Image: © Chinnapong/Stock.adobe.com
Domains used by the ‘shadow library’ appear to have been taken down by US authorities, preventing access to the pirate site.
Z-Library, a popular repository for digital books, has been shut down.
The ‘shadow library’ reportedly offered more than 10m e-books and 86m articles, including academic texts and journal articles. Users could download a number of books for free each month, or pay a donation for more downloads.
The site was taken offline on Friday 4 November, with many of its domains not loading, while others led to a message saying the domain was seized by the US Postal Inspection Service.
The law enforcement arm of the postal service told BleepingComputer that it was credited in the seizure notice by mistake.
A notice on a Z-Library domain was updated to say it was seized by the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The US Department of Justice declined to comment when contacted by BleepingComputer.
Z-Library began as a free file-sharing platform in 2009 and recently gained popularity on social media sites such as TikTok.
The pirate site has been praised by students who can access textbooks and peer-reviewed articles, but has resulted in complaints from authors who claim their work was regularly uploaded to Z-Library.
Last month, the Authors Guild submitted a complaint to the US Trade Representative office about the rise of digital book piracy and its effect on the organisation’s members. The guild said the impact of sites such as Libgen and Z-Library’s is “incalculable and truly devastating”.
“A book we release in the morning is up on Z-Library by lunchtime,” author Sarina Bowen said. “All my books are up there. Furthermore, all the books I’ve published in my new imprint are up there. So I have a dozen authors in despair.
“This isn’t the only site that hurts us, but it’s the site that keeps showing up in TikTok videos,” Bowen added.
It was reported last week that TikTok had banned the hashtag #zlibrary pending further review following the Authors Guild complaint.
A number of Z-Library users have complained about the seizure of its domains on social media. Some are blaming the site’s recent exposure on TikTok as the reason for the shutdown.
Despite the disruption, the Z-Library database is still accessible through its Tor address, BleepingComputer reports.
With the rise of e-books, many publishers have been looking at ways to better capitalise on this digital market. In August, the CEO of educational publisher Pearson said the company was looking at NFTs as a way to get a cut of the second-hand sales market of textbooks.
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
