I am sorry, friends. I just can not kick out this thought from my head!
Am I wrong if I say, that all of us love Free Software? And also many of us like Free Society idea, I mean free access to information of course.
There is an old good idea. Why not to allow users to download and share, let’s say, video shows? In exchange user may pay a humble (or not so humble) fee to producer. User may also share file with other one and that other one may pay fee too and so on. There is only one trouble: such fees (or donations) hardly depends on moral aspect. Sad by true: we can not rely on moral in our days (just like days before our days).
But what if we have yet a reliable system, which can guaranty in some way, that fee for free product will be granted? I believe, we have such system. Today likes/dislikes system is literally everywhere. «Give like and subscribe», yeah? It’s like a drug. What if a such rating system become paid one? Well, it can have some other name than «likes», let’s say «coins», «points», «favors» whatever else. Let us say, I want to give a «favor» for a such funny pet video, and it will cost 10 cents for me. I also may give for the video 10✕favor, or whatever I want big favor (or many «coins»). Think about it, someone may push his video to top giving his own coins, and if it will good for users, such person will take back his coins and much above. Therefore if it will not find public favor, well, top position is not eternal, and the video becomes wasted investment. Fair story, is not it? In such way free products platform may become paid products platform in the same time.
The pretty same idea gives Mr. Richard M. Stallman long time ago. End of p. 145 of «Free Software, Free Society».