It's not just a matter of "tough times". In any kind of times, there ain't no free lunch. A resource that can be claimed by anybody with no cost, will ALWAYS be monopolized by thieves. The only way to make bandwidth (or paper, or oil, or farmland, etc.....) available to those who will use it constructively is to impose some kind of limits or rules. The internet has now reached the point where such rules are clearly needed. There are two basic ways to impose such rules: 1. The totalitarian way, which gives the stuff to the "right" people. (Royalist version: people of noble blood. Fascist version: people of the right race. Socialist version: people of the right political orthodoxy.) 2. The capitalist way, which sets prices based on supply and demand. In this setup, you don't have to be the "right kind"; you just have to pony up some money. Those who want the free condition to continue without any money changing hands are inevitably, whether they mean it or not, encouraging the totalitarian way. There just isn't a third alternative. The amount of money involved is -remarkably- small, considering what you get. Is there any other way to reach a world full of people with similar interests? Can you monopolize one channel of satellite TV, 24 hours a day, for $2.00 per month? No, that would cost $200 million per month.

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