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I thought you would want to see this. PayAuthors checks, free, whether your books are in the pirate libraries named in the AI copyright cases (LibGen and Z-Library), the Books3 dataset, or the Internet Archive’s lending library (a nonprofit library, not a pirate site; pending AI cases allege that AI companies obtained its lending books), using 31 dated copies of their catalogs from 2015 on. It checks journal articles against Sci-Hub too.

Type your name. The free check needs no e-mail address. It shows how many of your titles each library listed, how many match a U.S. copyright registration, and how many were registered before a company’s documented or alleged download. That date matters: statutory damages generally require registration before the infringement began, or within three months of publication.

For LibGen and many Z-Library files, a full report identifies the file by the library’s own ID for your book, with the MD5 fingerprint and the torrent and piece that carried it where they are recorded. Of the LibGen fiction files located in torrents, 79% sit whole inside a single piece.

Books left off the Works List of the $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement were not released by it. A listing does not by itself prove a company used your book, and the site is general information, not legal advice, but it is a good record to keep or to share with your agent or lawyer.

See a sample report first. It is built live from the current data: https://payauthors.com/sample

Check your name: https://payauthors.com/

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Hi,

I thought this might be useful for your members. PayAuthors lets any author check, free and without an e-mail address, whether their books are in the pirate libraries named in the AI copyright cases (LibGen and Z-Library), the Books3 dataset, or the Internet Archive’s lending library (a nonprofit library, not a pirate site; pending AI cases allege that AI companies obtained its lending books), using 31 dated copies of their catalogs from 2015 on. It also matches each book to U.S. copyright registrations and shows whether the registration came before each company’s documented or alleged download.

Each member can check their own name free. A free list check also takes up to 10 author names or ISBNs a day from a spreadsheet; the file stays in your browser, and only the names or ISBNs in the column you pick are sent. Reports for several members can be quoted together, with a volume discount.

For LibGen and many Z-Library files, reports identify the file by the library’s own ID, with the MD5 fingerprint and the torrent piece that carried it where they are recorded. There is a sample report, built live from the current data: https://payauthors.com/sample. It is general information, not legal advice, and a listing does not by itself prove that a company used a book.

Free name check: https://payauthors.com/for-authors
List check: https://payauthors.com/bulk

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Were your books listed in the pirate libraries named in AI copyright cases?

Court records in the AI copyright cases show that some AI companies downloaded pirate book libraries, including LibGen, Books3 and a mirror of Z-Library. PayAuthors, an independent service, lets you check your name free against 31 dated catalogs from 2015 on, of those libraries and of the Internet Archive’s lending library (a nonprofit library, not a pirate site), and against U.S. copyright registrations. The free check needs no account or e-mail address. Optional paid reports trace LibGen and many Z-Library files down to the torrent piece and show whether your registration came before each company’s download, which matters for statutory damages.

Books left off the Works List of the $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement were not released by it. A listing does not by itself prove that a company used a book. Shared for information only; this is not an endorsement or legal advice.

See a sample report: https://payauthors.com/sample
Check your name: https://payauthors.com/for-authors

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Sharing a resource for AI copyright matters. PayAuthors ties 22.4 million records in 31 dated catalogs to U.S. Copyright Office registrations, with 1.5 million matched. The catalogs are 25 LibGen snapshots from 2015 to 2025; four Z-Library catalogs from 2022 to 2025 (the Pirate Library Mirror’s two 2022 releases, Anna’s Archive’s index of records added through August 2023, and a January 2025 catalog); the Books3 file list; and the Internet Archive’s nonprofit lending library. Journal articles are checked separately, free, against Sci-Hub’s 2017 DOI list and LibGen’s scimag database.

LibGen records, and those in the Pirate Library Mirror’s first release, are traced to the file by the library’s own ID, with the MD5 checksum (matchable byte for byte in discovery) and the torrent with its piece layout where they are recorded. Of the LibGen fiction files located in torrents, 79% sit whole inside one piece, which bears on the argument that torrent uploads carried only fragments.

Reports check candidate registrations against the Copyright Office record and screen § 412 timing against each defendant’s earliest known download; the Registration Details report adds the Office record itself, with the claimant and rights contact. Every download event is graded by its source (a court order, a company’s own filing or an allegation), and the report marks the downloads that a work’s registration came before.

It is built from public metadata only and is litigation support, not legal advice. Options include single-author reports, work-level research for law firms at $50 a work, and a quote for screening a client list. The free check covers one name at a time, or up to 10 a day from a spreadsheet.

Sample report, built live from the current data: https://payauthors.com/sample
For law firms: https://payauthors.com/for-law-firms

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If you are covering the AI copyright cases, this may help. PayAuthors has searchable data on the pirate libraries at the center of them (LibGen, Z-Library and the Books3 file list) and on the Internet Archive’s nonprofit lending library, which some of the cases also name: 22.4 million catalog records in all, 31 dated catalogs (25 LibGen snapshots from 2015 to 2025, four Z-Library catalogs from 2022 to 2025, the Books3 file list and the Archive’s lending catalog), and 1.5 million matches to U.S. copyright registrations. Journal articles can be checked too, against Sci-Hub’s 2017 DOI list and LibGen’s scimag database.

For LibGen and many Z-Library files, it identifies a book’s file by the library’s own ID, with the MD5 fingerprint and the torrent piece that carried it where they are recorded. 6.9 million LibGen files are located in their torrents, and 79% of the fiction files among them sit whole inside a single piece, which matters when a company says its torrent uploads carried only fragments.

A press code gives your outlet 10 free reports on the authors in your story, sent to your work e-mail. There is also a timeline of the cases with each event graded by its source (court order, company paper or allegation), live charts you can embed with credit, an 11-page plain-language white paper and a press kit.

Sample report, built live from the current data: https://payauthors.com/sample
For journalists: https://payauthors.com/press

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