Z-Library: Two Russians connected to the world’s largest book download site are arrested in Córdoba

Two Russian citizens have been arrested CordobaArgentina, after being accused of running the world’s largest book download site: Z library

Anton Napolsky (33) and Valeria Ermakova (27) They were arrested on Nov. 3, after being accused of infringing intellectual property over content uploaded to the site, considered by many to be the source of access to the web’s most content-rich online library.

One day after the arrest, Z-Library’s domains were seized, rendering the site inaccessible.

“In federal court in Brooklyn, an indictment and complaint has been opened charging Russian citizens Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova with copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering charges for operating Z-Library, a hacking website of online e-books,” published by the U.S. Department of State.

The beginnings of Z-Library are related to free access to information, considering that books are a cultural heritage of humanity. However, what started out as a volunteer-led project has turned into a feature-rich subscription prize.

Namely, the site changed to a platform for commercial purposes, which served the US prosecution: “As alleged, the defendants illegally benefited from the work they stoleoften uploading works within hours of publication, victimizing authors, publishers and booksellers in the process,” said Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

“This Office is committed to protecting the intellectual property rights that enable creative and artistic expression and to holding people accountable for undermining those rights,” they added.

Another piece of evidence presented indicates that the site was making money from Google Ads to promote Z-Library.

Domain seizure

The popular online book download site had been blocked on Nov. 5. However, despite the restrictions, the web remained accessible through web browsers similar to the deep web Toras well as being mirrored on other servers.

“This domain has been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service pursuant to a court order,” the page said when trying to access it from a browser like Chrome or Firefox.

In most cases these sites are removed because the files uploaded there for downloading do not have the permission of the publishers, which constitutes a crime of intellectual property infringement (piracy).

During Friday the 4th, websites hosted on z-lib.org, b-ok.org and 3lib.net began displaying a message that the Department of Justice and the United States Postal Inspection Service have seized the service, as shown below. Subsequently, the seizure notice on 3lib.net was updated to state that the domains had been seized by the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

About Z-Library

Z-Library is what is known as a shadow library– Upload books that users can download for free. They are a headache for publishers and are in permanent conflict, which usually leads to the removal of websites hosting these files.

On the side of those who defend these systems there are the costs: in many cases, due to the high price of books, access to culture or even to study is blocked.

Some precedent for these kinds of legal battles can be found in Jstor’s case with Aaron Swartz, an activist who downloaded a large number of documents from the famous academic database and ended up on trial until he took his own life.

The networks were already taking action. A few days ago, the site torrent freak had warned that TikTok decided to block hashtags related to Z-Library, presumably in response to complaints from copyright holders.

“Reducing users’ visibility of content that violates our Community Guidelines is of the utmost importance,” TikTok explained.

The judicial outpost ended up blocking the site worldwide, though it now appears intermittently online.