When a regular person makes something available that shouldnt be behind a paywall to begin with it's stealing. When a billionaire or company uses ai to gather data from paid sources or just straight out plagiarises it's just maximising profits.

Also I have met people who have published some pretty important papers, most of them use scihub on a weekly basis, and none of them care that their papers get "stolen". And they all have some strong opinions about Elsevier.

These articles were stolen, by the paywall operators. Elbakyan rescued them from the thieves. 🎉

like stealing video games that you technically license if you buy, you're not stealing anything except access which is fundamentally the only thing they can sell

This is why I hate the recent trend where people are saying "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

"Piracy", or more accurately "copyright infringement" was never stealing. What you're doing is violating the government-granted monopoly on copying something. That's so different from stealing.

I totally agree that she just liberated it. But since many lawsuits said she was "stealing" from them, and people who don't know the details at first glance may think that too. So I think the headline is correct in a news sense. And the article is very accurate and favorable of her.