I was interviewed for this article though not mentioned in it.  My use case isn&#x27;t mentioned:  unaffiliated researchers with limited access to journals doing our own exploration of areas.  I&#x27;ve compiled a library of several thousand articles (and via other sources, books) which for both access and portability I prefer electronic versions.  My 10&quot; tablet is almost perfect for reading printed material, and functions as a small research library on its own.  (Organising this content is another headache -- Android and apps are sadly lacking in this area, one of the few options being Mendalay, owned by, you guessed it, Elsevier.  Burn it with fire.)<p>While I can and do access materials from libraries, including online access, Sci-Hub is both more complete and <i>far</i> more reliable and convenient.  Find a resource, plug in the URL or DOI, and I&#x27;ve got it.  Versus locating the same reference <i>independently</i> through one of several distinct libraries, each with their own multiple subsystems, authenticating, and sometimes, sometimes not, securing the material.<p>Another point Bohannon failed to address, which is covered in the discussion here, is the role of journal publishers as gatekeepers not only to <i>content</i> but to <i>careers</i>.  Academics, increasingly squeezed by budget retrenchments and awful working conditions[1], <i>must</i> publish through prestige journals in order to establish and advance their careers.<p>Journal publishers are rent-seeking at both ends of this channel.<p>Sci-Hub, or as I like to call it, the Library of Alexandra, hs a tour de force demonstration that information is a public good, and that information <i>access</i> wants, and <i>needs</i> to be free.  Sci-Hub isn&#x27;t a complete answer to the problems of current academic publishing (again:  publish or perish), but it&#x27;s a relief valve for many, and an absolute and irrefutable proof of the pressing demands for access.<p>________________________________<p>Notes:<p>1. See the amazingly awful story of a young newlywed biology postdoc who lost her arm in a lab explosion involving an improperly instrumented gas cylinder in which oxygen and hydrogen were being mixed under pressure. This after repeatedly reporting short circuits and electric shocks from the equipment.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;chemjobber.blogspot.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;postdoc-loses-arm-in-lab-explosion-in.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;chemjobber.blogspot.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;postdoc-loses-arm-in-...</a>