The entities actually paying Elsevier are mostly college libraries (not individuals). Though librarians tend to be pro open access, college legal counsel is unl

The entities actually paying Elsevier are mostly college libraries (not individuals). Though librarians tend to be pro open access, college legal counsel is unlikely to let them tell professors/students to use a pirate site (and many of them would not be comfortable doing so, despite not loving companies like Elsevier). And the most vocal professors unfortunately tend to care more about getting the articles they want/need than about promoting knowledge freedom. Therefore, libraries tend to continue paying for those articles to the extent their budgets allow. I am hearing more lately about libraries/universities taking stands (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15006785 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15006785 for example), which is encouraging.