The solution to the "Academic Firewall of Doom" is to get a degree, and then you can generally go back to your alma mater and get some kind of library account t

The solution to the "Academic Firewall of Doom" is to get a degree, and then you can generally go back to your alma mater and get some kind of library account that will let you access the stuff behind the firewall (generally from within the library only, of course). Of course its been over a decade since that loophole worked for me, might have been closed up by now. Or it might have expanded.