Anna’s Archive Loses .Org Domain After Surprise Suspension * TorrentFreak

Home > Piracy >

Popular shadow library Anna’s Archive has lost control over its main domain name. Annas-archive.org was suspended and put on serverHold status, which is an action that’s typically taken by the domain name registry. The site’s operator doesn’t believe that the actions are related to its recently announced Spotify backup and stresses that the site remains accessible through alternative domains.

Anna’s Archive is a meta-search engine for shadow libraries that allows users to find pirated books and other related sources.

The site launched in the fall of 2022, just days after Z-Library was targeted in a U.S. criminal crackdown, to ensure continued availability of ‘free’ books and articles to the broader public.

The site also actively provides assistance to AI researchers who want to use its library for model training. More recently, Anna’s Archive announced it had created a massive 300TB backup of Spotify, which it is slowly releasing to the public at large.

Since its launch, Anna’s Archive has also received pushback from rightsholders. The site has been blocked in various countries, and was sued in the U.S. after it scraped WorldCat.

Despite this legal pressure, the main annas-archive.org domain name remained operational, until it didn’t.

Anna’s .ORG Domain Suspended

A few hours ago, the site’s original domain name suddenly became unreachable globally. The annas-archive.org domain status was changed to “serverHold,” which is typically done by the domain registry. This status effectively means that the domain is suspended and under investigation. Similar action has previously been taken against other pirate sites.

It is rare to see a .org domain involved in domain name suspensions. The American non-profit Public Interest Registry (PIR), which oversees the .org domains, previously refused to suspend domain names voluntarily, including thepiratebay.org. The registry’s cautionary stance suggests that the actions against annas-archive.org are backed by a court order.

TorrentFreak asked PIR for a comment on their supposed involvement in the domain suspension, hoping to find out more about the legal grounds, but the organization did not immediately reply.

It is possible that, in response to the ‘DRM-circumventing’ Spotify backup, rightsholders requested an injunction targeting the domain name. However, we have seen no evidence of that. In the WorldCat lawsuit, OCLC requested an injunction to force action from intermediaries, including domain registries, but as far as we know, that hasn’t been granted yet.

Anna’s Archive Remains Resilient

This is not the first time Anna’s Archive has lost a domain name. The site previously moved from its .org domain to a .GS domain, anticipating a domain seizure in the WorldCat case.

Ironically, this move resulted in a swift suspension by the .GS registry, after which Anna’s Archive returned to its .org domain.

On Reddit, Anna’s Archive explains that the recent suspension is a mere hiccup too, pointing users to alternative domains.

“The .org domain apparently has been suspended. Our other domains work fine, and we’ve added some more. We recommend checking our Wikipedia page for the latest domains. This unfortunately happens to shadow libraries on a regular basis. ”

“We don’t believe this has to do with our Spotify backup,” AnnaArchivist adds.

At the time of writing, the site is indeed still operational from the older .li and .se domains, as well as the .in and .pm variants that were just added. However, with legal pressure mounting, there are no guarantees that these domains remain operational.