The second path—the one most students take—leads to shadow libraries, Google Drive links, and file-sharing forums. Here, complete collections from 1950 to 2020 are available for free. For a student with no money, this is salvation. For the journal, it is a slow hemorrhage.
The first path leads to the official website of the Gazeta Matematica Society (gmbss.ro), where a treasure trove of recent issues is available to paid subscribers. This model keeps the journal alive, paying for editors, reviewers, and the creation of new problems.
If you are a student who cannot afford a subscription, using a PDF archive is defensible, even noble—provided you use it to learn , not just to collect digital hoards. Print out a problem, solve it on paper, and respect the intellectual lineage.
The "Gazeta Matematica PDF" is not inherently good or evil; it is a tool. A scalpel can save a life or cause harm, depending on the hand that wields it.
But if you are a teacher or a well-funded institution, searching for "free PDF" is inexcusable. You should subscribe. You should buy the bound volumes. Because the moment everyone chooses the free PDF, there will be no more new problems to digitize. Gazeta Matematica would become a museum, not a living classroom.