Course piracy usually shows up one of two ways: your full course reappears on a file-sharing site or private group, or someone walks through your curriculum slide by slide in videos. Both can be copyright infringement, but they need slightly different evidence and go to different places.
Where pirated courses usually turn up
- File hosts and cloud links
Your videos uploaded to a file locker or a shared cloud folder, with the link passed around.
- Forums and "course leak" sites
Pages listing your course with download links, often alongside hundreds of others.
- Messaging channels
Public channels and groups that post course files directly or share links to them.
- Video platforms
Full lessons reuploaded, or "review" videos that reproduce your material rather than commenting on it.
- Search results
Leak pages ranking for your course name, which is often how your own customers find them.
The order to work in
Remove the file before the page that points to it. A forum post taken down while the file stays live just reappears elsewhere with the same link; a dead file link makes every page that shares it useless.
- The host storing the files
Send a notice to the file host or platform where the videos actually sit.
- The sites and channels linking to them
Then report the pages, posts and channels distributing the links.
- Search engines
Finally, ask Google to remove the infringing URLs from its results through its copyright removal request, so the leak pages stop ranking for your course name.
What a valid DMCA notice contains
US law sets out what a takedown notice must include, and most hosts outside the US accept notices in the same format. Missing elements are the most common reason a notice is rejected.
- Identification of your work
The course, with a link to your official sales or platform page.
- The exact infringing location
The specific URL of each file or post, not a home page or search result.
- Your contact details
Name, address, email and phone number for you or your authorised agent.
- A good-faith statement
That you believe the use isn't authorised by you, your agent or the law.
- An accuracy statement
That the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner.
- Your signature
A physical or electronic signature.
Reposts versus walkthrough videos
For a reposted course, the evidence is simple: your original listing and the specific URL where it reappeared. For a walkthrough video, timestamp the sections that reproduce your material directly rather than just discussing it. Commentary and critique can be treated differently from wholesale reproduction, and a notice that doesn't distinguish the two is easier to dismiss.
Expect it to come back
Pirated courses often reappear under a new account or link after a successful takedown. That isn't a sign the first notice failed. It's a sign the source is worth monitoring, with new copies reported as they appear, rather than treated as a one-time case.
What not to do
Only report material you own or are authorised to act for, and only what actually infringes. Knowingly misrepresenting infringement in a notice can create legal liability, and over-broad notices get rejected. If the uploader files a counter-notice, read our guide to counter-notices before deciding your next step.
If your course has been copied:
We find where your course is being shared, file notices with the hosts and platforms in the right order, request removal from Google's results, and track every request until it's resolved.