Photo credit: dolldreamer
by Debbie Burke
Book piracy is a widespread, growing problem that cuts into authors’ already-dwindling incomes. Back in 2020, I wrote about book piracy.
In a recent ironic twist, an ebook piracy site was hacked, per a July, 2024 Scamicide post by attorney Steve Weisman.
Yup, the pirates got pirated.
The site itself Z-Lib didn’t suffer as much as the 10 million users of the site who had their information stolen. Steve’s post reports the theft of:
…usernames, email addresses and passwords, the stolen data also included Bitcoin and Monero cryptocurrency wallet addresses for the nearly ten million people affected.
Z-Library was a major site funded by donations that offered free access to copyrighted works including pirated material. In 2022, the FBI temporarily shut down Z-Library.
According to blog.acer.com:
Z-Library, the shadow library project that provided access to millions of textbooks, novels, journal articles, and magazines was shut down in November 2022 when U.S. authorities seized a number of the organization’s domain names. Despite the efforts of law enforcement, the project never fully went away. Z-Lib even staged an official comeback in early 2023 by working around the previous domain name issues. However, the project has been disrupted again by further FBI domain seizures.
In other words, if law enforcement seizes pirate domain names, just register new domain names and go underground on the dark web.
Are Z-Library, Z-Lib, and its clones legal?
In this article, DOIT Software says:
It is illegal in many jurisdictions since it offers pirated content and violates copyright regulations. Users are encouraged to consider the ethical implications of accessing content from platforms like Z-Library, which often involves the distribution of copyrighted materials without proper authorization.
The clone site Z-Lib charged to access its shadow library, meaning users entered their personal and financial information. That valuable cache of info made a tempting target for other thieves who hacked in and stole it.
That raises an interesting philosophical discussion: If thieves steal from other thieves, is it a crime? Or poetic justice?
Are there degrees of guilt? How would you rank these perpetrators?
- Pirate sites that steal copyrighted works from authors;
- Users who pay pirate sites;
- Hackers that stole from the pirate site and its users?
TKZers, the floor is yours.
I’m traveling today and won’t be able to respond to comments until later.