Word.ws English Dictionary

shadow libraries

shadow libraries is the plural of shadow library.

Meaning of shadow library

Noun

shadow library (plural shadow libraries)

  1. (Internet) An unlawful online book distributor that hosts free copies as PDFs, EPUBs, and the like for download.
    • Judge Alsup ruled that this approach was fair use under the law. But he also found the company’s previous approach — downloading and storing books from shadow libraries like Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror — was illegal.2025 September 5, Cade Metz, “Anthropic Agrees to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Lawsuit With Book Authors”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2025

Questions about shadow libraries

What is shadow libraries the plural of?
Shadow libraries is the plural of shadow library.

Words near shadow libraries in the dictionary

  1. shadow grass
  2. Shadow Hills
  3. shadow histories
  4. shadow history
  5. shadow IT
  6. shadow libraries
  7. shadow library
  8. shadow map
  9. shadow mapping
  10. shadow maps
  11. shadow mask

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shadow libraries (page history and authors); shadow library (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “shadow libraries.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shadow_libraries. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.