“This isn’t the only site that hurts us, but it’s the site that keeps showing up in TikTok videos,” Bowen added. Furthermore, all the books I’ve published in my new imprint are up there. “A book we release in the morning is up on Z-Library by lunchtime,” author Sarina Bowen said. The guild said the impact of sites such as Libgen and Z-Library’s is “incalculable and truly devastating”. Last month, the Authors Guild submitted a complaint to the US Trade Representative office about the rise of digital book piracy and its effect on the organisation’s members. The pirate site has been praised by students who can access textbooks and peer-reviewed articles, but has resulted in complaints from authors who claim their work was regularly uploaded to Z-Library. Z-Library began as a free file-sharing platform in 2009 and recently gained popularity on social media sites such as TikTok.

The US Department of Justice declined to comment when contacted by BleepingComputer. The law enforcement arm of the postal service told BleepingComputer that it was credited in the seizure notice by mistake.Ī notice on a Z-Library domain was updated to say it was seized by the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The site was taken offline on Friday 4 November, with many of its domains not loading, while others led to a message saying the domain was seized by the US Postal Inspection Service.

Users could download a number of books for free each month, or pay a donation for more downloads. The ‘shadow library’ reportedly offered more than 10m e-books and 86m articles, including academic texts and journal articles.

Z-Library, a popular repository for digital books, has been shut down. Domains used by the ‘shadow library’ appear to have been taken down by US authorities, preventing access to the pirate site.

Z library free