Gregory's Server@RustyBertrand @jillL can confirm as a published researcher that I'd be happy to share copies of my papers. I've been lucky enough to have been able to use grant money or other institutional funds to pay "open access fees" so that the publisher will make copies available for free (typically ~$2000 or so). In at least one case I later checked the publisher's official page only to see a "buy this article link" on top (that was IEEE for the curious). As mentioned elsewhere, the reviewing work is uncompensated and even members of the program committee which manages the review process typically aren't compensated or are barely paid anything.
Plus, in scientific circles the norm is that the authors will do their own editing & typesetting, so it's not like the publishers are providing any of the editorial services they do in other genres. Sometimes if the primary author is not a native English speaker they'll require the author to pay an editor to review the language.
Academic publishing enrages me almost every time I think about it.
Please do pirate any and all academic material with an absolutely crystal-clear conscience, and/or send us emails asking for copies.