

 

Udemy’s mission is to improve lives through learning. We consider our marketplace model the best way to offer valuable educational content to our users. It’s thanks to your hard work as an instructor on our platform that we are able to help students around the world learn on Udemy.  We understand that when you publish your courses on Udemy, you want to make sure that your courses will not be downloaded from Udemy’s platform to then be offered on another platform or torrent site without your permission. Every online content service battles with piracy, and it’s no different for Udemy and for you as one of our instructors.

 

Udemy Continues to Fund Anti-Piracy Takedown Services for All Courses and Instructors

Historically, Udemy partnered with PiraShield, an anti-piracy vendor, to respond to your piracy concerns. (PiraShield was recently acquired by Link-Busters, a global leader in anti-piracy technology solutions.) Through this service, you would inform PiraShield when you discovered your course(s) being offered on another platform without your permission. PiraShield would then file copyright infringement notices (“takedowns”) with the goal of having the infringing content removed from the platform and from Google search results. Udemy has and will continue to pay for the Anti-Piracy Takedown Service for all courses and instructors. So if you discover your course being pirated, please fill out the form available at https://udemy.pirashield.com/home, and PiraShield will file copyright infringement reports on your behalf. Note that, starting July 1, this service will move over to Link-Busters.

We are also working with our attorneys to bring additional legal action against the worst offending sites, but this takes time as investigation is necessary to determine the individuals who operate the sites, and often they are located in countries that have a different approach to copyright protection.

 

Udemy is Getting Even More Aggressive at Fighting Piracy

We know that reactive anti-piracy efforts are not enough. We realize how difficult it is for you (and for us) to monitor the web and determine if and where your course is being pirated. (But again: we do appreciate when you flag piracy sites to us!)

In an effort to be even more proactive in combating piracy, Udemy is extending its partnership with Link-Busters to launch the Piracy Detection Program. Phase 1 of this program will launch June 1. During Phase 1, Link-Busters will proactively monitor pirate websites and Google’s search results for pirated courses. Link-Busters will identify instances of piracy related to these courses that appear in Google search results and send notices of infringement to the online entities identified as hosting pirated content, as well as to Google, to remove the links from their search index. If this first step isn’t successful in removing pirated content from the sites, Link-Busters will let Udemy know so that we can take further legal action.

Phase 1 of the Piracy Detection Program will only be open to the 1,000 highest traffic, paid courses in our catalog. These courses are the most visible and most susceptible to piracy based on our analysis. Udemy will cover the cost of the program for these 1,000 courses. Our goal is to test and refine the program with these courses before opening up to more courses. If you have a course covered during Phase 1 we’ll contact you separately through email.

If Phase 1 of the Piracy Detection Program is successful (i.e. effective in protecting courses against piracy), we’ll expand to Phase 2. In Phase 2, you’ll be able to enroll any of your courses for a discounted price that we’ll negotiate with Link-Busters based on volume of interest. During Phase 2, we’ll continue to cover the cost of the program for the 1,000 highest traffic, paid courses and may also expand to cover the cost of the program for more courses. If you’re interested in participating in Phase 2 of the Piracy Detection Program, please click here to let us know. The more interest we generate, the better the price we can negotiate!

 

How Udemy Anti-Piracy Efforts Should Benefit You

First, let’s be clear: fighting piracy isn’t easy. It’s a long, tough fight that will require hard work and patience – and cooperation between Udemy and instructors like you.

We believe both our Anti-Piracy Takedown Service and our new Piracy Detection Program (removing piracy on file hosters, torrent sites and Google), as well as Udemy’s increased legal actions against pirates will benefit you in three ways:

• Maximizes Udemy’s SEO and marketing efforts for your courses and protects your revenues
• Saves you time from locating pirated content and filing DMCA notices
• Deters pirates away from stealing content offered on Udemy as they see and feel the impact of our scaled up anti-piracy efforts

Again, we can’t expect to get rid of pirates overnight. This is why we are increasing our investment to you and your courses, and you can help our efforts by filing reports with Link-Busters. We hope that, with our combined efforts, we’ll be able to limit instances of piracy and protect your intellectual property, revenue, and hard work.