What can I do if my Skillshare class is hosted on another site without my permission?

Skillshare takes the intellectual property rights of our teachers very seriously, and we employ industry leading protections for teacher content on the platform. However, we are aware of sites that fraudulently share Skillshare classes without the teacher's permission. 

If you’ve found your content being hosted elsewhere without your permission, please complete this form. Skillshare’s Trust & Safety team will use this information to file an official complaint against the site or its hosting provider. We also recommend that you, as the content creator, issue a DMCA complaint (more on that below).

How to Issue a DMCA Complaint

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (or DMCA) provides a framework for platforms that host content created by their users. It sets standards for how complaints are handled as well as how content should be taken down when it’s found to be infringing. Issuing an effective complaint means abiding by those standards, which are somewhat particular and detailed, so we’ve provided some guidance below.

Some sites have dedicated DMCA complaint mechanisms (For instance: see Youtube’s Copyright complaint flow). Others will provide specific instructions or email addresses for channeling complaints. Most above board platforms will offer at least some guidance on how to issue a DMCA complaint. You can find these by searching within the host site’s help center or simply by using a search engine to search for keywords like, e.g., “Reddit DMCA”.

For sites without dedicated copyright complaint flows, you’ll need to email a properly formatted DMCA complaint directly to the site’s administrator (see below for the details on a properly formatted DMCA Complaint). 

If the site is unresponsive or lacks a clear point of contact, you may submit a DMCA complaint to the sites’ hosting service or domain provider. You can find hosting services and domain providers by searching for them using a domain lookup service like who.is. Who.is and similar services provide basic information on a website’s domain name and hosting services. For example, take a look at Skillshare’s who.is results. The contact information listed on a who.is result might not be able to resolve your issue completely, but it’s often a good starting point. A domain registrar may not have control over the site itself, but they may be able to point you to a hosting provider who can adequately respond to a DMCA complaint. Unfortunately, not all countries abide by the DMCA, so administrators of more malicious sites sometimes choose their hosting and domain providers in these countries. 

A properly formatted DMCA Complaint should include all of the following: 

  1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright holder or a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright holder.
  2. Identification of the specific copyrighted work(s) claimed to have been infringed.
  3. Identification of the material that is to be removed or from which access is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material (e.g. URL).
  4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
  5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized.
  6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright holder.

You can read more about DMCA takedowns and see an example of a DMCA letter here.