Following Anna’s Archive’s December 2025 announcement of scraping 86 million Spotify music files, Spotify and major labels are seeking a $322 million default judgment in New York federal court. The site ignored proceedings, prompting demands for statutory damages under DMCA and copyright law, plus a permanent injunction to block access. Anna’s Archive has temporarily pulled the Spotify torrents amid pressure.
In late December 2025, shortly after Anna’s Archive announced scraping Spotify’s music library, Spotify, Sony, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group sued the shadow library in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs obtained a court order against the .org domain and a preliminary injunction. Anna’s Archive persisted via other domains and released torrents of the scraped files around February 9, 2026.
Evidence included analysis of 120,000 infringing files violating Spotify’s DMCA protections. With no response from Anna’s Archive, the court certified default last month. On March 26, plaintiffs moved for default judgment: $300 million in DMCA damages ($2,500 per circumvention) to Spotify, plus $22.2 million in copyright statutory damages ($150,000 per work) split among labels ($7.5M each to Sony/UMG, $7.2M to Warner). They seek a permanent injunction to destroy files and bar access via registrars, hosts, and ISPs.
The filing called Anna’s actions a 'blatant and willful disregard' for rights and court orders. AnnaArchivist responded on Reddit: 'We’ve temporarily embargoed our Spotify file release... It’s not worth the additional trouble... until we shore up our resilience.' Prior injunctions failed as Anna’s switched providers; Cloudflare noted easy circumvention. The operator runs anonymously due to arrest risks.
