The heirs of the Strugatsky brothers returned their texts to the official website

How animals enhance the library experience

All of their works, including unpublished ones, have reappeared on the Russian Science Fiction website, dedicated to the work of Russian science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.

“By the decision of Maria Arkadyevna and Andrei Borisovich Strugatsky, the ABS texts were returned to free access on the official website of the Strugatsky brothers,” says the main page of the site.

In 2014, the heirs of the writers removed the books from free access, explaining this by the fight against piracy. Then only the Strugatsky bibliography remained on the page. For full texts of works, it was recommended to go to the liters website, which sells e-books, or to any other online store. “It’s unfair when some pay for a book, while others take it for free,” wrote the Strugatsky children.

On Sunday, March 19, Boris Strugatsky’s son Andrei said that “piracy, alas, has won.” According to him, all “law-abiding” sites have removed the Strugatsky books from free access, “but, unfortunately, there are still myriads of completely illegal resources, and, alas, it is absolutely impossible to overcome them.”

Arkady Strugatsky died in 1991, Boris in 2012. Relatives of the writers noted that in the last years of his life, Boris Natanovich actively discussed the problem of pirated distribution of electronic books with publishers and even signed an open letter to the Russian President in defense of the writers' copyrights. However, before his death, he did not leave precise instructions regarding electronic versions of his works.

The Strugatsky books are considered classics of science fiction. In total, the brothers wrote more than 30 works together, including novels and stories “Monday Begins on Saturday”, “Roadside Picnic”, “It’s Hard to Be a God”, “Inhabited Island” and others. Two dozen films were made based on the books of Arkady and Boris, including “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkovsky.