In recent years, rightsholders have made several attempts to shut the site down. Court orders have led to LibGen being blocked in several countries, but completely eliminating the threat has been extremely difficult. This is partly because the identities of those running it remains unknown.
In 2017, Elsevier won a court case against LibGen and Sci-Hub in a New York federal court, which awarded the publisher $15 million in damages. However, both shadow libraries remained online and continue to operate to this day.
The lawsuit was stalled for months because LibGen’s anonymous operators didn’t respond. With no other viable options left, the publishers filed a motion for a default judgment in their favor.
Yeah, this whole mess takes on an entirely different light when you know that these fines are entirely performative since they couldn’t track down anyone from libgen to force into court or to collect from.
Keep it up, LibGen
Yeah, this whole mess takes on an entirely different light when you know that these fines are entirely performative since they couldn’t track down anyone from libgen to force into court or to collect from.