LibGen gives you access to a much smaller body of works than either of those. It’s a little more convenient. But the big difference is that it doesn’t compensate the author at all.
Just go to a real library.
2. DRM is built in to most purchased ebooks, which means you can’t consume the book on any device. “Illegal” tools exist to circumvent this.
3. Large ebook stores - like other digital stores - essentially lend you a copy of the book. So when they are forced to pull a book, they’ll pull your access too.
Of course, now that the big players have consumed/archived the entire book dump, they can go ahead and kill it to prevent others from doing the same thing.
It’s like the idea that most BitTorrent users are just using it to share free software and Creative Commons media. (See the screenshots on every BitTorrent client’s website.) It would definitely be helpful if it were true, but everyone knows it’s just wishful thinking.
Academics are huge users of LibGen for academic books from the entire past century and beyond. It's infinitely more convenient to instantly get a PDF you can highlight, than wait weeks for some interlibrary loan from an institution three states away.
Just because the majority of people might be downloading Harry Potter is irrelevant.
> Just go to a real library.
The thrill of waiting a week for a book to arrive or navigating the labyrinthine interlibrary loan system is truly a privilege that many can afford. And who needs instant access to knowledge when you can have the pleasure of paying for shipping or commuting to a physical library?
It's also fascinating that you mention compensating authors, as if the current publishing model is a paragon of fairness and equity. I'm sure the authors are just thrilled to receive their meager royalties while the rest of the industry reaps the benefits.
LibGen, on the other hand, is a quaint little website that only offers access to a vast, sprawling library of texts, completely free of charge and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. I'm sure it's totally insignificant compared to the robust and equitable systems you mentioned.
Your suggestion to "just go to a real library" is also a brilliant solution, assuming that everyone has the luxury of living near a well-stocked library, having the time and resources to visit it, and not having any other obligations or responsibilities. I'm sure it's not at all a tone-deaf, out-of-touch recommendation.
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.
