Photo: ARAMYAN

Student book piracy annually costs the book industry and the Danish state DKK 225 million

Mar 13, 2024 | Analysis

13. March 2024

The extent of student use of illegal digital textbooks accounted for 31% of the total textbook market value in 2022. The new, startling figures call for immediate action.

For years, Danish publishers, authors and bookshops have felt the economic impact of the high level of piracy of digital textbooks among students in higher educations. This is now confirmed by a new, remarkable analysis conducted by the consultancy firm CphFacilitation, which shows that the book industry and the state lost an estimated DKK 225 million in 2022 due to piracy of digital textbooks. This is equivalent to 31% of the total textbook market’s annual value.

Results of the study “The economic consequences of piracy of textbooks, conducted by Hjarn v. Zernichow Borberg from CphFacilitation for the Rights Alliance. Due to rounding, columns may not add up to totals. See all results here.

Call for immediate action

There is no indication that the trend is reversing. A new survey from Epinion in 2024 shows that the extent of students’ illegal consumption of textbooks is on par with the previous five years. This means that 51% of those who use digital textbooks acquire them illegally.

The key findings from the survey “Students’ acquisition of textbooks 2024”, conducted by Epinion for the Rights Alliance. The results of the analysis are on par with surveys from previous years. See all the results here.

The illegal copying of textbooks particularly affects Danish publishers and authors, who, according to the analysis, have lost DKK 59 million in one year to the illegal sharing of textbooks. A disturbing figure that emphasizes that the rights holders’ long-standing efforts to remove infringements, inform students and collaborate with institutions cannot stand alone.

Maria Fredenslund, CEO of the Danish Rights Alliance, says:

“We now see crystal clear how serious the costs of illegal sharing of student textbooks really are for the Danish rights holders, especially in light of the fact that we have been shouting for years about the need to take action. With 31% of the annual textbook market lost, we have only a few years to find solutions that work if the production of Danish textbooks is not to be lost. This calls for immediate action to curb the circulation of illegal PDFs, including from Nota, where we know that a large part of the files originates from, just as we are in dialogue with the management of the country’s higher education institutions to accelerate initiatives that can slow down this fatal development.”

Deteriorating the quality of education

If we do not find solutions to curb the problem, we risk that piracy of digital textbooks within a few years will irrevocably damage Danish knowledge production and thereby also the quality of education. This will particularly affect the so-called welfare educations, where the curriculum largely consists of Danish-produced content. This applies, for example, to healthcare educations, where Danish production of textbooks is crucial to ensure updated knowledge that follows the professional standards we have in Denmark.

The analysis was conducted by Hjarn v. Zernichow Borberg, who holds a master’s degree in science of economics, is a partner in CphFacilitation and an external lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Copenhagen. The calculations are based on data from 2022 from statistikbanken.dk, publishers, bookstores, teachers and educational institutions, as well as the annual survey on students’ use of digital textbooks conducted by the research institute Epinion.

See the results of the analysis: “Economic consequences of piracy of digital study books” here

See the results of Epinion’s study: “Students’ acquisition of study books 2024” here