Is there a legal alternative to illegal projects like Libgen? I would really really want something like Netflix for books, where I can easily discover and read books.
Easily is the operative word. Blockbuster was easy but you had to drive there -- netflix is easier. Libraries similarly require driving (unless you use overdrive / similar) but piracy is easier for many as well. Books just haven't found their spotify/netflix; the kindle store is basically 2009 itunes.
I don't think many realize how much libraries have via internet ("overdrive / similar") these days. You don't even have to show up in person to sign up at my local library.
Libgen and the like tend to just have more on hand though, and that's the big differentiator in usability IMO. There are things your local library just isn't going to have a copy of but libgen will. After that happens once, why bother with the library again? Outside of "it's legal" or "I find more moral" type concepts there tends not to be a strong reason.
> Is there a legal alternative? I would really really want something like Netflix for books, where I can easily discover and read books.
Plenty of books (and other written works, such as serial publications) are in the public domain, hence fully legal from a copyright POV. However discovery is still a major problem: many works in the public domain are still far from being easily findable or accessible online. (Even then, it's worth keeping in mind that the books people generally think of as the 'Greatest Books of the Western Canon' are, by and large, in the public domain, and that already is more books than you could feasibly read in a lifetime.)
Many but not remotely enough books are in the public domain. Copyright terms are now ridiculously long—the last Sherlock Holmes stories only just entered public domain.
It would be very hard to profit from that? Because at most people would read few books a month. How much would they pay for it? Competition is literally libraries for free. Music or Movies dont't have free competitors. There would be long term tech cost, 100s of employees and all. The math is very hard even for long term.
The Internet Archive's 'Lending Library' does this, but suffered a major blow in the recent copyright case. It's really a big advance in human knowledge, and works as simply as you say (you need to use their online viewer or an Adobe DRM client).
That are not for technical books, and Amazon used to be famous for deleting a book from used's devices. It is not exactly fare to compale an honest source of technical books which allows anyone to download some rare tech books with a source of DRM which requires me to deal with something not exactly reading. Just look at those websites - who is that visitor of libgen website who needs those animations?
> like Netflix for books, where I can easily discover and read books.
Libgen is not Netflix for books, it is thepiratebay for books. Libgen is not helpful in discovering more books because if to judge about those literature which is abundant on Libgen, the technical one, what allows user to discover some books on Libgen is only another books or your interest to specific scientist or field.
(I know there are a lot of fiction materials on Libgen such as comicses but all I use to read is science books or at least some non-fiction, so my opinion may be biased).
