Two Russian citizens were arrested for their alleged links to the illegal book download website called Z-Library which is considered one of the world’s largest book repositories pirates.
The arrest comes after US authorities shut down the Z-Library website earlier this month. The Department of Justice reported that the detainees were identified as Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova and both were captured on November 3 in Argentina at the request of the United States government
The charges Napolsky and Ermakova are accused of include copyright infringement of millions of books, money laundering and bank fraud. The closure of the website occurred in parallel with the arrest of those allegedly involved in its management. However, it was learned that an alternate version is still operational in what is known as the dark web .
“Defendants allegedly operated a website for more than a decade whose primary purpose was to provide stolen intellectual property, in violation of copyright laws. Intellectual property theft crimes deprive their victims of both ingenuity and hard-earned income,” said Michael Driscoll, Deputy Director of the FBI.
It is estimated that Z-Library hosted some 13 million pirated publications, including books and academic material. All of this could be read and downloaded completely free of charge. Because it had a large catalog of academic books, over the years it became a reference website for students who could not afford their textbooks.
The authorities’ interest in finding those responsible for Z-Library and in closing its website intensified after the Authors’ Guild, an organization made up of writers who advocates for copyright protection, filed a formal complaint with the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In it they cited the increase in the popularity of Z-Library on social networks, especially on TikTok, where the hashtag #zlibrary had more than 13 million views . They added that the negative impact of these types of websites was devastating for the industry and for copyright owners.
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