Z-Library has become the go-to site for many readers in recent years by providing access to millions of books, for free.
This position was put to the test last month when U.S. law enforcement seized over 200 domain names connected to the site. Two alleged Z-Library operators were arrested as part of a criminal investigation.
Z-Library Aftermath
Despite the gravity of the accusations, the public demand for pirated books hardly waned. On social media platforms and elsewhere, Z-Library users openly discussed what to do next.
Technically, Z-Library isn’t completely offline. The site continues to offer books through its darknet site on the Tor network and the IPFS version of Z-Library remains online too. Accessing either requires additional technical knowledge, however.
This situation allowed others to step in and profit from Z-Library’s troubles, by launching knockoff sites with the same brand, hoping to lure visitors through search engines, for example.
Indeed, if we search for Z-Library today, Zlibrary.to comes up as one of the top results. While this site offers free ebooks, it has very little to do with the original Z-Library project. Still, the site welcomed millions of new visitors last month, and the operator appears to be quite protective of this newly obtained fame.
Copycat Takedowns
Over the past weeks, Zlibrary.to has become the target of many takedown requests from book publishers. Interestingly, however, the site itself also sent a takedown notice to Google, targeting another book portal.
Apparently, Zlibrary.to wants several URLs from Ebookchase.com removed from the search engine because it’s “stealing” their works.
“This website keeps stealing our works with full copyright. Our company strongly urges the other party to conduct self-examination, take down all infringement books, and promises to never use any means to infringe on our company’s works,” the notice reads.
We don’t know for sure that Zlibrary.to is behind this request but it’s definitely unusual, as pirate sites generally don’t hold copyrights to the content they host.
Alternative Takedowns
Further Z-Library-related takedown notices also piqued our interest. They include a series of DMCA notices sent by the website Rationalinsurgent, which published an article about “Z-Library alternatives”.
This site claims that Z-Library is “legit” and offers a list of alternatives people can try while it’s inaccessible. Apparently, this article was copied by other sites, which prompted Rationalinsurgent to request the takedowns.
“This Website is copying my client’s content daily without any consent. Such wrong doings have created huge impact on my client’s website SEO and ranking,” the notice reads.
The takedown effort appears to have produced results as both of the reported sites have removed the contested articles, returning 404 errors instead.
‘Scam’ Takedown
Finally, Google received another unusual Z-Library-related takedown notice. This one is a bit harder to grasp. All we know for sure is that it requests the removal of a Reddit post about the copycat site Z-Lib.is.
The Reddit post characterizes the site as a scam, perhaps because it has nothing to do with the real Z-Library. Also, there are no downloadable books on the site, and visitors are encouraged to download and install a mysterious desktop client instead.
It turns out that someone named “Mahut Aydin” doesn’t like this Reddit thread, so asked Google and Reddit to remove it.
“copyrights belonw z-lib project library scam dmca 512 request take down this post fast from google search and console, also reported to Reddit.com to remove content, illegal, DMCA 512 Z-Lib, Z-Library, Z-lib.is belongs to its respective owners,” the confusing notice reads.
Based on this request we’re not entirely sure whose copyrights are infringed in the thread. And we are not the only one with doubts, as neither Google or Reddit have taken action in response.
Meanwhile at Z-Library…
The notices show that Z-Library remains a hot topic, and not just among authors and users of the site. Interestingly, there are some developments regarding the official Z-Library service as well.
Over the past few days, several people have reported that the 1lib.to domain name, which is linked to the original Z-Library team, allows them to access the site pretty much as usual.
Various comments in a Reddit discussion suggest that access might be limited to mods, people who’ve donated, or older accounts. This isn’t something we were able to verify independently, but it could mean that the site can be accessed from a clear web domain, at least by some.
Meanwhile, there is no notable progress in the criminal case against the two alleged operators of Z-Library. The docket at the Eastern District of New York hasn’t seen any new updates over the past few weeks.
