{"id":87975,"date":"2026-10-24T09:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T09:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=87975"},"modified":"2026-10-24T09:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T09:06:08","slug":"ai-assisted-paper-on-z-library-cites-a-torrentfreak-article-that-doesnt-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=87975","title":{"rendered":"AI-Assisted Paper on Z-Library Cites a TorrentFreak Article That Doesn\u2019t Exist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"robotZ-Library<\/a> is one of the largest pirate ebook libraries on the Internet, offering millions of books and papers for free.<\/p>\n

For students and researchers who can\u2019t afford expensive textbooks and journal subscriptions, it can be a useful resource. At the same time, publishers have spent years trying to take it down, with takedown notices and blocking orders<\/a>, while U.S. authorities indicted its alleged operators.<\/p>\n

This tension is the subject of a paper<\/a> published earlier this month in the journal New Review of Academic Librarianship<\/a>, written by two librarians at Nigerian universities.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The paper<\/em><\/center>
\"the<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

The peer-reviewed academic paper doesn\u2019t pick a side and the lead author kindly shared a copy of their work with TorrentFreak. While the conclusions are not immediately newsworthy, there was one reference that stood out right away.<\/p>\n

A TorrentFreak Article That Doesn\u2019t Exist<\/h2>\n

In a section on enforcement against Z-Library, the authors write that major academic publishers, including Elsevier and Springer Nature, have taken similar legal action. The reference is a 2021 TorrentFreak article, as shown below.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The claim<\/em><\/center>
\"The<\/center><\/p>\n

The problem is that this particular legal action is new to us. The reference section<\/a> lists the article as \u201cPublishers continue crackdown on shadow libraries\u201d and links to the TorrentFreak homepage. However, we have never published an article with that title.<\/p>\n

We did report that Elsevier and Springer Nature obtained a UK blocking order<\/a> against Sci-Hub, and that several Z-Library domains<\/a> were temporarily suspended over copyright infringement claims. However, we\u2019re not aware of this particular legal action against Z-Library.<\/p>\n

Looking more closely, we see more claims that don\u2019t seem to fit. The paper\u2019s account of the Z-Library criminal case, for example, states that the U.S. Department of Justice \u201carrested individuals\u201d in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Some references<\/em><\/center>
\"references\"<\/center><\/p>\n

The DOJ\u2019s own press release<\/a> says that the two alleged operators, whose indictment we covered<\/a> at the time, were arrested in Argentina \u201cat the request of the United States.\u201d The title the paper gives for that press release doesn\u2019t exist either.<\/p>\n

Plausible but Inaccurate<\/h2>\n

These non-existent citations appear plausible, as they cite real publications and organizations in a fitting context. However, that doesn\u2019t mean they are accurate. When we went over the full reference list, we noticed that this applies to more sources.<\/p>\n

The paper cites a 2019 Harvard Journal of Law & Technology article by IP law professor Daniel Gervais, titled \u201cThe future of intellectual property in the shadow of shadow libraries.\u201d The table of contents<\/a> of the cited issue doesn\u2019t include it, and the cited pages are taken up by two articles on other topics.<\/p>\n

The same applies to a 2019 College & Research Libraries article attributed to Carol Tenopir and colleagues. The cited issue<\/a> has no article by Tenopir. She did co-author a 2019 article on a similar topic, but it appeared in a different journal, under a different title.<\/p>\n

Other references that couldn\u2019t be located include a 2019 article credited to Bj\u00f6rn Brembs and articles credited to authors named Smith, Piper, Okike and Aronson, as well as a Kaspersky report on \u201cthe hidden dangers of shadow libraries.\u201d <\/p>\n

In total, we had trouble finding at least ten of the 44 references in the paper, as well as others that didn\u2019t necessarily back the stated claims.<\/p>\n

100% AI?<\/h2>\n

The obvious question is where these mystery references came from. The paper\u2019s acknowledgements may offer a hint in the right direction, as they mention that AI was used in the research and writing process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe confirm that Consensus AI was used in sifting through large volume of literature and extract relevant information,\u201d the authors write. They add that ChatGPT was used to improve the language of parts of the paper.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Acknowledgements<\/em><\/center>
\"Acknowledgements\"<\/center><\/p>\n

AI chatbots are known to invent references, often with plausible titles credited to real experts in the field. This could explain the findings, although it doesn\u2019t prove that AI wrote these references.<\/p>\n

We also ran the paper\u2019s abstract<\/a> and conclusion<\/a> through the AI detection tool Pangram<\/a>. For both sections, the tool reported that \u201c100% of the text is likely AI-generated.\u201d These types of tools are not perfect and can produce false positives, but it would fit the picture.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Pangram\u2019s conclusion<\/em><\/center>
\"pangram<\/center><\/p>\n

It would be rather ironic if AI caused these errors. It would mean that a paper in a commercial, peer-reviewed journal, published by Taylor & Francis<\/a>, relied on AI to write about Z-Library. Meanwhile, many rightsholders are suing AI companies for using shadow libraries to train AI models.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the paper explicitly warns that sites such as Z-Library hurt publishers\u2019 revenue, which funds peer review and editing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe widespread use of Z-Library poses significant challenges to the sustainability of academic publishing. Publishers rely on subscription fees and paywalls to fund the peer review, editing, and distribution of scholarly works,\u201d it reads, presumably<\/a> generated by AI as well.<\/p>\n

The paper doesn\u2019t mention that peer reviewers generally aren\u2019t paid for their work, an issue that was central to a recent lawsuit<\/a> against major academic publishers, including Taylor & Francis.<\/p>\n

Publisher Investigates<\/h2>\n

The lead author initially shared a copy of the paper with us, but didn\u2019t answer our follow-up questions about the mysterious references. We also asked Gervais, Brembs and Tenopir whether they wrote the papers that are credited to them, but they didn\u2019t respond either.<\/p>\n

Publisher Taylor & Francis did reply and says that it\u2019s looking into the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm that this has been referred to our Editorial and Publishing Ethics & Integrity teams, who will investigate the concerns you have raised,\u201d a Taylor & Francis spokesperson informed TorrentFreak.<\/p>\n

The publisher will not comment further while the investigation is ongoing. Whether the paper will be corrected or retracted has yet to be seen.
\n
\n\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

The paper \u201cZ-Library and Full-Text Access: Democratizing Knowledge or Undermining Copyright Ethics?\u201d is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

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Z-Library is one of the largest pirate ebook libraries on the Internet, offering millions of books and papers for free. For students and researchers who can\u2019t afford expensive textbooks and journal subscriptions, it can be a useful resource. At the same time, publishers have spent years trying to take it down, with takedown notices and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87975","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\/87975","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=87975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}