According to a study conducted by Epinion in January 2025, and released by the Danish Rights Alliance in May, more and more students in higher education are getting their hands on their textbooks without paying for them – and often illegally.
With the mainstreaming of artificial intelligence and widespread use by students, 25% have uploaded entire textbooks or excerpts from them to a chatbot – and only slightly more than one in four knows that it is illegal.
While 41% believe that they are informed about the rules regarding sharing digital textbooks at their educational institution, 72% were unaware that it is illegal to upload textbooks to chatbots. Among students who use digital textbooks, 57% admit that they have at least once obtained access to a textbook through illegal sources.
Pointing to a need to create awareness
The Epinion survey also shows that a majority of students (74%) find it acceptable to share digital textbooks with each other, despite stating that they are aware that it is illegal. When the behavior is an ingrained part of the student culture, there is a great need for copyrights holders and educational institutions to work together to guide students.
Methodology
The study was conducted via web-based interviews among 701 students at a higher education institution. Data was collected from January 15 to January 30, 2025 via an online panel. The study covers the students’ behavior over the past six months, i.e. in the period August-December 2024.
Further reading
Every fourth student uploads textbooks illegally to chatbots. Press release, with links to the study and consumer education materials. May 26, 2025. Rettighedsalliancen (Danish Rights Alliance)
Why it matters
The fact that students upload textbooks to chatbots as part of their studies raises new and serious copyright issues. For example, by using illegal PDF files to train or adapt their own GPT models, textbooks can be made freely available to an unlimited number of users. The result is that the incentive to purchase the original works is undermined, which harms copyright holders and distorts the market.
