Guide

Your video course was pirated. Here is what to do.

Updated October 14, 2026 · 8 minute read

If your video course has been pirated, start by finding every copy, then ask Google and Bing to delist the pirate pages and send notices to the file hosts holding the downloads. Those steps cut off most of the traffic and break the links on every site that uses the same file. After that, report Telegram channels and compliant hosts, and set up regular searches so you catch reposts, especially after a launch.

How course piracy spreads

Video courses get pirated almost the same way every time. Someone buys the course, or gets it from a group-buy where several people split the price, downloads the videos and reposts them. From there the copies travel through a few channels:

Download sites. Blogs that list hundreds of courses with a "free download" button. The page itself usually holds nothing; it links out to a file host.
File hosts. Mega, Rapidgator, Google Drive and similar services store the actual files. The same file link often appears on many sites.
Telegram. Public channels post entire courses, lesson by lesson, and bots hand out links.
Torrent sites. Popular courses end up as torrents, often bundled with other courses from the same niche.
Spam posts. Fake podcast episodes on Spotify, Facebook posts and forum threads that use your course name as a title and link to group-buy or download sites.

Piracy is usually heaviest just after a launch, a sale or a bundle release, when the course is newest and most people are searching for it.

How to search for your own course

Search Google and Bing for your course name together with each of these words, and note every result that is not your own site, an affiliate or a reviewer:

"free download", "download", "free"
"torrent", "mega", "rapidgator", "google drive"
"group buy", "course free"
your name plus "course download"

Also try the course name in quotation marks, common misspellings, and the name of your best known lesson or module. Search for the course name inside Telegram, where the global search shows public channels, and on Spotify and Facebook too.

Keep a simple spreadsheet: URL, site, date found, what it offers, and what you did about it. Do not download anything to confirm it. A screenshot of the page and the listed file names are enough evidence, and pirate downloads are a common way to pick up malware.

What to do, in priority order

Delist pirate pages from Google and Bing. This is the fastest step and reaches the most people, because most buyers who choose a pirated copy found it through search. Our guide to removing a pirated course from Google walks through the form.
Notify the file hosts. Open each pirate page, find where its download links point, and send a notice to that file host with the exact file link. One removal breaks the download on every site that shares the link.
Report Telegram channels. Email dmca@telegram.org with links to the specific messages, not just the channel name. Telegram handles public channels, groups and bots, not private chats.
Report copies on YouTube through the copyright removal request in YouTube Studio, if lessons have been uploaded there.
Notify the host, if it is a mainstream one. Find the site's host from its IP address. If the site uses Cloudflare, its abuse form forwards your complaint to the host and tells you who the host is. US and EU hosts often act; offshore hosts often do not.
Check again in a week. Reposts at new URLs are common. File each new one.

Our DMCA takedown notice guide has a template for the email notices. Two rules apply to all of it: check every URL by hand before filing, because knowingly false notices can create legal liability, and never threaten or contact the people running the pirate sites.

Make your next launch harder to pirate

Nothing stops a determined pirate from screen recording a course. The goal is to make copying slower, make leaks traceable and catch copies early.

Use a video host with domain restrictions. Hosts such as Vimeo, Wistia and most course platforms let you limit playback to your own domain, so embed codes cannot simply be lifted onto another site. Turn off downloads unless students need them.
Watermark. A visible logo or URL in the corner means every pirated copy advertises where the real course lives. Some platforms can add a dynamic watermark with the student's email, which discourages sharing and helps you trace a leak.
Give each student their own access. Logins tied to one buyer, rather than a single shared download link, make it obvious when an account is being passed around. Watch for accounts streaming from many locations at once.
Keep files and video separate. Project files, LUTs and templates bundled in one zip are easy to repost. Deliver them inside the course area behind the login.
Update the course. New lessons and refreshed material make older pirated copies less useful and give buyers a reason to pay for current access.
Monitor around launches. Search daily for the first month after a launch or sale, then weekly. That is when copies appear and when removing them makes the most difference.

How much does piracy really cost?

Honestly, no one has measured it for online courses. The closest research is on ebooks and digital film, where well designed studies find that cutting off pirated copies raises legal sales by roughly 5 to 15 percent. One ebook study found more than 14 percent, mostly from stopping casual infringement found through search (Reimers, 2016). Not every download is a lost sale, but the people who search for your course by name and find a free copy first are exactly the buyers you want.

When to get help

Doing this yourself works when you have one course and a handful of copies. It gets hard when you have several courses, a launch every few months, or copies reappearing faster than you can file. PirateHound was built by the team behind 5DayDeal to protect our own bundles: we search for every product you list, have a person check each copy, file with search engines, file hosts and hosts, and report what came down each month. If you want to see the scale of the problem first, request a free piracy report for your course.

Want us to find them for you?

Tell us your course and we'll send a free piracy report with every pirated copy we find, within 2 business days.

Get your free piracy report

Questions

Is it worth going after pirated copies of my course?

Usually yes, for the copies people actually find. Delisting pirate pages from search and removing the files they link to reaches casual buyers, who are most likely to pay when a free copy is not easy to find.

Where are pirated online courses usually shared?

On download sites that link to file hosts such as Mega and Rapidgator, on Telegram channels, on torrent sites, and through spam posts on platforms like Spotify and Facebook that link to group-buy sites.

Can I find out who leaked my course?

Sometimes. Dynamic watermarks that show the student's email, and logs of accounts streaming from many locations, can point to the source. Without those, it is rarely possible to tell from the pirated copy.

Should I contact the pirate site directly?

No. Pirate site operators rarely comply, and contacting them gives them your details. Use search engine delisting and notices to file hosts and hosting companies instead.

Will pirated copies keep coming back?

Often, yes, especially on sites that repost at new URLs. Regular searching and quick refiling keep the copies out of the top results, which is where most of the harm happens.