Pirate library must pay publishers $30M, but no one knows who runs it

On Thursday, some links to the notorious shadow library Library Genesis (Libgen) couldn’t be reached after a US district court judge, Colleen McMahon, ordered what TorrentFreak called “one of the broadest anti-piracy injunctions” ever issued by a US court.

In her order, McMahon sided with textbook publishers who accused Libgen of willful copyright infringement after Libgen completely ignored their complaint.

To compensate rightsholders, McMahon ordered Libgen to pay $30 million, but because nobody knows who runs the shadow library, it seems unlikely that publishers will be paid any time soon, if ever.

Because Libgen’s admins remain anonymous and elusive—and previously avoided paying a different set of publishers $15 million in 2017—McMahon granted publishers’ request for an uncommonly broad injunction that may empower publishers to go further than ever to destroy the shadow library.

Under the injunction, not only is Libgen banned from sharing copyrighted content, but so are “all those in active concert or participation with” anyone connected to Libgen. The order forbids anyone from hosting Libgen, registering Libgen domains, or providing cloud storage, file-sharing, or advertising services, among other restrictions. Even using tools to display links or enabling browser extensions linking to Libgen is forbidden under the order.

But even under such a broad injunction, the question remains whether publishers can succeed in taking down Libgen—which openly informs users that using its platform violates copyright laws and encourages them to pirate books anyway.

“It is illegal to download (‘make copies of’) material that is protected by copyright,” Libgen’s 2023 video said. “However, all that is illegal is not criminal… for the average person, generally there won’t be any criminal consequences under copyright law from having pirated items on your computer.”

Publishers are potentially already succeeding in taking down some of Libgen’s links that enable vast infringement. Yesterday, TorrentFreak reported that none of the Libgen sites targeted in publishers’ complaint were down, but as of Thursday, some links couldn’t be reached, timed out while loading, or generated a 403 error denying access. The majority of links, including the primary domain, remain online, though.

As TorrentFreak noted, it’s possible that most of the Libgen links remain online because the order is just two days old. In the order, McMahon gave registrars of LinkedIn domains 21 business days to either transfer domains to publishers’ control or “otherwise implement technical measures, such as holding, suspending, or canceling the domain name to ensure the domain names cannot be used” for further copyright infringement.

TorrentFreak suggested that “completely eliminating” Libgen has been “extremely difficult” for years, though, “partly because the identities of those running it remains unknown.” The site, known for closely monitoring file-sharing online, only considered publishers’ most recent victory “a win on paper.”

Notably, the broad injunction that McMahon ordered does not require Internet service providers to block Libgen, although other countries have tried that, too. Instead, publishers seem to be hoping that controlling domains will get rid of the pirate library, with the court ordering any newly registered domains to be turned over to publishers, too.

Targeting future domains could stop Libgen from endlessly pointing users to new links to avoid takedowns, as it has historically. But there’s a chance that third parties may resist complying with the order, TorrentFreak noted.

Ad ban may be key to Libgen’s destruction

So far at least, Libgen remains online through it all, attracting 16 million monthly visits to its primary domain, which Ars confirmed is still online as of this writing. And it’s still exceedingly popular in the US, McMahon’s order noted.

In 2023, the shadow library told users that it remains indestructible by relying on “thousands of volunteers worldwide who upload files and share the torrents to protect the shadow library from being taken down.”

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the order isn’t the focus on domain registration, though, but a ban on providing advertising services.

Last year, Libgen also told users that it’s primarily funded through Google advertising. In the video, Libgen was warning users that while admins are difficult to unmask, “Google gets informed of every download, and if a user has ever registered with Google, then Google knows exactly who they are, what they’ve downloaded, and when they downloaded it.”

If Google cuts off Libgen’s advertising, the site could potentially struggle to afford to continue operating.

Ars attempted to reach Libgen for comment, but Libgen’s inbox was full. Ars will update this story if Google provides any new insights.