Live data from Hacker News

Pirated Courses on Udemy

medium.com

191–200 of 254 posts

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#191
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company isn't stealing the videos, other users are. As long as they take it down promptly and then refund customers, what are they doing wrong? Where's the outrage at youtube then which allows for the same thing? Or paypal or stripe or any ecommerce product which allows for selling something? It's a problem that's explained and handled by the DMCA, the issue is making sure the company actually follows through wit…

while I agree that the author of this piece needs to make sure they're submitting DMCA takedowns to the appropriate place, I still think that a company trying to bill themselves as an academic institution shouldn't be allowed ANY infringement.

They're only claiming academic insofar as they facilitate learning through the videos. Not sure this qualifies as real academia - they are not an accredited school or university nor do they have teachers on staff or any other normal infrastructure. It's just a site that hosts videos for sale.

But what difference does it make - it's the classic user provided content model and all the issues it comes with that's causing the problem here. No company, academic or otherwise, wants infringement and if there was a perfect solution then everyone would use it, however it's just not feasible to be perfectly defensive and catch everything.

They do have > 500 employees so it's a company big enough to have checks in place with other video providers to catch basic things like this but still, it's a much harder problem than people think.

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#192
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.

I thought writing a little (c) was all that was required to protect content with a copyright.

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#193
post #192
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I thought writing a little (c) was all that was required to protect content with a copyright.

You don't even need to put a (c) or mark it with "copyright 2015". You can do that to express that you are the copyright holder but you don't need to do it. Your work, assuming it falls within copyrights, is automatically given a copyright.

OP was saying that there is a provision in the law that allows you to claim 3x the allowable damages if you take the time to register with the copyright office and pay the filing fee.

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company isn't stealing the videos, other users are. As long as they take it down promptly and then refund customers, what are they doing wrong? Where's the outrage at youtube then which allows for the same thing? Or paypal or stripe or any ecommerce product which allows for selling something? It's a problem that's explained and handled by the DMCA, the issue is making sure the company actually follows through wit…

If they're charging $$ to watch the videos, they can pay someone to review content... in this case, Udemy could very well be liable for penalties beyond DMCA safe harbor.

It's not about the money (youtube/google has plenty of money and still doesnt catch everything) but about the logistics of it all. Why does facilitating transactions give them more liability? You can use paypal or stripe links to take money, are they now liable for penalties for things people sell using them?

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#195

Doesn't Udemy lose safe haven when they start taking a cut?

Yes. It sure bit Grooveshark in the ass [1] though in their case it was revealed that they were aware of the presence of infringing material in addition to receiving a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity. These people are crazy for not implementing any sort of review process.

[1]: http://artlawjournal.com/grooveshark-protected-dmca-safe-har...

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#196
post #70

What is a good Udemy alternative?

I think the lesson here is making sure the content is produced by a legitimate, authentic and expert source rather than just anyone who can upload something - especially when paying money for it. There are plenty of sites like lynda.com, pluralsight.com, udacity.com, coursera.com, edx.org and others that either produce directly or verify the source. Lots of colleges also put their class videos online now, itunes U is…

I would guess that Udemy realizes that they cannot compete with these other sites on quality (and the other attributes you mentioned). Thus they are attempting the Pawn Shop or Dollar Store approach wherein they will (re)sell (potentially questionable) material at the lowest prices.

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#197
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldnt tell from the tweets but did Udemy keep the money or did they refund the users once the content was taken down? If refunds are issued to users, it seems unreasonable for the author to claim that Udemy should be paying them 100% of any money transacted. Is Rob and Jeffrey suggesting that Udemy should pay $2 for every $1 involved in fraud? EDIT: People are making a lot of claims that Udemy are profiting from…

Thats not the way copyright works. If you think it is, please, let RIAA know you've stolen some records and let's see how much they charge you. Last time I checked, users are sued for thousands of dollars per infringing instance, held up in court. Why shouldn't that hold for a COMPANY doing it? Seems a little unreasonable to me. Edit: and for people down-voting, please explain why?

>Thats not the way copyright works.

I once asked a muslim man to not cut off a little boy's hand for stealing an apple, and he told me, and i quote "that's not the way sharia works. If you think it is, please, let the caliph know you disagree with the words of Allah and let's see which part of your body they chop off."

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but udemy got videos off of pluralsight, uploaded them to their own servers, and are then selling them off as udemy's own courses. You are confusing things here. A Udemy user took some content from Pluralsight and published the content on Udemy. Where Udemy is in the wrong is in not taking the content down and banning the teacher from their platform.

What would be intriguing is if Udemy is actually responsible, and just using ghost accounts...

I certainly don't know enough about the site to say definitively one way or another, but I wouldn't be surprised. This sort of scenario reminds me of Airbnb taking customers from Craigslist [1] or Uber employing "ghosts" to fuck with competitors (cancel rides and poach drivers) [2]. Of course there's no evidence of Udemy doing anything this shady, it just wouldn't be outside the realm of what some tech companies have been up to lately.

[1]: http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-harvested-craigslist-t... [2:]

Re: Pirated Courses on Udemy

#200
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't afford it? Don't buy it! The world doesn't owe you a fucking thing.

> The world doesn't owe you a fucking thing. And neither it does to the ones who sell stuff. I'm sorry that future comes in pieces and not exactly in order. That the means to make culture free came before the means to make creators not have to pay for the rent. That the draw people have to educate themselves, or to participate in the shared cultural experience is stronger than the arbitrary restrictions some people t…

LOL

put down that joint and take off that che t-shirt.

Post reply on HN