Digital BW, The Print

Homer,

The logical conclusion of your point of view is that every web site will charge a monthly fee (you said both monthly and yearly; which one is it?).

Think of all the web sites you visit for photographic information. Do you really want to be cut off from all that if you can\u2019t pay every last one of them?!

And how often do you use each web site? You will probably never get close to receiving a $12 value from most.

Look at your bookmarks! What if every single one of them has to be paid every month or year, or your library card is revoked? Is that really what you want? The internet IS the new library.

The whole idea of the internet is freely available information. You\u2019re talking about making the internet useless and unavailable, to all but the well off.

It is especially troublesome that a photographer would be supporting this wrong idea. Photography is where it is today BECAUSE of the free exchange of information among photographers, or do you forget that Kodak and Ilford, while producing great products, also slammed the door on individual innovation for over a hundred years? Alternative methods are currently thriving AND progressing, because of the free exchange of information ON THE INTERNET!

Hasn\u2019t the existing in-your-face, forced, aggressive advertising already soured the experience enough? Do you really want a coin slot installed in your computer?

That web sites need income to keep them alive is true and perfectly acceptable. Fees to get access, or forced takeover of a page by advertisers are not.