The Pack Report
Piracy report for Example Creator
Hi Example Creator,
In September we confirmed 41 pirate pages carrying your products, up from 29 in August. Most of the increase came after your Night Sky Masterclass relaunch on September 9: two download sites posted the new version within a week.
By the end of the month, 29 of those pages were gone from Google and Bing, and 14 had been deleted at the source by the site or file host. 12 are still open. Four of those sit on offshore hosts that have ignored our notices so far, and we explain what we're doing about them below.
Every link is listed at the end of this report and in the attached CSV. Reply to this email with any questions.
September at a glance
The month in five numbers
How this month went, step by step
From scent to bite
Each report follows the same five steps we use for every client, so you can compare one month with the next.
- 01 SCENT PROFILE
Your catalog
6 products and 31 search names, including the shortened titles pirates use. Your affiliates and reviewers are in the Friendly Pack.
6 products9 Friendly Pack sites excluded - 02 HOUND SEARCH
Where we looked
Google, Bing, 140 known download sites, file hosts, Telegram channels, and spam posts on Spotify and Facebook.
4,312results and pages checked - 03 POINTER CHECK
A person confirmed it
286 suspect pages were opened by a person. 238 were reviews, tutorials or your own affiliates, so we left them alone.
41 confirmed7 still waiting for a check - 04 BARK & BITE
Delisted, then removed
Bark: Google and Bing drop the page. Bite: the host deletes the file or page itself.
29 delisted14 also removed at source, 39 notices sent - 05 PACK REPORT
This report
What we found, what came down, what's still out there, and every link, in plain language.
48 linkslisted in the attached CSV
Takedowns by status
Where every page stands
Each page we track sits in one status. A removed page is counted once, under Removed, even though it was delisted first.
| Status | What it means | Pages |
|---|---|---|
| Removed | The site or file host deleted the copy. This is the bite. | 14 |
| Delisted | Google and Bing dropped the page, so buyers no longer find it in search. Host notice also sent. | 15 |
| Notice sent | Notices filed, waiting for a response. Most hosts answer in 3 to 10 days. | 6 |
| Verified | Confirmed piracy, notices go out this week. | 2 |
| No response | Offshore hosts that have ignored two notices. See "What's still out there". | 4 |
| Found | Found in the last days of the month, waiting for Pointer Check. Not yet counted as piracy. | 7 |
| Total pages tracked in September | 48 | |
By product
Which products were pirated
Confirmed pages only. Retail value is your store price for one copy.
| Product | Retail | Found | Delisted | Removed | Pending | Mostly on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Night Sky MasterclassVideo course | $249 | 14 | 5 | 6 | 3 | Download sites |
| Premiere Pro Editing CourseVideo course | $199 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | Download sites, Telegram |
| Cinematic LUT PackLUTs | $79 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | Fake stores, spam posts |
| Drone Cinematography CourseVideo course | $149 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Forums |
| Astro Lightroom PresetsPresets | $39 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Download sites |
| Time-lapse Field GuideEbook | $29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | No copies found |
| All products | 41 | 15 | 14 | 12 |
Where they turned up
Sites and trends
Found vs taken down, last 6 months
April was the first sweep, so it includes copies posted before you joined.
Type of site
The 41 confirmed pages in September.
- Download sites22
- Fake stores selling copies7
- Spam posts on Spotify and Facebook5
- Forum posts with links3
- Telegram channels2
- File hosts2
| Top pirate sites | Type | Pages | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| gfx-▒▒▒.cc | Download site | 6 | 4 removed 2 notice sent |
| freevideo▒▒▒▒▒.com | Download site | 5 | 5 delisted |
| intro-▒▒.net | Download site | 4 | 4 no response |
| course▒▒▒.net | Fake store | 3 | 3 removed |
| open.spotify.com | Spam podcast episodes | 3 | 3 removed |
| t.me/▒▒▒▒▒▒ | Telegram channel | 2 | 1 removed 1 notice sent |
| 17 other sites | Mixed | 18 | 10 delisted 3 removed 3 sent 2 verified |
| 23 sites in total | 41 | ||
Observations
What stood out
The relaunch drew new copies
Night Sky Masterclass went from 4 pirate pages in August to 14 in September. 9 of them appeared in the two weeks after the relaunch, which is the usual pattern: the newer the version, the more pirates want it.
Download sites are most of the problem
22 of 41 pages were on download sites. These are also where Google delisting matters most, because buyers find them by searching your product name plus "free download".
Spam posts came down fastest
Spotify and Facebook removed all 5 spam posts within 4 days. These posts exist only to send people to a download page, so removing them cuts off traffic quickly.
One site is ignoring us
All 4 pages on intro-▒▒.net are still up after two notices. Google has already dropped them, so few buyers will see them, but the files can still be downloaded.
Honest notes
What's still out there
Not every host plays by the rules. Here is what is still open and what we're doing about each one.
Offshore host, no response
intro-▒▒.net is hosted in a country where DMCA notices aren't binding, and it has ignored two notices. The pages are delisted from Google and Bing. Next we'll write to its domain registrar and its CDN provider, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. We'll keep it delisted either way.
Notices sent, waiting
Filed between September 24 and 30. Most hosts answer within 3 to 10 days. If there's no reply in 14 days, we send a second notice and file with Google if we haven't already.
Verified, filing this week
Two forum threads with Premiere Pro Editing Course links. Notices go to the forum and to the file host behind the links.
Found, waiting for Pointer Check
Found on September 29 and 30. A person will check each one before anything is filed. Some will turn out to be reviews or your affiliates.
Value protected
What the takedowns are worth
Retail value of the pages taken down. 29 delisted or removed pages, each counted once at the price of the product it gave away.
This is not a count of lost sales. Most people who grab a free copy would never have paid full price, so we don't claim that.
- Night Sky Masterclass, 11 pages$2,739
- Premiere Pro Editing Course, 8 pages$1,592
- Drone Cinematography Course, 3 pages$447
- Cinematic LUT Pack, 5 pages$395
- Astro Lightroom Presets, 2 pages$78
What research says
more legal sales when pirated copies come down
- Ebooks: one study of publishers using takedown monitoring found sales rose more than 14%.
- Film: studies of digital movie sales land in the same 5 to 15% range.
- Timing: the effect is strongest around a launch or a sale, when the most people are searching.
that range would mean about $500 to $1,500 more a month.
No one has measured this for courses or presets yet, but the mechanism is the same: fewer free copies in search results means more people buy.
Reimers, "Can Private Copyright Protection Be Effective? Evidence from Book Publishing," Journal of Law & Economics 59(2), 2016.Every link
Every page we tracked
The first 8 of 48 links. The full list, with dates and notice IDs, is in the CSV attached to every report.
| # | Page | Product | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | gfx-▒▒▒.cc/night-sky-masterclass-2026-free-download | Night Sky Masterclass | Removed Sep 14 |
| 2 | freevideo▒▒▒▒▒.com/premiere-pro-editing-course | Premiere Pro Editing Course | Delisted Sep 12 |
| 3 | open.spotify.com/episode/▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ | Cinematic LUT Pack | Removed Sep 6 |
| 4 | intro-▒▒.net/night-sky-masterclass-v2 | Night Sky Masterclass | No response |
| 5 | course▒▒▒.net/product/cinematic-lut-pack | Cinematic LUT Pack | Removed Sep 19 |
| 6 | t.me/▒▒▒▒▒▒/2291 | Premiere Pro Editing Course | Notice sent Sep 27 |
| 7 | facebook.com/groups/▒▒▒▒/posts/▒▒▒▒ | Astro Lightroom Presets | Removed Sep 8 |
| 8 | ▒▒▒▒▒forum.net/threads/drone-cinematography | Drone Cinematography Course | Verified |
Next month
The plan for October
- Recheck every removed pagePirates often re-upload under a new link. We check all 14 removed pages weekly and file again if a copy comes back.
- Escalate the offshore hostNotices to the registrar and CDN behind intro-▒▒.net, while keeping its pages out of Google.
- Add your new workshop to the Scent ProfileMilky Way Editing Workshop launches October 20. We'll watch for it from day one, when copies usually appear fastest.
- Watch Telegram more closelyTwo Premiere Pro channels appeared in September. We're adding 12 more channels to the Hound Search.
- Update your Friendly PackSend us any new affiliates or reviewers so we never flag them.
Want to see your own numbers?
We'll search for your products and send you a free piracy report like this one, with the pages we find.