Federal law enforcement arrested and charged two Russian individuals with criminal copyright infringement over their alleged involvement with the pirated ebook Z-Library.According to the Department of Justice, the pair in question, Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova, were arrested in Argentina at the request of the US government on November 3rd.“Intellectual property theft crimes deprive their victims of both ingenuity and hard-earned revenue.”Z-Library housed over 11 million pirated ebook titles and academic papers users could download and read for free.As pointed out by Vice, Napolsky and Ermakova’s arrest comes shortly after the Authors Guild, an organization for writers that advocates for copyright protection, submitted a complaint to the Office of the US Trade Representative on October 7th.The complaint cites the growing trend of users on TikTok promoting Z-Library as a way to get books for free, and notes that the “zlibrary” hashtag has over 19 million views on the platform."