If you don't have the author's or publisher's permission to republish, you're in breach. That's the entirety of practical crux of copyright law. In practice, i

If you don't have the author's or publisher's permission to republish, you're in breach. That's the entirety of practical crux of copyright law. In practice, in some cases the authors' intent is for others to republish, especially on the web. So they deliberately don't pursue damages―but they still have the right to do so, and users are still not entitled to anything unless there's a specific broad license. Republishing files en masse stretches this unspoken agreement. People keep grossly misinterpreting copyright law, because they got used to the share culture on the web. "Fair use" is especially invoked left and right where it doesn't apply. "Public access" is also not a thing in the law (afaik).