Anna’s Archive Owes $340 Million, Lost Several Domains, but It’s Still Online

Anna’s Archive 欠款 3.4 亿美元，丢失多个域名，但依然在线

Mid August, shadow library Anna’s Archive faced extended downtime, which had many regular visitors concerned. These worries didn’t come out of nowhere as the site has been under quite a bit of legal pressure in recent months. 8 月中旬，影子图书馆 Anna’s Archive 经历了长时间的宕机，这让许多常客感到担忧。这些担忧并非空穴来风，因为该网站近几个月来一直承受着巨大的法律压力。

Lawsuit Takes Domains Offline 诉讼导致域名下线

In January, the site lost its flagship .org domain. Initially it wasn’t clear what was behind this action but unsealed court records eventually connected it to a lawsuit filed by music companies. This case was a direct response to a Spotify scrape Anna’s Archive announced a few weeks earlier. The music companies obtained an injunction from a U.S. federal court to go after the site’s domain names. This took out not only the .ORG domain but also the .SE domain, as well as the .PM and .VG domains that were put in place as backups. 今年 1 月，该网站失去了其旗舰域名 .org。起初，人们并不清楚这一行动背后的原因，但解封的法庭记录最终将其与音乐公司提起的诉讼联系了起来。此案是针对 Anna’s Archive 几周前宣布抓取 Spotify 数据所做出的直接回应。音乐公司从美国联邦法院获得了禁令，以针对该网站的域名采取行动。这不仅导致 .ORG 域名下线，还波及了 .SE 域名，以及作为备份设置的 .PM 和 .VG 域名。

Anna’s Archive eventually landed on .GL, .PK, and .GD domains, which remain active today. These are connected to registrars and registries based outside the United States that, apparently, do not comply with U.S. court orders. Anna’s Archive 最终启用了 .GL、.PK 和 .GD 域名，这些域名目前仍然活跃。它们连接到位于美国境外的注册商和注册局，显然，这些机构并不遵守美国法院的命令。

Two Lawsuits, $340 Million 两起诉讼，3.4 亿美元赔偿

The music industry injunction also came with a substantial default judgment that was handed down in April. This includes a $322 million default judgment against the unknown operators of Anna’s Archive, who failed to show up in court. 音乐行业的禁令还伴随着 4 月份下达的一项巨额缺席判决。其中包括针对 Anna’s Archive 未知运营者的 3.22 亿美元缺席判决，因为他们未出庭应诉。

This judgment was soon followed by a similar request from a group of major book publishers, including Penguin Random House, Elsevier, and HarperCollins, who sued the shadow library at a New York federal court. That case also resulted in a default judgment, with a damages award that is smaller, but still substantial at $19.5 million. In addition, the court also issued an injunction targeting Anna’s Archive’s domain registrars and registries. 紧随其后，包括企鹅兰登书屋 (Penguin Random House)、爱思唯尔 (Elsevier) 和哈珀柯林斯 (HarperCollins) 在内的一批大型图书出版商也提出了类似请求，他们在纽约联邦法院起诉了该影子图书馆。该案同样导致了缺席判决，赔偿金额虽较小，但仍高达 1950 万美元。此外，法院还发布了针对 Anna’s Archive 域名注册商和注册局的禁令。

‘Coordinated Attack’ “协同攻击”

With this backdrop, it is no surprise that legal troubles came to mind when the site became unreachable earlier this month. However, this time around, the threat appears to have come from elsewhere. After the site came back online, the official AnnaArchivist account attributed it to a coordinated attack by an unnamed party. 在这样的背景下，当该网站本月初无法访问时，人们首先想到法律麻烦也就不足为奇了。然而，这一次威胁似乎来自其他方面。网站恢复在线后，官方账号 AnnaArchivist 将此次宕机归因于某未具名方的协同攻击。

“Apologies for the issues. We suspect a coordinated attack. We’ve mitigated the attack vectors…” the message read, while noting that memberships already include one to two extra days per month to account for downtime. “对于出现的问题深表歉意。我们怀疑这是一次协同攻击。我们已经缓解了攻击向量……”消息写道，并指出会员资格中已包含每月额外的一到两天时间，以补偿宕机带来的影响。

Theoretically, an attack can also come from a rogue anti-piracy group, but there’s no evidence for that. A scam or phishing operation, which tries to cash in on Anna’s Archive search traffic, is another option. Neither is confirmed. 理论上，攻击也可能来自流氓反盗版组织，但目前没有证据支持这一点。另一种可能是试图利用 Anna’s Archive 搜索流量进行获利的诈骗或钓鱼行动。目前这两种猜测均未得到证实。

What Options Are Left? 还有什么选择？

Looking more broadly at the enforcement action that has taken place over the past months, we see that U.S. courts have run into their jurisdictional borders on the Internet. This likely comes as a disappointment for rightsholders, but it also offers a clear takeaway. U.S. courts can’t reach domains registered beyond their jurisdiction. That’s likely to increase calls for site-blocking legislation, a measure the industry has long favored and that remains high on the political agenda in the United States. 从过去几个月发生的执法行动来看，我们发现美国法院在互联网上遇到了管辖权边界。这对版权所有者来说可能令人失望，但也提供了一个明确的结论：美国法院无法触及在其管辖范围之外注册的域名。这可能会增加对网站封锁立法的呼声，这是该行业长期以来所青睐的措施，也是美国政治议程中的重要议题。