: Excellent for accessing rare or older unavailable books.
Elsevier spent $20 million on anti-piracy enforcement between 2015-2025. LibGen's annual operating cost: less than $30,000, paid in anonymous cryptocurrency donations. gen.lib.rus.esc
Why Russia? Because Russian copyright law at the time had a "information intermediary" loophole: if a site removed infringing content "within a reasonable time" after a court order, it was not liable. LibGen's Russian operators simply ignored court orders or took so long to respond that the site had already changed IP addresses. : Excellent for accessing rare or older unavailable books