But after briefly disappearing, Libgen popped back up and has been online ever since, operating in defiance of that order—as well as court orders “in several countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom,” according to the publishers’ complaint filed yesterday.

Those countries even tried ordering “Internet service providers to block access to Libgen Sites as a result of infringement actions,” the publishers say, all seemingly to no avail.

This includes tons of students whom publishers claim are “bombarded with messages to use Libgen sites” on social media rather than paying full price for textbooks.

Instead of paying publishers to distribute books like a real library does, the complaint alleges, Libgen profits off pirated works by running advertisements alongside e-book downloads for things like online games and browser extensions.

Libgen staff, the publishers allege, hide behind usernames like “librarian” or “bookwarrior” and rely “on proxy services that specifically conceal website operators’ identifying information.”

Thanks in part to these US companies, Libgen operators can “rely on the anonymity of the Internet and their overseas locations to hide their names and addresses and frustrate enforcement efforts against them,” publishers allege.

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