Umeå University's logo

Purpose: This paper aims to show how an illegal repository of literature, the Z-library, relates to and influences its users and how this relation is unique due to the illegal nature of the platform. The paper utilizes the idea of gamification to exemplify how to motivate users to contribute to a large shadow library in order to create the “world's largest e-book library,” sans “librarians.”

Design/methodology/approach: The study makes use of an ethnographic approach. It interrogates the functions of the website through intensive use—a close reading of sorts. The data provide a foundation for illustrating how illegal text repositories function at a surface level and how their design appeals to their user-base.

Findings: The paper provides a thorough and non-biased overview of how a “black open access” or “shadow library” site provides its users with pirated literature. It suggests that the lynchpin sustaining their functionality is a gamification of piracy designed to motivate a fragmented collective of individuals who work primarily for personal reward, rather than altruistic goals.

Research limitations/implications: Due to the design of the study, the findings are not universal or applicable to all illegal repositories of text. Readers and researchers are encouraged to apply the concept introduced here to other cases.

Social implications: This paper includes implication on the perception of literature piracy, how pirated literature is distributed and who performs the labor required to sustain illicit text repositories.

Originality/value: This paper provides a novel conceptual basis to study literature piracy.

Purpose: This study begins by explaining the co-venture between the Stanford University and Sun Labs: Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe or LOCKSS. It aims at assisting libraries in maintaining, owning and preserving digital journals through decentralized digital repositories. Based on this technique of preservation, this study aims at illuminating how illicit repositories for literature, so-called shadow libraries, leverage similar methods to sustain their existence. The study does so by viewing the web of shadow libraries as an ecology, examining their interrelations and their sustainability in the digital realm.

Design/methodology/approach: This study is inspired by webometric approaches, but it instead focuses on link structures rather than number of links, emphasizing the existence of connections rather than their weight. The data were collected using Hyphe, a user-centric Web Crawler, which maps the connections between a predetermined set of web addresses. This approach is informed by theoretical understandings from both platform and infrastructure studies with the intention of providing insights the mechanisms of decentralization and centralization which constitute the proposed shadow library ecology.

Findings: LOCKSS inspired methodology is found to play a crucial role in sustaining shadow libraries over extended periods. By creating multiple copies and creating avenues for the possibility of users to create multiple copies, shadow libraries seemingly secure their existence by leveraging the fundamental aspects of piracy itself: copies.

Originality/value: This study uses digital methods to unpack the dynamic of shadow libraries, showing how they infuse technology with their ideology to ensure digital preservation and broader access to knowledge.

This article explores the evolution of text piracy in Sweden between 2011 and 2018, focusing on platforms like Sci-Hub and Library Genesis. It examines the informal media economy and regimes of justification that underpin text piracy, highlighting how cultural and technological factors, including Sweden’s rapid broadband adoption and a strong individualistic culture, contribute to this phenomenon. The study analyses historical download data from shadow libraries, revealing a significant concentration of downloads in university towns and major cities, with a predominance of STEM subjects. It also makes use of legacy media sources to contextualise the progression found in the shadow library datasets. By applying theories of informal media economy and regimes of justification, the article offers insights into the persistence of text piracy in Sweden and the implications for global discussions on copyright and knowledge access.

This short paper presents an analysis of the distribution of downloads in medical literature, with the aim of understanding the specific conditions unique to the medical research field that necessitate the use of black open access sources such as Sci-Hub. The dataset used in this analysis was obtained by scraping the official Sci-Hub domains during the summer of 2022, and it provides valuable insights into user behavior and interaction with the website. The results demonstrate that a significant portion of the downloads from Sci-Hub during the period were related to medical journals, indicating the acute needs and time-sensitive nature of medical research. The data further highlights that most of the downloaded papers were related to medicine or medical subjects, underscoring the importance of easy and immediate access to the latest research and literature. The study emphasizes the pressing need for universal access to essential health-care information and the importance of continued efforts to democratize access to medical literature. The use of black open access sources like Sci-Hub serves as a reminder of the urgency to find alternative solutions that ensure medical professionals have the necessary resources to provide the best possible care for their patients.