News: 0180520475

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Anna's Archive Loses .Org Domain After Surprise Suspension

(Monday January 05, 2026 @10:30PM (BeauHD) from the would-you-look-at-that dept.)


Anna's Archive [1]lost control of its primary .org domain after it was placed on registry-level [2]serverHold -- "an action that's typically taken by the domain name registry," reports TorrentFreak. Despite mounting legal pressure and speculation tied to [3]its Spotify backup , the site remains accessible via multiple alternative domains, underscoring the resilience of shadow libraries. From the report:

> A few hours ago, the site's original domain name suddenly became unreachable globally. The annas-archive.org domain status was changed to "serverHold," which is typically done by the domain registry. This status effectively means that the domain is suspended and under investigation. Similar action has previously been taken against other pirate sites.

>

> It is rare to see a .org domain involved in domain name suspensions. The American non-profit Public Interest Registry ( [4]PIR ), which oversees the .org domains, previously refused to suspend domain names voluntarily, including thepiratebay.org. The registry's cautionary stance suggests that the actions against annas-archive.org are backed by a court order.

>

> PIR's marketing director, Kendal Rowe, informs TorrentFreak that "unfortunately, PIR is unable to comment on the situation at this time." It is possible that, in response to the 'DRM-circumventing' Spotify backup, rightsholders requested an injunction targeting the domain name. However, we have seen no evidence of that. In the WorldCat lawsuit, OCLC requested an injunction to force action from intermediaries, including domain registries, but as far as we know, that hasn't been granted yet.



[1] https://torrentfreak.com/annas-archive-loses-org-domain-after-surprise-suspension/

[2] https://icann.org/epp#serverHold

[3] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/12/22/1128259/spotify-says-anti-copyright-extremists-scraped-its-library

[4] https://pir.org/



alternatives (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward

(li, se, pm, in) all still working.

Still, kinda surprised they don't already have an onion address... With enough planning by the IP cops, domains can be yanked in batches.

Re: (Score:2)

by Randseed ( 132501 )

> (li, se, pm, in) all still working.

> Still, kinda surprised they don't already have an onion address... With enough planning by the IP cops, domains can be yanked in batches.

What is the domain? I've never heard of the thing.

Re: (Score:3)

by test321 ( 8891681 )

You can find it there [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna's_Archive

start a DNS alternative (Score:2)

by zeiche ( 81782 )

back in the late ‘90s a rogue DNS registrar called “.cool” offered TLD services to folks that didn’t want to conform to INTERNIC’s policies. we could always do that again.

Yes I have a Machintosh, please don't scream at me.
-- Larry Blumette on linux-kernel