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Pirated Courses on Udemy

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Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#41
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If the content isnt worth doing this then the content isnt actually that valuable to the author. Even if the author thought the content was worth nothing doesn't change that it's his content, for which he controls the copyright. I don't necessarily agree with the modern copyright ecosystem, but as long as it's around it should be applied in a manner consistent with its goals of enabling content creators to control t…

I agree, and the owner should assert his claim by submitting a DCMA takedown request, but the owner shouldnt complain that they had to do that in the first place, that is unreasonable.

Why is it unreasonable for a marketplace to take active steps to ensure they are selling legal products?

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#42
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, and the owner should assert his claim by submitting a DCMA takedown request, but the owner shouldnt complain that they had to do that in the first place, that is unreasonable.

Why is it unreasonable for a marketplace to take active steps to ensure they are selling legal products?

What steps?

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unreasonable? How? This isn't YouTube, they're selling video courses. As a customer, you would damn better expect that they have curated the content on their site.

Udemy has over 30,000 courses, how many videos and other course assets does that represent? What method are you suggesting they deploy to validate the person selling the course owns all the copyrights they need to sell it?

Looking to see if another company's watermark is on it would be a good start.

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#44
HAHA! I got myself into a wrong course and Udemy haven't refunded me till now. They say you can try it before you buy, But they don't give the money back once they have it. Nobody even answers your queries seemed very shady. Not surprised to see this now.

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#45

While I sympathize with the author its (edit)unreasonable to suggest that they should be validating each course. However it appears more should be done to ease the path to getting your content taken down. You would think the person selling the course would have payment information that could be used to track that individual down, the correct course of action is to sue. If the content isnt worth doing this then the co…

It's happening often enough that they could at least do a cursory search at the most common places. They're not a charity; they are profiting off of this, and it's reasonable to assume they could use some of that profit on due diligence.

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#46
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Udemy has over 30,000 courses, how many videos and other course assets does that represent? What method are you suggesting they deploy to validate the person selling the course owns all the copyrights they need to sell it?

Looking to see if another company's watermark is on it would be a good start.

OK so now they ban all videos with water marks of companies what does that solve, people will just start cropping videos.

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#47
I don't want to derail this with a personal story but this might be useful.

I wrote a JavaScript course that I was contracted by someone on Elance to do for very little ( relative to the amount of time I put into it ), he then sold it to another company, that company then put it on Udemy. For a small amount of time it was at the top of the list of beginner JavaScript courses and had over 10,000 students enrolled. I'm grateful my name wasn't on it as it was my first shot at a full on multi hour long course and there were some problems with it...

but.....

Lesson: If you create courses and sell them to people have stipulations regarding resale.

:/

My story wasn't theft so it's not the same, but I figure it might have some utility to someone on hacker news.

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#48

While I sympathize with the author its (edit)unreasonable to suggest that they should be validating each course. However it appears more should be done to ease the path to getting your content taken down. You would think the person selling the course would have payment information that could be used to track that individual down, the correct course of action is to sue. If the content isnt worth doing this then the co…

It's happening often enough that they could at least do a cursory search at the most common places. They're not a charity; they are profiting off of this, and it's reasonable to assume they could use some of that profit on due diligence.

I do not see any evidence to suggest they are profiting from it, wouldn't they be legally obligated to refund the users who bought the content once its taken down, since they would lose access?

So in theory wouldn't udemy be losing money?

+ Total Amount Recvd - Payment fees - Money paid to fraudster - Refunds

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#49
After reading the blog post and the comments here, I'm wondering what are the affected parties waiting for? they should organise a class action lawsuit and sue Udemy's ass...

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#50
post #39
post #34

You can go after Udemy. They're not just a hosting service. They claim ownership of the content . "Each of our 35,000+ courses is taught by an expert instructor". Many courses are paid. If Udemy charges for access to the course, they lose the DMCA safe harbor. Then they're liable for full copyright damages. This may even be criminal copyright infringment under 18 U.S. Code § 2319 (Criminal infringement of a copyright…

Make sure you file copyright for each video before making it available on your own website. Having a copyright in place before any theft allows you to go after (by threat or course) statutory damages for each theft of your work. I learned this a few years ago from our own IP lawyer when someone was reusing some of our material. We now file the $35(or whatever it is) fee before posting the material online.

File for copyright? how do you mean: Copyright is implicit, unlike patents, upon creation of a work.
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