It's not about anything moral. It's about a qualitative difference between. The second one should even be called piracy.

Whats the qualitative difference?

> The second one should even be called piracy.

Sure, I agree. Piracy is a loaded term anyway.

You are getting content you made yourself for free VS you are getting content you have not made yourself.

I havent made any of the studies I download from sci hub unless youre referring to the funding via tax dollars.

Then you are not the typical user. By and large people who use journals are scientists and students who publish themselves.

They aren’t downloading their own papers; rather those of their colleagues.