[9] Its source code is released into the public domain under the CC0 license,[10] and its data[a] is distributed in bulk with torrent files so as to make it resilient to website takedowns.

[16][17] High-speed downloads on Anna's Archive are only available to users with a paid membership, while nonmembers must use slower options with browser verification to prevent abuse by bots.

[17] OCLC, WorldCat's maintainer, responded by filing a lawsuit against the site in an Ohio federal court in January 2024, claiming the scrape was achieved through cyberattacks on its servers.

[26] In March 2024, a group of authors filed a lawsuit against Nvidia in a California federal court for allegedly training its generative AI platform NeMo on the Books3 dataset,[27][28] which includes copyrighted data from several shadow libraries, Anna's Archive among them.

[34][35][36] In response to a request for comment by the Office on its 2023 List, the Association of American Publishers identified Anna's Archive as an infringing site, and analyzed its cryptocurrency wallets to find a total of $29,596.21 in received funds as of July 2023.

[37][38] In March 2024, the Rotterdam District Court ordered major internet service providers in the Netherlands to block Anna's Archive and Library Genesis due to a request by anti-piracy group BREIN.

[39][40][41][42] In January 2024, Italy's national communications agency ordered ISPs in the country to block Anna's Archive due to a copyright complaint by the Italian Publishers Association.

[43] An investigation by the country's Digital Services Directorate confirmed the presence of copyrighted material on the site and found that some of its servers were likely owned by a Ukrainian hosting provider, but failed to uncover the identity of its operators.

[46] It has been one of the most targeted sites of Dutch anti-piracy service Link-Busters, which sends takedown notices to Google and other search engines on behalf of major publishers.