A consortium of prominent US science and education publishers is taking legal action against the infamous online repository known as Library Genesis, or more commonly, LibGen, The Register reported. Their aim is to shut down the platform and recoup what they assert are profits made through copyright infringement.
This lawsuit, filed in a federal court in New York, requests a legal mandate that would either transfer ownership of the LibGen domain names to the plaintiffs or, alternatively, result in the cancellation or deletion of these domain names. The intent is to disrupt the access of visitors, predominantly students, who are believed to number in the millions. According to data from similarweb.com, these sites collectively received visits from approximately 9 million users in the US each month from March to May of 2023.
The heart of the publishers’ complaint centers on the assertion that students are continually encouraged through social media and peer recommendations to use LibGen instead of purchasing legitimate copies of textbooks. This practice, they claim, undermines the income of both publishers and the authors they represent.
The lawsuit alleges that several LibGen websites solicit “donations” from users, presented in English and accepted exclusively in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Monero. It further notes that one LibGen site claims to have garnered $182,540 in donations since January 1, 2023. Additionally, the publishers assert that the individuals behind LibGen, identified in the lawsuit as Does 1-50 and presumed to reside outside the United States generate revenue through interstate or international commerce, including advertising.
Furthermore, the lawsuit takes aim at Google and “other intermediaries,” US companies allegedly aiding LibGen in its “unlawful operations.” These intermediaries include NameCheap for domain registration, Cloudflare for proxy services, and Google for search engine services. The complaint even includes a screenshot of Google’s “knowledge panel,” which describes LibGen as a site that provides free access to content otherwise behind paywalls or unavailable digitally.
The lawsuit also seeks unspecified damages but explicitly asks for “an accounting and disgorgement of Defendants’ profits, gains, and advantages realized from their unlawful conduct.” The complaint highlights that some of the ads on LibGen are in English, promoting various US products such as browser extensions and online games. Some of these ads may also be phishing attempts, potentially exposing users to viruses and malicious programs.
While LibGen faces legal challenges, it’s worth noting that this isn’t the first instance of academic file-sharing platforms encountering legal actions. In 2017, Sci-Hub, a similar platform, had several of its domains rendered inactive following a court order. Dutch science publisher Elsevier also secured a $15 million judgment against Sci-Hub’s operator, Alexandra Elbakyan, in the same year. Despite these legal hurdles, platforms like Sci-Hub have continued to operate and grow their user base, driven by the goal of making research papers freely accessible to benefit academia, even if it means bypassing publishers’ paywalls using leaked credentials.
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