How to run a shadow library: operations at Anna’s Archive

There is no <q>AWS for shadow charities,</q> so how do we run Anna’s Archive?

Can anyone recommend me some (online available ;) ) CS textbook that explains Elias-Fano encoding (and SELECT queries on it specifically) in a readable manner?

The original papers are annoying and my advisor just told me "it's popular enough that you can just ask your favourite LLM about it" and hell no

#csacademia #csresearch #cs #academicchatter #shadowlibrary #bookrecommendations #bookrecs #llm

Anna’s Archive

So, I just discovered Anna’s Archive:

https://annas-archive.li

Anna’s Archive: LibGen (Library Genesis), Sci-Hub, Z-Library in one place - Anna’s Archive

The world’s largest open-source open-data library. Mirrors Sci-Hub, Library Genesis, Z-Library, and more.

Anna’s Archive loses .org domain, says suspension likely unrelated to Spotify piracy We don’t believe this has to do with our Spotify backup, https://s.faithcollapsing.com/vuymj#annas-archive #policy #shadow-library #spotify
Anna’s Archive loses .org domain, says suspension likely unrelated to Spotify piracy https://arstechni.ca/8QmR #Anna'sarchive #shadowlibrary #spotify #Policy
Anna’s Archive loses .org domain, says suspension likely unrelated to Spotify piracy

We don't believe this has to do with our Spotify backup," Anna's Archive says.

Ars Technica
Shadow library scraped 86 million Spotify tracks for preservation: Anna's Archive distributed 256 million Spotify metadata rows and 86 million audio files totaling 300 terabytes, representing 99.6% of platform listens. https://ppc.land/shadow-library-scraped-86-million-spotify-tracks-for-preservation/ #Spotify #MusicPreservation #DigitalLibrary #DataPreservation #ShadowLibrary
Shadow library scraped 86 million Spotify tracks for preservation

Anna's Archive distributed 256 million Spotify metadata rows and 86 million audio files totaling 300 terabytes, representing 99.6% of platform listens.

PPC Land
World’s largest shadow library made a 300TB copy of Spotify’s most streamed songs https://arstechni.ca/gsRH #musicstreaming #Anna'sarchive #shadowlibrary #AItraining #spotify #Policy #piracy #LLMs #AI
World’s largest shadow library made a 300TB copy of Spotify’s most streamed songs

Spotify is reportedly investigating how much music Anna’s Archive scraped.

Ars Technica
Tipp für #ShadowLibrary-Interessierte auf dem #39c3 - Stichwort #CUII
Netzsperren werden in Deutschland von großen Industrieunternehmen direkt ins Werk gesetzt. Es gibt da anscheinend keinen Anspruch an Transparenz oder Anfechtbarkeit. Ich weiß nicht, ob dieser Vortrag darauf eingehen wird, aber eine interessante Prämisse dessen ist ja: wer Forschungsergebnisse oder Kulturgüter am Verwertungssystem vorbei aufbewahrt, darf von Verwertern dabei direkt ausgebremst werden.
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2025/fahrplan/event/cuii-wie-konzerne-heimlich-webseiten-in-deutschland-sperren
[39c3] CUII: Wie Konzerne heimlich Webseiten in Deutschland sperren

In Deutschland entscheidet eine private Organisation aus Internetanbietern und großen Unterhaltungskonzernen, welche Webseiten für den Großteil der Bevölkerung nicht mehr erreichbar sind. Die selbsternannte "Clearingstelle Urheberrecht im Intern...

39c3

Powerful post on the LSE Impact Blog on the important role shadow libraries such as #scihub play in India:

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2025/10/07/banning-sci-hub-highlights-indias-unequal-access-to-knowledge/

#ShadowLibrary

Banning Sci-Hub highlights India’s unequal access to knowledge - Impact of Social Sciences

The decision to block Sci-Hub in India brings inequalities in access to research based knowledge into sharp focus.

Impact of Social Sciences - Maximizing the impact of academic research
BitTorrent's DHT and the Leading ISP Networks Helping to Keep it Alive * TorrentFreak

Based on the volume of IP addresses seen in the network, customers of relatively few ISPs dominate BitTorrent's Distributed Hash Table.