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 The project's homepage | |
Type of site | Shadow library |
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| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional[notes 1] |
| Current status | Active |
| Part of a series on |
| File sharing and online piracy |
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Library Genesis (shortened to LibGen) is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic and general-interest books, images, comics, audiobooks, and magazines. The site enables free access to content that is otherwise paywalled or not digitized elsewhere.[1] LibGen describes itself as a "links aggregator", providing a searchable database of items "collected from publicly available public Internet resources" as well as files uploaded "from users".[2]
LibGen provides access to copyrighted works, such as PDFs of content from Elsevier's ScienceDirect web-portal. Publishers like Elsevier have accused Library Genesis of internet piracy. Others assert that academic publishers unfairly benefit from government-funded research, written by researchers, many of whom are employed by public universities, and that LibGen is helping to disseminate research that should be freely available in the first place.[3]
Outages
Since December 2024, libGen has been targeted by US based Educational Publishers Pearson Education, alongside being placed on a ban list in Germany at request of multiple unnamed publishers.[4]
This legal action is leading to significant outages across the service.
History
The roots of Library Genesis lie in Russia, where the former Soviet Russia and Soviet Union underground book sharing culture known as samizdat arose to illegally get around the tight censorship.[5] As access to printing in the Soviet Union was strictly controlled and censored, dissident intellectuals would hand-copy and retype illegal manuscripts for secret circulation. This was effectively legalized under Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, though the state monopoly on printed media remained.[6]
The volunteers moved into the Russian computer network ("RuNet") in the 1990s, which became awash with hundreds of thousands of uncoordinated contributions. Librarians became especially active, using borrowed access passwords to download copies of scientific and scholarly articles from Western Internet sources, then uploading them to RuNet.[7]
In the early 21st century, the efforts became coordinated, and integrated into one massive system known as Library Genesis, or LibGen, around 2008.[8][9][10] It subsequently absorbed the contents of, and became the functional successor to, library.nu, which was shut down by legal action in 2012.[11] By 2014, its catalog was more than twice the size of library.nu with 1.2 million records.[9] As of 4 February 2024,[update] Library Genesis claimed to have more than 2.4 million non-fiction books, 80 million science journal articles, 2 million comics files, 2.2 million fiction books, and 0.4 million magazine issues.[12]
In 2020, the project was forked under a different domain, "libgen.fun", due to internal conflict within the project.[13][better source needed] As a result, databases were maintained independently and there were content differences between libgen.fun and other LibGen domains.[citation needed] As of 2025, the content of libgen.fun is no longer available, the domain being seized.[4]
As of August 2024, the project, whose website was experiencing temporary outages and technical errors, appeared to no longer be actively managed and its lead programmer was reported to be "inactive".[14]
In mid-December 2024, as the majority of Library Genesis domains were seized or disabled through legal action from a group of publishers led by Pearson Education, the German consortium Clearingstelle Urheberrecht im Internet (CUII), composed of copyright holder groups and internet service providers, also instituted a country-wide blocking order against Library Genesis at the request of publishers whose names were redacted.[4] The latter action was taken without court authorization; instead, the Federal Network Agency was consulted to clear the net neutrality requirements.[4][15]
Legal issues
Litigation
Elsevier lawsuit (2015)
On June 3, 2015, Library Genesis (along with the creator of Sci-Hub, Alexandra Elbakyan) was sued by Elsevier, the academic division of the third-largest publishing group by worldwide revenue in 2014.[16] Elsevier accused it of "operating an international network of piracy and copyright infringement"[17] and granting free access to articles and books. In response, the admins accused Elsevier of gaining most of its profits from publicly funded research which should be freely available to all as they are paid for by taxpayers.[3] Elsevier's lawyers then requested the Public Interest Registry to disable one of the domains covered by the lawsuit without a court order but were refused. On June 18, 2015, the District Court for the Southern District of New York allowed Elsevier to serve notice on the defendants by email. Within days of the court decision (before June 22), the then main "libgen.org" website and several mirrors went offline.[18]
As a result of Elsevier's lawsuit, in late October 2015 the District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered LibGen to shut down and to suspend use of the domain name (libgen.org),[19] but the site remained accessible through alternative domains.[20][21]
Pearson, McGraw Hill, Macmillan and Cengage lawsuit (2023–2024)
On September 14, 2023, the educational publishers Pearson Education (the then third-largest publisher by global revenue[22][23]), McGraw Hill Education, Macmillan Publishers and Cengage Group initiated a lawsuit for copyright infringement against Library Genesis before the District Court for the Southern District of New York. They claimed that the Library Genesis websites "deprive [them] and their authors of income from their creative works, devalue the textbook market and [their] works, and may cause [them] to cease publishing certain works". They demanded control or deletion of the Library Genesis domains and the seizure of its operators' alleged profits.[24] On March 1, 2024, the publishers requested a default judgment and an injunction compelling the gateway providers IPFS, Pinata Technologies and Cloudflare to deny services to Library Genesis.[25]
On September 26, 2024, a US judge ordered LibGen to pay the publishers US$30 million, though the parties responsible for the site are unknown.[26]
In December 2024, the publishers succeeded in seizing the "library.lol" domain and taking most of the other Library Genesis domains offline.[4]
Hosting country
LibGen is reported to be registered in both Russia and the Netherlands, making the appropriate jurisdiction for legal action unclear.[3][27]
Blocks
Some Libgen URLs are blocked by a number of ISPs in the United Kingdom,[28] but such DNS-based blocks are claimed to do little to deter access.[3] It is also blocked by ISPs in France,[29] Germany,[30] Greece,[31] Italy,[32] Belgium (which redirects to the Belgian Federal Police blockpage),[33] and Russia (in November 2018).[34][35] On March 23, 2024, the Dutch pirate site blocklist has been reported to now include Anna's Archive and Library Genesis, based on a request by BREIN, a local anti-piracy group.[36]
Alleged Meta AI training
Court documents unsealed in March 2025 suggested that Meta Platforms had used LibGen resources to train its generative language AI models. The documents were part of a class-action lawsuit filed against Meta by the novelists Richard Kadrey and Christopher Golden and comedian Sarah Silverman.[37][38]
Usage
Until the end of 2014, Sci-Hub, which provides free access to millions of research papers and books, relied on LibGen as storage. Papers requested by users were requested from LibGen and served from there if available, otherwise they were fetched by other means and then stored on LibGen.[39]
In 2019 archivists and freedom of information activists launched a project to better seed and host LibGen's data dumps.[40] The project's spokesperson and coordinator 'shrine' described the effort as a way for a "permanent library card for the world" and reported that the response has been "overwhelmingly positive from everyone".[41] In 2020, the project launched a peer-to-peer digital library of content on Sci-Hub and Library Genesis using IPFS.[42][43]
See also
- Guerilla Open Access Manifesto – Manifesto for radical Open Access
- ICanHazPDF – Hashtag used on Twitter
Explanatory notes
- ^ LibGen can be viewed, downloaded, uploaded without an account, but registration is required to view or read topics within its forum.
References
- ^ Cabanac, Guillaume (April 2015). "Bibliogifts in LibGen? A study of a text-sharing platform driven by biblioleaks and crowdsourcing" (PDF). Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 67 (4): 874–884. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.698.4283. doi:10.1002/asi.23445. S2CID 6643023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
- ^ "About Us". libgen.me. Archived from the original on 14 August 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
The libgen.me links aggregator is a community aiming at collecting and cataloging items descriptions for the most part of scientific, scientific and technical directions, as well as file metadata. In addition to the descriptions, the aggregator contains only links to third-party resources hosted by users. All information posted on the website is collected from publicly available public Internet resources and is intended solely for informational purposes.
- ^ a b c d Glance, David (15 June 2015). "Elsevier acts against research article pirate sites and claims irreparable harm". The Conversation (U.S. edition). Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Van der Sar, Ernesto (22 December 2024), Domain Seizures and German ISP Blockade Add to Libgen's Troubles, TorrentFreak, archived from the original on 22 December 2024
- ^ Brown, Elizabeth Nolan (2022). "You Can't Stop Pirate Libraries". Reason. Archived from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
- ^ "Samizdat | Dissident Press, Underground Publishing & Soviet Censorship". Britannica.
- ^ Bodó 2014, Abstract.
- ^ Karaganis, Joe; Bodo, Balazs (15 December 2020). "Russia is building a new Napster — but for academic research". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
- ^ a b Bodó, Balázs (27 April 2018). Library Genesis in Numbers: Mapping the Underground Flow of Knowledge. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262345705. Archived from the original on 17 January 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
- ^ Joe Karaganis (2018). Shadow Libraries: Access to Knowledge in Global Higher Education. MIT Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-262-34570-5. Archived from the original on 17 January 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
- ^ Bodó, Balázs (2014). "A Short History of the Russian Digital Shadow Libraries". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2616631. ISSN 1556-5068.
- ^ "LibGen.lc Home Page". LibGen.lc. Library Genesis. Archived from the original on 10 August 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
- ^ shrine (7 February 2021). "Hey, shrine here. I made the original call to preserve Library Genesis because the project's simmering internal conflicts were coming to a head. The libgen.fun fork is the result of that conflict. You pose a good concern worth discussing openly". reddit. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
- ^ Van der Sar, Ernesto (14 August 2024), Popular Shadow Library 'LibGen' Breaks Down Amidst Legal Troubles, TorrentFreak, archived from the original on 14 August 2024
- ^ Van der Sar, Ernesto (11 March 2021), ISPs and Rightsholders Unite to Block Pirate Sites in Germany, TorrentFreak, archived from the original on 19 December 2024
- ^ The World's 57 Largest Book Publishers, 2015, Publishers Weekly, 26 June 2015, archived from the original on 30 June 2015.
- ^ Van der Sar, Ernesto (9 June 2015), Elsevier Cracks Down on Pirated Scientific Articles, TorrentFreak, archived from the original on 9 June 2015
- ^ Van der Sar, Ernesto (22 June 2015), Libgen Goes Down As Legal Pressure Mounts, TorrentFreak, archived from the original on 23 June 2015
- ^ "Court Orders Shutdown of LibGen, Bookfi and Sci-Hub - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2 November 2015. Archived from the original on 4 May 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
- ^ Schiermeier, Quirin (2015). "Pirate research-paper sites play hide-and-seek with publishers". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2015.18876. S2CID 188158277. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
- ^ "Sci-hub, bookfi and libgen resurface after being shut down". TorrentFreak. 21 November 2015. Archived from the original on 4 May 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
- ^ Milliott, Jim; Wischenbart, Ruediger (17 October 2024), The 10 Largest Publishers in the World, Publishers Weekly, archived from the original on 25 November 2024
- ^ M., Zul (22 July 2023), 10 Largest Publishers in the World (2023), archived from the original on 3 August 2023
- ^ Maxwell, Andy (15 September 2023), Publishers' Lawsuit Accuses Libgen of "Staggering" Copyright Infringement, TorrentFreak, archived from the original on 15 September 2023
- ^ Van der Sar, Ernesto (4 March 2024), Publishers Target LibGen Domains, IPFS Gateways, Plus $30m in Piracy Damages, TorrentFreak, archived from the original on 4 March 2024
- ^ Belanger, Ashley (26 September 2024). "Pirate library must pay publishers $30M, but no one knows who runs it". ArsTechnica. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
- ^ Mance, Henry (26 May 2015). "Publishers win landmark case against ebook pirates". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Archived from the original on 8 July 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- ^ Kamen, Matt (27 May 2015). "UK ISPs must block ebook pirate sites (Wired UK)". Wired UK. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
- ^ Rees, Marc (30 March 2019). "Les principaux FAI français doivent bloquer Sci-Hub et LibGen" [Main French ISPs must block Sci-Hub and LibGen]. Next INpact. Archived from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ Maxwell, Andy (8 August 2018). "Vodafone Blocks LibGen Following Elsevier, Springer & Macmillan Injunction". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
- ^ "Decisions of the Committee - ΟΡΓΑΝΙΣΜΟΣ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΗΣ ΙΔΙΟΚΤΗΣΙΑΣ". opi.gr. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni. "Delibera 178-18-CSP - Documento - AGCOM". www.agcom.it. Archived from the original on 8 January 2023. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "Les éditeurs scientifiques se liguent contre la piraterie". L'Echo (in French). 16 October 2019. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
- ^ "Denmark Blocks Sci-Hub Plus Streaming, Torrent & YouTube-Ripping Sites". TorrentFreak. 26 September 2019. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ "Sci-Hub "Pirate Bay of Science" Blocked in Russia Over Medical Studies * TorrentFreak". 30 November 2018. Archived from the original on 5 December 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
- ^ Van der Sar, Ernesto (23 March 2024). "Dutch Court Orders ISP to Block 'Anna's Archive' and 'LibGen'". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ Knibbs, Kate. "Meta Secretly Trained Its AI on a Notorious Piracy Database, Newly Unredacted Court Docs Reveal". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
- ^ Reisner, Alex (20 March 2025). "The Unbelievable Scale of AI's Pirated-Books Problem". The Atlantic. Retrieved 25 March 2025.
- ^ Himmelstein, Daniel S; Romero, Ariel Rodriguez; Levernier, Jacob G; Munro, Thomas Anthony; McLaughlin, Stephen Reid; Greshake Tzovaras, Bastian; Greene, Casey S (1 March 2018). "Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature". eLife. 7 e32822. doi:10.7554/eLife.32822. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 5832410. PMID 29424689.
- ^ Gault, Matthew (2 December 2019). "Archivists Are Trying to Make Sure a 'Pirate Bay of Science' Never Goes Down". Vice. Archived from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ "Meet the Guy Behind the LibGen Torrent Seeding Movement * TorrentFreak". Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ "IPFS Free Library". freeread.org. Archived from the original on 25 June 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
- ^ "p2p Free Library: Help build humanity's free library on IPFS with Sci-Hub and Library Genesis". reddit. 14 October 2020. Archived from the original on 19 October 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
Further reading
- Houle, Louis (16 August 2017). Sci-Hub and LibGen: what if… why not? (PDF). IFLA WLIC 2017. Gdańsk, Poland – via International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.
- Karaganis, Joe, ed. (4 May 2018). Shadow Libraries: Access to Knowledge in Global Higher Education. MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/11339.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-262-53501-4.
