Doesn't apply to academic journals articles. Basically you only buy a license to use, you do not buy ownership.
Copyright law for scientific literature is all kinds of fucked up. For academic institutions it's even not THAT bad. You don't want to know what hoops you have to jump through to use them in a commercial environment, and that's not even touching on the massive amounts of money you need to spend on copyright clearance. I'm talking several millions in dirty fiat money here.
Year, I agree getting this might be "questionable" to put it lightly.
And that I'm outraged that this cost up to 30$ for one single article doesn't make it better.
This service would allow me to read a few selected article that interest me for a reasonable price, that I would otherwise have no option to read.
And I'm still not convinced that giving a article you have to another person is illegal.
Selling them on the other hand?
But he still can give me the paper to read and if it helps me he gets a donation for pointing me in the right direction. And that's basically what he does.
(Sorry for confused writing style, I'm tired)