Edward MacCoyd, for example, the director of digital policy for the Association of American Publishers, is "troubled" by the "striking" findings. His company regards the problem as so serious that they hired the law firm Covington & Burling to search for sites offering pirated textbooks and send requests to remove the content. According to the firm's officials, and notably Peter Anaman, substantiates the general consensus regarding the seriousness of the problem. Although only a small percentage of the student sample have declared their success in downloading pirated books, Covington & Burling find thousands of sites per month that offer illegal material to students and any other interested parties.

Young (2008) also notes that the company Audible Magic is a sign of the increasing significance of the piracy problem. Audible magic manufactures software for the purpose of identifying illegal file sharing particularly on campuses. The newest version of the software includes a filter...

According to the article, about 70 colleges have invested in Audible Magic on their campuses, although this is still mostly used only for detecting the illegal use of films and music. The textbook filter was added on request from several college officials, and the company is currently working to add specific titles for the search function.
In conclusion, it is clear that textbook piracy is becoming a significant legal and ethical student issue. The rapid development of technology has made it easy for students to use illegitimate material without any recrimination. Hopefully more software such as that developed by Audible Magic will, if not entirely eliminate, then at least curb the problem experienced by so many campuses.

Source

Young, Jeffrey R. (2008, Sept.). Downloading Pirated Textbooks Becomes Commonplace on Campuses. The Chronicle of Higher Education: Information Technology. http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i04/04a01201.htm