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Unauthorised e-book downloading ofstudents in higher educationJane Lu Hsua & Livia Chia-Yen Changa

a Department of Marketing, National Chung Hsing University,Taichung, TaiwanPublished online: 24 Nov 2014.

To cite this article: Jane Lu Hsu & Livia Chia-Yen Chang (2015) Unauthorised e-bookdownloading of students in higher education, Educational Studies, 41:3, 268-271, DOI:10.1080/03055698.2014.984659

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2014.984659

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Unauthorised e-book downloading of students in higher education

Jane Lu Hsu* and Livia Chia-Yen Chang

Department of Marketing, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

(Received 28 September 2014; final version received 30 October 2014)

This study reveals students’ unauthorised downloading of e-books in highereducation. In-person surveys were administered at four university campusesin Taiwan. The 422 valid samples were made up of both undergraduate andgraduate students. Students in the more legitimate segment illegally down-loaded 0.26 e-books per month on average. Shockingly, students in the lesslegitimate segment illegally downloaded 18.50 e-books per month on aver-age. Respondents in the less legitimate segment would definitely search forunauthorised e-books if they could not locate those in digital libraries, andthey would use software to download. This study examined unauthoriseddownloading of e-books by students in higher education in hopes of bringingmuch needed attention to this area. The contributions from this study arenot merely to fill a gap in the literature, but to provide a baseline for furtherresearch.

Keywords: unauthorised e-book downloading; digital library; higher education;online material

Students search and download enormous amounts of online information for theirassignments, research projects and personal use. The demand for a digital library’sservices has steadily increased. The traditional way of leafing through books andjournals has been replaced by navigating a digitised database. However, in somecases when the desired online material is not readily found, students have engagedin unauthorised downloading.

Unauthorised downloading has become a phenomenon among students in highereducation. Students do not only download illegal multimedia files or software, butonline material like e-books. Violation of intellectual property rights in downloadingmultimedia files and software has been thoroughly discussed in the literature; how-ever, unauthorised downloading of online material like e-books has not been exam-ined exclusively.

The digital library, whose services can fulfil the needs of a variety of usersby offering a vast amount of information that can be accessed almost instanta-neously, essentially has become an electronically transformed version of a tradi-tional library. The National Science Foundation (1999) provides a definition ofdigital libraries:

*Corresponding author. Email: jlu@dragon.nchu.edu.tw

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

Educational Studies, 2015Vol. 41, No. 3, 268–271, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2014.984659

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Digital Libraries basically store materials in electronic format and manipulate largecollections of those materials effectively. Research into digital libraries is research intonetwork information systems, concentrating on how to develop the necessary infra-structure to effectively mass-manipulate the information on the Net.

The primary advantage of electronically available material is that it is easy to dupli-cate, and because of that, digitised databases are often subject to copying, sharingand transferring of its material. Despite the digital library’s large, dynamic and tech-nologically innovative databases, its online resources can be accessed easily by userswith different backgrounds and experiences in information technology. Heradioet al. (2012) state digital libraries have reached the technological stage such that theycan offer online environments with multiple levels of richness that afford a varietyof interactivity.

The ease with which one can gain access to digital library information directlyaffects one’s ultimate online behaviour. Stelmaszewska and Blandford (2002) exam-ine the difficulties experienced when search results have failed to meet a user’sexpectations. Because unauthorised downloading behaviours can emerge when spe-cific information is not readily available, it is worth examining what a user choosesto do in this situation. Rawlinson and Lupton (2007) note the attitudes toward andperceptions of online piracy among university students and conclude that thesebehaviours are common. Young (2008) claims with the improvements in technology,the downloading of bootlegged textbooks has become a common practice on cam-puses. Wu et al. (2010) conclude that students in higher education simply do notunderstand copyrights as it pertains to online material; they incorrectly believe thatall electronic content is authorised for downloading.

This study aims to reveal students’ unauthorised downloading of e-books inhigher education in Taiwan. The contributions from this study are not merely to filla gap in the literature, but to provide a baseline for further research.

Method

A questionnaire survey was implemented in order to collect data on unauthoriseddownloading of e-books by students in higher education in Taiwan. A pilot studywas conducted prior to the formal survey. The formal surveys were administered byin-person interviews on four university campuses in Taiwan. Trained surveyorsplaced themselves at student union, cafeteria and dormitory entrances where theyapproached about 1 out of every 10–15 students who passed. The surveyors’ taskwas to explain the survey and to provide assistance if needed. The rejection rate wasless than 10% and was due primarily to the potential respondents’ time constraints.

In order to have been eligible for the survey, an individual needed to be consid-ered a full-time undergraduate or graduate student. A gift of approximately £1.85was given to each person who was eligible and willing to participate. If that personwas unable to finish the survey for any reason, the questionnaire was discarded andthe gift was still granted. A total of 480 responses yielded 422 valid samples; the 58invalid samples were discarded on account of incomplete answers.

Results

The 422 respondents (valid samples) were made up of both undergraduate (63.81%)and graduate (36.19%) students (freshmen through graduate level) and had an

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average age of 21.56 years (range: 18–31). Male students made up 50.48% of therespondents. The colleges represented were from engineering, agriculture, the artsand sciences, business, design and education in four universities where survey wasadministered.

Respondents were grouped into two segments based on whether their reportednumbers of unauthorised e-book downloading was greater than 10 per month.Although there was a tendency on the part of the respondents to provide lower num-bers than their actual behaviours might suggest, this particular finding nonethelessreveals the presence of unauthorised downloading by students in higher education.Students in the more legitimate segment illegally downloaded 0.26 e-books permonth on average. Shockingly, students in the less legitimate segment illegallydownloaded 18.50 e-books per month on average (Table 1). Respondents in bothsegments downloaded authorised e-books as well. Slightly more authorised e-booksthan unauthorised e-books were downloaded on average (0.34–0.26 per month) forrespondents in the more legitimate segment. Much less authorised e-books than un-authorised e-books were downloaded on average (1.30–18.50 per month) for respon-dents in the less legitimate segment.

Respondents in the less legitimate segment would definitely search for unauthor-ised e-books if they could not locate those in digital libraries, and they would utilisesoftware to download. Illegal downloading seemed to be easy for this segment ofstudents, and they tended to share unauthorised e-books with others or providedonline for others to download.

Discussion

The findings in this study reveal that unauthorised downloading of e-books occursamong students in higher education. The findings are consistent with previousresearch on downloading of textbooks on campuses by Young (2008). The currentresults suggest that with advanced technology, digital library users in higher educa-tion who needed online material but could not readily obtain it resorted to unauthor-ised downloading. They nevertheless had the necessary skills to locate theunauthorised downloading pathways.

Table 1. Downloading and sharing of e-books.

More legitimatesegment (97.63%)

Less legitimatesegment (2.37%)

Average number of illegally downloadede-books per month

0.26 books 18.50 books

Average number of legally downloadede-books per month

0.34 books 1.30 books

Definitely search for unauthorised e-books forthose not found in school libraries

63.75% 100.00%

Use software to download e-books illegally 79.61% 100.00%Illegal downloading of e-books is easy 50.24% 90.00%Share illegally downloaded e-books with others 55.10% 70.00%Provide illegally downloaded e-books for othersto download online

9.22% 30.00%

270 J.L. Hsu and L.C.-Y. Chang

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This study examined unauthorised downloading of e-books by students in highereducation in hopes of bringing much needed attention to this area. It is hoped thatthese findings provide some insight into how digital libraries can optimise theironline services by focusing on strategies that help to prevent unauthorised down-loading by students in higher education. Digital libraries can do this by promotingand supporting a more streamlined interlibrary loan process, designing more secureonline pathways, or perhaps by simply supplementing insufficient collections.Higher education administrators should understand that multimedia files andsoftware are just two of the piracy targets on campuses – this study shows there aremany more. The limitations of this study are that the respondents were onlyfull-time students in higher education; the unauthorised downloading by part-timestudents and those in extension or non-traditional programmes needs to be consid-ered in subsequent studies in order to broaden the knowledge in this area.

AcknowledgmentsThis study is partly supported by a research grant funded by the National Science Council inTaiwan (101-2410-H-005-047).

Notes on contributorsJane Lu Hsu is a professor of Marketing at National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan. Shereceived her PhD in Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University in1996, specialising in consumer studies, market survey and educational issues. She has carriedout research projects funded by National Science Council and Council of Agriculture inTaiwan. She is awarded as a Fulbright New Century Scholar 2009–2010.

Livia Chia-Yen Chang received her MBA degree in Marketing from National Chung HsingUniversity in Taiwan.

ReferencesHeradio, R., D. Fernández-Amorós, F. J. Cabrerizo, and E. Herrera-Viedma. 2012. “A

Review of Quality Evaluation of Digital Libraries Based on Users’ Perceptions.” Journalof Information Science 38 (3): 269–283.

National Science Foundation. 1999. Digital Libraries Initiative. http://dli2.nsf.gov/dlione/.Rawlinson, D. R., and R. A. Lupton. 2007. “Cross-national Attitudes and Perceptions con-

cerning Software Piracy: A Comparative Study of Students from the United States andChina.” Journal of Education for Business 83 (2): 87–94.

Stelmaszewska, H., and A. Blandford. 2002. Patterns of Interactions: User Behaviour inResponse to Search Results. http://web4.cs.ucl.ac.uk/uclic/annb/docs/Stelmaszewska29.pdf.

Wu, H.-C., C. Chou, H.-R. Ke, and M.-H. Wang. 2010. “College Students’ Misunderstand-ings about Copyright Laws for Digital Library Resources.” The Electronic Library 28(2): 197–209.

Young, J. R. 2008. “Downloading Pirated Textbooks Becomes Commonplace on Campuses.”Chronicle of Higher Education 55 (4): A12.

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