Textbook piracy is a crime — and half of students are guilty

18,000 UCPH students have broken the law.

This would have been the court verdict if it followed a 2024 study showing that more than half of all Danish students (54 per cent) have obtained textbooks illegally during their studies. The proportion was 48 per cent for Danish students in 2022, suggesting that the problem is growing.

According to calculations by the Rettighedsalliancen, a Danish interest group fighting for creative industries’ rights, the illegal copying of textbooks has the book industry and the Danish government forgoing DKK 225 million in annual income, which corresponds to almost one third (31 per cent) of the total market value of the textbooks.

The trend has prompted NOTA — a library providing digital textbooks for students with visual or reading impairments — to take action. A new encryption solution introduced in September 2024 now detects illegal sharing of digital books originally from NOTA that are intended only for students under special educational support (SPS) schemes. The new measure so far caught 29 instances of illegal textbook sharing by 17 individuals.

Illegally sharing textbooks is a clear violation of copyright law and of UCPH agreements with Copydan — the organisation authorised by the Danish government to levy and distribute compensation to authors and producers. This means that students risk serious consequences if caught, as explained by Peter Lind Nielsen, a lawyer specialising in copyright law.

»The consequences for someone who does the copying are at the very least financial compensation — meaning they will have to pay what the books would have cost legally. The illegal copy must also be deleted. And if the offence is serious, it can lead to a fine and a permanent criminal record,« he explains.

Receiving stolen goods is as bad as stealing

According to Peter Lind Nielsen, the scale of the offence matters. The above penalties typically apply to cases involving large copy centres. This is where »a black book market« exists, and the penalties are more severe here than for someone who simply shares a book for free, or who makes a copy for a friend.

»There are copy centres with full reading lists where you can browse and order just like on an online book store. Only it’s a lot cheaper because you’re getting a pirated version. And in serious cases, the punishment can be up to six years in prison — the same as for trading stolen goods.«

Back in 2021, a 28-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman were convicted for running a copy centre like this as a business. According to Peter Lind Nielsen, the seriousness of the offence increases with the number of books involved and the profits made.

It is just as punishable to receive

Peter Lind Nielsen, lawyer specialising in copyright law

It is also illegal to share textbooks even if you make no profit, Peter Lind Nielsen emphasises, and it makes no legal difference whether you shared, or received, a pirated book.

»It is just as punishable to receive, unless the sender has distributed the material extensively — in which case the penalty will be more severe. The receiver is just as guilty as the thief, and anyone who accepts stolen goods is also penalised,« he says.

But does it have any consequences?

University Post toured the UCPH campus and spoke to several students who were all aware of textbooks were being illegally copied. Some even admitted themselves to having received books this way.

READ ALSO: Students don’t seem to care if it’s theft: »Textbooks are ridiculously expensive«

Among the students we met, this behaviour has become so normalised that some liken it to crossing the street at a red light. But Peter Lind Nielsen warns against this attitude.

»Piracy is worse than riding your bike without lights at night, or crossing a red light. The fact that it’s common, or that others do it, is no excuse,« he says.

Even though the problem is widespread, students are very rarely caught pirating textbooks. This is partly because isolated incidents are hard to detect, and partly because prosecuting the few cases that do get discovered is not cost-effective.

»The chance of being caught is quite low, as it requires rights holders, authors, and publishers to track down lists of offenders. And it costs money and takes time to go to court and secure evidence. Typically, enforcement only happens when the copying is so extensive that a court is willing to issue a search warrant,« the lawyer says and adds:

»That’s why it’s very rare that raids are conducted on a student’s home.«

Illegal sharing causes significant financial losses for publishers. Occasionally, publishers launch what Peter Lind Nielsen calls a »deterrence campaign.« The goal is not to catch every offender, but to make students aware of the consequences.

The future of teaching materials under pressure

Piracy also violates UCPH’s own agreement with Copydan, and over time, publishers’ losses may affect the university too.

»You might worry that some publishers will no longer want to enter into agreements with UCPH because they’re being broken. Of course, it’s not UCPH that is breaking them — it’s the students,« says Peter Lind Nielsen.

And ultimately, it is students who will suffer if teaching materials are no longer made available to the university.

In the worst-case scenario, textbooks may stop being produced altogether if publishers cannot cover production costs.

»Although authors don’t make a lot of money from textbooks, publishers and editors invest a huge amount of work that needs to be paid for. You can easily imagine a time when that model no longer works. And then things will get really bad — because suddenly, there will be no textbooks,« says Peter Lind Nielsen.

Some students interviewed by University Post suspect that publishers release new editions with only minimal changes to boost profits. Peter Lind Nielsen, who writes textbooks himself, dispels that idea:

»Those of us who write textbooks gave up viewing it as a source of income long ago. If I calculated my hourly wage, I’d make more doing food deliveres on my bike,« he says.

Copenhagen University Library: Use us

To curb the illegal sharing of textbooks, the Copenhagen University Library has counselling service in good academic practice and digital literacy. It is an effort they have »gradually prioritised more,« say Kira Stine Hansen and Bonnie Frisendahl, who are Deputy Director of the Royal Danish Library and University Librarian at UCPH, respectively.

Hansen and Frisendahl responded to University Post’s questions in writing.

While they maintain that »each student is personally responsible for understanding copyright rules and ensuring no illegal sharing takes place,« they acknowledge a shared responsibility:

»We all have a collective duty to inform each other about how to use study materials properly and legally,« they write.

Students have suggested that cheaper textbooks would help curb the problem — what would it take to make that happen?

»The University Library continuously works with publishers to improve infrastructure and business models, including how to ensure more open and free access to academic content,« Hansen and Frisendahl reply. However, they also note that lowering prices could introduce new challenges:

»Textbooks are a special category with time-sensitive relevance and therefore have different pricing — for Danish publishers, the library, and for students. And this is not just a Danish issue,« they write.

They encourage students to reach out to the University Library, which offers legal access to a lot of study material — including items that may not be visibly available on the shelves.

»We follow a user-driven acquisition policy, which means you can always write to us if something isn’t accessible. We will then try to obtain it. And if in doubt, you can always ask us in the University Library,« they conclude.