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Ars Technica Mar 26, 2026 at 21:27 Big Tech

Spotify seeks $300M from Anna's Archive, which ignores all court proceedings

Even with court orders, music firms struggle to eliminate notorious shadow library.

By Jon Brodkin Original source
Spotify seeks $300M from Anna's Archive, which ignores all court proceedings

Spotify and major record labels are seeking a $322 million default judgment from Anna's Archive, which hasn't responded to court proceedings over its scraping of millions of music files from Spotify's streaming service. The music companies are also seeking a permanent injunction in an attempt to eject the Anna's Archive website from the Internet by cutting off its access to domain and hosting providers. But the plaintiffs previously obtained a similar injunction that proved to be little more than an inconvenience for the shadow library, which has changed providers and said it's working on bolstering its ability to remain online in the face of court orders. The music companies sued Anna’s Archive in late December and quickly obtained a court order that shut down the shadow library's .org domain, though Anna's Archive has remained online elsewhere. Anna's Archive has filed no response to the lawsuit in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and the clerk of court last month certified that the defendant is in default.Read full article Comments

Quick summary

Spotify and major record labels are pursuing a $322 million default judgment and a permanent injunction against Anna's Archive for scraping millions of music files, after the archive failed to respond to the lawsuit and was placed in default. A prior court order that shut down the archive's .org domain proved ineffective as the site has moved to other providers.

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