Unbelievable! Anna's Archive Shadow Library blocked by publishers' complaint! Silence is the order of the day!

Z-Library's closure gives birth to the Anna's Archive parallel library

Following the closure of Z-Library at the end of 2022, the parallel library "Anna's Archive" now presents itself as "the largest truly open library in the history of mankind". A complaint filed in December 2023 by the Italian Publishers Association, which represents publishers of books, scientific journals and digital content, paints a somewhat different picture. As a result, telecommunications regulator AGCOM issued immediate blocking instructions to Internet service providers.

Piracy platforms that have emerged in recent years

Over the past decade, platforms such as Sci-Hub, Libgen and Z-Library have broken through a sea of unauthorized platforms offering pirated movies, TV shows, music and other content, to take their place on the piracy front.

In 2022, a platform called Pirate Library Mirror appeared, stirring up controversy from the outset after obtaining a complete copy of Z-Library before the site ran into legal problems.

"We deliberately violate copyright law in most countries. This allows us to do something that legal entities can't: ensure that books are widely distributed," writes the team behind 'PiLiMi'.

In November 2022, PiLiMi team member 'Anna Archivist' founded 'Anna's Archive', a platform promising access to Z-Library and Libgen content from the same interface. Just over a year later, the site describes itself as "the largest truly open library in human history", replicating Sci-Hub, Libgen, Z-Library and other platforms, offering 25.5 million books and 99.4 million articles for download.

90% of the Italian publishing market supports the complaint

Anna's Archive is a newcomer to the world of parallel online libraries, but its impact has already ensured the inevitable. Like its counterparts already blocked by ISPs in several countries, a year after its launch Anna's Archive will suffer the same treatment, starting with Italy.

On December 4, 2023, the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) filed a complaint for copyright infringement against Anna's Archive. Founded in 1869, the AIE represents publishers of books, scientific journals and digital content; together, these companies control 90% of the local market. AIE's complaint includes more than 30 books, but the association stresses that this represents only a sample of the content distributed by Anna's Archive to which its members hold the rights.

Example of books mentioned in the complaint

"The annas-archive.org site presents itself as a mirror of various 'parallel libraries' and claims to have over 25 million books and nearly 100 million academic articles, which it makes available by disseminating numerous links to each work. The unauthorized reproductions of works belonging to Italian publishers number in the thousands," states the complaint.

An investigation carried all the way to Ukraine

An investigation by Italy's Digital Services Directorate verified that the content mentioned in the complaint was indeed accessible from Anna's Archive. In view of the facts, the investigators concluded that this was probably a case of "serious and massive infringement".

Official documents indicate that the operator of Anna's Archive proved "unidentifiable", but with Cloudflare's help, Epinatura LLC - a hosting provider based in Kiev, Ukraine - was identified as the likely host of at least some of the platform's servers. Notifications were sent to various service providers, warning that "spontaneous compliance" with a blocking request filed by the publishers was a possible outcome.

The decision: the site must be blocked

No complaints having been received from the parties contacted, and having established a massive violation of the site, an order to deactivate https://annas-archive.org by DNS blocking has been issued to the Italian ISPs, to be carried out within 48 hours. Visitors to the site are now greeted by the blocking page below in Italian. (translation on the right)

While Anna's Archive operates alternative domains not specifically mentioned in the order (annas-archive.gs, annas-archive.se), the site faces perpetual blocking measures against "all future domain names of the same site".

If the parallel library wishes to contest the decision, it has until mid-February to file a response with the Lazio Regional Administrative Court. However, this seems unlikely given all the circumstances.