Confession of a Thief: Between Morality and Access to Knowledge in the Use of Shadow Libraries: The Return of Z Library
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Feb 23, 2023, 7:23:07 AM2/23/23
to usaafricadialogue, Yoruba Affairs, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, Arit Oku
Confession of a Thief
Between Morality and Access to Knowledge in the Use of Shadow Libraries
The Return of Z Library
.png?part=0.1&view=1)
Z Library interface automatically generated by the network in response to a search identifying a book on relationships between art and religion, suggesting other books on the same or similar subjects which the reader may download
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge
As a student and Independent Scholar in England, I regarded people who relied on morally questionable sources for books online as poor people whose circumstances should inspire a distant sense of pity from me.
Distant, because of the gulf between them and myself, like that between a person cruising the streets in an air conditioned limousine, eating and drinking exquisitely in his vehicular heaven, watching others baking in the sweltering sun as they move on motorless locomotions to wherever they may be going, destinations similar to mine in the cognitive universe but not inspiring my curiosity much.
We could not be in the same world. Even living in an English village, I had books from Asia, the Americas, Africa and Europe delivered to my doorstep. Cheap and excellent books were readily available at various second hand and remainders-books unsold by publishers- outlets. There were many books I salivated over but which were not within my reach, but I could read through them to a degree without disturbance in bookshops. There were aso books being given away free in a culture of high level production, particularly in the book Mecca, Cambridge where I also lived for years. The awesome scholarly libraries of the university and the city's superb network of general libraries, the latter each reachable through a five to ten minute walk in any location in the city, were accessible for free.
With adequate investment, one could even live for a time in different cities in England savouring their library networks, as I once did in London, which has the epochal British Library along with the usual network of public libraries, and many university libraries which perhaps people outside those universities could access, and in Birmingham, the latter of which is even superior to Cambridge in terms of general libraries.
For a person who had grown up in a Nigeria operating at a far lower level of book production and general access to books, I was on top of the world.
Then I returned to Nigeria.
Even the level of bookselling culture I had experienced in Nigeria before travelling abroad had contracted significantly. The culture of selling serious non-fiction, which had been so robust in Benin-City before I travelled, leading me to conclude that Benin had provided access to a broader range of books than Cambridge, though Cambridge was far superior in volume, had altered drastically.
The second hand booksellers at various points in Lagos whom I had got such wonderful books from were no longer visible except for very few, although I am yet to explore Ojuelegba and perhaps some other axes of the book trade in Lagos. Some very good bookshops, such as Glendora and the Jazz Hole, exist but the density of access to books has shrunk. The culture of public libraries had always been miniscule even before I had left and remains so in Lagos.
I then became a person relying significantly on digital books and on morally questionable book platforms for cognitive development and scholarly work.
If not, how would I cope?
A good number of the best books in the world, even on Africa, are published in the West. One of the best series of books on Hindu Tantra, from India, a particular interest of mine, are published by State University of New York Press and later republished in India by Indian publishers. Any ambitious study of Western philosophy must go through the books released by Western publishers, such as the gargantuan complete works of Immanuel Kant that came out of Cambridge UP some years ago.
Most of the money I was using in England came from my family in Nigeria who funded my work. But even if I had access to that kind of money again, which I dont, the value of the Nigerian currency having plummeted in the last few years, among other factors, what would it cost to purchase books at the same volume and ship to Nigeria?
Where would I find the various outlets for cheap books of the highest quality, across various disciplines, from Buddhism to science fiction and fantasy, enabling one to maximize one's bibliophilic budget?
I was fortunate to be introduced to Z Library, a miracle of book access in terms of volume and organisation. All free.
But Z Library works by cheating publishers and writers of their money.
If not for Z Library, how could I have accessed a good part of Cambridge UP's complete range on Kant's work and all Kant biographies in English, facilitating a birds eye view of the field of Kant studies in that language?
When Cambridge UP published Toyin Falola's Decolonizing African Knowledge in 2022, I downloaded and reviewed the book perhaps even before Falola got his own copy of the text.
Any book anticipated, I would sit like a spider in the centre of his web and approach Z Library once it was published and almost without fail, it would appear within days of publication, and I would gleefully download.
Distant, because of the gulf between them and myself, like that between a person cruising the streets in an air conditioned limousine, eating and drinking exquisitely in his vehicular heaven, watching others baking in the sweltering sun as they move on motorless locomotions to wherever they may be going, destinations similar to mine in the cognitive universe but not inspiring my curiosity much.
We could not be in the same world. Even living in an English village, I had books from Asia, the Americas, Africa and Europe delivered to my doorstep. Cheap and excellent books were readily available at various second hand and remainders-books unsold by publishers- outlets. There were many books I salivated over but which were not within my reach, but I could read through them to a degree without disturbance in bookshops. There were aso books being given away free in a culture of high level production, particularly in the book Mecca, Cambridge where I also lived for years. The awesome scholarly libraries of the university and the city's superb network of general libraries, the latter each reachable through a five to ten minute walk in any location in the city, were accessible for free.
With adequate investment, one could even live for a time in different cities in England savouring their library networks, as I once did in London, which has the epochal British Library along with the usual network of public libraries, and many university libraries which perhaps people outside those universities could access, and in Birmingham, the latter of which is even superior to Cambridge in terms of general libraries.
For a person who had grown up in a Nigeria operating at a far lower level of book production and general access to books, I was on top of the world.
Then I returned to Nigeria.
Even the level of bookselling culture I had experienced in Nigeria before travelling abroad had contracted significantly. The culture of selling serious non-fiction, which had been so robust in Benin-City before I travelled, leading me to conclude that Benin had provided access to a broader range of books than Cambridge, though Cambridge was far superior in volume, had altered drastically.
The second hand booksellers at various points in Lagos whom I had got such wonderful books from were no longer visible except for very few, although I am yet to explore Ojuelegba and perhaps some other axes of the book trade in Lagos. Some very good bookshops, such as Glendora and the Jazz Hole, exist but the density of access to books has shrunk. The culture of public libraries had always been miniscule even before I had left and remains so in Lagos.
I then became a person relying significantly on digital books and on morally questionable book platforms for cognitive development and scholarly work.
If not, how would I cope?
A good number of the best books in the world, even on Africa, are published in the West. One of the best series of books on Hindu Tantra, from India, a particular interest of mine, are published by State University of New York Press and later republished in India by Indian publishers. Any ambitious study of Western philosophy must go through the books released by Western publishers, such as the gargantuan complete works of Immanuel Kant that came out of Cambridge UP some years ago.
Most of the money I was using in England came from my family in Nigeria who funded my work. But even if I had access to that kind of money again, which I dont, the value of the Nigerian currency having plummeted in the last few years, among other factors, what would it cost to purchase books at the same volume and ship to Nigeria?
Where would I find the various outlets for cheap books of the highest quality, across various disciplines, from Buddhism to science fiction and fantasy, enabling one to maximize one's bibliophilic budget?
I was fortunate to be introduced to Z Library, a miracle of book access in terms of volume and organisation. All free.
But Z Library works by cheating publishers and writers of their money.
If not for Z Library, how could I have accessed a good part of Cambridge UP's complete range on Kant's work and all Kant biographies in English, facilitating a birds eye view of the field of Kant studies in that language?
When Cambridge UP published Toyin Falola's Decolonizing African Knowledge in 2022, I downloaded and reviewed the book perhaps even before Falola got his own copy of the text.
Any book anticipated, I would sit like a spider in the centre of his web and approach Z Library once it was published and almost without fail, it would appear within days of publication, and I would gleefully download.
.png?part=0.2&view=1)
Screenshot of an example of the extensive book descriptions employed by Z Library, most certainly drawn from the book’s description in the book
As a person who would love to earn a good income through writing books, and as a publisher, how do I reconcile those aspirations with a practice that must be described as theft?
Would I want people to download my books for free without my permission?
But if I did not participate in such theft, what would be the fate of my aspiration to be at my best as a writer and scholar, how would I cultivate the necessary knowledge base?
I have a significant physical and digital library but the world of learning is best understood as always in process, the relationships between what is known and what can be known always being reconfigured by new developments. No amount of prior access to knowledge can make up for the need to understand this dynamic kaleidoscope, a form of movement into and within infinity.
Then the US govt blocked access to Z Library and had two of its supposed lead figures arrested in another country.
Would I want people to download my books for free without my permission?
But if I did not participate in such theft, what would be the fate of my aspiration to be at my best as a writer and scholar, how would I cultivate the necessary knowledge base?
I have a significant physical and digital library but the world of learning is best understood as always in process, the relationships between what is known and what can be known always being reconfigured by new developments. No amount of prior access to knowledge can make up for the need to understand this dynamic kaleidoscope, a form of movement into and within infinity.
Then the US govt blocked access to Z Library and had two of its supposed lead figures arrested in another country.
Many celebrated. Many across the world groaned.
.png?part=0.3&view=1)
Z Library interface automatically generated by the network in response to a search identifying a book on Buddist saint Milarepa, suggesting other books the reader could download
ZLibrary fought back and is back to ease of access by users. I have returned to using it as a huge library at my fingertips, enabling access to the best books at no cost.
I am a thief.
I'm stealing people's money, the money I should have paid in buying those books and articles.
What are my choices?
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I am a thief.
I'm stealing people's money, the money I should have paid in buying those books and articles.
What are my choices?
Also published on
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