(25 Aug 2025) The Delhi High Court has ordered a ban on the shadow library Sci-Hub and its mirror websites in India on August 19, 2025, directed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) to notify Internet Service Providers to block access to these websites within 24 hours.…
(4 Dec 2024) Japan is planning to implement artificial intelligence to police anime and manga pirating websites that the pop-culture powerhouse accuses of costing it billions of dollars in lost revenue every year. There are at least 1,000 websites illegally offering free downloads of Japanese content, mostly its globally renowned manga graphic novels, a group…
(8 Jan 2024) On December 4, 2023, the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) filed a copyright complaint against Anna’s Archive. Established in 1869, AIE represents publishers of books, scientific journals, and digital content, controlling 90 percent of the local market. AIE’s complaint cites over 30 books, emphasizing that this is just a glimpse of the content…
(8 Jan 2024) Kompas Gramedia, a major Indonesian conglomerate with a robust book publishing unit, is exploring the potential of blockchain technology to tackle the persistent issue of online content piracy. Adi Ekatama, the publishing director of the Group of Retail & Publishing (GoRP) division, expressed optimism that blockchain, particularly non-fungible tokens (NFTs), could play…
(28 Jul 2023) The Electronic Frontier Foundation will award Alexandra Elbakyan, founder of the ‘pirate’ library Sci-Hub, for her efforts to provide access to scientific knowledge. According to EFF, Elbakyan’s site is a vital resource for millions of students and researchers. Some medical professionals have even argued that the site helped to save lives. …
(18 Nov 2022) Two Russian nationals have been charged for running the immensely popular pirated e-book site Z-Library. The two Russian individuals, Anton Napolsky, 33, and Valeriia Ermakova, 27, have been arrested from Cordoba, Argentina on November 3rd, 2022. The Justice Department said the duo was arrested under specific requests from the US government. All Z-Library domains…
(19 Nov 2022) After Z-Library was targeted by U.S. law enforcement, a group of anonymous archivists worked around the clock to get a shadow library search engine online. This week, the ‘team’ behind the Pirate Library Mirror launched “Anna’s Archive” which offers a gateway to various book resources. Anna’s Archive is basically a meta-search…
(5 Oct 2022) Z-Library has over 11.2 million eBooks and almost 85 million articles available on their website. However, viewed from the perspective of publishers, Z-Library is not only unfair competition but also highly illegal under copyright law. The National Publishing Union, an industry group representing more than 700 members in the publishing sector, in…
(9 Apr 2020) Taiwan’s most popular piracy movie website, 8maple.ru (楓林網), was busted on Wednesday (April 8) in Taoyuan, while its two Taiwanese founders were nabbed, followed by the closure of several other piracy websites the same day. Media reported the illegal websites gimy.tv, pttplay, momovod, and 149mov.com had halted their services. It was believed…
(18 January 2019) New laws set to be tabled in Singapore this year will target the sale of piracy-configured media devices and software. The proposals also seek to prevent individuals from installing piracy software on devices for a fee, post-sale. Read the full story here.