My first reaction, when I saw the news on the Times website, was, "Jeez, really? That's so unfair."

But my rather immediate second reaction was "Well, no, of course it's not; they're publishing a newspaper, and asking people to pay for it is pretty darned reasonable." I think a fundamental part of the problem here, not that this is a new observation, is that pay services online are understood, but free services that become pay services seem weird and unfair and so forth.

Personally, I'd use libraries more if they didn't have that irritating policy about patrons having to wear pants.