Z-Library operators arrested, charged with criminal copyright infringement; The Register, November 18, 2022

Jessica Lyons Hardcastle, The Register ; Z-Library operators arrested, charged with criminal copyright infringement

"Two Russian nationals accused of operating Z-Library – one of the largest online book piracy websites – have been charged with criminal copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering.

According to a newly unsealed indictment, 33-year-old Anton Napolsky and 27-year-old Valeriia Ermakova, both of St Petersburg, Russia, operated the site between January 2018 and November 2022, allowing people to freely download pirated books and academic papers.

The duo "did knowingly and willfully infringe a copyright for purposes of commercial advantage and private financial gain" by distributing copyrighted works "having a total retail value of more than $2,500," according to the court documents [PDF].

They were arrested on November 3 in Cordoba, Argentina, at the request of the United States. Around the same time, the Feds also took down Z-Library's network of nearly 250 domains and seized its assets – much to the dismay of students everywhere who used the site to access textbooks and academic journals without paying the hefty price tags charged by academic publishers."

Textbooks are pricey. So students are getting creative.; The Washington Post, January 17, 2020

Lauren Lumpkin , The Washington Post; Textbooks are pricey. So students are getting creative.

"The exact toll taken by college textbook costs is in dispute. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that even as tuition has risen, no cost of college life has increased faster than textbooks. The bureau found that book prices rose 88 percent between 2006 and 2016, and the College Board — which administers the SAT exam — reported that students budget more than $1,200 each year for textbooks and other class supplies, including technology. 

 

Student Monitor, a New Jersey research firm, has published a much lower estimate for student textbook costs — about $500 annually — and said student spending has been on the decline...

 

George Mason and hundreds of campuses throughout the country — including American University and the University of Maryland — are slowly adopting open educational resources, materials that are written by academics for the public domain and available at no cost to students and professors."

'I can get any novel I want in 30 seconds': can book piracy be stopped?; The Guardian, March 6, 2019

Katy Guest, The Guardian;

'I can get any novel I want in 30 seconds': can book piracy be stopped?

"The UK government’s Intellectual Property Office estimates that 17% of ebooks are consumed illegally. Generally, pirates tend to be from better-off socioeconomic groups, and aged between 30 and 60. Many use social media to ask for tips when their regular piracy website is shut down; when I contacted some, those who responded always justified it by claiming they were too poor to buy books – then tell me they read them on their e-readers, smartphones or computer screens - or that their areas lacked libraries, or they found it hard to locate books in the countries where they lived. Some felt embarrassed. Others blamed greedy authors for trying to stop them.

When we asked Guardian readers to tell us about their experiences with piracy, we had more than 130 responses from readers aged between 20 and 70. Most regularly downloaded books illegally and while some felt guilty – more than one said they only pirated “big names” and when “the author isn’t on the breadline, think Lee Child” – the majority saw nothing wrong in the practice. “Reading an author’s work is a greater compliment than ignoring it,” said one, while others claimed it was part of a greater ethos of equality, that “culture should be free to all”."

World copyright day: NCC seizes N600m pirated books; The Guardian, April 30, 2017

Sam Oluwalana, The Guardian; 

World copyright day: NCC seizes N600m pirated books

"The Lagos State operatives of the Nigerian Copyright Council (NCC) recently impounded pirated books valued at about N600m. National President of the Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), Mr. Adedayo Gbadega, disclosed this at a conference organised by the association in Ibadan, Oyo State, to commemorate the World Books, and Copyright Day.

With theme, “Collaborative Efforts At Curbing The Menace Of Book Privacy [sic] In Nigeria,” the event served as platform for major stakeholders in the industry to air their views on copyright and piracy in the country.

According to Gbadega, books and other intellectual materials have suffered a lot from the hands of pirates and this has caused a lot of conflict between publishers and actors, who see their books all over the place, but have nothing in term of financial rewards to show for it."