According to a report from the copyright and digital rights publication TorrentFreak, Anna’s Archive, a prominent website notorious for the dissemination of pirated literature, finds itself under significant scrutiny from Google.
The search behemoth has reportedly obliterated approximately 749 million URLs associated with Anna’s Archive from its search results, as gleaned from a recent transparency report.
This extensive removal does not appear to be uniquely targeted; Google routinely delists content upon request from copyright proprietors. As of now, the tech titan has stripped down links to a staggering total of 15,125,359,564 pages since 2011.
This marks another chapter in an evolving narrative, accelerated by artificial intelligence, where copyright holders intensify their efforts against what are referred to as “shadow libraries.” Notably, this removal constitutes around 5% of Google’s overall takedown figures.
Anna’s Archive: A Hub for Pirated E-Books
I had not previously encountered Anna’s Archive, which is not surprising given its more recent emergence in the sector. This platform launched in 2022, soon after the U.S. Department of Justice commandeered the domains of its predecessor, Z-Library.
Since then, it has functioned within a secluded niche of the internet, acting as an open-source search engine for literary works that links users to either publicly available free sources or pirated content in their absence. Similar to Z-Library, it has been obstructed by German ISPs and faced lawsuits in the U.S., yet remains operational.
One might liken it to a literary version of the Pirate Bay, though it operates on a broader scale—a remarkable feat considering its recent inception. Notably, only 4.2 million URLs from the Pirate Bay have been excised from Google, a paltry figure compared to those removed from Anna’s Archive.
The Role of AI Scraping in Takedown Requests
This stark contrast may stem from heightened aggressiveness in takedown petitions from publishers and authors, with over 1,000 distinct users having submitted removal requests thus far, per Google’s data.
This collective includes both individuals and sizable entities such as Penguin Random House. Their vigilance could be tied to Anna’s Archive’s position on AI, as the site has publicly acknowledged granting access to 30 LLM developers for training on its “illegal archive of books” while still hosting openly accessible pages for public use.
The future trajectory for copyright holders and readers remains uncertain. Importantly, despite common misconceptions, Google does not govern the internet.
Removing a site from its search engine does not obstruct users from navigating to it directly. All three domains associated with Anna’s Archive—annas-archive.org, annas-archive.se, and annas-archive.li—remain operational.
Moreover, it is crucial to note that Anna’s Archive does not host pirated material directly but merely directs users to links where such content can be found.
This positions it in a nebulous legal domain, which, bolstered by its open-source ethos and a staunch belief in the moral rectitude of “preserving and hosting these files,” suggests its persistence in some form for years to come.
However, as corporations like Meta face scrutiny for using pirated content to train their AI models, the trend of actions akin to Google’s may proliferate, potentially leading to similar measures from other sites or even legal authorities.
Stakeholders would be wise to prepare accordingly. (And for those wondering “Who precisely is Anna?”—the archive’s FAQ clarifies: “You are Anna.” This serves as a tribute to the anonymous contributors who supply much of its material.)
Source link: Au.lifehacker.com.
