Two Russian citizens have been arrested on suspicion of having links to an illegal book download site, Z-Library. which is considered one of the largest repositories of pirated books in the world.
The arrest comes after US authorities shut down the Z-Library website earlier this month. The Ministry of Justice reported that the detainees They were identified as Anton Napolsky and Valeria Ermakova, and both were captured on 3 November in Argentina. at the request of the US government
The charges against Napolsky and Ermakova include copyright infringement of millions of books, money laundering and bank fraud.. The closure of the site occurred in parallel with the arrest of persons allegedly involved in its management. However, it was found that an alternative version is still running on the so-called darknet..
“The defendants are alleged to have operated a website for more than a decade, the primary purpose of which was to provide stolen intellectual property in violation of copyright laws. Intellectual property theft crimes deprive their victims of both ingenuity and hard-earned income,” said Michael Driscoll, Deputy Director of the FBI.
It is estimated that around 11 million pirated publications have been placed in the Z-Library, including books and academic materials.. All of this could be read and downloaded for free. Since he had a large catalog of academic books, over the years became a reference site for students who couldn’t afford to buy textbooks.
The interest of the authorities to find those responsible for Z-Library and to close its website increased after The Authors Guild, an organization made up of copyright writers, filed a formal complaint with the Office of the US Trade Representative.. In it, they cited the rise of Z-Library on social media, especially on TikTok, where the hashtag #zlibrary has over 19 million views. They added that the negative impact of these types of websites has been devastating to the industry and copyright holders.
Source: La Opinion
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