{"id":87141,"date":"2026-08-25T09:05:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=87141"},"modified":"2026-08-25T09:05:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:05:58","slug":"annas-archive-owes-340-million-lost-several-domains-but-its-still-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=87141","title":{"rendered":"Anna\u2019s Archive Owes $340 Million, Lost Several Domains, but It\u2019s Still Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"anna'sMid August, shadow library Anna\u2019s Archive<\/a> faced extended downtime, which had many regular visitors concerned. <\/p>\n

These worries didn\u2019t come out of nowhere as the site has been under quite a bit of legal pressure in recent months. <\/p>\n

Lawsuit Takes Domains Offline<\/h2>\n

In January, the site lost its flagship .org domain<\/a>. Initially it wasn\u2019t clear what was behind this action but unsealed court records eventually connected it to a lawsuit filed<\/a> by music companies. This case was a direct response to a Spotify scrape<\/a> Anna\u2019s Archive announced a few weeks earlier. <\/p>\n

The music companies obtained an injunction from a U.S. federal court to go after the site\u2019s domain names. This took out not only the .ORG domain but also the .SE domain, as well as the .PM and .VG domains that were put in place as backups. <\/p>\n

Anna\u2019s Archive eventually landed on .GL, .PK, and .GD domains, which remain active today. These are connected to registrars and registries based outside the United States that, apparently, do not comply with U.S. court orders.<\/p>\n

Two Lawsuits, $340 Million<\/h2>\n

The music industry injunction also came with a substantial default judgment that was handed down in April. This includes a $322 million default judgment<\/a> against the unknown operators of Anna\u2019s Archive, who failed to show up in court. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Anna\u2019s Archive<\/em><\/center>
\"anna\"<\/center><\/p>\n

This judgment was soon followed by a similar request from a group of major book publishers, including Penguin Random House, Elsevier, and HarperCollins, who sued the shadow library at a New York federal court. <\/p>\n

That case also resulted in a default judgment, with a damages award that is smaller, but still substantial at $19.5 million<\/a>. In addition, the court also issued an injunction targeting Anna\u2019s Archive\u2019s domain registrars and registries.<\/p>\n

\u2018Coordinated Attack\u2019<\/h2>\n

With this backdrop, it is no surprise that legal troubles came to mind when the site became unreachable earlier this month. However, this time around, the threat appears to have come from elsewhere. <\/p>\n

After the site came back online, the official AnnaArchivist account attributed it to a coordinated attack by an unnamed party.<\/p>\n

\u201cApologies for the issues. We suspect a coordinated attack. We\u2019ve mitigated the attack vectors\u2026\u201d the message<\/a> read, while noting that memberships already include one to two extra days per month to account for downtime. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Message from AnnaArchivist on Reddit<\/em><\/center>
\"anna\"<\/center><\/p>\n

Theoretically, an attack can also come from a rogue anti-piracy group, but there\u2019s no evidence for that. A scam or phishing operation, which tries to cash in on Anna\u2019s Archive search traffic, is another option. Neither is confirmed. <\/p>\n

What Options Are Left?<\/h2>\n

Looking more broadly at the enforcement action that has taken place over the past months, we see that U.S. courts have run into their jurisdictional borders on the Internet. <\/p>\n

This likely comes as a disappointment for rightsholders, but it also offers a clear takeaway. <\/p>\n

U.S. courts can\u2019t reach domains registered beyond their jurisdiction. That\u2019s likely to increase calls for site-blocking legislation, a measure the industry has long favored and that remains high on the political agenda<\/a> in the United States.<\/p>\n

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

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mid August, shadow library Anna\u2019s Archive faced extended downtime, which had many regular visitors concerned. These worries didn\u2019t come out of nowhere as the site has been under quite a bit of legal pressure in recent months. Lawsuit Takes Domains Offline In January, the site lost its flagship .org domain. Initially it wasn\u2019t clear what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87141","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\/87141","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=87141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}