[rafram]

Yes, publishers don’t pay authors as much as they deserve, but LibGen pays them literally nothing. Authors tend to love libraries but hate piracy. Why? Because earning something is better than earning nothing.

Have you ever submitted an ILL request? It’s extremely simple. Many library systems even integrate with WorldCat, so submitting a request for any book just takes a few clicks.

I’m mostly speaking about people in the US. Every single county in the entire country has a public library. Almost all of them have ILL.

I think equity is a fair argument for the existence of services like LibGen in many parts of the world, but the reality is that almost everyone using a book piracy sites in a first-world country is using it to pirate an in-print book that they just don’t want to go to the trouble of borrowing or buying.