The American Chemical Society (ACS) has won a lawsuit it filed in June against Sci-Hub, a website providing illicit free access to millions of paywalled scientific papers. ACS had alleged copyright infringement, trademark counterfeiting and trademark infringement;  a district court in Virginia ruled on 3 November that Sci-Hub should pay the ACS $4.8 million in damages after Sci-Hub representatives failed to attend court, Science Magazine reported.

The new ruling also states that internet search engines, web hosting sites, internet service providers (ISPs), domain name registrars and domain name registries cease facilitating “any or all domain names and websites through which Defendant Sci-Hub engages in unlawful access to, use, reproduction, and distribution of the ACS Marks or ACS's Copyrighted Works.”

“This case could set precedent for the extent third-parties on the internet are required to enforce government-mandated censorship,” says  Daniel Himmelstein, a data scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who recently analyzed how many journal papers Sci-Hub holds.

Earlier this year, Sci-Hub lost another lawsuit against publishing giant Elsevier, and was ordered to pay $15 million in damages. But it’s unlikely that Sci-Hub will pay either sum because neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan, its founder, operates the site from Russia, which is outside the court’s jurisdiction. Elbakyan has previously told the media that Sci-Hub plans to ignore the lawsuits.