The two in issue, Anton Napolsky, and Valeriia Ermakova were detained on November 3rd at the US government’s request in Argentina, according to the Department of Justice. The two are accused of criminal copyright infringement, wire fraud, and money laundering. At the time of their arrest, the US authorities shut down and confiscated the Z-Library-related domains, although as observed by Ars Technica, some users are still able to access the site via the black web. Sapolsky and Ermakova’s detention, as noted by Vice, comes soon after the Authors Guild, a group of authors that supports copyright protection, filed a complaint with the Office of the US Trade Representative on October 7th. The complaint mentions a rising trend on TikTok where users are pushing Z-Library as a method to download books for free and mentions that the hashtag “z-library” has received over 19 million views. Users could download and read free academic papers and over 11 million pirated ebooks from Z-Library. The website developed over time into a resource for students who couldn’t afford to purchase expensive college textbooks. Intellectual property theft crimes deprive their victims of both ingenuity and hard-earned revenue.” –Michael Driscoll FBI’s assistant director The arrest has undoubtedly limited Z-reach Library’s for the time being, but it hasn’t completely stopped online e-book piracy. The Library Genesis Project is another well-known example of an e-book pirate website, as the Authors Guild pointed out in their first complaint.
