Welib
Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago
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Shadow LibrariesPiracyOpen Access
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Shadow Libraries
Piracy
Open Access
WeLib is a new shadow library that has mirrored the collection of Anna's Archive, sparking a discussion about the ethics and implications of such projects.
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6-9h
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- 01Story posted
Aug 31, 2025 at 12:36 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Aug 31, 2025 at 7:02 AM EDT
6h after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
2 comments in 6-9h
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Sep 1, 2025 at 1:25 PM EDT
4 months ago
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Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
ID: 45080406Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 6:56:52 PM
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They all are working on pirated ahem libeerated content. Thats fine for me but then gatekeeping someone else when they charge people for "fast" downloads, this is bound to happen. Someone will provide the same service for cheaper or free.
That said, we need more such ecosystems and competition.
But then I doubt AA would be taking the stance they are.
whats the problem?
In general, I find it of little help to judge what are merely opinions as "right" or "wrong". Can't we simply disagree, without one having to be right and the other be wrong? You make it sound like there was only one true way of being, and some ultimate source of truth that we all need to follow?
I personally prefer it whenever I do not have to judge things as "wrong" out of personal emotional hygiene, because anything that I see as wrong will make me sad or angry depending on whether I consider it something I can do something about or not, whereas a different opinion is merely a different opinion and leaves me in neutral.
I personally also do not agree with using the term "gatekeeping" for providing additional paid faster servers; it would only be gatekeeping for me if they were limiting certain files to paying users, which they aren't.
Interested to learn how it compares to openlibrary.org.
> There is a new entrant: WeLib. They appear to have mirrored most of our collection, and use a fork of our codebase. We have copied some of their user interface improvements, and are grateful for that push. Sadly, we are not seeing them share any new collections, nor share their codebase improvements. Since they haven’t shown commitment to contributing back to the ecosystem, we advise extreme caution. We recommend not using them.
https://annas-archive.org/blog/an-update-from-the-team.html