I think our respective understanding of how publishing works is different, and perhaps you have more experience in this area than I do. My dealings with a publishing company have been limited to the one that has up to now published my own books. They are able to take on and finance new titles because they have have income from books they‘ve published in the past. I can‘t speak to Pearson‘s specific situation, but the principle is likely the same: sales from a backlist play a crucial part in allowing new works to be produced. I don‘t think there‘s anything crooked about it, at least not in principle. As for some of the books being out of print, that is, it seems to me, a separate issue relating to the way copyright works. In Europe, there are provisions in law for making out-of-commerce books digitally available, but perhaps you‘re writing from a different context.

Okay, so where on your theory does the publisher of a book get the money to pay the workers who produce it? (And isn‘t a significant part of libgen scanned print books? My printers and binders have played a role in all of those.)

But surely there’s an argument to be made that the people whose work goes into creating the texts you want to read have a claim to be recompensed for their labour. Authors, translators, proofreaders, layouters, illlustrators, printers and binders have mortgages or rent to pay and families to feed, and the servers and warehouses that store the texts are not free either. Where do these costs factor in to your »words are free to copy«-hypothesis?