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Hacker News: APIs for content sites must be free
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this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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Technology
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Legally, currently, yeah. Needs to change though. I'm ok with monetizing the presentation and delivery but if you want to use collective property you should still have to make that available as part of the deal.
Replacing "comment" with "artwork" kind of helps illustrate it. If we all made tons of artwork for Reddit, then they started gating it behind a paywall and while painters and all the behind-the-scenes painting staff earned nothing -- well that's kinda where we are today.
But what you mentioned absolutely happens, though.
It's €17 to go to the Louvre. Many of the paintings there are public domain, which logically says they should be free as they have no owners. Yet to see them, most people need to pay €17.
Those are paintings locked behind a paywall. The pieces may be donated freely by an artist - just as users contribute freely on a website - but the museum still charges for admission.
So while I'm not defending the practice - and there are many free museums; even the Louvre has ways to get in for free - it's also not exactly a way to convince others that the practice is inherently bad.