Anna's Archive

Anna's Archive emerged from the Pirate Library Mirror (PiLiMi) project, an anonymous effort to mirror shadow libraries that completed a full copy of Z-Library in September 2022. PiLiMi acknowledged that it "deliberately violated the copyright law in most countries",{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2024-04-16 |title="Anna's Archive" Opens the Door to Z-Library and Other Pirate Libraries |url=https://torrentfreak.com/annas-archive-opens-the-door-to-z-library-and-other-pirate-libraries-221118/ |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}} and its initial focus was on preservation rather than on making its data searchable.{{Cite web |last=Booth |first=Callum |date=2022-07-04 |title=The Pirate Library Mirror wants to preserve all human knowledge… illegally |url=https://thenextweb.com/news/pirate-library-mirror-wants-to-preserve-human-knowledge-illegally |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=TNW |language=en}} Days after US law enforcement seized several Z-Library domains and arrested its alleged operators in November 2022, PiLiMi member Anna (also known as Anna Archivist) launched Anna's Archive, which initially displayed results from Z-Library and Library Genesis.{{Cite web |last=Newson |first=Georgie |date=2022-12-14 |title=In the Shadow Library |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2022/december/in-the-shadow-library |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=LRB Blog |language=en}}

Anna's Archive has been variously described as a search engine, a metasearch engine, and a shadow library itself. The site does not directly host any files, but it links to downloads provided by third parties.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2024-02-07 |title=Lawsuit Accuses Anna's Archive of Hacking WorldCat, Stealing 2.2 TB Data |url=https://torrentfreak.com/lawsuit-accuses-annas-archive-of-hacking-worldcat-stealing-2-2-tb-data-240207/ |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}} It also offers downloads through the IPFS protocol.{{Efn|Though according to Anna's personal blog, they no longer host IPFS themselves because they believe it is not yet suitable for their purposes.{{Cite web |date=2022-11-19 |title=Putting 5,998,794 books on IPFS |url=https://annas-archive.li/blog/putting-5,998,794-books-on-ipfs.html |access-date=2025-01-15 |website=Anna's Blog}}|group=}}{{Cite journal |last=Son |first=Jihun |last2=Kim |first2=Gyubin |last3=Jung |first3=Hyunwoo |last4=Bang |first4=Jewan |last5=Park |first5=Jungheum |date=2023-10-01 |title=IF-DSS: A forensic investigation framework for decentralized storage services |journal=Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation |volume=46 |pages=301611 |doi=10.1016/j.fsidi.2023.301611 |issn=2666-2817 |doi-access=free}} Its source code is dedicated to the public domain under the CC0 license,{{Cite web |title=AnnaArchivist / annas-archive |url=https://software.annas-archive.li/AnnaArchivist/annas-archive#license |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=GitLab |language=en}} and its data{{Efn|According to a post on Anna's blog, the project's data is standardized under the custom Anna's Archive Containers format to allow for incremental releases.{{Cite web |date=2023-08-15 |title=Anna's Archive Containers (AAC): standardizing releases from the world's largest shadow library |url=https://annas-archive.li/blog/annas-archive-containers.html |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=Anna's Blog}}|group=}} is released in bulk with torrent files so as to make it resilient to website takedowns.{{Cite web |title=Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) |url=https://annas-archive.li/faq |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=Anna's Archive}} It operates three mirrors under different top-level domains, currently .li, .se, and .org.

{{As of|2025|05|26|df=US|post=,}} Anna's Archive includes 51,064,327 books and 98,551,617 papers, and its unified list of torrents totals roughly one petabyte in size.{{Cite web |title=Torrents |url=https://annas-archive.li/torrents |access-date=2025-01-15 |website=Anna’s Archive}} It lists Library Genesis, Sci-Hub, Z-Library, the Internet Archive, DuXiu, MagzDB, and Nexus/STC among its "source libraries", and Open Library and WorldCat as metadata-only sources. Some of these datasets are already publicly accessible, while others are scraped or otherwise privately acquired for distribution.{{Cite web |title=Datasets |url=https://annas-archive.li/datasets |access-date=2025-01-15 |website=Anna’s Archive}}

High-speed downloads on Anna's Archive are only available to users with a paid membership, while nonmembers must use slower options with browser verification to prevent abuse by bots. It describes itself as a nonprofit, claiming that membership fees and donations are mostly spent on server infrastructure and that none are personally used by the site's operators. Memberships and monetary rewards are given to some volunteer contributors.{{Cite web |title=Volunteering & Bounties |url=https://annas-archive.li/volunteering |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=Anna’s Archive}}

Anna's Archive offers high-speed access to its full collection via SFTP to groups training large language models in exchange for large contributions of money or data.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2025-01-31 |title=Pirate Libraries Are Forbidden Fruit for AI Companies. But at What Cost? |url=https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-libraries-are-forbidden-fruit-for-ai-companies-but-at-what-cost-250131/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}} It said it provided such access to about 30 companies as of January 2025, primarily based in China, including both LLM companies and data brokers.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2025-02-01 |title=Anna's Archive Urges AI Copyright Overhaul to Protect National Security |url=https://torrentfreak.com/annas-archive-urges-ai-copyright-overhaul-to-protect-national-security-250201/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}} DeepSeek's VL model was trained on data from the site.{{Citation |last=Lu |first=Haoyu |title=DeepSeek-VL: Towards Real-World Vision-Language Understanding |date=2024-03-11 |arxiv=2403.05525 |last2=Liu |first2=Wen |last3=Zhang |first3=Bo |last4=Wang |first4=Bingxuan |last5=Dong |first5=Kai |last6=Liu |first6=Bo |last7=Sun |first7=Jingxiang |last8=Ren |first8=Tongzheng |last9=Li |first9=Zhuoshu}}

Anna cites programmer and information activist Aaron Swartz as an inspiration for the project, and has said that they and other shadow librarians believe that "information wants to be free".{{Cite web |last=Woodcock |first=Claire |date=2022-11-30 |title='Shadow Libraries' Are Moving Their Pirated Books to The Dark Web After Fed Crackdowns |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/shadow-libraries-are-moving-their-pirated-books-to-the-dark-web-after-fed-crackdowns/ |access-date=2025-04-15 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}

[[File:Map of countries blocking Anna’s Archive.svg|thumb|Map of countries blocking Anna's Archive:

{{legend|#c11f1fff|Currently blocked}}

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Since 2023, Anna's Archive domains have appeared in the annual Notorious Markets List of the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which highlights digital and physical markets allegedly involved in large-scale intellectual property infringement. These reports describe the site as related to Sci-Hub and Library Genesis.{{Cite web |last=Maxwell |first=Andy |date=2024-01-31 |title=World's Most Notorious Pirate Sites Listed in New USTR Report |url=https://torrentfreak.com/worlds-most-notorious-pirate-sites-listed-in-new-ustr-report-240131/ |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2024-01-30 |title=2023 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy |url=https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/2023_Review_of_Notorious_Markets_for_Counterfeiting_and_Piracy_Notorious_Markets_List_final.pdf |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=United States Trade Representative}}{{Cite web |date=2025-01-08 |title=2024 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy |url=https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/2024%20Review%20of%20Notorious%20Markets%20of%20Counterfeiting%20and%20Piracy%20(final).pdf |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=United States Trade Representative}} In response to a request for comment by the Office on its 2023 List, the Association of American Publishers identified Anna's Archive as an infringing site, and analyzed its cryptocurrency wallets to find that it had received over $29,000 in funds as of July 2023.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2023-10-13 |title=Pirate Sites Exploit 'Interplanetary File System' Gateways, Publishers Warn |url=https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-sites-exploit-interplanetary-file-system-gateways-publishers-warn-231013/ |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2023-10-09 |title=Comment from Association of American Publishers |url=https://www.regulations.gov/comment/USTR-2023-0009-0020 |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=Regulations.gov}}

In October 2023, Anna's Archive was reported to have scraped the entirety of WorldCat, the world's largest bibliographic database, and made its proprietary data freely available, which Anna described as "a major milestone in mapping out all the books in the world".{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2023-10-03 |title=Anna's Archive Scraped WorldCat to Help Preserve 'All' Books in the World |url=https://torrentfreak.com/annas-archive-scraped-worldcat-to-help-preserve-all-books-in-the-world-231003/ |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}} OCLC, WorldCat's maintainer, responded by filing a lawsuit against the site in an Ohio federal court in January 2024, claiming the scrape was achieved through cyberattacks on its servers. It sought over $5 million in total damages and an injunction to stop Anna's Archive from scraping or sharing its data.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2024-07-08 |title=Anna's Archive Faces Millions in Damages and a Permanent Injunction |url=https://torrentfreak.com/annas-archive-faces-millions-in-damages-and-a-permanent-injunction-240708/ |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}} OCLC clarified that although its internal systems were not breached, it believes the site's actions legally constitute hacking.{{Cite web |last=Price |first=Gary |date=2024-02-07 |title=Report: "Lawsuit Accuses Anna's Archive of Hacking WorldCat, Stealing 2.2 TB Data" |url=https://www.infodocket.com/2024/02/07/report-lawsuit-accuses-annas-archive-of-hacking-worldcat-stealing-2-2-tb-data/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Library Journal infoDOCKET |language=en-US}} The only named defendant denied any involvement with Anna's Archive or the scrape.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |title=Key Defendant in Anna's Archive Lawsuit Denies Any Involvement With the Site |url=https://torrentfreak.com/key-defendant-in-annas-archive-lawsuit-denies-any-involvement-with-the-site-240416/ |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}} Technology writer Glyn Moody criticized the suit as "costly and pointless", saying it went against OCLC's stated mission of making information accessible.{{Cite web |last=Moody |first=Glyn |date=2024-08-21 |title=OCLC says "what is known must be shared", but sues Anna's Archive to stop it sharing knowledge |url=https://walledculture.org/oclc-says-what-is-known-must-be-shared-but-sues-annas-archive-to-stop-it-sharing-knowledge/ |access-date=2025-01-19 |website=Walled Culture |language=en-US}}

In July 2024, in the wake of the suit, the .org mirror of Anna's Archive was replaced with a new .gs mirror to avoid falling under US jurisdiction; however, soon afterward, the .gs domain was suspended and the mirror reverted to the original .org domain.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2024-07-18 |title=Anna's Archive Loses .GS Domain Name But Remains Resilient |url=https://torrentfreak.com/annas-archive-loses-gs-domain-name-but-remains-resilient-240718/ |access-date=2024-12-29 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}

In March 2025, the court deferred judgement on aspects of the case to the Supreme Court of Ohio over concerns about its legal novelty, denying both a motion for default judgement from OCLC and a motion to dismiss from the named defendant.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2025-03-31 |title=Anna's Archive Scraping: Court Defers Key Questions to State Supreme Court |url=https://torrentfreak.com/annas-archive-scraping-court-defers-key-questions-to-state-supreme-court/ |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=TorrentFreak}} In April, OCLC reached an agreement with the named defendant to drop her from the case, focusing instead on obtaining judgement against the site itself.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2025-04-17 |title=Alleged Anna's Archive Operator Dropped from U.S. 'Scraping' Lawsuit |url=https://torrentfreak.com/alleged-annas-archive-operator-dropped-from-u-s-scraping-lawsuit-250417/ |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=TorrentFreak}}

In March 2024, a group of authors filed a lawsuit against Nvidia in a California federal court for allegedly training its generative AI platform NeMo on the Books3 dataset,{{Cite news |last=Stempel |first=Jonathan |date=2024-03-11 |title=Nvidia is sued by authors over AI use of copyrighted works |url=https://reuters.com/technology/nvidia-is-sued-by-authors-over-ai-use-copyrighted-works-2024-03-10/ |access-date=2025-01-19 |work=Reuters |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Belanger |first=Ashley |date=2024-03-11 |title=Nvidia sued over AI training data as copyright clashes continue |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/novelists-sue-nvidia-to-stop-spread-of-ai-models-trained-on-copyrighted-books/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-US}} which includes copyrighted data from several shadow libraries, Anna's Archive among them.{{Cite web |last=Belanger |first=Ashley |date=2024-05-28 |title=Nvidia denies pirate e-book sites are "shadow libraries" to shut down lawsuit |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/nvidia-denies-pirate-e-book-sites-are-shadow-libraries-to-shut-down-lawsuit/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-US}} In the company's response, it disputed the characterization of these sites as shadow libraries, despite Anna's own use of the term.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2024-05-27 |title=NVIDIA Denies Copyright Infringement Claims in Authors' AI Lawsuit |url=https://torrentfreak.com/nvidia-denies-copyright-infringement-claims-in-authors-ai-lawsuit-240527/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}

In February 2025, internal emails were unsealed in a lawsuit against Meta in a California court for allegedly training its AI models on copyrighted works which revealed that the company had downloaded over 81 terabytes of data through Anna's Archive torrents, in addition to data previously downloaded from Library Genesis. The plaintiffs in the case, a group of authors including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Christopher Golden, alleged that CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally authorized the use of shadow libraries. The company had argued that its use of copyrighted data in AI training constituted fair use.{{Cite web |last=Belanger |first=Ashley |date=2025-02-06 |title="Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn't feel right": Meta emails unsealed |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/meta-torrented-over-81-7tb-of-pirated-books-to-train-ai-authors-say/ |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2025-02-06 |title=Meta Torrented over 81 TB of Data Through Anna's Archive, Despite Few Seeders |url=https://torrentfreak.com/meta-torrented-over-81-tb-of-data-through-annas-archive-despite-few-seeders-250206/ |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Pontefract |first=Dan |title=Authors Challenge Meta's Use Of Their Books For Training AI |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2025/03/25/authors-challenge-metas-use-of-their-books-for-training-ai/ |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=Forbes |language=en}}

In March 2024, the Rotterdam District Court ordered major internet service providers in the Netherlands to block Anna's Archive and Library Genesis due to a request by advocacy group BREIN. The order was "dynamic", meaning that if the blocked sites changed domains or IP addresses in the future, ISPs would be obligated to update their blocks.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2024-03-23 |title=Dutch Court Orders ISP to Block 'Anna's Archive' and 'LibGen' |url=https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-court-orders-isp-to-block-annas-archive-and-libgen-240322/ |access-date=2024-12-29 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2024-03-21 |title=Blokkering shadow libraries bevolen |trans-title=Blocking shadow libraries ordered |url=https://stichtingbrein.nl/blokkering-shadow-libraries-bevolen/ |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=BREIN |language=nl-NL}}{{Cite web |date=2024-04-04 |title=BREIN wil blokkering shadow libraries |trans-title=BREIN wants to block shadow libraries |url=https://www.ictmagazine.nl/nieuws/brein-wil-blokkering-shadow-libraries/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=ICT Magazine |language=nl-NL}}{{Cite web |date=2024-04-26 |title=Succesvolle toepassing Convenant Blokkeren Websites voor Library Genesis en Anna's Archive |trans-title=Successful application of Covenant Blocking Websites for Library Genesis and Anna's Archive |url=https://www.recht.nl/232695/succesvolle-toepassing-convenant-blokkeren-websites-voor-library-genesis-en-annas-archive |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=Recht.nl |language=nl-NL}}

In January 2024, Italy's national communications agency ordered ISPs in the country to block Anna's Archive due to a copyright complaint by the Italian Publishers Association.{{Cite web |last=Stefanello |first=Viola |date=2024-01-12 |title=Che fine ha fatto il movimento per il libero accesso alle pubblicazioni accademiche |trans-title=What happened to the movement for open access to academic publications? |url=https://www.ilpost.it/2024/01/12/fine-guerrilla-open-access/ |access-date=2025-01-19 |website=Il Post |language=it}} An investigation by the country's Digital Services Directorate confirmed the presence of copyrighted material on the site and found that some of its servers were likely owned by a Ukrainian hosting provider, but failed to uncover the identity of its operators.{{Cite web |last=Maxwell |first=Andy |date=2024-01-04 |title=Silenzio! 'Anna's Archive' Shadow Library Blocked Following Publishers' Complaint |url=https://torrentfreak.com/silenzio-annas-archive-shadow-library-blocked-following-publishers-complaint-240104/ |access-date=2024-12-29 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}

In December 2024, the UK Publishers Association won an order from the High Court of Justice requiring major ISPs to block Anna's Archive and other copyright-infringing sites, extending a list of sites blocked since 2015 under section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. The Association said it identified over one million records of copyrighted books and journal articles on Anna's Archive domains.{{Cite web |last=Battersby |first=Matilda |date=2024-12-20 |title=Publishers Association wins High Court bid ordering internet service providers to block pirate websites |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/publishers-association-wins-high-court-bid-ordering-internet-service-providers-to-block-pirate-websites |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=The Bookseller |language=En}}{{Cite web |last=Joynson |first=Jasmine |date=2024-12-20 |title=Authors and Publishers Win High Court Support in Fight Against Infringement |url=https://www.publishers.org.uk/authors-and-publishers-win-high-court-support-in-fight-against-infringement/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Publishers Association}}

Anna's Archive was among Google Search's ten most reported domains for DMCA takedown as of June 2024.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2024-06-22 |title=Google Search Processed a Billion DMCA Takedowns in Four Months |url=https://torrentfreak.com/google-search-processed-a-billion-dmca-takedowns-in-four-months-240622/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}} It has been one of the most targeted sites of Dutch anti-piracy service Link-Busters, which sends takedown notices to Google and other search engines on behalf of major publishers.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2024-05-31 |title=Link-Busters Flagged Over 56 Million 'Pirate' URLs to Google in a Week |url=https://torrentfreak.com/link-busters-flagged-more-than-5000-pirate-google-results-per-second-240531/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2024-07-29 |title=Link-Busters Sent a Billion DMCA Takedown Requests to Google Search |url=https://torrentfreak.com/link-busters-sent-a-billion-dmca-takedown-requests-to-google-search-240720/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2025-01-17 |title=More Than Half of All Google Search Takedowns Now Come from Link-Busters |url=https://torrentfreak.com/more-than-half-of-all-google-search-takedowns-now-come-from-link-busters-241230/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}

In January 2025, the messaging app Telegram suspended the channel for Anna's Archive due to copyright infringement, despite the operators reportedly taking precautions to avoid infringing posts on the app. Z-Library's Telegram channel was suspended the same week, and neither was alerted of the action. The removals were speculated to be linked to legal action by an Indian court.{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |date=2025-01-15 |title=Telegram Shuts Down Z-Library & Anna's Archive Channels Over Copyright Infringement |url=https://torrentfreak.com/telegram-shuts-down-z-library-annas-archive-channels-over-copyright-infringement-250115/ |access-date=2025-01-16 |website=TorrentFreak |language=en}}

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