After a crackdown last November 2022 which brought down the famous Z-Library site, it is coming back to the fore with even stronger protection mechanisms. Enough to relaunch the war of rights holders.
Two hundred domain names seized, two Russian operators imprisoned in Argentina: the crackdown carried out by the police last November 2022 caused Z-Library, the largest library of books and pirate magazines in the world. A judicial and legal action that fizzled out: such Lernaean Hydra, Z-Library has grown a new face. Or rather a multitude, since its new mode of operation, of the “hydra” type precisely, suggests a technical invincibility which could make the rights holders shudder.
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Let’s go back to the history: last November, Z-Library became inaccessible to ordinary mortals. The various domain names seized and its imprisoned operators suggest an easy victory. In reality, the teams that run the site are much larger and Z-Library continued its journey on the “Darknet”, based on Tor browser and other mirrors. The novelty of the day is his return to Mr. and Mrs. Toutlemonde’s internet, without any complicated manipulation – in fact, we still had to use a VPN to verify his return from our French connection. ” We have good news for you – Z-Library is back on the Clearnet again! “, thus announces the team of the site. A presence on the “normal” net which is made possible by a new mode of operation, protected from a new raid by the police.
TPB’s hydra technique and a single domain per user
As recalled by TorrentFreak, which echoes this news, Z-Library was inspired by the operation of the famous site The Pirate Bay (TPB) by spreading over several domain names to improve its resilience. But in addition to this redundancy, the developers of Z-Library have invented a unique system of creating a unique private domain for each user.
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In fact, once the registration has been completed and validated by a confirmation email, you will receive an email including two private URLs. So private that site operators ask users not to share them. Thus, if the facade – the site to register – can be reoriented at will on the different domain names of Z-Library, it seems on paper quite difficult to be able to chase after all the private domains. Which give them access to the catalog of books. But not unlimited.
Half philosophical commitment, half money machine
Running a site with free downloadable content can quickly get expensive. And the Z-Library teams, who always claim ” believe that the knowledge and cultural heritage of humanity should be accessible to all humans in the world, regardless of their wealth, social status, nationality […] is still the sole purpose of Z-Library “have still devised different plans. The guest is entitled to 5 downloads per day (but how to access it?), the Basic account 10 downloads and a horde of improvements (history, sending files to an email or a GDrive account, access to a Telegram bot, etc.) and a Premium account based on donations. Split into donation increments – from 1 to $4.99, up to $100 and more – the daily volume increases from 15 to 999 files downloaded per day.
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The return of Z-Library to the “clearnet”, certainly a little more technical than in the past, is nonetheless a snub (to be polite) vis-à-vis the authorities and rights holders. And therefore not only potentially relaunches the legal war. But also raises, again, the question of the development of services à la Netflix/Spotify in the field of publishing. While some genres such as manga, comics and other comics are quite driving, many genres are excluded from these offers. Not even to mention the absence – or the technical cumbersomeness – allowing the borrowing/renting of out-of-print titles.
Torrentfreak
