“There was a case right here in Boston involving a graduate student that was in the federal courts for a long time,” Swanson said. People found guilty of sharing illegally downloaded music faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Swanson also said that the events surrounding Z-Library are similar to those surrounding music piracy in the 2000s in the “pre-Spotify” world. “There is a minimum that is the damage award per copy made. “ also provides for something called ‘statutory damages’ where you don’t have to prove what the economic loss is,” Swanson said. The pair may face severe consequences and heavy fines if found guilty, according to Kara Swanson, a professor at the Northeastern School of Law who specializes in copyright law and intellectual property, among other topics. Its alleged founders, 33-year-old Anton Napolsky and 27-year-old Valeriia Ermakova, were recently arrested and charged in Argentina. “I thought that both of the things I downloaded wouldn’t be on my laptop, and I need them for class,” Roche said.Īlthough the website helped its users to save money and still finish their homework, Z-Library was in violation of multiple copyright laws. Some Northeastern students were concerned that they would lose access to PDFs that they had downloaded prior to the shutdown. “This just only makes it harder for them.”

“Textbooks are really expensive, so low-income students are at a disadvantage already,” Roche said. Many of Z-Library’s users have taken to social media to express their disappointment over its demise, with some coping with humor and others blaming TikTok users for bringing more attention to the site.Ĭollege students in Boston expressed their disappointment after hearing about the website’s shutdown, including Quinn Roche, a second-year history and political science combined major, who pointed out how the end of Z-Library may impact students who cannot afford expensive textbooks. In a 2014 study, 65% of college students said they didn’t purchase their required textbooks even though they knew it could hurt their grade. The average cost of a college textbook is about $105, a price that is difficult to justify for a majority of college students. The website’s closure left many college students in a panic, as it offered millions of e-books, including textbooks, and academic journals for free. Z-Library, a database for pirated e-books, shut down Nov.

Z library app