It’s easier, it’s cheaper, it’s more effective, because once you shut down the platform, there’s less copying,” Lipton said.

“It’s easier to shut down the source than to go and sue the millions of individual people who are doing.

She said the FBI’s decision to go after Z-Library instead of its individual users was a practical decision, not a legal one. “They should not be that much - or, if they are, then the University should pay for them and just lend them out like a high school, but they don’t.”Īccording to Lipton, students commit copyright infringement by downloading PDF or ebook textbooks from websites such as Z-Library. He said college students shouldn’t have to pay as much as they currently do for textbooks. Liam Beckett, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, said he used Z-Library for personal and academic books, and also pirates movies, video games and more. College students across the country - in fact, across the world - used Z-Library in lieu of buying textbooks for years. However, Z-Library published many other textbooks in PDF or ebook form. Some textbooks require online codes to complete homework assignments on websites such as Sapling and cannot be pirated. “We may be seeing action now, but it doesn’t mean they weren’t investigating prior to now.” “If the FBI is taking action now, they’ve probably been investigating for some time,” Lipton said. However, Jacqueline Lipton, an associate professor for legal writing at Pitt who specializes in digital technology and intellectual property law, said the FBI may have begun their investigation a long time ago. BookTokers have widely promoted the shadow library as “the go-to place for free ebooks,” as the Authors Guild said in a complaint to the Office of U.S. Many seem to believe the social media site TikTok, home to the “BookTok” community, is to blame for Z-Library’s demise.

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