{"id":77955,"date":"2024-07-09T09:01:11","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T09:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=77955"},"modified":"2024-07-09T09:01:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T09:01:11","slug":"annas-archive-faces-millions-in-damages-and-a-permanent-injunction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=77955","title":{"rendered":"Anna\u2019s Archive Faces Millions in Damages and a Permanent Injunction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"anna'sAnna\u2019s Archive<\/a> is a meta-search engine for shadow libraries that allows users to find pirated books and other related sources.<\/p>\n

The site launched in the fall of 2022<\/a>, just days after Z-Library was targeted in a U.S. criminal crackdown, to ensure continued availability of \u2018free\u2019 books and articles to the broader public. <\/p>\n

Late last year, Anna\u2019s Archive expanded its offering<\/a> by making information from OCLC\u2019s proprietary WorldCat database<\/a> available online. The site\u2019s operators took more than a year to scrape several terabytes of data and published roughly 700 million unique records online, for free.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"worldcat\"<\/center><\/p>\n

This \u2018metadata\u2019 heist was a massive breakthrough in the site\u2019s quest to archive as much published content as possible. However, OCLC wasn\u2019t pleased and responded with a lawsuit<\/a> at an Ohio federal court, accusing the site and its operators of hacking and demanding damages. <\/p>\n

The non-profit says that it spent more than a million dollars responding to Anna\u2019s Archive\u2019s alleged hacking efforts. Even then, it couldn\u2019t prevent the data from being released through a torrent. <\/p>\n

\u201cDefendants, through the Anna\u2019s Archive domains, have made, and continue to make, all 2.2 TB of WorldCat\u00ae data available for public download through its torrents,\u201d OCLC wrote in the complaint it filed in an Ohio federal court.<\/p>\n

No Response from Anna\u2019s Archive<\/h2>\n

In the months that passed since then, the operators of Anna\u2019s Archive didn\u2019t respond in court. The only named defendant flat-out denied<\/a> all connections to the site, and OCLC didn\u2019t receive any response from any of the official Anna\u2019s Archive email addresses that were served. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the pirate library continues to offer the WorldCat\u00ae data, which is a major problem for the organization. Without the prospect of a two-sided legal battle, OCLC has now moved for a default judgment. <\/p>\n

\u201cOCLC respectfully prays that a default judgment be entered in its favor against defendant Anna\u2019s Archive and that OCLC be granted declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and monetary damages,\u201d the non-profit writes. <\/p>\n

The plaintiff notes that it continues to fight an unknown defendant who is unwilling to show up in court. Therefore, a default judgment is the only option it has left.<\/p>\n

Millions in Damages<\/h2>\n

While the exact scale of the damages has yet to be established, OCLC states that it has suffered considerable harm. In response to the massive scraping operation, which caused substantial downtime, its technical infrastructure had to be upgraded and improved. <\/p>\n

For example, the organization spent $1,548,693 on upgrades for its hardware infrastructure, and an additional $608,069 for a two-year Cloudflare contract that helps to protect the service against malicious outside attacks. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"cloudflare<\/center><\/p>\n

Other costs include the salaries of 34 full-time employees, who were tasked with mitigating the harm caused by the attacks, as well as various other investigation, security, and hardware-related costs. <\/p>\n

Adding up all the extra charges brings total damages to over $5 million; OCLC says the harm is ongoing, so that number continues to rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cOCLC has incurred damages of $5,333,064 as a direct result of Anna\u2019s Archive\u2019s cyberattacks, but that amount does not fully compensate OCLC for the harm from Anna\u2019s Archive\u2019s wrongful actions. OCLC continues to suffer from harms that cannot be remedied by monetary damages.\u201d <\/p>\n

Site Blocking?<\/h2>\n

In addition to monetary damages, the non-profit also seeks injunctive relief. The motion doesn\u2019t specify the requested measures, but the original complaint sought an order that prevents Anna\u2019s Archive from scraping WorldCat data going forward. <\/p>\n

In addition, all previously scraped data should no longer be distributed. Instead, it should be destroyed in full, including all the torrents that are currently being offered. <\/p>\n

OCLC says the requested injunctive relief is warranted, noting that this isn\u2019t the first time that rightsholders have requested courts to take action against the site. Multiple countries and publishers have already recognized the illegality of Anna\u2019s Archive\u2019s pirate activities by issuing site blocking injunctions against its domains. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnna\u2019s Archive has been banned in several other countries for its deliberate violations of copyright laws, and publishers are making shutting down Anna\u2019s Archive a top priority,\u201d the motion reads, referencing bans in Italy<\/a> and The Netherlands<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, the public interest will be served by an injunction that curtails the continuing harm from Anna\u2019s Archive\u2019s flagrant disregard for the law,\u201d OCLC adds. <\/p>\n

Domain Suspension?<\/h2>\n

The current motion doesn\u2019t include a request for site blocking in the United States. However, it is possible that OCLC may ask more concrete measures in the future. That could also include a potential domain suspension. <\/p>\n

In this light, it is interesting to note that Anna\u2019s Archive moved away from its .org domain about a week ago. The .org domain is managed by the Public Interest Registry<\/a> with Tucows as the registrar, both of which fall under the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"anna<\/center><\/p>\n

Anna\u2019s Archive switched to a .GS domain instead, which falls under the UK-based Atlantis North<\/a> registry. That domain was registered by domain privacy provider Njalla, which adds another layer of complexity from an enforcement perspective.<\/p>\n

As things stand, it appears that Anna\u2019s Archive is not going anywhere. While OCLC may very well have the law on its side, enforcing it may turn out to be quite the challenge. <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

A copy of OCLC\u2019s request for a default judgment against the unnamed \u201cAnna\u2019s Archive\u201d defendant, submitted at an Ohio federal court, is available here (pdf)<\/a><\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

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Anna\u2019s Archive is a meta-search engine for shadow libraries that allows users to find pirated books and other related sources. The site launched in the fall of 2022, just days after Z-Library was targeted in a U.S. criminal crackdown, to ensure continued availability of \u2018free\u2019 books and articles to the broader public. Late last year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}