Z-Library is an online library where you can find almost anything when it comes to literature – from newspapers, magazines, comics, novels, to scientific journals. Students and other users were touting Z-Library as a way to get textbooks and other course material for free.This platform is popular for reasons, after all. Ars Technica notes The Authors Guild complained to the Office of the United States Trade Representative after a '#zlibrary' hashtag started trending on TikTok, with over 19 million views. The pirate bookshelf's social media presence contributed to its undoing. While the indictments only cover activity starting in January 2018, FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll said the two had been running a pirate site for 'over a decade.' Z-Library is still accessible on the dark web and responding to email.

Napolsky and Ermakova each face charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and wire fraud.Īs TorrentFreak explains, it's not clear how central Ermakova and Napolsky were to Z-Library. The American government disabled and seized the public Z-Library site at the same time. The pair was arrested in Cordoba, Argentina at the US' request on November 3rd. The site was billed as the 'world's largest library' and held over 11 million titles, many of which were bootleg versions stripped of copyright protections. The feds have charged two Russian nationals, Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova, for allegedly running the pirate e-book repository Z-Library.

US law enforcement isn't just interested in shutting down video pirates.

Ebooks zlibrary